muscleman said:
^ don't do what he said. A diet high in SATURATED fat? I hope that was a typo. Saturated fat = heart disease = death.
If you're newer, educate yourself on the fundamentals and this isn't the site for it. If you're new to lifting and want to build a good foundation, Starting Strength book by Mark Rippetoe/Ron Kilgore is very good.
This should be moved to health and fitness if it's a discussion about exercise as opposed to just test boosting (of course exercise is the only natural way).
muscleman said:
^ don't do what he said. A diet high in SATURATED fat? I hope that was a typo. Saturated fat = heart disease = death.
If you're newer, educate yourself on the fundamentals and this isn't the site for it. If you're new to lifting and want to build a good foundation, Starting Strength book by Mark Rippetoe/Ron Kilgore is very good.
This should be moved to health and fitness if it's a discussion about exercise as opposed to just test boosting (of course exercise is the only natural way).
No, this is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!!!!!
Actually he is correct. Saturated fats->cholesterol->testosterone
Saturated fats get an undue bad rap. Trans fats and hydrogenated fats are much, much worse for the body. No legitimate study has ever shown that saturated fats are bad for your health. All of this stems from one flawed study in the 1950's by a researcher named Ancel Keys blaming the increase in heart disease on dietary fat intake, specifically saturated fats.
The problem with the study was that he only used data from certain countries that seemed to support his position and ignored others where it didn't, and that he took no other factors into consideration. In fact, many studies after him have been done and there has never been any correlation to saturated fats and heart disease found in any of them. When researchers went back and looked over the same data he looked at, they still found no correlation between the two, so his conclusion was simply erroneous. However, as is usually the case, the first study done and its conclusion is what is ingrained in people's minds and is constantly repeated even though it has no basis in reality.
To dispel this notion, look no further than native eskimos who eat very few fruits and vegetables, and get roughly 50% of their calories from animal fats, yet have lower rates of heart disease and cancer than Americans. In fact, Dr. Weston Price a dentist who became absolutely obsessed with finding out about the health of indiginous peoples throughout the world and traveled extensively to these places to research and live among them. What he found was that diets high in fat and meat were the secret to their health. In fact, he found that once Native Americans switched their diet from animal based to grain based(maize, etc), their incidence of disease skyrocketed and diseases they had never had before suddenly became rampant. Not surprising since grains are actually "anti-nutrients" due to their high levels of phytic acid, which actually steals vitamins and minerals from the body and flushes them out.
A group of African tribes, the Masai, Samburu, and Fulani, also eat tons of red meats, raw milk and cows blood, and have a dietary saturated fat intake over 5 times the level of Americans. They also have low body fat percentages, and heart disease and diabetes are almost unheard of there. Pacific Island nations who have very high intake of saturated fats from coconut and palm oils have similar rates of heart disease and diabetes---that is almost none.
However, when these native people moved away from their tribes and started eating a typical "Western diet", their disease profiles and factors skyrocketed.
What most people don't realize, is that saturated fats, while they can increase your LDL cholesterol("bad" cholesterol), they actually INCREASE your body's HDL cholesterol("good" cholesterol) MORE, thereby making you healthier, not sicker by increasing the ratio of the two.
In fact, diets high in processed carbs and LOW in saturated fats have been found to be the most likely to result in heart disease. The REAL heart disease risks are:
-Trans fats also known as hydrogenated oils
-Inflamation causing heavily refined vegetable oils such as soy, cottonseed, corn oil, etc which typically throw the omega-6/omega-3 balance out of whack..
-Too much refined sugar of any type in the diet - especially HFCS (high fructose corn syrup)
-Too many processed, denatured refined carbohydrates such as white bread, flour, white pasta, low fiber cereals, etc
-Smoking
-Stressful lifestyle
-Lack of exercise
-Lack of sleep and Other lifestyle factors
as you can see, the top 4 food related causes are rampant in America and its no wonder we are a nation of fat @sses that is getting fatter every minute of every day.
Please lets stop the misinformation from flawed studies 60+ years ago that have since been proven to be false many times over and lets get our facts straight.
If you want to increase testosterone, increase saturated fat intake. Coconut Oil and Olive Oil(although this is a monounsaturated oil) have been shown to be tremendously helpful in boosting testosterone levels by enhancing the ability of the leydig cells in the testicles to absorb cholesterol and enhancing the ability of the enzymes that convert cholesterol into testosterone. The more readily absorbable the cholesterol is, the easier it is to supply to the enzymes for conversion. When the enzymes are enhanced, the conversion is made faster and easier. Eggs are also a tremendous source of saturated fat.
