Common snack lying in your kitchen cupboards can raise sex drive, study shows

16 September 2023 , 11:50

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If you want to boost your sex drive, foods with folic acid may help you out (Image: Getty Images)

One of our favourite snacks could actually be key to unlocking a satisfying sex life, a new study has revealed.

Nuts are the snack in question - not only can they allegedly raise one’s sex drive, they may also help to improve orgasms. The research discovered that folic acid can be behind raising sex drive particularly among post-menopausal women. A variety of nuts including peanuts, hazelnuts and walnuts are rich in folic acid, and therefore could be a useful tool if you fancy being more sexually active.

Researched in Iran, the study included 100 middle-aged women, half of whom were given a 5mg folic acid supplement every day for eight weeks while others took a placebo. Dr Hedyeh Riazi said in the Journal of Sexual Medicine that desire, orgasms, satisfaction and arousal improved in the folic acid group.

Folic acid is a B vitamin also known as folate. Other foods it can be found in include peas, beans, bread, eggs and leafy vegetables. Dr Riazi said: “Our findings suggest that folic acid possibly improves sexual function in postmenopausal women. Larger studies are needed to confirm this.”

Previous studies have shown that folic acid can help fight erectile dysfunction in men by improving blood flow to the penis. Dietitian Dr Carrie Rushton said this could be a “mental thing rather than physiological” because we have “a lot of data about the benefits of B vitamins for mood and mental health”, the Sun reported.

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She added: “Let’s face it, women need to be in the mood to get there and they won’t get much satisfaction if they’re not. The women in this study took a lot of folate and you’d probably need 33 cups of nuts to get that much, but there are other great sources. Post-menopausal women might benefit from a B vitamin supplement. Other good sources include white bread, eggs, orange juice and spinach and kale.”

Folic acid can also be prescribed by doctors as a supplement and is sometimes used to keep babies healthy during pregnancy.

Alex Croft