Canadian scientists found that maintaining a diet high in sugar can temporarily lower your testosterone levels, which in turn can undermine your erections and sap your sex drive. That's because a constant surfeit of sugar creates a domino effect: your triglycerides go up, your sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) goes down, and then your testosterone goes into hibernation. "When you're deficient in SHBG, it signals your body to stop making testosterone altogether," says study author Geoffrey Hammond, Ph.D. If you're consuming a high-sugar diet, this chain reaction can happen in 4 months.
Too many carbohydrates, especially from simple sugars, are the most common culprit in reducing testosterone to estradiol ratios.
