
Like many women with fibroids, Ehime Eigbe-Akindele was presented with several options, such as surgery and hormone therapy when she was first diagnosed. Uncomfortable with the options she was given, she instead decided to look at ways to change her nutrition, but she never could have imagined that this diagnosis would lead her toward a path in the food industry.
“I started doing some research and found that food could be a good way to change a diagnosis,” she tells Black Enterprise. “I started learning about nutrition and how our body needs the right kind of nutrition to support cell regeneration, armed with so much information, I decided to change my eating habits and adopt a healthier lifestyle.”
The link between diet and fibroids
If you want to treat or lower your fibroid risk without needing medication, changing your dieting habits is a great solution.
A balanced diet high in fiber can help balance your body’s estrogen level by removing excess estrogen via digestion. Fiber-rich foods such as broccoli, kale and cauliflower help regulate blood sugar levels. This is an important part of maintaining hormonal balance.
Your hormone levels can also change if the good bacteria in your gut are off balance. Probiotic-rich foods such as yogurts can help balance your hormones and lower your fibroid risk.
Taking heed of this, Eigbe-Akindele decided to make her own mark on the food industry.
RELATED: Day 1: Just Been Diagnosed with Fibroids
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Changing health one pint at a time
“…I struggled with dessert,” Eigbe-Akindele says. “I’m a big sweet tooth. I love my chocolate. I was trying to figure out how I could create a healthy dessert that fit my nutritional needs but was still great tasting.”
Her favorite childhood treat, a Greek-style yogurt by Müller came to mind. So the Nigerian immigrant from London, Great Britain began making yogurt in her kitchen.
“I started out using honey,” says Eigbe-Akindele, who was working at Citigroup in Dallas, Texas, where she was handling corporate loan restructuring, default banking and bankruptcy. “I would take it to work. My friends loved it and would always raid my lunch.”
“My boss [at Citigroup] kept telling me I could sell it,” Eigbe-Akindele shares. “I never considered myself an entrepreneur. I loved getting my paycheck every two weeks. My boss said it so many times, that one day I thought, ‘Let me take a chance.'”
Eigbe-Akindele was now on a newfound mission to create tasty, healthy frozen yogurts that also support the body in