How to Balance Hormones : Eat These 7 Foods Daily

How to balance hormones? Eat these 7 foods daily. Eaten daily, and in these amounts, your hormones can be impacted in a positive way. Tuck them into smoothies or salads. It’s an easy way to move toward better moods, weight-control, overall health and more.

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How to Balance Hormones : Eat These 7 Foods Daily

How to balance hormones. That is a common question. One route is to eat these 7 foods daily.

First, let’s explore the issue. Why would you want to balance your hormones?

Hormone levels play a strong role in many aspects of your life. Some areas include moods and energy, to weight-loss, better skin and fertility, and even longer life. Trouble is, it is easy to throw them out of whack. Including by eating carbs and sugars, birth control, stress and lack of sleep.

Even the onslaught of daily pollution is a sharp endocrine disruptor such as absorption of BPA from the use of plastic. Or even the slippery chemical-filled film on the cash register recipe you are handed after shopping.

The good news you can take steps to put them back in line. There are many ways, including sleeping well, exercise, avoiding plastics, but food plays a primary role, whole foods in particular.

Balance your hormones with these seven foods. They can be used as well-placed ingredients eaten daily, easily tucked perhaps in a smoothie or parfait.

Eating these seven in these amounts are considered an excellent base for balanced hormones. Add in a balanced, healthy diet, proper exercise, sleep and reduced stress, and you stand a great chance of balancing those hormones. Even with the hormone disruptors in our world today.

The Magic 7 List of Ingredients to Help Balance Hormones

These are the 7 plant-based ingredients that can help balance your hormones. You probably already eat them here and there. Yet when eaten methodically and in certain amounts, they can help your journey toward balanced hormones:

• 1. Dark Leafy Greens (Spinach, Kale, Collards + Parsley) – at least 1 cup a day
• 2. Avocados – exactly ½ an avocado a day
• 3. Chia seeds – 1 tbsp a day
• 4. Almonds – 11 almonds a day
• 5. Maca Powder – 1 tsp a day (I use this brand)
• 6. Quinoa – 2 tbsp a day
• 7. Dark chocolate – 6gms a day (1 tiny square of a normal bar)

How to Balance Your Hormones : The Nutritional Breakdown

And here is how these ingredients impact your hormones:

Dark Leafy Greens (Spinach, Kale, Collards)

– Contain substances that boost your liver’s ability to metabolize estrogen which is a GOOD thing. Estrogen bumps up collagen to keep your skin firm, taut, pink and quick to repair. Tossing in a handful of parsley or the like helps with liver detoxification because a well-functioning liver is important for proper hormonal balance.

Avocados

– Contain a key component in hormone synthesize healthy fats, which also beef up your skin’s natural lipid bilayers so cells stay hydrated and plump. It also tends to promote a healthier progesterone to estrogen balance.

Chia Seeds

– Contain Omega-3 fatty acids, the core building block in both cholesterol and hormone synthesis. The chia seeds and avocado are healthy fats; if necessary swap for a tablespoon of coconut oil.

Almonds

– So interesting, just 11 almonds a day can help regulate your blood sugar levels and and even out your hormone levels so your skin looks plumper and cleaner among other benefits. Technically the Food & Drug Administration allows a daily portion of almonds to be up to 1/3 cup. However, studies show 11 daily are beneficial to obtain the amount of healthy unsaturated fat and minerals the body needs to balance hormones, among other benefits without adding to weight-gain.

Maca Powder

– Is a hormone boosting veggie from the radish family that supports hormonal balance that can impact skin, hair and reduce PMS symptons. Read an NIH study about the  positive impact on balanced hormones.

Quinoa

– Balances hormones by keeping your androgen levels even. Quinoa is also full of protein, magnesium and phosphorus. Eat about a cup overall a week for best hormone-balancing benefits.

Dark Chocolate (70% cacao and up)

– Chocolate has many benefits but it can contribute to hormonal balance via its potent magnesium and iron, and ability to lower cortisol and boost mood-impacting hormones, serotonin and dopamine. Just 6gms of 70%+ cacao chocolate bar daily will do the trick!

Ways To Incorporate the Seven Foods

Add leafy greens to a sandwich, or use collard leaves as the “wrap” in a roll.

Add the one-half avocado to salads, sandwiches or just eat on its own.

Chia seeds can be tossed in a smoothie, on yogurt or cereal, or actually mixed into a chia pudding.

Almonds can be eaten alone, or added to any breakfast or dinner stir-fry.

Maca powder can be stirred into any drink or stirred into yogurt or overnight oats.

Quinoa can be used a rice-replacement, or even blended into a smoothie. I also use it in many dessert recipes.

And dark chocolate. Do I really need to tell you how you can eat dark chocolate, haha?

And finally, now that I gave you the building blocks on how to balanced hormones, you might like some recipes using the magic 7.
Below are a few of my own recipes that incorporate one or more of those ingredients.

Visit my Hormone-Balancing Recipes Pinterest Board for more ideas.

Recommended Recipes that Include Some of the Magic 7

Seven Overnight Oats Recipes
Six 2-ingredient Smoothies
Fudge Brownie Bites
Hormone Balancing Nut Cream Chocolate Mousse Parfait
Pineapple Lime Coconut Parfait

Other Ways to Balance Hormones

There are more ways of course. And one way that has gained attention is seed cycling. I won’t explain it all here when experts can do a better job. Read exactly what seed cycling is here.

Generally however it involves eating four healthy seeds. And even if you don’t want to eat them in a cycling pattern, general advice is that eating all these seeds daily contribute to a healthy hormone balance.

What are the seeds? I knew you’d want to know.

Pumpkin, sunflower, sesame and flaxseeds.

The best way I know to eat all these seeds a day, is to make my homemade protein bar and throw them all in. This how-to I have created is a three-pronged approach to building your own bar. Learn how to make custom protein bars here.

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Dee Dine

Dee Dine is founder of Green Smoothie Gourmet, a plant based  recipe blog, and author of the recent cookbook, Crazy Healthy with 4 Ingredients . On this blog you’ll find incredibly easy recipes with hidden veggies for anyone wanting to eat healthier, regardless of diet. Dee has graduate degrees in immunological nutritional studies and  journalism. More about Dee Dine here.