Men who par­tic­i­pated in a recent 14-week clin­i­cal trial reported that adding two hand­fuls of nuts to their daily diet improved sex­ual func­tion.

Eighty-three healthy males aged between 18 and 35 years old par­tic­i­pated in the study. Outside of eat­ing nuts, they par­took of a stan­dard Western-style diet. This diet is tra­di­tion­ally low in pro­duce and high in ani­mal fats.

Including nuts in a reg­u­lar diet sig­nif­i­cantly improved auto-reported orgas­mic func­tion and sex­ual desire. - Researchers

“Compared to the con­trol group, a sig­nif­i­cant increase in the orgas­mic func­tion and sex­ual desire was observed dur­ing the nut inter­ven­tion,” researchers wrote in the study. ​“Including nuts in a reg­u­lar diet sig­nif­i­cantly improved auto-reported orgas­mic func­tion and sex­ual desire.”

This study com­pared two groups of men. One group, com­prised of 43 ran­domly selected par­tic­i­pants, added daily con­sump­tion of spe­cific nuts to their Western-style diet. They ate 60 grams of almonds, hazel­nuts and wal­nuts daily, roughly two hand­fuls. The other group, of 40 men, ate the same diet but with­out the addi­tion of sup­ple­men­tal nuts.

Two sources of data were used to assess changes in erec­tile func­tion: par­tic­i­pant answers in ques­tion­naires and bio­mark­ers in blood sam­ples.


See Also: Olive Oil Health Benefits

A 2018 analy­sis of trial data sug­gested that when men eat nuts daily, it improves their sperm qual­ity. This recent trial used the same data but instead shifted the focus of the research. It nar­rowed in on ques­tions of how nut con­sump­tion affects sex­ual and erec­tile func­tion.

A num­ber of stud­ies have also linked the Mediterranean diet and con­sump­tion of dif­fer­ent types of nuts and olive oil to a lower risk of Erectile Dysfunction (ED) and other sex­ual dys­func­tion. Research con­ducted in 2018 by the University of Athens sug­gests that reg­u­lar con­sump­tion of olive oil could improve men’s sex­ual func­tion by improv­ing their full-body cir­cu­la­tion.

Some of these stud­ies have also linked such diets to improve­ments in endothe­lial func­tion. In the walls of blood ves­sels, the endothe­lium helps to main­tain a bal­ance between dila­tion and con­trac­tion. Research find­ings sug­gest that eat­ing nuts can also ben­e­fit endothe­lial func­tion, which is what may improve sex­ual func­tion.

Yet another recent study showed a link between eat­ing pis­ta­chios and improved sex­ual func­tion in men. This is thought to be because pis­ta­chios, like many other nuts, con­tain antiox­i­dants and argi­nine. Arginine is a pre­cur­sor of nitric oxide, which is a com­pound that increases vasodi­la­tion.

The researchers from the study have called for fur­ther and larger stud­ies to con­firm these find­ings. They are hope­ful that fur­ther research can help to dis­cover and explore the mech­a­nisms that explain why nut con­sump­tion and the Mediterranean diet have this effect.