Home Q&A Wednesday Q&A Wednesday: What’s This About Erectile Dysfunction?

Q&A Wednesday: What’s This About Erectile Dysfunction?

by Erika Nicole Kendall

Q: I saw ur tweets about prcessed food causing erectile dysfunction… how does that work? Keeping it up or getting it up at all?

Oh, let’s get this one out of the way quickly, shall we?

(First, my twitter is @bgg2wl. Just putting that out there.)

Yes, your diet affects your man’s (your?) ability to develop and maintain an erection. How? In a few ways. But first, let’s start with anatomy.

According to WebMD, when a man is stimulated, the brain reacts by telling the blood vessels in the p-nis to relax, thereby allowing blood to flow into the p-nis. At this point, the p-nis uses this blood flow to develop and sustain erection.

Let’s focus on the blood flow issue.

Your diet affects your body’s ability to transport blood freely everywhere it needs to go. An excess of sodium (salt, monosodium glutamate in its various forms) in the diet compels the body to retain water (lovingly referred to as “bloating” among the ladies), “which exerts excess fluid pressure on blood vessel walls. Those walls react to said stress by thickening and narrowing, leaving less space for the fluid already cramped in the blood compartment, raising resistance and requiring higher pressure to move blood to the organs. [source]”

Think about high cholesterol. The unhealthy fats (think trans fat and some saturated fat sources) and excess hyperprocessed grains that affect your high- and low-density lipoproteins (HDL and LDL, respectively) also cause high blood pressure, thereby inhibiting the body’s ability to do its job.

If the heart can’t pump blood adequately to the p-nis, then it stifles a man’s ability to form an erection. It’s that simple.

So…put your man on that “Good Sex” diet and hand your man a stalk of broccoli so that y’all can effectively help you build a fit booty together, please?

And I say that with love.

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5 comments

Diandra February 2, 2012 - 5:52 AM

Forwarded this to the BF immediately. He puts additional salt on EVERYTHING I cook. Think he will have to sacrifice his cravings for salt for “the greater good” (i.e. me). ^^

Tiffany July 2, 2012 - 2:31 PM

After having my 3rd child in 2009, I had finally decided to do something about the excess weight that I had been carrying around for 2 years. I enrolled in a fitness bootcamp class in November 2011. It was definitely the jumpstart I needed to start getting back into shape. I took the class for a month (3 days/week) and ultimately lost 30 pounds. It was extremely grueling but I stuck with it and changed the way I ate. No major dieting, just portion control and eating healthier options. I still have a ways to go to get my BMI in line but I’m determined to get there. My husband (he’s 39, I’m 38)……..(sigh)……….What can I say?? He’s overweight, takes blood pressure medicine, diabetes medicine, AND has erectile dysfunction issues. After I had taken my bootcamp class I would suggest different exercises for him (obviously I would do them to) but he just laughed and/or blew me off. If he complained about a headache, I would (jokingly) suggest he do situps……..we would both laugh. Then one day I said something about exercise and he made the comment that “some people think they’re better than everybody else because they lost a few pounds.” From then on, I decided not to mention ANYTHING to him about working out, doing exercise or what he eats. I’ll just keep the life insurance policy in-force and paid…….just in case! My problem is with the sex issue. After being out of shape for years and on blood pressure medicine for years, the 2 minutes of sex with him is a complete turn-off! I’m never the initiator for this very reason. I can want sex but I can’t get ANY satisfaction because he ejaculates so quick. To try to prolong it he’ll stop and wait……..”don’t move”……then really fast and POP…..he’s done. I hate it! But what can I say? He knows he has issues but will tell me that I don’t love on him enough and it’s true. I am sexually turned-off! Yes, I have cheated in the past and I was dead wrong. Now, I just buy a new dress or something. Shopping is now my therapy but that’s a whole ‘nother story. Anyway……how or what can I do or say to make him understand why he needs to get in shape? Not just for my libido but for his well-being in general.

Dena July 11, 2012 - 11:13 PM

Tiffany I feel your pain, I pray he decides to change his ways. I have ALOT of weight to loose, I’m not married and celibate by choice. I thank you for your being candid, I am really working on me.

Charey March 13, 2013 - 2:18 PM

GIRL..I’ve been there before. My boyfriend is super skinny and eats terribly. I guess he thinks because he is small he can do that. But I can tell when he’s been hitting the salt and junk hard because erectile dysfunction is the consequence. It’s not all the time, but once in a while is too much for me! lol He doesn’t believe its related to his diet, but I know better. Plus he is only 29!!! Aint nobody got time for that!! When I confront him about his diet he throws in my face that he eats salad and drinks water. He DOES do those things in this order: Morning- Skip breakfast, Lunch- Salad, mcdonalds nuggets, fries, chicken sandwich, Snack-Popcorn, Hot Cheetos, Dinner- Meat, TONS of white rice(I did not make), no veggies, Snack- dinner left overs, 2 popsicles. Repeat the next day. How do you tell a man to get it together??? Apparently not being able to get it up is not reason enough. I haven’t cheated, but mannnnn.

Kim August 19, 2013 - 3:02 PM

@Tiffany Girl I feel your pain. I have not cheated but my man has the same problems. For years I was never sated sexually. He would give me two strokes and then go into the speed round and boom it’s over. I didn’t understand why. I thought becuase I had gained a lot of weight he was attracted to me. He is diabetic I am not. Then he explained to me that he had “ED”due to diabetes. I was shocked but felt we could overcome it. So far we haven’t but, he eats fast food nearly everyday for at least 2 meals. He is not heavy but he is ill. I know it is the food but he keeps running to the doctor getting more and more prescriptions.
We both need to invest heavily into nutrition.

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