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.
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 ⅓ 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.
Are you on pinterest? You can pin the image below if you want to share!
--2015, July Hormone Balancing Foods Prevention;2015, November Nutritional Psychiatry: Your Brain on Food Harvard Health Publications Harvard Medical School;1998, September Hormone Options Chicago Tribune;2015, October Headaches and Hormones Mayo Clinic
;2015, October Nutrition's Role In Age-Related Degeneration Mayo Clinic
Michelle
Hi,
For this list, Can I combine all of them in one smoothie? I usually blend smoothies good for three days as I am always on the go for work. I make sure I have nutrients in my body first thing in the morning. I usually have 5 or more different veggies ( kale, spinach, parsley, cucumber, carrots, celery, and fruits - frozen mixed berries, frozen tropical fruits (mango, pineapple, peach combo) then use almond coconut milk blend 50/50 with water. I also add chia and flax seeds, matcha green tea, raw cacao powder. Recently I just bought maca root powder on Amazon after researching and read that it helps with hormonal imbalance, stress and anxiety too. Can I substitute the 11 almonds with almond milk instead? Am I overdoing the smoothies with all these ingredients I mentioned? I am coping with some anxiety, stress, and feeling tired and low energy and mood, probably due to perimenopausal and hormonal imbalance only recently, so fairly new and I still have yet to learn how to handle this. I have been drinking yogi mooncycle and raspberry leaf teas as well. Hope you can help me handle this better as I prefer natural and safest way instead of relying on Zoloft as what doctors would prescribe.
Dee
Hi Michelle,
What a great idea to start each day with a healthy smoothie that incorporates your nutrient needs.
I love what you put in your smoothie, although I hope you are using organic berries as non-organic berries are known to have high levels of insecticides.
You might know about the EWG clean and dirty product charts here: https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/
Regarding the hormone balancing, of course listen to your hormone doctors, but I do suggest you add fresh raw almonds, not almond milk to your smoothie.
I am so excited you found Maca powder, it really does help balance hormones.
And yes, in answer to your question, I think all these hormone-balancing ingredients can be added to a single smoothie.
So in to your smoothie would be a cup of greens, 1/2 avocado, 1 tbsp chia, 11 almonds, 1 tsp maca, 2 tbsp (cooked;steamed?) quinoa, and 1 square dark chocolate with at least 85% cacao.
But of course listen to your doctors; anything I recommend couldn't replace official medical advice.
Let me know how you get on!
Dee xx
sarah
can i consume maca during breastfeed
Dee
Hi Sarah,
Please ask your doctor or health care professional if maca is safe while breastfeeding. I cannot give you professional healthy care advice. Good luck! Dee xx
Ashley Collins
Such a great little informative article! I can't wait to add Maca back in to my diet when I finish feeding! Otherwise It looks like I'm doing OK! Thanks for the check -in Dee this is such a useful reference for Women.
Dee
Oh, that's so nice of you. I know, Maca is so important, but all the rest are equally so, so no rush. Love that tiny specific number for almonds, so easy! Take care! Dee xx.
Amanda
Is it okay to eat more than these amounts or does that throw the benefits out of balance?
Dee
Hi Amanda, well, I am not a medical professional, but I have read that these exact portions help balance your hormones, and so if you increase one, you ought to increase the others proportionally for that same result. But you and I know that overall these are healthy foods, so I would certainly eat more of dark leafy greens for instance if I felt like it. That's just smart, right? Thanks for stopping by! Dee xx.