A combination of the right foods is a powerful healing agent to the body that travels as chemicals through the body’s hormonal system. Our body absorbs the vitamins, nutrients and minerals food provides to sustain a well-adjusted and functioning body.
Hormone health is a wide variety of chemical processes regulating everything from height to sexual desire including reproduction, metabolism, skin health and more.
Imbalanced hormones can create endocrine disruptions like producing too much estrogen that negatively affects a woman’s body. Disruptions include abnormal menstruation, heavy/painful periods, PMS, headaches, decreased sex drive, bloating, mood swings, fatigue, anxiety & depression, breast tenderness, endometriosis, fibroids, hormonal weight gain and more.
This imbalance leads to conditions like fibroids. Since our eating choices influence our hormones, for better or worse, it will also be your eating choices that help combat and eliminate these conditions.
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Below are seven categories of foods that can help naturally balance and support healthy hormone levels that will reduce or stop fibroid symptoms and improve female health.
Here are 7 Foods For Fibroids:
1. Super Seeds
Known as nutritional powerhouses, seeds are packed with healthy fats, protein and a range of micronutrients. They contain all the starting components necessary to develop into complex plants, which makes them so powerful.
A diet that regularly incorporates the following super seeds will reduce or eliminate diseases like fibroids and other disruptions affecting female reproductive organs.
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- Flaxseeds – Flaxseeds contain lignans that help get rid of excess estrogen. Flaxseed is especially beneficial in helping women’s fertility by improving their chances of conception. Flaxseeds also help in promoting normal ovulation and in restoring hormonal balance. It also protects postmenopausal women from the risk of cardiovascular disease.
- Sesame Seeds – Sesame seeds are one of the worlds’ most ancient foods. Often used as a food and oil, they are rich in calcium, vitamin E, healthy fats as well as lignans like flax. They are high in copper, which is a mineral that acts as a precursor to estrogen.
- Pumpkin Seeds – Pumpkin seeds have a high nutrient value. In pumpkin seeds, omega 3 fatty acids and antioxidant quotients are superior. Studies show the benefits of complex carbohydrates, fiber, omega 3, and zinc on fertility. This helps stimulate blood flow to sexual organs and also ensures fluid supply to follicles for proper egg maturity.
Dr. Venkat, Director of Harley Street Fertility Clinic, says pumpkin seeds are considered one of the most important trace minerals to date for fertility. “Women should incorporate zinc into their daily diet when trying to conceive, as zinc is vital in the production of mature eggs that are ready to be fertilized.” he shares. Zinc, found in pumpkin seeds helps to make sure there is enough fluid in the follicles, without this fluid, the egg will not be able to travel through the Fallopian tubes properly.
2. Cruciferous veggies
Cruciferous veggies like broccoli, brussels sprouts, and cauliflower as well as arugula, bok choy, cabbage, and kale are sulfurous veggies that help with getting rid of harmful estrogen. If we aren’t properly detoxifying bad estrogen and eliminating it then it can build up in the system and cause disruptions. Dietitians recommend women with fibroids increase their intake of cruciferous vegetables. This group of vegetables contains indole-3-carbinol, which research suggests may prevent fibroid and estrogen-driven tumors due to its effect on estrogen metabolism.
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3. Root Veggies
Vegetables like carrots, sweet potato, radishes, onions, garlic, turnips, parsnips, celeriac, and rutabaga are root vegetables that balance hormones. Carrots are especially helpful for preventing balancing estrogen levels and are known as a super fertility food. Sweet potato has compounds that boost progesterone levels.
4. Soy
Soy is a high-quality protein. One or two daily servings can be beneficial to our health. Keep in mind, the soy in our food supply is a processed product of the soybean.
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Soybeans contain hormone-like substances called phytoestrogens that copy the action of the female hormone estrogen. Since they act similarly to estrogen inside the body, they’re credited with easing the symptoms of menopause and other hormone-related deficiencies.
Do your research accordingly when using soy-related products due to their regular processing in U.S.-based food sources like dairy (soy milk) and tofu.
5. Dark Berries
Blueberries, cranberries and blackberries have a natural compound that helps get you pregnant. For example, blueberries, called a superfood, are a fruit that can help increase chances for fertility in both women and men and makes the environment tough for fibroids and fibroid symptoms to thrive.
Blueberries contain phytonutrients loaded with antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties, this helps boost both female and male fertility.
6. Seeded Grapes
Proflavanol is a powerful plant-derived antioxidant joined with extracts from grape seeds. In women, Proflavanol increases blood circulation to the pelvic area, decreases inflammation and reduces the impact of stress on the body. These benefits offer an enhanced uterine environment that is better prepared for implantation and a healthy pregnancy.
7. Organic Meats/Protein
Always opt for organic or grass-fed meat to avoid any possibility of added hormones that can be found in conventionally raised meat.
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For meat to be certified organic, animals must be raised in healthy living conditions -that consist of outdoor grazing for a required minimum amount of time, fed a 100% organic diet and not administered antibiotics or hormones.
Organic, pasture-raised meat and dairy have a healthier balance of fats, higher levels of Omega-3 fatty acids and won’t expose you to added hormones and antibiotics that disrupt your body’s system.
Empower yourself by eating a combination of the referenced over a sustained time to enjoy the benefits of strengthening your reproductive organs.
