Owing to Pinktober, Cara Van Heyningen, Nutritionist for Essentially Juice wanted to shed some light on female hormone health. “As a nutritionist, one of the most common conditions I encounter is hormonal imbalance. If you’re struggling, you’re likely to suffer from irritability, PMS, fluid retention, bloating and weight gain around the mid-section. Prevention of greater hormone-related conditions such as breast cancer is always better than cure, and the good news is that there are plenty of dietary and lifestyle changes that can assist.”
Cara’s top hormone-balancing tips:
- Ditch the dairy:Try going dairy free with almond, coconut or cashew milk and see how you feel. Most women report clearer skin and fewer PMS symptoms when they steer away from milk and dairy products.
- Love your liver:Your liver metabolizes all hormones. If the liver is burdened with toxins, our hormones get thrown out of whack. We put strain on our liver by lack of sleep, poor stress management, excessive sugar and starchy carb consumption, overdoing the coffee and drinking anything more than 4 servings of alcohol per week. Pair your attention to these factors with daily juicing, and your liver will soon be loving you back in so many ways.
- Stay hydrated:Make sure you’re drinking enough water. Symptoms of fatigue, an extra-large appetite and headaches can often be owed to dehydration. Add a dash of sea salt to every cup you drink. The salt will help you to hydrate more efficiently and replenish lost minerals associated with hormonal symptoms including fluid retention.
- Supplement with Vitamin C: This simple vitamin is still my favourite of them all! Vitamin C helps to detoxify the liver and can actually help boost progesterone levels! I would suggest consuming 3000mg, even up to 6000mg of vitamin C per day and watch your symptoms and energy levels improve.
- Get your Vitamin D levels checked: Vitamin D plays a massive role in hormone balance, energy production and lowering inflammation that can cause lifestyle diseases including tumour growth. A deficiency of Vitamin D can be preventing you from losing weight, and do not be fooled by Dubai’s sunny weather – deficiency is extremely common. Get these levels checked to know your baseline. From here, you can work with a practitioner to understand what the right dose is for you to get your levels up to a suitable place.
- Up your intake of Brassica vegetables:This means more broccoli, cauliflower, kale and sprouts. These veggies contain a nutrient that balances oestrogen. Always ensure that your Brassica vegetables are juiced or well cooked. When eaten raw, Brassica veggies contain goitrogens, which are compounds that can compromise thyroid function in us sensitive ladies. When juiced or well cooked, these compounds are broken down.
- Replace sugar with good fats:Crowd out your sweet cravings and stabilize your mood by adding healthy fats into the mix. Choose from avocado, nuts, seeds, olive oil, virgin organic coconut oil and tahini. These foods provide the body with omega-3 fatty acids that are essential for hormone production.
- Get more rest:A rested body is a healthy body. Inadequate sleep is often why many women can’t lose weight or manage their stress levels. Sleep helps to lower cortisol, a pesky stress hormone, which helps to release stubborn weight, boost the happy hormone, serotonin, and avoids sugar cravings. Limit your screen time at night and aim for seven to eight hours of good-quality sleep.
Try these tips for 14 days and see how you feel. You’ll probably find yourself applying them quite effortlessly. Over time, you should continue seeing greater and greater improvements to your symptoms.
