The Role Of Nutrition In Hormonal Balance

If you have a hormonal imbalance, you need to check with your healthcare professional first. After that, look at all aspects of your lifestyle. Many people in Alexandria, VA, consider their diet since poor nutrition can cause many people to develop problems. Hormones are messengers. Some start a specific function, and their alternate stop it. For instance, ghrelin makes you hungry, and leptin makes you feel full. Insulin lowers blood sugar, while glucagon tells the body to increase blood sugar.

Menopause and aging can cause hormonal imbalances.

Many women experience problems balancing estrogen and other sex hormones. Estrogen does more than affect the reproductive system. It affects skin, hair, blood vessels, the heart, bones, and the brain. Eating foods with phytoestrogens found in plants can mimic the effect of estrogen. Phytoestrogens are in seeds, legumes, nuts, vegetables, soy, whole grains, and fruit. Consuming cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli helps offset too much estrogen.

Cut out sugar and help balance your hormones.

Sugar causes an increase in insulin. Insulin has a relationship with most other hormones, which include estrogen and testosterone. It can cause an increase in estrogen. That can throw your hormones out of balance. To make it worse, women with PMS tend to eat almost 3 times the amount of sugar than women without PMS. Is the PMS causing sugar cravings, or is the sugar causing the imbalance that leads to PMS? Sugar also increases insulin, which leads to a decrease of SHBG—sex hormone binding globulin. That leads to an imbalance of estrogen to progesterone. It also increases female testosterone. Body fat converts that testosterone into even more estrogen.

There are ways to change your diet to help reduce hormonal imbalances.

You can lower your glycemic load. Many healthy foods contain sugar, so it’s hard to avoid. If the food contains fiber, it reduces sugar spikes, which lowers insulin levels. Switching from white rice to brown or wild rice helps reduce your glycemic load. Eating sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes or refrigerating the cooked white potatoes overnight and reheating them reduces the potential spikes.

• If you drink soft drinks or coffee or tea with sugar or sweetener, switch to water or skip the sugar. Avoid fruit juice, too. It doesn’t contain fiber like the whole fruit, and fiber slows the entry of sugar into the bloodstream.
• Belly fat can cause insulin resistance and elevated cortisol levels. Both of these things can make hormone imbalance worse. Belly fat also produces estrogen, which leads to hormonal imbalances.
• Fatty fish like wild-caught salmon can help balance hormones. They are high in vitamin D, which improves female testosterone levels. That helps prevent weight gain.
• Adding an exercise program to any dietary changes you make can boost the effect of hormonal control. Exercise burns off the cortisol that contributes to belly fat. It can help rebalance estrogen.

For more information, contact us today at Team Worx Fitness