How Sugar Can Affect Your Sex Life & What To Do About It

These days, I'm seeing many female patients—even younger ones—with libido-crashing mood disorders and other problems that interfere with their personal lives. They have a lower sex drive than they'd like or otherwise aren't "in the mood." For many of these women, I connect the dots between how lifestyle factors contribute to and exacerbate sex hormone imbalances1, including drinking and smoking, exposure to environmental toxins, and being chronically stressed. But truthfully, one of the biggest culprits I frequently see that knocks sex hormones out of balance is sugar.

Excessive sugar can wreck your sex life, primarily through the way sugar can lead to hormonal imbalance2. (That includes sugar in "healthy" foods like wheat flour, which converts to sugar.) Sugar raises insulin and creates a hormonal domino effect. Subsequently, high insulin adversely affects other hormones.

Simply put, reducing sugar and artificial sweeteners can help you feel energized and maintain a healthy sex life. Sugar jacks up insulin, and when you normalize insulin levels, other hormones also fall into place.

Besides cutting out sugar, these five strategies can help women balance hormones naturally so they feel vibrant, lean, and sexy:

A major side effect of medications like antidepressants and birth control pills is lower libido. Birth control pills can decrease testosterone. Work with a functional doctor to find safer alternatives to these medications.

A diet high in processed foods, as well as antibiotics and other medications, can wreak havoc on the gut, making it difficult to produce your feel-good neurotransmitter serotonin. To minimize bad bugs, eat a clean diet rich in whole foods. Avoid antibiotics when possible, and supplement with a quality probiotic to promote digestion and reduce inflammation.

A whole-foods diet is anti-inflammatory and helps your body produce healthy hormone levels. Phytonutrient-rich foods include leafy greens like spinach, collards, kale, cruciferous vegetables, and healthy fats like grass-fed meats, wild-caught fatty fish, and nuts and seeds. Bone broth and high-fiber foods like berries and lentils also provide libido-supporting nutrients.

Minimize environmental toxins, which can contain endocrine disrupters that can interfere with your sex drive. Plastics and chemicals in cleaning products, paints, and makeup can contain powerful endocrine disrupters like lead and bisphenol A (BPA). Choose natural products when you buy makeup and household products. Living clean and green becomes a big step toward rebalancing your hormones. Check out the Environmental Working Group to learn the safest products for your home and your body.

If you still struggle with libido and want to increase it, you can work with a functional medicine doctor to pinpoint underlying causes of lower libido. You may also seek out natural ways to increase testosterone levels. But age and other factors should never limit your ability to feel sexy and vital.