Hormones can greatly influence our health, weight, and mood. So a steady hormonal balance is critical for our overall well-being. Although diet is not the only way for hormonal balance, there’s still a lot to be said about having a hormone-friendly diet. While it’s definitely a good idea to consult your doctor when you suspect hormonal imbalance, at least to ascertain which hormones are not in balance, changing your diet in a few key ways can, in general, help you fix many common hormone imbalances. Here are a few of my recommendations:
Add More Fats
I don’t mean trans and saturated fats but unsaturated and healthy fats! Foods that contain fatty acids help your body to create hormones, and these fats are essential for our health. Even saturated fats and cholesterol help your body produce these much-needed hormones.
The right amount of fat intake depends on whether the person is a protein, carb, or mixed type. For a protein type person, the protein/fat ratio should be 70% of the plate; for the carb type, the ratio should be 30% of the plate; for the mixed type, the ratio should be 50% of the plate. As a general rule, I would recommend 10–15% of the plate be fats.
Foods like coconut oil, avocados, butter, and salmon contain a lot of healthy fats. Add these to your next grocery list and see how good you feel!
Take Out The Sugar
I know this is nothing new, but it needs repeating. Not only are most non-natural sugars bad for your waistline but they also wreak havoc in your hormone systems. The more sugar we eat, the more insulin and cortisol (stress hormone) our body produces. Insulin spikes lead to lower levels of sex hormone-binding globulin, and this leads to more body fat production. In addition, increased cortisol levels will greatly impact progesterone levels, thus making you feel the symptoms of low progesterone and excess estrogen.
Eat More Brassica
This is a genus of plants in the mustard family, also known as cruciferous vegetables.
Vegetables like broccoli, kale, bok choy, and cabbage all count. They also contain a compound named indole-3-carbinol. This compound has been found to promote the production of lesser potent forms of estrogen, making these the most-suitable veggies for women who have an excess of estrogen to deal with, outside of their menstrual cycle highs and lows.
Get Used To Bacteria
Your gut produces hormones when food is introduced into your digestive system. These hormones are what alert you to being full once your body feels it has received enough food. These hormones are called both peptide YY and cholecystokinin.
Regulating the production of these hormones involves eating live organisms, a.k.a. bacteria cultures, that help release peptides into your digestive system. These also help to regulate your hunger and can be essential to healthy weight loss.
Try Seed Cycling
Foods aren’t the only culprits we have to thank for imbalanced hormones. Something as simple as the lights in your room can alter your hormones, leading to sleep cycle issues. Everyday household chemicals can also have a great impact on your hormone levels. One of the easiest ways to keep these at bay is through seed cycling, that is, introducing different seeds into your diet at different times during your menstrual cycle to prevent hormone imbalances.
The most common seeds used in seed cycling are flax, pumpkin, sesame, and sunflower seeds. These seeds carry essential oils, nutrients, and vitamins that contribute to a healthy metabolism of hormones as well as their regulation.
In the follicular phase, the ideal amount would be 1 tbsp flax seeds per day + 1 tbsp pumpkin seeds. In the luteal phase, the amount would be 1 tbsp sunflower seeds + 1 tbsp sesame seeds.
