Can onion increase testosterone? A true aphrodisiac food

Would you drink raw onion juice if it could double your testosterone?

Since 1967 until now, onions have been studied for their effect on testosterone.

It’s one of the most widely used foods, and it tastes amazing, so wouldn’t it be great if it could boost your testosterone too?

Let’s dive in.

Beneficial compounds in onions

Onions contain:

• Several unique phytochemicals such as quercetin and quercetin glucosides, isorhamnetin, kaempferol, thiosulfinates, cepaenes, anthocyanins
• Sulfur amino acids unique to onions (e.g., S-methyl cysteine sulfoxide, diallyl trisulfide, S-allyl cysteine sulfoxide, dimethyl trisulfide)
• Exogenous and endogenous antioxidants such as selenium, glutathione, vitamins A, B, and C.

Onions can increase testosterone

Onion can help to increase testosterone by:

• Increasing PKA and cAMP
• Protecting the testes against oxidative stress
• Protecting the testes against toxins such as cadmium (R), Permethrin (an insecticide) (R), etc.
• Increasing nitric oxide
• Improving sleep quality
• Improving insulin sensitivity

Quick background on testosterone synthesis pathway

The hypothalamus releases GnRH, which stimulates the pituitary to release LH. LH then travels in the blood to the testes where it activates the LH receptor (LHR).

LHR activation activates adenylate cyclase (AC) and elevates intracellular cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) levels. cAMP increases PKA, a key protein for testosterone production.

Things that increase cAMP and PKA usually increase testosterone production.

cAMP and PKA stimulate steroidogenic enzymes (e.g. StAR and P450scc) when enhance the conversion of cholesterol to pregnenolone and on to testosterone.

From there on, pregnenolone is converted to DHEA, which is converted to androstenedione or androstenediol and on to testosterone.

Onion extract increases steroidogenic enzymes

Onion extract containing cysteine sulfoxides enhanced progesterone (a precursor of testosterone) production from cholesterol. It does so by activating PKA and cyclic adenosine monophosphate response element-binding protein (CREB), 2 key factors in steroidogenesis (R).

Onion extract increased progesterone in a dose-dependent manner and peaked after 9 hours and then started to decline, but was still elevated after 24 hours.

In rats, pregnenolone is primarily converted to progesterone and in humans, to DHEA. So it’s likely that you’ll see a much bigger increase in DHEA than progesterone.

Onion juice triples testosterone in rats

Onion juice has been shown to increase testosterone levels in rats in a dose-dependent manner.

The scientists gave rats 0.5 and 1g of onion juice per day for 20 days. As a result, LH doubled and testosterone tripled.

Giving rats fresh onion juice has been shown to dramatically increase their LH and testosterone.

Testosterone more than tripled from 1.6 to 5ng/ml. pic.twitter.com/I8OjkzYSNO

— Hans Amato || testosterone optimization (@HansAmato) August 7, 2023

Apart from the increase in LH and testosterone, sperm also skyrocketed (R).

• Sperm concentration increased from 48.68 to 75.7
• Motility increased from 33.75 to 87%
• Viability increased from 66.25 to 96.2%

Also, antioxidant capacity increased and MDA (a marker of damaged fats) decreased by roughly half.

If each rat weighs 333g (for simplicity’s sake), the dose would be 1.5 and 3g/kg per rat. This would translate to 486.49mg/kg for the biggest dose. That would be about 50g of onion juice. That’s like a 5th of a cup. Not that much.

Apart from this study, there are about 8 other animal studies showing that onions increase testosterone, although not to the same extent as this study.

Onion juice reverses age-related hypogonadal symptoms

Giving men onion extracts containing 30mg concentrated cysteine sulfoxides daily for 4 weeks significantly reduced aging males’ symptoms (AMS) and improved mental health scores (R).

Interestingly, salivary testosterone (which correlates with free testosterone) increased significantly after 2 weeks, but then went back to baseline at week 4.

Also, erectile functions weren’t altered.

These results could simply be because they used onion extracts containing only 30mg of concentrated cysteine sulfoxides.

Onion contains about 0.2% cysteine sulfoxides (R). 3 onions weighing 300g should contain 600mg of cysteine sulfoxides. So perhaps the dose to boost T can’t be obtained from a regular supplement.

Onions lower E. Coli, a bacteria that lowers LH and testosterone

Onions have an antibiotic effect against E. coli.

E. coli is a gram-negative bacilli bacteria. E. Coli contributes in involved in 65% to 80% of acute or chronic prostatitis cases.

In the testes, E. coli reduces total anti-oxidant count, which leads to Leydig and Sertoli cell damage. Elevated E. Coli creates toxins that lower LH and testosterone and cause fertility (R).

Onions increase the total anti-oxidant count (TOC) in the testes in the absence of E. Coli, and restore it to normal in the presence of E. Coli.

Thus onion can help to prevent low testosterone induced by elevated E. Coli.

Onions improve erections

Traditionally in India, onions have been used as an aphrodisiac food.

One recipe is called kanji, which is a powder of black gram (a bean) dipped in onion juice for seven days and then dried, which was used as an aphrodisiac food (R).

Another recipe is fried onions in a pure butter mixture was used by many cohorts, particularly Indians, as an aphrodisiac tonic, especially when taken with a spoon of honey.

Onions have been shown to:

• Increase nitric oxide (NO) production and protect NO against free radicals (R, R).
• Reduces vascular inflammation (R).
• Reverse ED, sexual dysfunction and low testosterone induced by paroxetine (R).
• Restores erectile function after dutasteride treatment (R).

In animals, onions also reduced the refractory period allowing them to have sex more often.

The increase in NO not only helps with erections but also testosterone production.

It is well-known that the decrease in blood flow to the testis reduces the synthesis of testosterone. Enhancing NO increases blood flow in the testis and promotes testosterone synthesis. This boosting in NO production could be a contributing factor behind the boost in testosterone levels (R).

Onions improve sleep quality

Sleep is crucial for high testosterone. Without proper deep restful sleep, testosterone can’t spike at night.

According to this study, onion extract was able to dramatically reduce sleep latency (the time it takes to fall asleep) while increasing delta power during NREM sleep after just 5 days! (R)

The main mechanism is likely by reducing stress. With onion supplementation, salivary α-amylase level, a stress indicator, decreased significantly.

These findings indicate that onion extract containing concentrated cysteine sulfoxides alleviates stress, improves the quality of sleep and promotes a smooth transition into sleep (R).

Summary

Onions have been used for a long time as an aphrodisiac food. Turns out that onion might be able to increase testosterone, reduce stress (as well as stress-produced anxiety and depression (R)), and boost erections.

Perhaps a little bit of fried onion will have an effect, but the dose will likely be too small.

Onion juice is the easiest way to get large amounts of testosterone-boosting compounds.

Key points here, if you’re going to drink onion juice, get the sweet onions and not the burning ones. Sweet onions fall apart quickly, whereas burning onions are much more difficult to peel.

Once you’ve juiced 2-4 onions, mix it with at least a 1:1 ratio with fruit juice such as pineapple juice to make it even more tolerable. Also, drink a lot of water or other liquids during the day, or else your sweat might start to smell a lot like onions (pungent).

One caveat, if you bloat or feel weird after having onions, don’t have it. A lot of people bloat due to the fiber in onion and in that case, it’s more likely to have a negative than a positive effect.