In a new study, researchers found that men who follow plant-based diets have testosterone levels that are basically the same as the levels in men who eat meat.
They found that a plant-based diet was associated with normal testosterone levels, levels that are the same as occur in men who eat a traditional diet that includes more meat.
This finding dispels a widespread notion that men need large amounts of animal protein in order to support healthy levels of this hormone.
The research was conducted by a team at the University of Miami Health System.
Recent years have seen a dramatic uptick in public interest in various forms of plant-based diets, as measured in many ways, including trends for the terms “vegan,” “vegetarian,” and “plant-based” in Google searches.
The number of U.S. consumers who say that they adhere to a plant-based diet increased by 500% between 2014 and 2017, and sales of plant-based foods rose 20% in 2018 compared to the year prior.
Meanwhile, previous studies on the effects of different types of diets on testosterone levels have been inconsistent.
Some research has shown plant-based diets to be associated with lower levels of testosterone, while others have shown that PBDs do not affect testosterone levels.
In the study, the team used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).
They analyzed data about 191 men between the ages of 18 and 75, which had been gathered in 2003-2004 because that data set was the only available one that included both testosterone levels, as measured in blood samples and details of each person’s diet.
Unlike most previous studies that treat all plant-based diets as equal, the researchers distinguished between healthier and less-healthy plant-based diets.
To see if men with healthier and less-healthy plant-based diets had different testosterone levels, the researchers divided the men who ate mostly plant-based foods into two groups – those who scored high on an index for healthy plant-based food consumption and those who merely scored high on an index for plant-based food consumption.
They considered testosterone levels below 300 nanograms per deciliter to indicate a deficiency, in keeping with the American Urological Association.
The analyses showed that the kind of diet a man followed did not affect testosterone levels.
Whether a man ate a traditional diet with lots of animal foods, a healthy plant-based diet, or a less healthy plant-based diet simply did not matter.
The researchers emphasized that, in addition to supporting healthy testosterone levels, plant-based diets confer many health advantages to individuals, populations, and the planet.
Plant-based diets have proven to reduce the risks of many conditions, including hypertension, heart disease, heart attacks, strokes, and many cancers.
One author of the study is Ranjith Ramasamy, M.D., an associate professor and Director of Reproductive Urology.
The study is published in the World Journal of Urology.
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