The Best Diet To Balance Hormones

Hormone imbalances can be caused by many conditions. Hormones help keep your body's systems balanced and working properly. Weight gain, depression, problems with sleep, low sex drive and other problems can be the result of homonal imbalances. There are different ways to help keep your hormones in balance, and one of them is with your diet.

Foods to Include in Your Diet

Your diet plays a big role in every aspect of your health, including helping to keep your hormones balanced. According to nutrition expert Kate Neil, fruits and vegetables should make up the biggest portion of your diet. Fruits and vegetables have many health benefits. They give you fiber, as well as vitamins and essential minerals. They are also low in fat. Plants also contain phyto-estrogens which are plant chemicals similar in structure to estrogen. Phyto-estrogens act as a weak estrogen in your body. To get phyto-estrogens, you should eat plenty of green leafy vegetables such as spinach, kale and broccoli.

Eating fruits and vegetables also adds boron to your diet, according to Dr. Lynell Braught. Boron plays a role in helping your body hold onto estrogen. It also works to keep your bones strong by helping to hold onto calcium so that you do not excrete too much on a daily basis. Foods that contain boron are pears, apples, tomatoes, prunes and raisins. Eat several servings of fresh fruits such as apples, blueberries, pears, bananas, and strawberries.

Beans also have a lot of benefits for the balance of hormones because they contain phyto-estrogens. More tofu and soy in your diet may help relieve symptoms of menopause such as hot flashes.

Foods to Avoid

According to Dr. John R. Lee, ingesting the right nutrients helps to keep many things balanced, such as hormone levels. In order to keep a healthy balance of nutrients, avoid high-fat and high-sugar foods. Too much sugar can cause the loss of vital nutrients, as well as cause weight gain and your blood sugar levels to rise.

Other foods to avoid are those with trans fatty acids. You should also either cut back on hydrogenated fats in all forms, or avoid them altogether. Hydrogenated fats are foods like margarine and shortenings. Trans fatty acids and hydrogenated fats are in many foods. In order to avoid them, it is important to read all labels on foods.

Tags: keep your, your body, your diet, avoid them, contain phyto-estrogens, fatty acids