if you want to optimize your testosterone to max out your physical potential confidence and vitality then vitamins and minerals are nonnegotiable for that the fitness industry is focused purely on Macros and calories for way too long ignoring micronutrients which are easily just as important micronutrients are vitamins and minerals they're molecules they're involved in lots of essential reactions in the body they form parts of enzymes they have antioxidant functions they're important for production of hormones like testosterone these things are not negotiable although many Fitness influencers seem to barely even know that they exist in this video
I'm going to cover the best sources for each micronutrient in pretty quick order if you want way way more detail like the functions of these micronutrients in the body meal plans for getting all of your micros even for diets like vegan or carnivore keep an eye out for my full nutrition guide on my website all right I'll start with vitamins vitamin A is the first one it comes in two main forms which are retinol from animal products and carotenoids from Plants retinol is better absorbed and used by the body you can get retinol from liver
the best ones are beef liver lamb liver and cod liver oil and then beta carotene can be found in sweet potatoes carrots pumpkin spinach and kale basically orange vegetables or leafy greens and vitamin A is fat soluble so it's absorbed better through your gut when you eat it with fat so cook the plants in some fat like butter or Tallow now get into the B vitamins starting with B1 or thiamine some of the best sources for this are pork gloin sunflower seeds trout black beans and acorn squash for all the seeds and the beans that
I'm going to mention in this video it's best if you soak them in water for at least a few hours before you eat them this way they're going to sprout they'll soften a bit which makes them easier to digest and reduces the antinutrient content which I'll talk about later vitamin B2 or riboflavin can be found in beef liver lamb liver macel milk and eggs B3 or niin you can get from beef liver chicken breast tuna pork chop and turkey B5 or pantothenic acid you can get from beef liver you're probably seeing a pattern by now
with this liver sunflower seeds salmon avocado and chicken breast vitamin B6 or perod oxine is especially good for lowering prolactin which is a hormone that can contribute to man boobs it can lower your libido and suppress testosterone the best places to get B6 are beef liver again salmon chicken breast chuna and turkey B7 or biotin is next and the best sources are beef liver egg yolk salmon pork chop and cheddar cheese again we're seeing a lot of these same ones pop up for most of these B vitamins B9 or folate is one that you're mostly
going to find in Plants uh but beef liver is still the best source for this one behind beef liver are spinach blackeyed peas asparagus and brussel sprouts for most of the plants in this video except for fruits you should cook them to reduce the antinutrient content so many plants have got chemicals called antinutrients in them which bind to other nutrients and reduce their absorption so for example spinach contains oxalates which bind to calcium and form crystals which reduces the calcium absorption this is why it's simplest to get most of your micronutrients from animal sources because
they're very easily absorbed and used by the human body but there's definitely nothing wrong with having some plants in your diet just make sure they're good quality and they're prepared and cooked properly and it's very individual which plants you'll tolerate well some people can have almost no plants because they irritate their gut so much they cause a bunch of inflammation and some people can have lots of plants with very little problems so it's very individual you'll have to experiment with it the next vitamin is B12 or cobalamin and you can get this from clams beef
liver mackerel sardines and salmon this is one that's impossible to get from plant sources so vegans will need to supplement this or eat foods that have been fortified with B12 vitamin C is very powerful antioxidant some of the best sources of this are not very commonly available like kakadu Plum acerola Cherry and kamukamu but there are some more commonly available sources that are still very good like black currants red bell peppers kiwi orange and strawberries vitamin D is very important for testosterone your body makes vitamin D when it's exposed to UVB sunlight which penetrates the
atmosphere during the middle of the day in the summer months so get some midday sun on your skin in the summer months obviously don't burn yourself don't go overboard if you have darker skin uh you're going to struggle in northern areas like Europe and North America with vitamin D deficiency other than the sun you can get vitamin D from cod liver oil rainbow trout socky salmon mackerel and sardines so basically fish fatty fish or you can supplement it of course vitamin E is a very powerful antioxidant good for protecting the ladig cells in the testes
from damage some of the best sources for this are sunflower seeds almonds hazelnuts avocado and peanuts this is one that I personally supplement cuz I usually don't get enough vitamin K is one that you mostly going to get from Plants things like natto which is fermented soybeans collard greens spinach and kale are all good Goose liver pate is a good animal source of vitamin K you get vitamin K1 from plants and K2 from animal sources or fermented foods personally I supplement this Chine isn't a vitamin but it's kind of lumped into a similar category you
can get Coline from beef liver eggs chicken breast salmon and soybeans let's move away from vitamins and on to minerals minerals are just chemical elements that the body needs for various functions calcium can be found in Parmesan canned sardines or salmon with soft edible bones so it's those bones that contain a load of calcium and also yogurt and milk phosphorus can be found in beef liver milk salmon chicken breast and lentils make sure you cook the lentils potassium can be found in potatoes especially with the skin on Swiss chard avocado salmon and bananas sodium can
be found in sea salt seaweed shellfish clams anees and parmesan cheese chloride can be found in salt seaweed celery lettuce tomatoes and olives magnesium is one that's pretty hard to get from food so I recommend supplementing this magnesium reduces sex hormone binding globulin which is usually bound to testosterone so the result of getting magnesium is you have more free testosterone that can be used to bind to Androgen receptors in your body to get magnesium you can drink mineral water eat pumpkin seeds chia seeds almonds SP or cashews again I recommend supplementing this iron is another
one that you need the best animal sources for iron are clams beef liver oysters sardines and duck breast and some of the best plant sources are spinach lentils chickpeas tofu and pumpkin seeds zinc is one that's very important for testosterone and fertility probably the one that most people think of when it comes to micronutrients they're important for testosterone maybe along with like vitamin D zinc supports the ladig cells in the testes which are the cells that make testosterone you can get zinc from oysters beef crab Lobster and pork chop if you supplement it don't take
massive doses like every day because too much zinc can deplete your copper so you want to take it maybe every other day with slightly smaller doses if you're supplementing this and let's cover copper you can get copper from beef liver oysters Lobster dark chocolate and cashews so oysters are such a good source for both zinc and copper because they kind of balance each other out iodine is very important for thyroid hormone which is involved in controlling metabolism and it's involved in the regulation of a lot of other hormones like testosterone you can get iodine from
seaweed Cod tuna shrimp and eggs so basically Seafood but especially seaweed and kelp Cobalt is found in B12 so the sources are the same as B12 so clams beef liver oysters mackerel and eggs manganese can be found in muscles brown rice pineapple almonds and spinach so some slightly different food there a bit more interesting than the usual like liver oysters salmon and so on for chromium the best source by far is muscles and then oysters are also really good followed by Brazil nuts dates and broccoli selenium is another important one for testosterone so it protects
the testes from oxidative damage the best source of selenium is Brazil nuts some other good sources are tuna sardines and beef liver Boron again this is another important one for testosterone especially for increasing free testosterone you can get Boron from raisins avocados almonds prunes and peanuts and lastly malib denum is found in lentils black beans kidney beans peas and oats so basically legumes and that's it there was a lot of overlap with some of these Foods coming up over and over again so the most bang for your buck Foods in terms of micronutrients are going
to be things like beef liver salmon and other fatty fish like macarro and sardines eggs dairy especially milk and Parmesan some shellfish like oysters crabs and clams and muscles chicken breast pork and then some of the better plant sauces things like sunflower seeds almonds avocados spinach and other leafy greens hopefully you realize that spamming all of these everyday in large amounts isn't the best way to go about this there is such a thing as too much of any of these nutrients I would say that every day you should have eggs beef or lamb Dairy some
vitamin C fruit like kiwi maybe some nuts and seeds properly prepared of course every few days you can have light chicken breast pork leafy greens avocados and then once the twice a week you have beef liver salmon shellfish and that's going to cover most of your needs just in those few Foods there Remember to prepare all of your vegetables and your nuts and stuff properly so soaking legumes and nuts and seeds so that they sprout before you eat them cooking most of your vegetables to reduce antinutrient content and then eating some of them with fat
like butter or olive oil to improve their absorption if they're fat soluble vitamins all right thank you for watching I want to emphasize again that micronutrients are not negotiable for testosterone and any other function in your body these are like the raw materials that your body needs to carry out certain processes and to make certain proteins cells hormones it's very important that you're getting all of these in your diet hopefully you can identify a few of these nutrients that are kind of lacking from your diet at the moment and you can use some of those
best foods that I've mentioned in order to fill in that Gap I'm going to have my nutrition guide available for pre-order on my website nutrition is a very confusing topic as I'm sure you know with lots of cont contradicting arguments and a lot of heightened emotions and ego and debates and stuff I'm going to help you cut through all of that nonsense and find what's going to work for you based on our mechanistic knowledge of physiology the most up-to-date research papers and outcome findings and your unique needs the link to that will be in the
description thank you again for watching and I'll see you in the next video
