It’s true the legitimate, best supplements you can buy really will contain it (more on that below). But as far as foods containing DHEA, there’s literally no such thing.
How the Mexican yam myth started
Part of how rumors spread is because we want to believe them, right?
In the case DHEA boosters, there is actually an ounce of truth in how that dietary advice began.
Many articles will show you a photo like this, but the Mexican yam looks completely different.
Does wild yam contain DHEA? No, but a chemical which comes from the plant is used to create it in the laboratory.
The chemical diosgenin is isolated from the bulb and roots of the yam. After that, it undergoes chemical reactions to be made into the human hormone, they are molecularly identical. It is also used to make estrogen.
As a result, people thought that if they ate this natural food, they too would get some of the hormone but in a less concentrated amount.
The problem with this logic is that there is zero DHEA in wild yams. It is the chemical diosgenin which is isolated and then converted to the hormone through laboratory processes. Those same processes are not taking place in the human body, nor is there any research to suggest they can.
In short, human bodies can’t convert diosgenin to DHEA.
The origin of the soybean story is similar.
Prior to the 1940’s, we didn’t know how to create steroidal hormones for medical use. Instead, we had to extract them from the glands of mammals, which was not an easy thing to do.
This isn’t your average sweet potato. The Mexican wild yam is a huge jungle root and it’s not edible.
Then in 1943, a chemist named Russell E. Marker found a way to convert diosgenin to the steroid progesterone. He accomplished this using what we call the Mexican wild yam. It’s also known as the root of the barbasco plant (Dioscorea mexicana) and can be found growing in Mexican jungles. In the two decades which followed, researchers found ways to synthesize other hormones from this root, including this one.
Realizing how lucrative of an industry this was, in the 1970’s Mexican President Luis Echeverría decided to nationalize this species of yam. That blocked all exports. Cultivating it in other countries wasn’t a viable work around, because no one was having luck doing so.
After blocking exports, he jacked up the prices of its refined active ingredient (diosgenin) by nearly 300%.
Well, the Mexicans shot themselves in the foot with that move. By making it unaffordable, they forced American ingenuity to find an alternative.
What scientists came up with was something that America grows plenty of… soy. The stigmasterol from soybeans is used to manufacture most hormones today. The best DHEA supplements use it, too.
But eating tofu, tempeh, edamame, or any other food source of soy will not work. As with the yams, the processes in the laboratory are a far cry from the human digestive system. We can’t make this hormone by eating soy.
As far as the other sources you hear some claim, like fish oil and eggs, their ties to the history of the hormone are even more far flung. Most others have absolutely no connection at all. Like not knowing the difference between DHEA vs. DHA in fish oil (the latter is omega 3, not a hormone).
The bottom line is that there is no such thing as foods high in DHEA. Nor low in it. It doesn’t matter if your diet is whole foods or Ayurvedic herbs… it is impossible to obtain this hormone from what you eat.
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