--- title: Men Who Love Spicy Food Have More Testosterone: Study description: A French study finds higher levels of testosterone in males who like spicy food canonical: https://time.com/3633813/spicy-food-testosterone/ author: Denver Nicks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-15T17:49:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:43:27.083Z og:title: Men Who Love Spicy Food Have More Testosterone og:description: A French study finds higher levels of testosterone in males who like spicy food og:url: https://time.com/3633813/spicy-food-testosterone/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8e3f37b2182af9f2/69876ebbcd1bbacbed6f42a5/ap780552288408.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Food-YE-Food og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Men Who Love Spicy Food Have More Testosterone twitter:description: A French study finds higher levels of testosterone in males who like spicy food twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8e3f37b2182af9f2/69876ebbcd1bbacbed6f42a5/ap780552288408.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Men Who Love Spicy Food Have More Testosterone > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=1ef7be2e-2826-45c5-b621-834b4c1bbfae&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Are You Man Enough? The Truth About Low Testosterone [Watch (HLS stream): Are You Man Enough? The Truth About Low Testosterone](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/pG2ZyJXa.m3u8) (4:35)  _Published 2014-07-31. Low-T drugs marketed to help men get their mojo back are having a moment, but are they safe?_  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Dec 15, 2014 5:49 PM UTC  Sriracha chili sauce bottles are produced at the Huy Fong Foods factory in Irwindale, Calif. Sriracha chili sauce bottles are produced at the Huy Fong Foods factory in Irwindale, Calif. Nick Ut—AP  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Dec 15, 2014 5:49 PM UTC Men with higher levels of testosterone—the hormone often associated with risk-taking behavior and heightened sex drive in men—tend to love spicy food, according to a French study [published](http://www.researchgate.net/publication/268978579%5FSome%5Flike%5Fit%5Fhot%5FTestosterone%5Fpredicts%5Flaboratory%5Feating%5Fbehavior%5Fof%5Fspicy%5Ffood) in the journal _Physiology and Behavior_. In the study, titled “Some Like it Hot” and conducted by researchers from the University of Grenoble-Alpes in France, 114 men ages 18 to 44 sat down to a meal of mashed potatoes with spicy pepper sauce and salt. Researchers saw a clear correlation between higher hot sauce usage and higher levels of testosterone levels found in the saliva of the men. In other words, men with greater testosterone levels tended to douse their food with more hot sauce. How much capsaicin—the chili pepper compound that makes them spicy—a man likes has been linked to social dominance, aggression and “daring behaviors,” the study authors write. “Conversely, low testosterone levels have been associated with lethargy or depressive mood.” Though the hot sauce correlation was clear, the mechanism behind it is still unknown. “A wide range of factors, including genetic, physiological, psychological and social forces, influence the liking and consumption of capsaicin-containing food,” the study authors write. ### Photos: An Inside Look at a Sriracha Factory  Jalapeno peppers, grown in nearby Ventura County, are crushed inside the Huy Fong Foods factory in Irwindale, Calif. Peter Bohler for TIME  Sriracha sauce is bottled on site and topped with distinctive bright green caps. Peter Bohler for TIME  Sriracha’s trademarked look includes clear bottles printed with white text. Peter Bohler for TIME  A forklift moves barrels of crushed chilies stores in the on-site warehouse. Peter Bohler for TIME  Crushed chilies are eventually mixed with sugar, salt, garlic and vinegar to make Sriracha. Peter Bohler for TIME  Sugar and powdered garlic are added to the mixture, which is ground again into Sriracha. Peter Bohler for TIME  Bottles of Sriracha being filled. When CEO and founder David Tran started making chili sauce in Vietnam, he and his family hand-filled bottles with spoons. Peter Bohler for TIME  Filled and capped bottles of Sriracha move along an assembly line on their way to be boxed and shipped. Peter Bohler for TIME  A machine boxes Sriracha bottles that will end up in restaurants and on grocery store shelves. Peter Bohler for TIME  A worker adds steel supports to a pallet of barrels. The supports allow Huy Fong Foods to stack chili-filled barrels five layers high. Peter Bohler for TIME _Read next:_ [_3 Reasons You Should Eat More Spicy Food_](http://time.com/3063763/3-reasons-you-should-eat-more-spicy-food/?xid=time%5Freadnext) ## Transcript [00:00] How do assess low T? A man comes into the office. Is [00:03] there a symptom score, a checklist, a way of [00:06] determining that if you start out today with low T and I [00:09] give you something, in three months, do you not have [00:11] low T? Those metrics, those measures, don't exist, and [00:14] that's the problem with the field currently. Yeah we can [00:18] raise your testosterone, but does it mean anything. [00:21] [ CROSSTALK ] Low testosterone. [00:26] [ CROSSTALK ] Be the best you can be. [ MUSIC ] LowT [00:38] and whatever that is, that's, that's a pharmaceutical. [00:42] That's not even a medical term. That's somebody in [00:44] the marketing, in the back office of a marketing [00:47] department said okay let's come up with low T it [00:49] sounds interesting. To me it was just very tired all the [00:52] time, lethargic. I just never had the energy to put in a [00:56] days work. And then be able to workout like I used to [00:59] and a simple shot. Could just bring me back to normal [01:02] the way, you know. I used to have the energy and [01:05] stamina and everything that I had before. [ MUSIC ] [01:12] This is a growing industry now. There's much more [01:16] awareness of low- T now. And I also think. it's, [01:22] they're realizing it's so common, so many men of all [01:25] different ages need the replacement therapy. The [01:28] transformation is amazing and, and I, and I say that to [01:32] them that I promise and they're like wow, promise is a [01:33] big word. I'm like. You ask any of my guys here I have [01:36] 200 very happy guys here. Hey guys. Do you know [01:40] your testosterone levels? You should. Yeah what is the [01:43] optimal level. That's a great way of asking it and [01:45] unfortunately I don't even have a good way of [01:47] answering that question. Well there are no levels per [01:52] say per age. I get that question a lot. Like what should [01:55] my level be? We think that the higher it is, the better it [01:58] is, but we don't know. How high is good enough? I [02:01] don't know. Are you a man who feels like you're losing [02:04] your edge? Are you getting all you can from your [02:07] workouts? Are you satisfied with your romantic life? [02:11] We're often going a see a guy's gonna come in. Big [02:13] belly, smoking, doesn't exercise, and he says, you [02:17] know doc, I want some testosterone cuz I don't really [02:20] feel that drive. And I can give him testosterone from [02:22] today til tomorrow. It ain't gonna work so good unless [02:25] the guy changes his diet and begins to do physical [02:28] activity. So it's not like, here's a prescription, and it's [02:32] gonna be magic tomorrow. And I think there's this. [02:34] Unfortunate notion that you take this testosterone and [02:38] don't change other things of your life and all of the [02:41] sudden, boom, magic, like, you're gonna be twenty [02:43] years old. You don't change what the libido is or the [02:47] fatigue is. We don't really have good measures of okay, [02:50] did this work? They gave you the testosterone, did you [02:53] feel better? That's not what the FDA looks at. They look [02:56] at whether the testosterone levels went up. And we [02:59] know how you can boost your strength training, sex [03:02] drive, and performance to the levels you've been [03:05] wanting. We run a men's center and out of every [03:08] hundred men that come in and say I want testosterone. [03:11] I have low T, I have this problem. Only about 18 % of [03:16] them actually get testosterone. Because a lot of them [03:19] have other issues. I would say less than one percent of [03:21] the guys who come in, or maybe one percent who [03:24] come in for evaluation don't qualify, because they're [03:28] too high for whatever reason. But it's rare. [03:32] Very rare, that a man doesn't qualify. There are [03:34] patients who have testicular failure for a variety of [03:37] reasons. There are patients who have pituitary failure, [03:41] for a variety of reasons. Some medical reasons that [03:43] can actually occur that can change hormones in the [03:45] body. That's not the person who's coming in and said I [03:48] saw that ad on TV. Part of it unfortunate is driven by [03:51] FARMA Now I can go 30 45 minutes on, on a treadmill, [03:56] or on a elliptical. And it's just like, it's nothing. So I [03:59] don't think it that's necessarily a miracle, I'm just sort [04:02] of getting back to doing normal things that that I [04:05] wouldn't necessarily have the energy for. How long do [04:08] they stay on treatment? Ideally they should stay [04:12] on their whole lives. There's a lot of, what I would say, [04:16] hocus pocus out there. And people unfortunately buy a [04:19] lot of this stuff. And they're not gonna really feel [04:22] better. You know, initially maybe they will, because [04:25] everything's going to make them feel better, because [04:26] they expect to feel better. There is no magic [04:28] [ INAUDIBLE ] out there. If there was, everybody would [04:31] take it and everybody would benefit from it. 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