Nutrition For Happy Hormones: What To Eat And What NOT To Eat
Valerie Martinez
No treatment for happy hormones would be complete without mentioning other ways besides supplements that can help you through the ups and downs of hormone fluctuations. One of the MAIN ways you can help your hormones stay balanced is to get your nutrition and weight on a healthy track. Doing this will help you avoid the weight gain that can be so common during the years leading up to and including menopause. Even if you’re nowhere near menopause, eating properly and getting regular exercise will explode your energy and improve your overall health, and help you shed any unwanted pounds you may have already been carrying around.
Of course it’s sometimes easier said than done, but good nutrition or “eating healthy” does NOT have to be difficult. Healthy eating is simply eating “real food” — food that is not pumped up with chemicals, hormones, preservatives and antibiotics. By supporting your health through good nutrition it will positively influence your hormonal balance – which is critical in managing PMS and menopausal symptoms. The following are guidelines that, if followed, will greatly improve your health, raise your energy, reduce weight gain, fight disease and increase your ability to maintain balanced happy hormones.
Choose the following foods as often as possible for optimal health:
• Organic or grass fed beef
The reason why is that American cows continue to be fed corn and other ground-up diseased animals to fatten them up for the market (which in turn makes them sick because it is a vegetarian animal that should be grazing). In addition, despite public outcry, they are still being pumped with antibiotics and growth hormones – and all this winds up on your plate. So if you’re going to eat beef, at least eat healthy beef.
• Organic free-range chicken
Many of the above reasons apply to chicken as well. Many chicken farmers keep the chickens so fattened up with corn feed that they cannot walk beyond a few steps before they have to lay back down again. And we wonder why America has an obesity problem.
• Wild-caught fish
Wild caught fish feed on their natural food sources, plus they have the benefit of constant exercise. Farmed fish such as Tilapia, often live in crowded ponds without much movement, plus since the conditions are poor, they are often given antibiotics too.
• Organic vegetables and fruits (fresh and/or frozen)
Avoid pesticide and herbicide traces that not only are on the surface of non-organic produce, but also sucked up into the plant itself. organic also has MANY times the nutrients than conventional fruits and vegetables. You can look up the Rutgers university study to see how vast the difference is.
• Flaxseed: Cold pressed oil can support healthy hormone balance
Lignans are hormone-like compounds found in Flaxseed oil that may support women’s health by maintaining healthy circulating levels of women’s sex hormones, which may benefit menopausal symptoms.
• Healthy fats: Organic Butter, Sour Cream (whole), Cream, olive oil, yogurt (whole)
No man-made fats!! Whenever we as a society think we can “improve” upon nature, we get into trouble. After all, it came to light many years later that while we all thought we were doing well by eating margarine, it turned out we were poisoning ourselves with trans-fats.
• Nuts, seeds and their butters (i.e. almond butter)
Wonderful sources of dense protein and nutrients.
Foods To Avoid –
The following list of foods will negatively affect your hormonal balance:
Basically the reasons why all fall under the same umbrella: the constant use of chemicals, preservatives, artificial this and that, dyes, bad types of fats are all conspiring against you and your health.
• Processed Foods
• Soft Drinks
• Chemically Sweetened Products
• Fast Food
• Junk Food
• Fried Food
• Artificially Altered Foods (ie: Fat Free)
Your hormones cannot do their job if you’re putting junk in your trunk!
Sugary foods and trans-fats will not only end up on your hips it will also disrupt your hormones.Keeping you from the youthful energy and health you want. Eating REAL food that has not had all the life squeezed out of it by being processed to death will help you rebuild your body’s biochemicals. You can stay younger looking, have better health and vitality if you eat real whole foods. “If it didn’t grow that way, don’t eat it.” If you change your diet, you can change your life – and the second half will be Better than the first!
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. The information on this site is for information purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for advice from a physician or other health care professional or any information contained in product labeling. You should consult a healthcare professional before starting any diet, supplement or exercise program, before taking any medication, or if you have or suspect you might have a health problem.