Episode 311: Supporting Your Hormones with Food & Nutrition
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Food can be medicine, especially when it comes to balancing your hormones. In this episode, you'll learn how to make simple and effective shifts to your nutrition for hormonal health. We're talking about caffeine intake, seed cycling, detox, and minerals. While we love a good functional lab test here at Team FN, you really can (and should!) move the needle with your hormone health just by starting with the basics - food!
In this episode:
Macronutrient recommendations for blood sugar regulation [8:32]
How to shift your caffeine intake and intermittent fasting schedule to better support hormone balance [18:18]
Different foods to support your hormones in each phase of your cycle [27:34]
Seed cycling as a food as medicine approach [41:11]
Ways to naturally support detoxification [50:08]
Our #1 supplement recommendation [58:55]
Resources mentioned:
Funk’tional Nutrition Collective
Functional C.A.R.E. Method™ 1:1 Services
Your Hormone Revival™ (Only available within the Funk’tional Nutrition Collective)
Carb Compatibility Project™ (Available for free within the Funk’tional Nutrition Collective)
Organifi supplement powder (save 20% on your order with code FUNK)
LMNT Electrolyte Replenishing powder (Use code FUNK get a free sample pack with any drink mix purchase!)
Ned Natural Remedies (get 15% off your order with code FUNK)
Qualia Senolytic (get up to 50% off and an extra 15% off your first purchase with link + code FUNKS)
Learn more about Hormones & Functional Nutrition
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Erin Holt [00:00:02]:
I'm Erin Holt, and this is the Funk'tional Nutrition Podcast, where we lean into intuitive functional medicine. We look at how diet, our environment, our emotions, and our beliefs all affect our physical health. This podcast is your full bodied, well rounded resource. I've got over a decade of clinical experience, and because of that, I've got a major bone to pick with diet culture, and the conventional healthcare model. They're both failing so many of us. But functional medicine isn't the panacea that it's made out to be either. We've got some work to do, and that's why creating a new model is my life's work. I believe in the ripple effect.
Erin Holt [00:00:39]:
So I founded the Funk'tional Nutrition Academy, a school and mentorship for practitioners who want to do the same. This show is for you. If you're looking for new ways of thinking about your health and you're ready to be an active participant in your own healing. Please keep in mind this podcast is created for educational purposes only and should never be used as a replacement for medical diagnosis or treatment. I would love for you to follow the show, rate, review and share, because you never know whose life you might change. And of course, keep coming back for more. Hello, my friends. So today we're going to continue on with the hormone series. Last week, we talked about how to balance overall hormones, but we laser focused in on progesterone because that's a big one that we see in practice here at TFN.
Erin Holt [00:01:27]:
Today's show is gonna be all about food and nutrition for your hormones, because that's a huge, huge factor in overall hormone health. And it's actually a class that our lead practitioner, Rachel, taught to the Funk'tional Nutrition Collective. It's just so well organized, clear cut, and comprehensive. So I figured it would be a really helpful episode to release here in the podcast. Before we begin, I wanna talk about a recent client that I've been working with, and I know we talk a lot about lab testing and functional lab testing here, and we love to leverage functional labs as a way to really identify somebody's root cause, particularly when they've been struggling with ongoing issues for a long time. But we also really try to highlight and emphasize how important doing the basics are before we get into lab testing. And my client is an awesome example of this. So this is somebody I worked with, like about six years ago.
Erin Holt [00:02:24]:
The work that we did together really transformed her approach to food and to her body and really helped her prioritize her health. And, you know, just as her words kind of life changing work and then, you know, life happened, and she started a company with her husband. They have a lot of kids. Just life was being life. So after five or six years, her good habits started to kind of go out window, you know, as they do when life happens. And so she wanted to start working with me again to reignite that spark, to kind of get back to herself, get back to her healing, get back to her body, set herself up for longevity and future health. And so when she came to me, she hadn't done blood work in a while, and she really wanted to optimize her health.
Erin Holt [00:03:09]:
She wanted an overview of what was going on. So we ran lab work. We did a comp panel, amongst other blood lab markers. We did a DUTCH hormone test, and we also did a GI Map stool test, and what all of those tests showed us. Ready? You ready for it? She was dehydrated. She was under fueled. Her blood sugar was a little wonky. Her beneficial species and her bacteria were low because they weren't being fed a wide variety diet.
Erin Holt [00:03:41]:
So all these labs just to show like, hey, we got to work on your diet, kid. It all comes back to food. And I say this to really emphasize that point, that, yes, the functional labs can be great, but let's start with diet. Let's optimize your diet. Let's implement all of the things that Rachel's about to teach you. Let's start there first before we spend hundreds of dollars, up to a $1,000, on functional labs, just to tell you, like, hey, you got to work on your diet. Now, of course, sometimes seeing that tangible data can be the impetus to actually make the behavior change. And, you know, I love when labs allow us to do that.
Erin Holt [00:04:22]:
And if you have the disposable income to spend, cool, that's great. But I just want to really make the point that you don't need functional labs in order to be healthy, but you do need to eat well in order to be healthy. And that's exactly why we created the Funk'tional Nutrition Collective. It's to teach you about how to fuel yourself and to build out the space and the time to actually allow you to make those changes in your life. Since we're talking about hormones, you also get access to Your Hormone Revival, which is a really in depth hormone rebalancing program that's only available through the collective. We've had hundreds of women go through this program, get their periods back, reduce their fatigue, reduce their overall symptoms. A lot of women have gotten pregnant through this program. Optimizing your hormones has a lot to do with food, as we're going to talk about today, but it's also about your overall life, as we talked about last week.
Erin Holt [00:05:16]:
And at this point, I'm just. I'm more interested in creating environments to allow you to heal and thrive. After almost 15 years in the industry, I know what that looks like for the majority of people, and so we've created the Collective to allow you to do exactly that. In addition to classes like you'll hear today, we also have a monthly Ask a Practitioner Anything. So these are live calls where you're able to get support as you move through the programs. If you do have labs that you want to talk through, if you have any clarifying questions that you actually want to talk through with a practitioner, this is not something that we can do through DM's, right? This is something that we can do in the Collective. And we're more than happy to answer your questions and make sure you feel super supported. Now, of course, if you need more one to one support, we have that available too.
Erin Holt [00:06:01]:
You can work with Rachel in our one to one membership. That's 850 a month. But we offer the collective at a super reduced rate of 149 a month. So we make that as affordable as we can for folks so as many people as possible get to access this healing environment. And the good news is that we are reopening the Collective on May 20, and we would love to see you there. So without much further ado, here's Rachel talking about food for your hormones.
Rachel Mistry [00:06:30]:
Happy Tuesday. I am excited to connect with you all this evening from wherever you're joining. I also want to give a welcome. We have a lot of new participants, new members in the Collective. Hey Jesse, I see you too. I'm excited to chat with all of you tonight. I am going to share my screen and share a presentation with you. The PDF, we're also going to upload it to the curriculum and then any resources that I mention.
Rachel Mistry [00:07:03]:
I will be linking them and posting them in our Facebook group as well. Today we're chatting about ways to support your hormones with food and nutrition. Many of you probably know who I am, just like a brief introduction. My name is Rachel Mistry. I am a registered dietitian and a lead practitioner over here at the Funk'tional Nutritionist. I see the majority of our patients in our one to one membership. My husband and I are based out of California. I'm from the area.
Rachel Mistry [00:07:32]:
I moved back after grad school, and I'm a certified functional medicine practitioner. So today I wanted to share some of my tips and tricks with you guys on how to support your hormones from a nutrition perspective. My disclaimer for you is this. We could go into a deep dive in so many different directions because there are so many different things that influence our hormonal health. Right. Um, there are various supplements you can take to influence your hormones, lifestyle strategies, um, additional lab tests. And so today I wanted to present you guys with some very, like, clear, actionable steps that you could take to optimize your diet to support overall hormonal health. So we'll dive right into it starting off.
Rachel Mistry [00:08:21]:
And I should disclaimer, if there's any men on this call or any men watching this, you can definitely benefit from this, but this will be heavily geared toward to the women, to the females in the crowd. So, female physiology is regulated by feelings of safety. Essentially, what I mean by this is your body's ability to produce hormones is essentially regulated by your body's ability to feel safe. And when we say safety, this means feelings of balanced blood sugar. Feeling like inflammation is controlled. Making sure that your gut health is in a good space, that your liver health and that you're able to detoxify is working appropriately. From a nutrition perspective, when I say feelings of safety, what this really starts with and what this really means is making sure that you're actually eating enough. A diet that is too low in calories,
Rachel Mistry [00:09:18]:
macronutrients, micronutrients is just going to be really detrimental on the overall health of your thyroid, of your sex hormones, and your adrenals as well. And so, basically, hormone production starts in our brain, our hypothalamus, and our pituitary communicate with our adrenals. Hey, are things feeling safe and good enough in order for us to ovulate, in order for hormone production to occur. Even if you don't want to get pregnant, even if you don't want to have kids or don't want any more kids, we want to ensure that you are having happy, healthy, regular ovulation on a monthly basis if you're of the appropriate age to be ovulating. And in order to do so, you need to make sure you're eating enough first and foremost. Um, protein needs. I know that this is kind of a hot topic out there nowadays. Um, many women are actually not eating enough protein.
Rachel Mistry [00:10:15]:
You guys have probably heard this, but a good rule of thumb to aim for is at least 30 grams of protein per meal. To kind of put this into perspective for you, many women don't have an issue with hitting their protein needs at lunch. And or dinner. But where I really can see women struggle sometimes is hitting their protein needs at breakfast. A good example of this is if you're having maybe two eggs for breakfast. One egg has roughly 6 grams of protein in it. If you're having two eggs, you're only getting 12 grams. If you have three eggs, you're only getting 18.
Rachel Mistry [00:10:47]:
And so we always want to think about, okay, that abundance mindset. What could I eat? What could I add to this meal to make it better for me? What could I maybe eat alongside this to make it more nutrient dense? 30 grams per meal is a rough guesstimate. You know, if you are really active, if you are really busy, if you're strength training and you have body composition goals, we may actually find that you could benefit from more protein. But roughly 30 grams per meal is a good goal to shoot for. Carbohydrates, also, we know that women who consume less than 100 grams of carbohydrates per day are at an increased risk for missing their periods and or for having anovulatory cycles. So cycles where ovulation is not occurring. So my disclaimer here is that everyone's carbohydrate needs are different. It wouldn't be fair for me to say, hey, every single gal on this call needs to be eating 150 grams of carbs per meal.
Rachel Mistry [00:11:46]:
Some women are going to feel better at a higher carbohydrate threshold, and some will feel better on a lower carbohydrate threshold. What I can share with you is that estrogen, one of the hormones that we produce throughout the month when we are menstruating, plays a big role in insulin sensitivity. So if you are post menopausal, if you've gone through menopause and you aren't having that robust estrogen production occurring, you actually may find that you do better on lower carb intakes than you did before you went through menopause. That's because estrogen and insulin are very much intricately connected. So I work with a lot of women who actually find once they're through menopause, they're like, oh, I do really well with a 14 hours fast overnight, or I do really well with even prolonged fasting. Many of the women who I work with who are cycling, who are still having a monthly bleed, they typically don't feel as good with fasting. And so that can be part of the, part of the reasons as to why. Then healthy fats, we're going to dive more into this. But basically, cholesterol is the building block for all of your hormones.
Rachel Mistry [00:12:56]:
Cholesterol. We need cholesterol to make cortisol, one of our stress hormones and one of our adrenal hormones. We need cholesterol to make pregnenolone, the mother of all hormones. Pregnenolone is basically broken up into all of the other hormones. So if you don't have enough building blocks to make your hormones, you're going to be starting at a deficiency there. This is a quote from Erin. I actually took it from Your Hormone Revival, or I might have taken it from CCP, but the most common cause of hormonal imbalance and fluctuations in women is blood sugar issues. And so when we think about strategies to support your blood sugar, or when we think about the importance of balancing your blood sugar, first and foremost, you know, we have to think about blood sugar imbalance as a source of stress.
Rachel Mistry [00:13:45]:
So I want to mention, so it's really normal for you to eat a meal. And if that meal contains carbohydrates, your blood sugar is naturally going to go up. It will rise and it will fall. And this is a very normal response. However, an example here is let's pretend like you're having dinner and you decide, okay, I just want to have a plate of pasta. Pasta by itself is a carbohydrate. So you eat this carbohydrate on its own, it's going to cause this rapid spike in your blood sugar. This big spike in blood sugar is going to cause a big release in insulin, and insulin is going to lower your blood sugar.
Rachel Mistry [00:14:20]:
So you're going to have this big spike up, and then you're going to have a big spike down. When your blood sugar dips low, when it crashes, your body is going to release cortisol to bring your blood sugar back up. Cortisol is a stress hormone. When cortisol spikes, it can contribute to those feelings of anxiety. This is actually why some women can experience that hanger. You get really hungry, blood sugar is low, and then cortisol gets released and you feel like, okay, wow, I'm on the up and up, but, but kind of anxious. Um, one of the best things you can do for your blood sugar throughout the day is to make sure when you are eating carbohydrates, you are pairing those carbs with protein and or fat. So an example that I have for you with this is instead of just having pasta for a meal, maybe you eat pasta with some meatballs for your protein and a side of broccoli for your healthy, for your fiber, for your veggies. You're probably using a little bit of oil to cook your meal with and that would be a great source of fats.
Rachel Mistry [00:15:28]:
We're always thinking about what can we add to this meal? What is that abundance mindset? Alternatively, the flip side here is if you're maybe adhering to a plant based diet, what you could consider doing is incorporating those bean based pastas into your diet. Things like Banza. I think Barilla also has like a chickpea based pasta. And so that would be a great way to help you hit your protein needs while also balancing your blood sugar. I see we have a few comments in the chat, Lauren said, so basically add fiber or protein with the box of candy. Exactly. In no way am I here to take away all of your carbohydrates by any means. But if you're going to have a snack, I know popcorn or crackers can be a really common snack.
Rachel Mistry [00:16:21]:
Those, when consumed by themselves, are a lonely carbohydrate. Think about what could you eat alongside this that could make it better for you? Maybe a handful of nuts, a hard boiled egg, some seeds. Those could be some really therapeutic options. But big picture here. If your blood sugar is always fluctuating, this can become a really big issue for your adrenals. And it can just be one of those additional stressors on the body. Chatting about cortisol, your appetite, fasting, all of these fun topics. Cortisol is a hormone produced by our adrenal glands.
Rachel Mistry [00:16:55]:
Cortisol regulates our energy throughout the day, our circadian rhythms, our sleep and our wake cycles, and also our stress response. We want to see, so this is actually an example of a patient's DUTCH test, we want to see a nice rise in cortisol. First thing in the morning, it should spike and then it should taper off throughout the day. So what we can actually see for this patient is she had a pretty robust spike in cortisol, a pretty significant percentage increase. First thing in the morning, her cortisol stayed elevated and then she crashed later in the day. This is actually an example of someone's DUTCH test who isn't a great candidate for fasting. She's also not a great candidate for starting her day off with a big cup of coffee.
Rachel Mistry [00:17:44]:
I definitely recommend eating something within the first hour of your day when it's possible. Even if it's something small. High cortisol can suppress our appetite. So a lot of people who are dealing with a lot of stress and anxiety or just have a really demanding schedule, they can wake up without an appetite. They then skip their meal. They skip breakfast, they forego eating, which leads to more blood sugar issues later in the day and more imbalances as well. So where does caffeine fit in here? Caffeine, when we consume it on an empty stomach, can create a transient rise in cortisol. Caffeine can basically act like an additional stimulant on our bodies.
Rachel Mistry [00:18:29]:
And so if you're going through a season where you're dealing, you feel a lot of overwhelm, you feel a lot of stress, you feel a lot of anxiety. Make sure you're consuming your caffeine with a meal or after your meal so that it's less likely to create this spike in cortisol. And as a result, sometimes it can create that spike in blood sugar. You might want to consider, if you're in a stressful season as well, you might want to consider doing a caffeine audit. So maybe reducing your caffeine, scaling your intake back, or for some of my patients, I even just have them swap from coffee to matcha or even coffee to green tea. That can be a great, nice way to replace that ritual with a warm beverage. Just a little bit less caffeine and less stimulation. I have to touch on this because someone's always going to ask, time restricted eating or intermittent fasting? Don't shoot the messenger here with this, but what I see a lot of people do who are big advocates or big fans of intermittent fasting is they will wake up, they will start their day, and they might not actually eat until noon.
Rachel Mistry [00:19:42]:
Maybe their eating window is like noon until six, or they eat between the hours of two and 08:00 p.m. In no way am I implying that you guys need to even be fasting in the first place. But honestly, for the individuals who do practice intermittent fasting or time restrictive eating, eating in the morning, as opposed to loading your calories in the day, later in the day is way more beneficial from a circadian rhythm perspective, from a weight management perspective, cortisol, hormonal health, and just like overall health. And so again, I want to clarify. I'm not implying that you guys need to fast, but if you find yourself fasting and your hormones are not where you want them to be, if you're dealing with a lot of stress and anxiety, shifting your eating window to earlier can be really therapeutic as well.
Rachel Mistry [00:22:52]:
So some more strategies to support your blood sugar. Exactly what I mentioned earlier, avoiding those lonely carbohydrates, pairing your carbs with lots of healthy protein and fats. You guys will probably be tired of hearing me talk about this. I talked about this on our last month's call as well, but this is a slate example of one of the meals that I prepared. So I threw chicken breast in my crock pot with bell peppers and onions and a little bit of salsa. I cooked it on low, so that's my protein and my veggies. I served it with some refried beans, pickled onions, avocado for my fat, and then I just had some, like, green onions that I chopped up and put over the top of it. Um, this is a good example of, like, what could we add to this meal to make it more colorful for, for ourselves? What could we add to this meal to make it more balanced for our blood sugar? Um, you'll notice there's a bullet point here that I included that says limiting your intake of refined and processed carbs.
Rachel Mistry [00:23:45]:
The reason I include this here is because refined carbohydrates have been stripped from a lot of their fibers, a lot of their other benefits. And so refined carbohydrates, like juices, for instance, or candies, are more likely to spike your blood sugar more rapidly than if you were to eat the whole food form, like a version, like an orange, for instance. An orange as opposed to an orange juice would cause a blood sugar spike, just not as rapidly. Um, definitely make sure you're eating enough and then pay attention to your exercise intensity. If you are training for. If you're going to orange theory, if you're doing a lot of high intensity interval training, um, if you're incorporating more exercise into your routine, don't be afraid to eat more, to actually fuel that workout and to fuel that exercise as well. Um, if you're noticing that you're eating a meal and you are zapped after a meal, you're crashing in the 60 to 90 minutes after you eat.
Rachel Mistry [00:24:44]:
That can actually be a sign that maybe there were too many carbohydrates at that meal. So you're getting a big blood sugar spike and then a crash. Or maybe there was the normal amount of carbohydrates at that meal. There just weren't enough protein or fat. There just wasn't enough protein or fat at that meal. So don't be afraid to kind of self audit and reflect, oh, I had that meal, I didn't feel great. Play around with the makeup at that meal the next meal time that you have. Um, another way that you can also prevent those, like post meal blood sugar spikes and crashes is going for a walk after you eat.
Rachel Mistry [00:25:19]:
Um, it doesn't have to be anything fancy. It doesn't have to be a 30 or 40 minutes walk. Even five to ten minutes can help to blunt that glucose response. It can be great to get outside. Honestly, I have a walking desk, um, that I'm on a lot of, or a walking pad that I'm on a lot of the times because I just feel like it really energizes me and it can be so great as well. Let me check the chat really quick. Lauren asked, would fruit by itself be a bad idea? So fruit by itself to me, is a little bit of a lonely carbohydrate. Right? So instead of just having a fruit, like, instead of just having a banana or an apple, maybe eating that with some peanut butter or almond butter or a handful of pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds, um, that could be a great option.
Rachel Mistry [00:26:07]:
Jen asked, what about switching from coffee to mushroom coffee? That can be amazing. Also, Four Sigmatic has a lot of those adaptogenic herbs which can kind of help your body adapt to stress and kind of blunt that response that caffeine typically would have on cortisol and blood sugar. And then Kirby was asking about what about having collagen powder and tea at breakfast to get more protein. And honestly, I do that myself. Um, I want to clarify. I am a big advocate of food first. What can we accomplish through our nutrition to start with? But like I mentioned, even if you're having three eggs, that's only 18 grams of protein. A scoop of collagen is typically, like nine to 10 grams of protein.
Rachel Mistry [00:26:51]:
That can be a nice way to help you meet your needs. It can be a nice supplement, for sure. And then Lauren's asking about, what if you don't have a morning cortisol spike but a flat curve instead? My thought process here is definitely still continue to eat breakfast within an hour of waking. Make sure you are sleeping appropriately. You know, getting adequate rest, stimulating in the morning, getting lots of light exposure in the morning, and then dimming the lights as the night progresses can also be really therapeutic. Basically, how you start your day will set the tone for the rest of the day. So we want lots of stimulation in the morning as well. Okay, so supporting hormonal fluctuations.
Rachel Mistry [00:27:42]:
The menstrual cycle is a process that occurs over roughly a 28 day cycle. And this is a cycle of shedding and recreation. And this repeats itself over and over. My disclaimer for you all is that women's hormones fluctuate over this roughly 28 day cycle. Men's hormones repeat that same cycle every 24 hours. And so the shifts that we see in our cycle are due to the rise and fall of hormones estrogen and progesterone. Primarily, I compare the different phases of our cycle to the different seasons. We have our own personal spring, we have our own personal summer, which is kind of like ovulation.
Rachel Mistry [00:28:26]:
Our personal fall is our luteal phase, those two weeks before we get our period. Similar to what we see in nature, similar to what we see throughout the year, we can't expect these phases and these seasons of our menstrual cycle to look the same. And so with that being said, if you're having a day where you're just, like, feeling really depleted, really blue, you're like, I'm at the gym, and I'm just not able to, like, get in a good workout. My motivation is not where I want it to be. I think it can always be so helpful and therapeutic. Just like, take a quick mental note, like, where am I at in my cycle. I've personally noticed this when I go to the gym, that I can lift a lot more when I am around ovulation and in the week before or after that. Everyone's bodies are a little bit different.
Rachel Mistry [00:29:14]:
And I want to clarify. The things that we're going to be talking about today are not meant to create more stress and add more overwhelm to your life, but more so just to help you respect the different phases and the shifts in the cycles that we see. If you do find that you're having hormonal symptoms, many hormonal symptoms are due to an imbalance in progesterone or estrogen. Some of the most common things that I see in practice are too much estrogen, not enough progesterone, or a combination of both. I actually included this screenshot over here on this right hand side of an example of a patient's test results. She has robust, really healthy levels of progesterone. She ovulated.
Rachel Mistry [00:29:58]:
She ovulated, she did a great time, or she did a great job timing out this test collection. However, we did see that she had some estrogen excess, she had some estrogen dominance. And so with that being said, I'm always glad when we get hormone results back so we can say, okay, what is actually going on? Everything that we're talking about today will be therapeutic, regardless of, do you have not enough estrogen, too much estrogen, not enough progesterone, you name it. That's why today we're talking about nutrition and not specific supplements as well. So, thinking about certain phases in our cycle and what we can do from a nutrition perspective to help them. Your menstrual phase is the phase when you're actively bleeding. So our menstrual phase is anywhere from three to seven days. This is when your hormones are flatlined.
Rachel Mistry [00:30:58]:
Energy levels are typically at their lowest. You know, this is a process of shedding. It can be very depleting. And this is a season when you really want to emphasize those bioavailable vitamins and minerals. So I encourage an emphasis on foods like grass fed beef, pasture raised eggs, bee pollen for your bioavailable copper, and then potentially organ meats, if you are into this. When I bring up organ meats, a lot of people will roll their eyes. I am not here to say you need to start eating pate, by any means, but I can share with you. There's this company, it's called Force of Nature.
Rachel Mistry [00:31:35]:
They are a ground meat company. They're all grass fed. They follow regenerative agriculture processes, and their ancestral blend has ten to 15% of organ meats mixed into their ground beef. And I swear to you guys, you cannot taste it. I made it for my friends, and I didn't tell them until after the fact. As long as you season it, you do not know it's in there. It tastes great in tacos, it's great with meatballs. If you like a lighter mixture of animal protein, you could always mix the their ancestral beef mixture with some like ground turkey or ground chicken to lighten it up.
Rachel Mistry [00:32:15]:
And then we also have to respect the fact that getting your period is an inflammatory process. For some individuals who do have autoimmune conditions, they can actually notice an uptick and a flare in their autoimmune symptoms as their period approaches and actually starts. And so, in an effort to help combat and reduce this inflammation, I highly recommend ramping up your intake of anti inflammatory foods. I want to clarify this list of foods. You can eat these foods all month long. There is nothing wrong with eating these foods all month long. Our goal is to always reduce inflammation. But if you're looking for a specific time to eat more of these foods, I encourage you to definitely eat more of these foods in the week leading up to your period and during your actual bleed, just to, like, combat and put out some of that inflammation, some of that discomfort.
Rachel Mistry [00:33:07]:
I love ginger. I love to cook with ginger. I think it's. It adds great flavor. Ginger tea can be a great option, but ginger is also really therapeutic. If you have painful periods that can help with menstrual cramping, cooking with it and or supplementing with it up to 2 grams a day can be really, really helpful as well. And the next phase of your cycle, where your body really can use a lot of support and tlc, is your luteal phase. So the luteal phase occurs after ovulation, and after ovulation, you produce progesterone.
Rachel Mistry [00:33:45]:
This production of progesterone basically revs up the activity of your thyroid. And so as a result, you actually need more protein during this season, and you need more hydration. For any of you who track your basal body temperature, for any of you who monitor for ovulation, the reason why we see an increase in our temperature after ovulation is because our thyroid is actually more active. The reason why I have here, it's not a good time to fast is because progesterone is really sensitive to any stress in the body. So if we are restricting nutrition during this luteal phase, sometimes we can see reduced levels of progesterone. It's really important to keep in mind that our hormones are at their highest during our luteal phase about a week after we have ovulated. And hormones are metabolized and detoxified and processed through our liver and through our gut. So our liver metabolizes them, and then it sends it to our gut and we poop all of our hormones out.
Rachel Mistry [00:34:51]:
So we want to make sure we're giving these organ systems lots of love, lots of TLC, and so making sure that you're eating enough fiber and definitely having at least a daily bowel movement is really, really key to make sure you're clearing all of that excess estrogen out of your body. And then we also want to give our liver lots of love. So, cruciferous veggies, I recommend a cup at least four times a week if possible. Cruciferous veggies are a great source of sulforaphane and indole-three-carbinol, which help to clear estrogen out of your body. Beets and ginger give our liver lots of love. And then dandelion root tea as well, can be really, really therapeutic. I ended up buying this glass carafe off of Amazon.
Rachel Mistry [00:35:34]:
It has, like, a little metal mesh strainer in it. And around my luteal phase, I actually will put dandelion root tea in it. I steep it hot, and then I let it kind of come to room temp and then stick it in the fridge. So I'm brewing the tea, I'm steeping it, and then those tea leaves are actually sitting in that water in the fridge throughout the week while I'm drinking it. So it's really concentrated. It's. It's very nutrient dense by the end of the week. And then, like I mentioned, you know, ramping up antioxidant rich foods the week leading up to your period.
Rachel Mistry [00:36:05]:
Honestly, you could do this all month long. There's something to consider there, too. So I've included a sample portion of someone's DUTCH test results here. We'll walk through this, but basically, if you're having significant symptoms in those one to two weeks before your period starts, this could be indicative of a hormonal imbalance. Women are commonly experiencing things like pretty severe anxiety, feeling like they have a short fuse, hot flashes, just like dense, fibrocystic, tender breasts can be a really common symptom. Spotting for three or more days before your cycle starts can all be a sign that there may be an underlying hormonal imbalance at play. Definitely start with some of the foundations we're going to chat through today, but you may want to consider a deeper dive if you're dealing with some of these ongoing symptoms. This is actually a DUTCH test from one of my patients who was doing all of the right things with her diet, identified her food sensitivities, balancing her blood sugar, eating a nutrient dense diet.
Rachel Mistry [00:37:16]:
We ran a stool test on her, we got her pooping more, we optimized her gut health, bloating went way down. But she was still having just a lot of PMS spotting, heavy bleeding, breast tenderness. So we ran the DUTCH test and it showed high estrogen levels, kind of across the board, very estrogen dominant. So what we basically looked at is, how is she clearing estrogens out of her body? How is she detoxifying her estrogens? These three arrows here, they represent different enzymes that are located in your liver involved in estrogen metabolism. For this patient, fun fact, these are actually my test results. I really honed in on alcohol intake, making sure I was having those regular daily bowel movements, brought in some strategic supplementation, and I started to get really mindful about, okay, what is my exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals, things like plastics and synthetic fragrances. And that has really helped to move the needle as well. This is actually from like three plus years ago.
Rachel Mistry [00:38:24]:
But that's where sometimes you can be doing all of the right things with your nutrition. And you might need a little bit of extra TLC and support. Some foods that can actually really help to increase and enhance estrogen metabolism that speed up the activity of this green, healthy arrow, this enzyme, are things like flaxseeds, berries and your cruciferous veggies as well. So those are like, if there are three main food recommendations that you take, if you have some concern that you might have estrogen excess, I would say start with those foods that can be really helpful as well. Some generally hormone supportive foods, and then we'll continue to dive into some more specifics, include fatty fish. I recommend that all women, honestly, all people eat fatty fish at least twice weekly. 4oz of high omega three low mercury fish.
Rachel Mistry [00:39:21]:
If you're eating fish regularly, you want to make sure you're not putting tons of mercury in your body. And you can actually remember these fish by the acronym SMASH. Salmon, mackerel, anchovies, sardines, and herring. I'm not a big fan of a lot of those fish. I like salmon off of this list, and I occasionally will do anchovies. But SMASH is the acronym you can use to remember this. Seaweed snacks or kelp flakes. These are a great source of iodine.
Rachel Mistry [00:39:49]:
We need iodine to produce our thyroid hormones, and iodine can actually help to desensitize our estrogen receptors and to support estrogen detoxification. So I want to clarify if you are suspicious that you might have estrogen excess, I don't recommend that you get on an iodine supplement. But starting with these foods can be really therapeutic. There's this brand of kelp flakes, it's main seacoast veggies. You can get them off of Amazon. I've seen them at Whole Foods, and I've seen them off of Thrive Market. They taste salty.
Rachel Mistry [00:40:24]:
They're basically kelp flakes or like, seaweed flakes. And I'll shake them over my, like, roasted veggies. Or if I ever do like a salmon bowl, I'll include that. And they taste pretty good. They taste salty. Brazil nuts are an amazing source of selenium. So roughly two brazil nuts a day can give you all of the selenium you need for your thyroid to function. Selenium is antioxidant rich.
Rachel Mistry [00:40:49]:
You can do two Brazil nuts a day all month long. And it's just so needed for that conversion of your thyroid hormones. Your conversion of free T4 to free T3. Herbal teas. I love nettles. Nettle leaf is really cheap. It's antioxidant rich, and it's another great source of minerals to incorporate pretty regularly and then seeds. Have any of you guys heard about seed cycling before? We're going to kind of, like, dive into that as well. Seeds are so nutrient dense.
Rachel Mistry [00:41:23]:
They're a great source of zinc and vitamin e. These are nutrients we need to produce progesterone. But they're also a great source of just, like, minerals in general and healthy fats. And so seed cycling can be a great way for us to take a food as medicine approach before we dive into additional supplementation. The concept of seed cycling is that depending on where you're at in your menstrual cycle, you eat different seeds to help regulate hormone levels. So from day one of your cycle, so day one of your period, during phase one, you would eat a tablespoon of each or both flax seeds and pumpkin seeds. Phase two, the two weeks leading up to your period or after ovulation, you would eat a tablespoon of sesame and a tablespoon of sunflower seeds. My disclaimer for you is, if this feels stressful, if you're like, I don't want to track where I'm at in my cycle and what seeds for me to eat, my goal is, like for you, just bring more seeds into your diet.
Rachel Mistry [00:42:26]:
Flax and sesame both contain lignans, and these help to modulate estrogen receptors. My one disclaimer about flax is that you want to buy it whole and grind it up yourself. If you're looking for at it from like, an omega three perspective. The Omega 3s in flax seeds, they go rancid and they go bad really, really quickly and in transit. So if you're buying flaxseeds at the grocery store and they've maybe been sitting there for like three, four, six months, those Omega 3s in the ground up flax seeds, they can just go rancid, and then you start to lose the benefits from them. What I'll do, if I'm making smoothies, I'll throw whole flax seeds into it, blend it up that way. Sometimes what I'll do is I just have a little coffee grinder, and I'll throw my flaxseeds into that, and about a week at a time, I'll ground, I'll grind up a week's worth of flaxseed, keep it in a Tupperware in my fridge, and then just like, use it as I need. That way you're not like, busting out the grinder every single day to grind off your flax seeds for your seed cycling. Flax is great in smoothies.
Rachel Mistry [00:43:32]:
It's great in oats. And then if I'm ever baking, I'll grind up some flax, throw it in there. Sometimes I'll make little energy balls or energy bites with some nut butters and some seeds, and I'll throw some flax in there, too. If you're looking for specific seed cycling little bites or balls, Erin actually has a recipe for that in the YHR curriculum as well, so don't be afraid to check that out. Sesame and sunflower seeds. You know, I want to acknowledge that tahini is a great source of sesame. You do not need to go out and buy whole sesame seeds and grind them up yourself. I just do tahini.
Rachel Mistry [00:44:09]:
I think that. I think tahini is amazing over roasted veggies. Over it can be a great salad dressing. What I'll do is I will mix tahini with a little bit of lemon juice, some garlic, maybe some salt to get it to the texture that I like, to really thin it out and just like drizzle it over roasted veggies. Whatever feels good to you. And if you're interested in looking into seed cycling a little bit more, there is a company that I recently discovered. It's called Beeya Wellness. I can post it in the Facebook group after this call.
Rachel Mistry [00:44:40]:
But basically they have the, they have phase one and phase two of their seed cycling kind of blends. If you want to outsource this to someone else, if you, if you don't want to grind the seeds up yourself, they do that for you, too. I'm going to check the chat as well. Um, Amy asked if hemp seeds are good to add as well. Absolutely. So hemp seeds are a great source of protein. They're a great source of Omega 3s. Um, they're a good source of fiber, too.
Rachel Mistry [00:45:06]:
And so you can incorporate these all month long. And I want to clarify, you actually don't have to be a cycling female to incorporate seed cycling. If you are menopausal or in perimenopause, honestly, you can start this anytime you like. You could pick today and you could say, today is day one of phase one for me and eat these seeds for two weeks and then switch to phase two. Um, some women will cycle their seeds with the moon as well. And so, yes, if you have longer cycles, if you have irregular cycles, you can just honestly switch between the seeds every two weeks. That's perfectly fine.
Rachel Mistry [00:48:34]:
Let's see. Lauren is asking, what if you have relative estrogen dominance, but overall levels are too low? Would you make the same diet changes you would usually recommend for high estrogen, or would we do something a little bit different? And so it sounds like, Lauren, you might have more estrogen than progesterone, but it sounds like both estrogen and progesterone are low. And so my main focus for you would be prioritizing blood sugar balance. You can definitely prioritize and still continue with all of the seed cycling recommendations. You can definitely emphasize all of the foods for, like, your menstrual phase and your luteal phase. But there wouldn't be any harm in you doing the cruciferous veggies, the berries and the flax. But I wouldn't say, like, oh, my gosh, you need to do a cup of cruciferous veggies every single day. In those instances, I think all women can benefit from limiting their plastics, limiting their estrogen, their exposure to those, like, endocrine disrupting chemicals, for sure.
Rachel Mistry [00:49:39]:
Lucia is asking, does being on birth control change the seed cycling approach? Honestly? No. You could follow the same approach where every two weeks you're eating the different seeds. You could eat the different seeds, like, oh, maybe on Monday, Wednesday, Fridays, you do the flax and pumpkin seeds and sesame and sunflower seeds on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. Okay, so one of the questions someone had asked about just, like, ways and strategies to support natural detoxification. And so we're going to dive into this basically. So, natural detoxification, we have to keep in mind that detoxification is happening all of the time, right? It's primarily performed by our liver, but our gut is involved as well, and our kidneys are involved as well. We remove toxins from our body through sweat, through peeing, and we poop it out.
Rachel Mistry [00:50:38]:
And supporting healthy levels of bile is really, really key. So, bile is a digestive juice that is produced by our liver, and it's stored in our gallbladder. And as long as you have a gallbladder, your gallbladder will constrict and it will release that bile into the digestive tract when you are eating meats. Ways that we can actually support your liver and support bile flow are stimulating the digestive process. What I mean by this is digestion, yes, it physically starts in your mouth when you are chewing your foods, but at the same time, thinking about your food and connecting with your food, eating without distractions is also really, really important to help your body produce stomach acid. We need to produce healthy levels of stomach acid in order to properly stimulate our gallbladder to release that bile. One of the really easy ways to stimulate stomach acid is to chew your foods, to eat without distractions, of course, slow down at meals, and then also incorporating bitter foods into your diet.
Rachel Mistry [00:51:49]:
These are things like arugula, things like ginger, things like grapefruit. One of my patients, I recently encouraged them to eat more bitter foods in their diet, and they're like, I just hate it. I don't want to do it. And their solution was just starting their meal instead of eating and incorporating the bitters into their diet. They would just start their meal with a handful of arugula and just like sit and chew it. Digestive bitters can be a great option here as well, but bitter foods can be super, super therapeutic. We also need choline to make our bile. Choline is a bile builder.
Rachel Mistry [00:52:25]:
We primarily get choline from eggs and then cruciferous veggies, beets and ginger. I've already recommended this, but these are like such amazing liver loving foods. We need healthy fats in our diet to make bile so that we can continue to absorb the fats that we are eating. So definitely don't skimp on the fat. And then adequate protein is key. Detoxification is such a protein dependent process. I'm going to share a graphic on the next slide and explain why in a little bit more detail. I know that this picture is really complex, but I'm going to do my best to simplify it. These are the various phases and stages of detoxification that occur in the liver.
Rachel Mistry [00:53:15]:
Detoxification occurs in a three part process. We have phase one, which happens in your liver, phase two, which happens in your liver. And then phase three is how you get toxins out. I want to mention that these same phases and these same steps are used and involved when we are clearing hormones out of our body. So whether we are thinking about estrogen, whether we're thinking about mold, plastics, alcohol, you name it, these same pathways and these same phases are needed. So a lot of toxins are stored in our body fat. That's why this says fat soluble toxins. But basically phase one of hormone detox, phase one of detoxification in general requires all of these nutrients.
Rachel Mistry [00:54:02]:
Your B vitamins, folic acid, which is a B vitamin, glutathione, your body's master antioxidant, and then flavonoids, which are in a lot of your brightly colored fruits and vegetables. That's why, honestly, you can eat these antioxidant rich foods all month long and not have an issue with them. Phase two, these are all the processes that occur. Glucuronidation, sulfation, acetylation. Not focusing too much on these processes, but look at all these nutrients that you need in order for phase two detox to occur. We need to make sure that these pathways are in tip top shape and that we are eliminating as well in order to have healthy hormone metabolism and detoxification. So with this being said, it's important to keep in mind that detoxification, again, this is a nutrient dense process. A lot of people talk about like, oh, where does intermittent fasting fit into detoxification work? If you're eating the same amount of nutrients that you would in three meals a day, and you're condensing it into like a six hour window, there's no problem there.
Rachel Mistry [00:55:10]:
But this is why also, many women who struggle with estrogen excess or hormonal imbalances don't do super well with fasting. Juice cleanses. A lot of these juice cleanses, even when I was growing up, would say, oh, like New Year's detox, New Year's reset. They are void in protein. These juice cleanses do not have almost any of the nutrients that your liver needs to perform this process. And so I say it's best to avoid those juice cleanses, honestly. So what about alcohol? Where does alcohol fit into this? Alcohol raises estrogen levels, and the reason why it does this is because it burdens liver function. Basically, when you consume alcohol, it needs to go through these same processes. And because your body views alcohol as like a major toxin, your body is basically going to put your metabolism of all other toxins, all other hormones on the back burner.
Rachel Mistry [00:56:09]:
It's going to say, hold up estrogen. We've got to get this alcohol out of us first. And so if you are struggling with PM's or those symptoms of estrogen excess, like breast tenderness, lots of moodiness, heavy bleeding and clotting, it could be beneficial to evaluate, take a look at your alcohol intake, whether it's reducing it or cutting it out completely. I can share with you. I've been working with a patient for a little bit now, and she's been slowly reducing her alcohol intake. She was feeling a little bit better. She ended up moving forwards with dry January.
Rachel Mistry [00:56:43]:
So she didn't drink at all during the month of January. And her menstrual cycles, her periods were so much better. She didn't have any of that, like PMS like symptoms. And so alcohol can definitely be a biggie from a nutrition perspective as well. I think it's really important to make sure that we're reducing our exposures to those endocrine disrupting chemicals, especially things like plastics. Avoid. There's a lot of foods like those pre cooked rice, the rice that comes in a bag that you can like stick in the microwave, or you can reheat soups in those plastic bags. Basically, we want to avoid heating plastic and then consuming things out of it.
Rachel Mistry [00:57:24]:
Saran wrap as well. Definitely like remove any plastic wrapping on your food before heating it up. If your food is coming in a plastic container and you're reheating it or heating it up, I just suggest transferring it to a plate or a glass so that you're getting less exposure to those endocrine disrupting chemicals too. Let me check the chat. Kirby is asking. So if you have low estrogen levels, would you want to hold onto the estrogen instead of detoxifying it? So we definitely want to make sure no matter where your estrogen levels are, that you're appropriately moving it through your body. The main goal is how can we increase estrogen more than anything? Because hormonal detoxification is definitely something that we want it to happen. It is a good thing.
Rachel Mistry [00:58:15]:
We don't want to restrict these nutrients by any means. But for instance, I want to clarify, I'm not saying go drink all of the alcohol. Now, if you have low estrogen, but someone who is estrogen dominant, I would say significantly reduce your alcohol intake where someone who maybe has low or normal estrogen levels can be totally fine with drinking alcohol a couple of times throughout the week and maybe they don't have any symptoms. To each their own. I would say it's a personal preference here, but hopefully that helps. Okay, next thing I want to chat about magnesium. I am a sucker for magnesium. Honestly, magnesium is probably my number one supplement recommendation that I make.
Rachel Mistry [00:59:00]:
It's the most used mineral in the body. We use it in over 300 enzymatic reactions. It's involved in, we burn through magnesium when we're under stress. We need magnesium to detoxify. A lot of us just aren't digesting and absorbing our nutrients like we used to. And our soil is just really depleted compared to what it was a couple hundred years ago. And so magnesium has so many benefits. It activates vitamin D.
Rachel Mistry [00:59:28]:
So if you are somebody who has had historically low vitamin D that does not respond to supplementation, you're like, I get outside, I take my vitamin D. Why are these levels not going up? You might want to consider bringing in some more magnesium into your routine. Magnesium promotes muscle relaxation. So it can be really therapeutic for sleep because you're getting that muscle relaxation. It's not going to sedate you, but you just get muscle relaxation. Because of that. We can see less menstrual cramping. Right.
Rachel Mistry [00:59:58]:
When you get menstrual cramps, it's like the uterine contractions. Magnesium can help with this. And in general, that's also how it really helps to improve sleep. It's great for migraines, it's great for headaches. It can really really help to reduce stress. In no way am I here to say just take magnesium and all of your problems will go away. But a few of them might. Supplementing with magnesium is honestly, excuse me, honestly, probably the best way to get a therapeutic dose of magnesium into your routine.
Rachel Mistry [01:00:36]:
But at the same time, we want to be really intentional. We want to be really mindful about what rate are we burning through our magnesium. So stress management here is really, really key. Whether that is breath work, whether that's meditation, being intentional about how you start your day is going to set the tone for the rest of the day like I mentioned earlier. Are you engaging in regular nervous system support? Do you feel like you're consistently in fight or flight? Because if so, you're going to be burning and churning through that magnesium more than anything. Something that I've been really liking to do recently is I'll take an Epsom salt foot soak. I'm too tall, I don't fit into our bathtub very well. And so what I'll do, and this is if your shower is attached to a bath, is you'll stop the tub up and you'll fill it with three to four inches of water.
Rachel Mistry [01:01:31]:
You'll add in one to two cups of your epsom salts. I recommend like unscented essential oil free, pure epsom salt, swirl it around, let it dissolve and then get in the bath and take a shower like you normally would. So you're washing your hair, you're washing your body, doing what you need to do for those 15 minutes or so and you're getting that like epsom salt foot soak. You're absorbing that magnesium through your feet while you're showering instead of actually having to like draw a full blown bath and then, you know, clean up afterwards. So something to consider there. As it relates to food sourcesm, you know, pumpkin seeds are a very concentrated source of magnesium and dark chocolate is an amazing source. As you guys look at this list, you will probably find that you eat a decent amount of these foods. But it is worth mentioning that a lot of people actually do find that they crave dark chocolate when they are low in magnesium.
Rachel Mistry [01:02:27]:
It's not a diagnostic tool. We can't say, oh, there's an official, you know, cause here. But there's definitely an association between chocolate cravings and low magnesium status. See, I see there's a few in the chat. Oh, Jessie's asking if we can explain the difference between magnesium threonate and glycinate. So magnesium l threonate will cross the blood brain barrier and magnesium threonate is most therapeutic for anxiety, and it can be really helpful with, like, calming erasing mind. Magnesium glycinate is going to be the one that can help with, like, muscle relaxation. It can help.
Rachel Mistry [01:03:12]:
It doesn't have the same effects on reducing anxiety like l threonate can. I would say magnesium glycinate checks the most boxes. And then some of the other forms you may have heard of are magnesium oxide or magnesium citrate. These are the forms that primarily have effects on our digestion. So they're more of a laxative type of a magnesium than glycinate or l threonate would. Rachel says she's overwhelmed by the magnesium supplement options. Honestly, there's a lot of them out there. Say, when in doubt, magnesium glycinate checks the most boxes.
Rachel Mistry [01:03:49]:
If you were like, my number one concern is anxiety. Like, you've tried everything, magnesium l threonate can be a therapeutic option for you too. And then Lauren's asking, is that the same as l theanine? No, l theanine is a different adaptogen. L theanine can be great for, like, sleep and anxiety as well. And so a little phrase here is, through our diet, our movement, our sleep, and our self care, we have so much influence over our hormones. I know today we primarily spoke about nutrition, but know that the Your Hormone Revival program is also chock full of lifestyle strategies and self care and sleep strategies to continue to help you optimize your hormonal health as well.
Erin Holt [01:04:43]:
Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Funk'tional Nutrition Podcast. If you got something from today's show, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, share with a friend, and keep coming back for more. Take care of you.
