Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. himself takes testosterone<\/a> as part of what he describes as an anti-aging protocol, and now, the hormone has made an appearance in a surprising place: Supplementary materials issued with the revised dietary guidelines last week includes a section called \u201cSupporting testosterone health in men.<\/a>\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\tWhy men are flocking to dubious online clinics for testosterone therapy<\/a><\/p>\n For the first time, the guidelines, specifically an appendix on their \u201cscientific foundations,\u201d include diet advice tailored to men concerned about maintaining healthy levels of testosterone. But leading testosterone experts said the evidence that diet alone can help men avoid low-T is scant.<\/p>\n The section\u2019s top line is consistent with the broader guideline framework, putting an emphasis on fat consumption: \u201cMen seeking to maintain healthy testosterone levels should focus on a balanced diet that includes foods rich in healthy fats,\u201d said the report, which goes on to discourage low-fat diets, saying research has linked them to modest decreases in testosterone.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Other suggestions include DHA-rich fish oil supplementation, zinc, and vitamin D support, and avoiding an excess of protein in the diet \u2014 something that seems at odds with the overall emphasis on proteins in the guidelines more broadly.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI would caution that the quality of the evidence on diet and serum T is weak,\u201d said Abraham Morgentaler, a urologist specializing in testosterone replacement therapy and the Blavatnik faculty fellow in health and longevity at Harvard Medical School. \u201cA key point is that there is no single magic substance that can be eaten that will increase T to an appreciable degree,\u201d he said, using the popular shorthand for testosterone.\u00a0<\/p>\n STAT asked HHS for comment but has not received a response.<\/p>\n \t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\tHow testosterone fell out of favor in medicine \u2014 and how it came back<\/a><\/p>\n The guidelines also recommend staying active and maintaining a \u201chealthy body weight,\u201d promoting weight loss in overweight and obese men. Experts agree this is important. \u201cOverweight men often have elevated estrogen levels,\u201d said James Smith, a professor of urology at the University of California San Francisco and chief medical officer of semen analysis company Fellow. \u201cAn enzyme in fat cells converts testosterone to estrogen, [which] has a suppressive effect on the pituitary mechanisms that tell the testicles to make sperm and testosterone,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Morgentaler agrees this is a key point. \u201cThe most important point in this section is that obesity lowers T and losing weight in obese individuals increases T,\u201d he said, cautioning however that significant weight loss \u2014 about 15% of body weight \u2014 is necessary to see meaningful improvements in testosterone levels.\u00a0<\/p>\n Whether the broader dietary recommendations could help maintain healthy testosterone levels isn\u2019t as clear. \u201cI\u2019m a supporter of eating less processed food, food without pesticides, and minimizing other toxins in our environment\u201d such as BPA, phthalates, and microplastics, said Smith, though he added that how various meats, dairy products, and animal fats \u201cplay into health has not been studied well enough for me to give you a strong opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n Overall, experts welcome the attention, however. \u201cIt\u2019s interesting that the FDA elected to include a special section on supporting testosterone,\u201d said Morgentaler. \u201cThat\u2019s quite remarkable by itself!\u201d<\/p>\n STAT\u2019s coverage of health challenges facing men and boys is supported by Rise Together, a donor advised fund sponsored and administered by National Philanthropic Trust and established by Richard Reeves, founding president of the American Institute for Boys and Men; and by the Boston Foundation. Our\u00a0financial supporters<\/a>\u00a0are not involved in any decisions about our journalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Testosterone is having a moment at the Department of Health and Human Services.\u00a0 Late last year, the Food…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1689,103,33971,61,60,446],"class_list":{"0":"post-240869","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-fda","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-hhs","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-nutrition"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Stat_11_17-768x432.jpg\")
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