Sexy Nutrition: Avocados for Enhanced Libido
Avocado, the Powerhouse
The potent avocado feeds both men and women with a multitude of nutrients essential to a healthy sex life. Vitamin B6, folic acid, essential fatty acids and potassium, as well as other powerful antioxidants are responsible for the avocado’s significant effect on our reproductive organs. Research suggests that avocados even increase sperm count. The sexual powerhouse ahuactl (or testicle, as the Aztecs endearingly called it) also releases vitamin E, which allows the reproductive hormones to take center stage while arousing our sexual response.
Vegan Avocado Recipes for Enhanced Libido
The Sexual Powerhouse: An Avocado Smoothie
You simply can’t go wrong with this smoothie. It’s packed with nutrients essential to a healthy sex life and a healthy life, in general.
Ingredients:
- 1 ripe avocado, peeled and pitted
- 2 frozen bananas
- ½ cup frozen blueberries
- 1 cup cranberry juice
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 2 t chia seeds, soaked in ½ cup water
Directions:
Soak chia seeds for at least 30 minutes. Place all ingredients, including the chia gel in a blender and blend until creamy. Pour into two glasses. Sip slowly. Go back to the sheets.
The Sexual Warrior’s Guacamole
Guacamole is the go-to sexy hors d’oeuvre for both men and women. Let these fruity aphrodisiacs work their magic.
Sexy players: avocado, sexy spices, citrus, chia
Ingredients:
5 ripe avocados, peeled and seeded
- 1 cup chopped red onion
- 6 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
- ½ a bunch cilantro leaves
- juice of 2 limes
- 3 T olive oil
- ¼ cup chia gel (basic chia gel = 2 T chia seeds soaked in 1 cup water for 30 min. or longer)
- sea salt to taste
Directions:
Combine avocado, red onion, garlic, jalapeno and cilantro in a food processor. Add in lime juice, olive oil and sea salt while the food processor is running. Transfer guacamole to your favorite serving bowl and add in the chia gel. Serve with your favorite tortilla chips and raw veggies.
Sexy Kale with Avocado-Chia Dressing
You really can’t get much sexier than a kale/chia/avocado trifecta!
Sexy players: avocado, chia, sexy spices, leafy greens
Ingredients:
- 1 ripe avocado, peeled & seeded
- 1/8 cup chia gel (soak 2 T chia seeds in 1 cup water for at least 30 minutes)
- ¼ cup tahini
- 2 t soy sauce or nama shoyu
- 2 t pure maple syrup
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- ½ t cumin
- dash of cayenne pepper
- 5 cups kale, cleaned and chopped
- ¼ cup carrot, grated
Directions:
Combine the first eight ingredients in your blender to make a dressing. Place kale and carrots in a large serving bowl. Coat with dressing and serve.
“To love another you have to undertake some fragment of their destiny.” – Quentin Crisp
About the Author
Why Do We Sleep? For More Reasons Than You May Think
Most of us spend about a third of our lives asleep, despite not really having an answer to the question, ‘why do we sleep?’ Now neuroscientists are realizing that sleep is more important than previously thought. They’re also realizing that the worn-out platitude, “you can sleep when you die,” is terrible advice, as that day will undoubtedly come sooner if you short yourself on a good night’s sleep.
According to most contemporary research, you should be getting around seven to eight hours of sleep every night, and if you think you can get by on fewer than that, there’s a really good chance you’re fooling yourself.
Why is Sleep Important?
While the exact mechanisms of sleep are still being studied, neuroscientists including Matthew Walker have made interesting learnings about what happens when we deprive ourselves of sleep and the impacts sleep (or lack thereof) has on society as a whole.
When we’re awake, Walker says that essentially, we’re causing low-level brain damage. By this, he is referring to the build-up of the sticky, toxic junk in our brain known as beta-amyloid. This accumulation of beta-amyloid has been found to correspond with the onset of Alzheimer’s, among many other adverse health effects correlated with a lack of sleep.
Sleep is beneficial as more than just a healing function; it also replenishes spent resources and regulates hormone levels that dictate our appetite, cognitive function, and motor skills. The two hormones that dictate whether we are hungry or full, ghrelin and leptin, have been observed to flare up and down, respectively, when we’re sleep deprived. This inevitably leads to an increase in hunger, but even worse, it leads our bodies to crave unhealthy and fattening foods — those heavy on carbs and light on greens. In fact, people who run on four to five hours of sleep per night tend to eat 200-300 more calories per day.
For men, sleep is an important regulator of hormones, most notably testosterone. Sleep-deprived males can have the same virility and strength as a man 10 years their senior. For women, a lack of sleep can lead to a significantly increased risk of breast cancer and drops in immune hormones.
According to Walker, just introducing a single night of just four hours of sleep among a normal eight-hour sleep schedule, can bring about a 70 percent drop in natural cancer-killing cells, the immune assassins that target malignant carcinogens. Every day our bodies produce these cells and others to fend off disease and maintain our health, and while a cat nap might make you feel refreshed, it won’t make up for the loss of these cells.
