Men need to be nourished too. While men are more resilient to under-eating and can get away with things like fasting more easily than women, chronic under-eating can impact men’s fertility as well. Similar to how under-eating impacts women, it can lead to sluggish thyroid function, low testosterone levels, leptin resistance, and nutrient deficiencies that can impact their overall health and hormone levels. I am often asked if men need different nutrition recommendations than women, but truly both men and women need an individualized approach. Here are some areas to consider experimenting with.
Men are classically known for being gorgers–typically thriving off eating between 2-3 large meals a day vs. more frequent smaller meals. This is typically true as long as those men are metabolically flexible and can use fat for fuel between meals. I think a lot of men can thrive eating less frequently, as long as they are still eating enough. As I mentioned above, under-eating can impact men’s health and hormones too, especially when protein intake is not adequate.
I’ve talked about circadian rhythm at length for women’s health and this is important for men as well. Learn more about circadian rhythm in this podcast episode. When it comes to supporting our circadian, we want to optimize our light exposure, but when we eat also informs our bodies of what time it is. We want to make sure men are eating breakfast and avoid eating a lot later at night, just like we would with women. I find this pattern is often very common for men, which is why I mention it. Men are more resilient to fasting, but I would recommend fasting by eating dinner early and not eating after that. Otherwise, it can throw off your circadian rhythm and negatively impact gut health and hormones.
One thing that is less nuanced and essential for all men: prioritizing protein. Protein is crucial for building muscle, bone health, brain function, immune system function, cellular repair, blood sugar balance, and thyroid health. Protein-rich foods are also a great source of zinc, which is an important part of nutrition for men’s health (learn more below).
Most men need at least 8oz of protein at each meal. Likely between 8-12oz depending on their size with a daily total close to 1g per pound of body weight. If they are overweight, they could eat closer to .8g per pound of body weight. Just like with women, I think it’s important to meet yourself where you are and slowly increase. You don’t have to be perfect.
Zinc is crucial for men’s health and testosterone levels. Research from Dr. Prasad (a popular zinc researcher), shows that zinc deficiencies are linked to hypogonadism in men, a condition caused by low testosterone levels. Studies show that zinc deficiency can have a dramatic effect on testosterone and cause serum testosterone levels to decrease. These low zinc levels are also found to interfere with sperm production, which shows how important zinc is for male fertility.
Some studies show that zinc may inhibit aromatase, which is an enzyme that converts testosterone to estrogen. If you already have low testosterone and are also converting that testosterone to estrogen, it will lower it further and lead to imbalances.
From Dr. Prasad’s study:
“Dietary zinc restriction in normal young men was associated with a significant decrease in serum testosterone concentrations after 20 weeks of zinc restriction (baseline versus post-zinc restriction mean +/- SD, 39.9 +/- 7.1 versus 10.6 +/- 3.6 nmol/L, respectively; p = 0.005). Zinc supplementation of marginally zinc-deficient normal elderly men for six months resulted in an increase in serum testosterone from 8.3 +/- 6.3 to 16.0 +/- 4.4 nmol/L (p = 0.02). We conclude that zinc may play an important role in modulating serum testosterone levels in normal men.”
There are a few areas we want to consider when looking to optimize zinc intake and status:
Prioritizing zinc-rich foods:
Supporting digestion and gut health: I will talk about this more next week, but slowing down at meals, chewing food thoroughly, and supporting overall gut health is important for zinc status. We need to digest and absorb our food and the nutrients it contains. We also need a healthy gut, otherwise it will use up our zinc resources since zinc is used up in response to inflammation in the body.
Reducing inflammation: supporting healthy blood sugar and gut health is a great way to avoid excessive inflammation in the body and minimize how much zinc you’re using up. Zinc helps us heal and will be used up at a faster rate when we have inflammation.
There will always be nuance and just like women, men need to experiment and find what works best for them.
Things to be mindful of:
If you missed part 1 of this series you can find it here! I dig more into men’s gut health in Part 3 of this series!
If you are struggling with meal ideas to get in more nutritional foods and protein, download my meal guide for more ideas.
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