A lot of people wonder what the best diet is for semen retention. One that increases testosterone? One that lowers the libido? Vegetarian? Vegan? Paleo? Carnivore?
Read on, my brothers.
Traditional Recommendations
Yoga and Ayurveda are two traditions that speak about using Brahmacharya, or sexual abstinence/semen retention, as a means for spiritual growth. They recommend a vegetarian diet, especially in the beginning of spiritual practice. The bulk of the diet should come from grains, fresh vegetables and fruit, sometimes eggs, and plenty of dairy products.
It’s important to remember the cultural backdrop of ancient India – most were Hindu or Buddhist, and as such they practiced ahimsa, non-violence towards all creatures, and thus many were vegetarians. They also considered cows to be sacred animals, so they certainly weren’t eating much beef, but they definitely found dairy products to be beneficial. Dairy provided some animal protein as well as healthy fats and Omega 3s, considering the cows were allowed to roam freely and ate their natural diet of grasses, not soy and corn feed. Dairy was considered sattvic, meaning it produced peace and tranquility.
It’s important to note that the dairy they consumed came from healthy, stress-free cows, allowed to roam and eat as they pleased, and the milk products were non-homogenized and un-pasteurized, meaning the fats and proteins within weren’t denatured. Long story short, this was much higher quality dairy than you’d find in the plastic-leaching gallon jugs in the super market, coming from stressed out, sick cows fed an unnatural diet that is high in pro-inflammatory Omega 6 fatty acids, filled with denatured proteins and fats.
A lighter diet, one that is lower in meat intake is actually very beneficial in the starting stages of semen retention, and is exactly what I would recommend when starting out. In the beginning it helps to decrease sexual urges, and lower meat intake will do exactly this. I remember once, despite not being Catholic, I gave up meat for Lent – my girlfriend wasn’t too pleased with the resulting drop in libido.
Less meat means less zinc, and a ton of zinc goes into sperm production. You also aren’t getting all of the stress hormones found in the meat – factory farmed meat comes from animals that are treated horribly, and are killed extremely inhumanely, many hung upside down with their throats slit and left to bleed out. Where do you think all the adrenaline released when the animal gets slaughtered winds up? In the muscle meat. This is also one reason why hunters try to kill an animal swiftly, with one shot, so that there’s no time for adrenaline to be released, tainting the taste.
You also will be avoiding all of the excess inflammatory Omega 6s in the factory-farmed animal fat, as the feed they eat is comprised mostly of corn and soy. Further, one of the ways the body deals with environmental toxin overload is to store it away into fat. That delicious, marbled rib-eye is loaded with chemicals your body then has to deal with – no bueno.
A further consideration to eating less meat in the beginning is that meat is high in the amino acid L-tyrosine, a precursor to dopamine and adrenaline. One of the main side effects of dopaminergic drugs such as amphetamine, cocaine and even dopaminergic anti-parkinsons drugs include a huge increase in libido, as well as risky behavior. We’re trying to make the body relaxed and calm, not revved up and prone to giving in to its every impulse.
Conversely, foods lower in protein and higher in carbs are considered more sattvic than their rajasic meat and spice alternatives. I suspect a large reason for this is the effect carbs have on increasing serotonin, a calming, contentedness inducing neurotransmitter within the brain.
Ayurveda also recommends a blander diet, one without much black pepper, garlic, onions and other members of the allium family. I haven’t found a ton of information backing these claims up, other than garlic containing allicin, which may increase blood flow to the genitals, and spicy foods “irritating the urogenital tract”. If anyone would like to cut these foods out from their diet and report back, leave a comment below.
So while starting off with semen retention, you should try to make the diet clean, light and calming. Don’t overeat, cut back on meat in general, go organic with all food if possible, and cut back on rajasic or stimulating foods.
The Modern Take
That’s all well and good for the beginner, but what about when we’ve gained some semblance of control over our monstrous libido? This is when we want to start optimizing male hormone levels.
Go organic – Ever heard of xenoestrogens? These are chemicals in our environment and food that act like estrogen within the body, and they are fuckin’ everywhere. Pesticides, herbicides and fungicides in food, ingredients in medications, birth control in the water supply, natural and synthetic perfumes, chemicals found in tons of plants like soy, lavender, even our precious hops in beer – these all have estrogen-mimicking properties within the body.
That’s why I have a big issue with people who say the phytoestrogens in soy products pose no harm to modern man. Maybe if that were the only xenoestrogen in our lives, this would be true, but the estrogens within soy products are on top of all of the other xenoestrogens in our environment! There’s a reason testosterone levels and sperm counts have been dropping steadily for decades, and I suspect this is the main reason.
Xenoestrogens are an example of endocrine disruptors, chemicals that fuck with our body’s production of, and receptivity to, hormones – the very things we are trying to optimize. Remember, we’re cultivating our sexual energy, our Jing, and hormones fall under the category of Jing. Common endocrine disruptors include chlorine, fluoride, bromide in baked goods, PCBs, BPA and other plastic chemicals, phthalates, flame-retardants, even electromagnetic fields and blue-light can disrupt our hormone levels! That new car smell we all love so much – you’re basically bathing in toxic endocrine disruptors.
So, if you can afford to, eat organic. Know about the dirty dozen and clean fifteen, and start buying more natural cosmetics, soaps, deodorants and toothpastes. Hitting the sauna is the best way to detox these chemicals out of your body, along with fasting, both intermittent and multi-day fasts.
Reintroduce clean meats – If you’re naturally inclined towards eating meat, start reintroducing it. I can’t recommend enough buying wild-caught fish, pasture-raised farm products or even hunting animals yourself. Animals that live healthy, long, natural lives, eating their natural diets are always higher in nutrition and lower in artificial chemicals and endocrine disruptors. Ever seen the difference in the color of a caged vs pasture-raised egg yolk? The caged one is a pale, runny yellow, while the yolk from the pasture-raised chicken is deep orange with a membrane that is tough to break.
Pasture-raised meats and wild-caught seafood are a good source of amino acids, zinc, taurine, creatine, carnitine, cholesterol and healthy fats, all of which are important for male health. Saturated fat and cholesterol are not the demons you were raised to believe they are, and in fact are crucial elements for the body to create androgens. No cholesterol, no testosterone.
Eat Jing building foods – Foods that enhance Jing and Ojas are always super nutrient dense, foods like egg yolks, liver, heart, oysters, clams, sardines, anchovies, and fish eggs (caviar/roe). These foods are jam packed with vitamins, minerals and other nutrients, which are crucial Jing-building substances. Fattier cuts of free-range/pastured/wild-caught animal products fit in here as well.
We retain sperm to increase Jing, this sexual energy, right? Well, females have Jing too, and much of it is found in their eggs. So anytime you consume eggs, which have all the nutrients needed to create a baby bird, you’re consuming Jing-building nutrients. Even better is roe, as it contains a plethora of Omega 3s, especially DHA in phospholipid form.
Consume plenty of greens – Greens are not only very nutrient dense, they are crucial to the body’s detoxification pathways. If you just can’t manage to get in the habit of eating greens, add spinach or wheatgrass powder to your fruit smoothies, or take a concentrated greens supplement such as VitaMineral Green or Green Vibrance. Better yet, micro-algae such as spirulina and chlorella are both cleansing and help build Jing.
Keep it anti-inflammatory – Most scientists agree that we should be consuming Omega 6 and Omega 3 fats in a 4:1, or less, ratio. The Standard American Diet unfortunately has most of us at a 10:1 or even 50:1 ratio. Though they are both necessary, the problem here is that Omega 6 fatty acids are pro-inflammatory, while Omega 3s are anti-inflammatory. The source of all the extra omega 6 fatty acids? Extracted vegetable oils, which are already rancid. The best source of Omega 3 fats? Cold water fatty fish, such as tuna, salmon, sardines, mackerel, caviar, roe, etc. We should consume other anti-inflammatory foods as well – spices (especially turmeric), herbs, polyphenolic-rich berries, green tea, dark leafy greens, dark cacao, etc.
Extracted fats – If you are using extracted fats to cook with or to use as dressings, you have to be very selective. You want to make sure they are either saturated fats like butter, ghee or coconut oil, or monounsaturated fats like olive oil, macadamia nut oil, avocado oil, etc. What we don’t want are extracted polyunsaturated fats. Because there are many links in the fatty acid where a carbon molecule isn’t saturated with hydrogen, there are multiple points in the chain where light, oxygen and heat can oxidize the fatty acid, turning it rancid. This means extracted vegetable oil that you buy in the store is already rancid. Don’t even get me started on deep fried foods.
Bottom Line
In the beginning, it’s good to lighten up on the diet, cutting back on meat or eliminating it completely, making sure to not overeat, and cutting back on stimulating herbs and spices.
After you’ve reigned in your passions and urges, reintroduce clean meats. At all times, strive to consume organic, nutrient dense foods, with lots of greens, phyto-nutrient rich foods, and staying away from endocrine disruptors as much as possible.