Hack Your Health With a Hormone Balancing Diet

Having balanced hormones can help improve your overall health, sleep, and make weight loss easier. Check out this hormone balancing diet for a healthier life.

Always tired or moody? Is your lack of focus getting out of hand? Can’t lose the extra pounds no matter how hard you try? You’re not alone.

Many women report symptoms of a hormonal imbalance. But there’s good news! A hormone balancing diet can get you back on track.

To learn about the symptoms, causes, and what to eat to feel better, keep reading.

Symptoms of a Hormonal Imbalance

Your body’s hormonal system is complex. It needs to operate in harmony for best performance. Having an imbalance can cause these kinds of symptoms:

• Depression
• Mood Swings
• Anxiety
• Fatigue
• Lack of Mental Clarity
• Trouble Focusing
• Weight Gain
• Hot Flashes
• Hair Loss
• Acne
• Infertility

Do any of those look familiar to you? We all experience at least one of them throughout our lifetime. It’s the ones that stick around for long periods of time that become a concern.

Taking medications for these symptoms only masks the root cause. Medications often trigger other complications that wouldn’t exist without them. It’s best to fix your body naturally.

If you think you may need an extra helping hand, find out more about hormonal replacement therapies to do alongside a hormone balancing diet.

The body is incredibly self-sustaining when given the right nutrition. Not only will the proper diet help out, but you can also avoid inflammation. Inflammation is the primary cause of disease nowadays, so it’s a win-win situation.

A Hormone Balancing Diet: Targeted Nutrition

Let’s look at the primary hormones responsible for the symptoms above. We’ll also discuss foods that help balance them out.

Insulin

Out of whack insulin levels cause diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and metabolic syndrome, to start. Symptoms of an imbalance in this hormone are weight gain, as well as fatigue and brain fog. If left alone, it can lead to serious health complications and even death.

Diet Changes:

Cutting out sugar and starches is the main thing you’ll want to do to gain control in this area. You need to keep your blood sugar levels stable to avoid insulin spikes.

Also, watch for sneakily hidden sugars in your food. Check labels for things like maltodextrin and all forms of corn syrup.

Thyroid Hormones

The thyroid gland makes tyrosine-based hormones that are responsible for your metabolism. It needs iodine to do so. To help the thyroid out, make sure you are getting enough iodine and tyrosine.

Diet Changes:

Tyrosine is an amino acid found in protein. So, you’ll need to eat dairy foods, meats, and eggs. And for iodine, use pink salt in your meals or eat sea vegetables like kelp several times a week.

Cortisol

Chronic stress or repeated use of corticosteroids cause cortisol imbalances. Symptoms include belly fat, anxiety, sleep problems, heart palpitations, and fertility problems.

High cortisol levels often lead to adrenal fatigue. Adrenal fatigue brings more unwanted symptoms like depression, hair loss, and lack of focus.

Diet Changes:

To improve cortisol and adrenal health, avoid a lot of caffeine. Caffeine puts added stress on your adrenal glands. Eat an anti-inflammatory hormone balancing diet by cutting out sugar, processed foods, and trans fats.

Include more fiber and healthy fats in your diet. Consume more coconut oil, avocado, olive oil, and green leafy vegetables. Also, eat healthy proteins like eggs and grass-fed beef.

Herbs like ashwagandha, licorice root, astragalus, and holy basil regulate cortisol. If you’re interested, it’s easy to find adrenal health formulas containing these herbs.

Sleeping eight hours a night, spending time in nature, and staying active will also help.

Leptin

Leptin’s job is to tell your brain when you’ve eaten enough food. People that overeat continually wear out this signaling process. Their body then becomes insensitive to leptin signals.

When this happens, the signals are ignored, and they don’t receive the message to stop eating. An imbalance like this contributes to obesity. In fact, insulin and leptin resistance usually happen together.

The right leptin levels help with brain function, memory, and mood. Resetting leptin sensitivity with diet is possible.

Diet Changes:

Follow the diet recommendations listed above for insulin. Also, add healthy fats. They will keep you from overeating because they are satisfying and filling.

Melatonin

Melatonin is essential for a good night’s sleep; less than ideal levels can cause insomnia. Made by the pineal gland, it helps regulate your internal clock. This neurotransmitter helps with metabolic syndrome, fat loss, depression, and panic disorders.

Shift workers and late-night coffee drinkers are prime candidates for melatonin deficiency. Irregular sleeping hours interrupt the internal clock and throw off melatonin release. This timing is essential to avoid insomnia at night and fatigue during the day.

Diet Changes:

Eating foods that contain tryptophan will increase melatonin levels indirectly. To take advantage of this, eat eggs, turkey, chicken, nuts, seafood, or dairy during your last meal of the day.

Vitamin B-6, magnesium, folic acid, and zinc are also crucial for melatonin production.

Melatonin supplements are available almost anywhere. But, be careful using these for too long. Long-term use can change your body’s natural hormone levels, sabotaging sleep.

Neurotransmitters and Hormones

Hormones are not always the sole cause of imbalances; they don’t work alone. Neurotransmitters get involved too.

They regulate several glands that are in charge of controlling hormones. In these cases, out of balance neurotransmitter levels will need correcting also.

Here are some common ones and the functions they are in charge of:

Dopamine

Dopamine gets involved in controlling the release of hormones in brain pathways. Too much of this neurotransmitter and you may experience muscle spasms. Too little and you’ll have trouble staying focused and lose motivation.

Norepinephrine

The adrenal glands use norepinephrine as a hormone. This gland is in charge of the fight or flight response and dealing with stress. Prolonged amounts of mental or physical stress overstimulate and wear it out.

Norepinephrine provides concentration, alertness, and helps in learning and retaining knowledge. A shortage will have the opposite effect.

Serotonin

To produce the hormone melatonin, your body needs serotonin. Melatonin is what makes you sleepy after the sun sets. Serotonin is essential for a positive mood and gastrointestinal functioning.

Another hormone, estrogen, inhibits the breakdown of serotonin. This effect increases concentrations of it in the brain. Women that have a hysterectomy, or go through menopause, lose this significant benefit.

What’s the Bottom Line?

To naturally correct hormonal imbalances, provide your body what it needs, and you’ll see incredible changes inside and out. Focus on a hormone balancing diet, sleep, stress reduction, and exercise. If required, include hormone replacement therapy as well.

Have you tried making any of the changes above? Share your experiences and tips in the comments section.