Sexual health

Healthy plant-based diets are linked with lower risk of erectile dysfunction

By WhyStopHarmingAnimals.com

Men who eat healthy plant-based diets have a lower risk of erectile dysfunction[1][2][3]. Erections depend on blood flow, and the diets that protect arteries elsewhere in the body appear to protect them here too. Blood flow is the common thread with heart disease.

The largest cohort

In the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, 21,942 men were followed for years and scored on how healthy and how plant-based their diets were[1]. At ages 60–69, those with the healthiest plant-based diets had 18% lower risk of erectile dysfunction[1]. Unhealthy plant-based diets went the wrong way and raised the risk in men under 60[1]. Plant foods help when they are whole foods[1].

A 2020 study in JAMA Network Open found the same thing from the other side[2]. Diets that emphasize vegetables, fruits, nuts and legumes while avoiding red and processed meat came with lower erectile-dysfunction risk[2]. A separate analysis of plant-based diets and erectile function also found lower risk on healthy plant-based patterns[3].

Fruit and flavonoids

Over 10 years among 25,096 men, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2016, higher fruit intake came with 14% lower erectile-dysfunction risk[4]. Foods rich in flavonoids, the pigments found in many fruits and vegetables, came with 9–11% lower risk[4].

A case-control study from China

A 2021 study in Basic and Clinical Andrology compared 92 men with erectile dysfunction against 92 men without it[5]. Plant-based diet scores were lower in the men with the condition[5]. Within that group, higher scores went with better erectile-function scores and higher nitric oxide[5], which the body needs for blood flow.

Limits

All of these studies are observational. They show that men who eat more whole plant foods and less meat have less erectile dysfunction[1][2][3][4][5], without proving the diet is the cause. They agree with each other across a large American cohort[1], a decade of fruit and flavonoid data[4] and a Chinese case-control study[5], and they fit what is known about diet and blood vessels from heart research.