Foods for estrogen dominance

In my last post we talked about estrogen dominance being a root cause of many illnesses. But did you know that too much estrogen also leads to increased body fat?

Hate your muffin top? Too many calories may not be the reason! Your belly fat might be the result of hormone imbalance, specifically too much estrogen and too little progesterone. Fat belly carries the risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Estrogen reduces your body ability to metabolise fatty acids, which means your body stores it as fat! And those fatty tissues then produce estrogen. Not good!

So what is the problem with estrogen dominance? Estrogen is present in our food, environment and water. So additionally to what your body produces, you also get it from the food you eat, the air you breath, the cosmetics you use..see how you can simply get too much of it?

How can you re-balance your hormones and reduce estrogen? Certain foods can help shift excess estrogen out of your body:

• Grapefruits, lemons, limes – one serving daily
• Broccoli, kale, sprouts, cauliflower, asparagus, spinach, celery, cabbage, beetroot – 2-3 serving daily
• Foods including insoluble fibre such as brown rice, seeds, barley, couscous, whole grain cereal, cucumber, courgette, tomatoes, carrots, celery. Insoluble fibre binds itself to extra estrogen and carries it out of your body
• Plant estrogens such as flaxseed, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds – 2-3 table spoons daily
• Protein with every meal – go for plant based protein most of the time, eat animal protein sparingly as commercially grown animals are likely to be fed growth hormone and given antibiotics which are passed onto humans and disrupt hormones

Foods to avoid:

• processed foods and refined foods containing white flour, rice and sugar. Say bye bye to cakes, pastries, chocolates, if you really have to, have it occasionally.
• alcohol, you need your liver to break down estrogen
• caffeine as it is linked with higher estrogen levels, if you are a coffee lover try to stick to one a day only
• saturated fats present in processed meats (sausages, bacon, burgers), crisps, pastries, fast foods

Additionally address stress which has been linked with reduced progesterone production, which leads to estrogen dominance.

….So before you cut even more calories to try to lose that stubborn tummy fat get a simple test by your GP, which will tell you if your hormones are out of balance.