Maca Sugar Cake

This dairy free maca sugar cake is perfect for a fertility diet. Perfect as a breakfast cake this is lightly sweet and balanced in protein/amino acids from a combination of bean and grain flours. This cake uses Maca which has the potential to improve fertility and increase low thyroid or low energy metabolisms. For true biological changes you do need to eat Maca powder as a staple in your diet over a period of time. Try making these into gluten-free dairy-free cupcakes for a fun twist on healthy cupcakes.

Nutrition and Maca

Diet undoubtably has an effect on nutrition. An egg, sperm, blastocyst, blastocoel, and embryo undoubtably cannot grow unless presented with sufficient nutrients and a healthy host organism (the mother) whose hormone and immune system is functioning properly. The sperm health and epigenetic health of the father affects what genes are turned on and off in the embryo as well. The health of a sperm is more affected by epigenetics, or environment/nutrition of the father, than the genes. In short it is “not just genetic.” Nutrition is the most effective way to improve the health of your gametes.

Maca has been purported to improve sexual health, health of gametes, and overall health with respect to the thyroid axis. This needs to be studied in more detail, but you can read more about some studies below.

I did not use gelatinized maca root powder as this was not available to me. If your using gelatinized maca powder, you should use less as this is a more potent partially because the fibers have been excruded from the maca tuber. Maca can potentially have cytotoxic effects which led to it being banned as a supplement in France. But it is said that cooking or gelatinized maca has this compound removed and is thus safer. Raw Maca powder is abundant on the market, but try to find the gelatinized if possible. This recipe uses raw maca because gelatinized was unavailable. The concentrations used in this cake are small so will not be cytotoxic.
The people claim that maca affects fertility in women and men as well as libido. Science has yet to definitively claim this as well and studies show both sides of the fence. Maca powder can also potentially act as a hormone and neurotransmitter stabilizer through different chemical constituents in the maca root.
Potentiating sex hormones in men and women would be the mechanism of fertility enhancement in men through increases spermatogenis, sperm motility and testosterone production; and in women through affects it could have on the HPA axis which triggers the release of the luteinizing hormone resposible for initiating ovulation. Some studies in animals show this and if this works in humans, this would be how maca improves fertility and the chances of pregnancy. Maca powder also affects other parts of the endocrine system, namely thryroidal. Science and the general public seem focused on sex with regards to Maca, but Maca contains so many other antioxidants, glucosinolates, and alkaloids that it needs to be studied and considered for it’s effects on other systems such as this for detoxification and for improving thyroid function, which is also part of the HPA axis (indirectly).

Gelatinized maca is safe to consume as part of your daily vanilla maca almond milk latte if you have low thryoid function and over the years it could improve T3 concentrations and it’s active metabolite, T4. Additionally the consumption of maca could increase metabolism and thereby potentiallly assist a greater weight loss than only proper diet and exercise.

Be sure to read the instructions because the way this cake is put together is not ordinary. If you do not care how the cake looks and want a super moist cake, increase coconut oil to 1/3 cup. It may fall a bit on the edges, but this adds to the beauty of the cake because the center will rise higher than the rest of the cake.

Ingredients:

2 1/4 t yeast
1/4 c warm water
1/2 t sugar

2 1/4 c GF flour blend
1 t maca powder (optional, you could also use 2 t grated orange zest in place of maca)
1/4 c mascavdo sugar
1/2 t sea salt

5 egg whites (between 1/2 – 2/3 c egg whites)
1/2 c warm brown rice milk (thick)

1/4 c organic expeller pressed coconut oil, room temperature
1/2 t vanilla

Steps:

1. Dissolve yeast in 120 Farenheit water with the 1/2 t sugar
2. Mix flour, maca powder, sugar and sea salt
3. Add in egg whites, rice milk, and yeast mixture, mix in mixer
4. Add coconut oil
5. Add vanilla
6. Place in a well greased and floured pan with coconut oil and rice flour
7. Let rise in a warm spot for 42 minutes. See the photo for what your cake should look like before putting in the oven.
8. After 20 minutes of rising, preheat oven to 400 degrees Farenheit
9. Bake for 20-22 minutes
10. After 15 minutes of baking pour 1 ounce (2T) melted coconut oil on top of cake
11. Sprinkle 1/4 c brown sugar on the top of the coconut oil
12. Continue baking for the remaining 7 minutes
13. Remove from oven, run and knife along the rim and place a plate or pan on top of the pan. Flip over to remove.
14. Tip: if your cake gets stuck, cut out one thick wedge. Remove this wedge with a spatula and then run your flat metal spatula under the rest of the cake. Repeat step 13 to remove. Turn cake over when cool enough to handle. If you use a non-stick pan your cake should come right out.

Maca for fertility has not been definitively “proven” by Western science. It is harder to get funding for natural compounds and food than for patentable molecules synthesized in a lab. This is a contributing factor to a lack of a definitive answer if maca should be part of a fertility promoting diet. Undoubtably, Lepidium meyenii (Maca) have many “active compounds including alkaloids, glucosinolates, isothiocynates, polysaccharides, polyphenols, and sterols.”

[https://doi.org/10.1002/ptr.7257]

Phytochemicals and these aforementioned compounds have not received the depth of research as have vitamins and minerals. Science is just beginning to elucidate or understand their mechanisms of action. Therefore it is not that maca does not have benefits for fertility and other biological mechanisms such as the endocrine system (thyroid, fertility, hormone), nervous system, and immune system, but that science does not yet understand how these compounds fully work.

Studies on Maca, Fertility, and other systems

There are a lack of studies that are randomized, double blind, and powerful enough in the sample size and length of time because such studies are expensive and scientists must usually demonstrate a financial incentive to intellectual and business institutions in order to receive the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars it takes to fund such studies.
Science is studying food and herbs such as Maca because there is enough rudimentary scientific evidence along with archeological evidence that herbs have been used since Paleolithic times. Additionally the initiation of studies are encouraged by anthropological lore associated with herbalism and the effects of real foods and herbs on male and female fertility, nervous system and immune system. A confounding factor in many studies which attempt to compare their results to the intergenerational proof of the Andes Peruvians is these people are consuming maca as a food, and a staple food, whereas most studies are using maca in the levels of supplementation such as 1/2 t to 1 tablespoon per day for a short period of time rather than a lifetime of use.
On the other hand the effects of maca on fertility could be folklore. But maca does contain compounds which have biological actions on the body.

Maca has other effects than the purported affects on fertility because it contains many biologically active compounds. Particularly the glucosinolates, glucotropaeolin and m-methoxyglucotropaeolin could exhibit a number of biological activities such as anti-oxidant effects by improving redox status. This has been shown in horses: “Blood samples showed a decrease of the reactive oxygen metabolites, evaluated by d-ROMs test, and an increase of the antioxidant barrier in terms of biological antioxidant potential (BAP test), powerful oxidant capacity (OXY-Adsorbent test), and thiols evaluation (-SHp test). Furthermore, semen samples showed a positive trend during Maca administration in the following parameters: ejaculate volumes and sperm concentrations, total and progressive motility, and acrosome integrity” https://doi.org/10.1016/j.maturitas.2016.07.013.

Another compound, (1R,3S)-1-methyltetrahydro-β-carboline-3-carboxylic acid,is a MAOI or monoamine oxidase inhibitor. MAOI’s inhibit the breakdown of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine by acting in the synaptic terminal inhibiting Monoamine Oxidase, the molecule that breaks down these crucial neurotransmitters. These neurotransmitters (monoamines) are synthesized in the gut and the brain and affect all areas from cognition, pain reception, mood/emotionality, and the reward system. You might start craving Maca like you crave cheese or wine. The brain receives a great deal of monoamines from synthesis in the gut. Historically, MAOI’s were used as anti-depressants, and therefore, in the right doses, Maca could alleviate symptoms of depression and other ailments such as Parkinson’s that MAOI’s were prescribed to treat. It could be hypothesized that Maca could be used to alleviate neurological conditions as well as act as a fertility “vitamin.” More research needs to be done on all herbs so they can be standardized in the same way of pharmaceuticals. Additionally, when more research becomes open sources,the general public will become better informed about what maca dosage is appropriate for fertility, depression, redox-status (related to the ability to detoxify), and other neurological conditions.

For example, one study shows an effect on the HPG axis responsible for managing fertility, thyroid and growth hormones. But this study feeds rats a diet of 10-50% caloric intake from Maca. Ovulation was boosted by the effect shown on luteininzing hormone (LH) which is the hormone that stimulates both ovulation and thicking of the uterine wall, both important for fertilization and implantation of the egg. This methodology of this study is difficult to cross translate and you are not going to consume this volume unless you are a Peruvian living in the Andes mountains with access to the maca hypocotyl (the fleshy stem right above the root). These people use Maca as a food staple from a flour made from dried maca to fresh boiled maca in empanadas. They even make drinks and beer from the fermented maca hypocotyl.