3 Ways to Use Food for Better Gut and Hormone Health
Diet makes a huge impact on your health outcomes, arguably more than any other category you could focus on. Even so, it takes a balance of the right diet, rest, exercise and stress management to build greater health! If you're thinking about where to invest your precious time to get the most value, follow these three simple habits to make steady improvement in your health that lasts. Taking care of your gut health is key to maintaining your hormone balance and overall health. Disrupted hormones are typically a downstream effect of larger issues at play. High stress, unmanaged food sensitivities, medications and toxin exposure all play a role in weakening the gut lining and further causing hormonal dysfunction. These small changes in the way you approach diet can help nourish your body and reduce stress to have better gut and hormone health.
Structure your diet around whole foods
Structuring your diet around whole foods ensures that you are getting a good amount of vitamins, minerals and 0ther nutrients each day. When we eat ultra-processed foods, not only have many of the nutrients been stripped away, but toxic ingredients have likely been added and are sometimes not even listed on the label. This can lead to a weakened gut lining and increased food sensitivity over time, making it harder to enjoy the foods you love. So, let’s focus on the benefits of what we are eating rather than the drawbacks and start from there. Think of each meal time as an opportunity to get both micro and macronutrients that your body relies on for optimal daily function. Eating real, whole foods supports your body’s natural detoxification capability while giving it a few less things to filter out. When we think in terms of structuring our diet around these whole foods, that becomes our standard and we easily eat more real foods than processed foods. Your diet doesn’t have to be perfect or 100% whole foods to be structured around real foods. This strategy alone can help protect your gut lining and give you some more leeway when it comes to eating processed foods without some of the unwanted symptoms that come with it.
Diversity is key for a healthy gut and happy hormones
You’ve probably heard of eating the rainbow, but are you really convinced to make that a habit? Here’s some food for thought. Each food you eat has a different mix of nutrients in it. With fruits and vegetables especially, there’s a mix of fiber and phytonutrients that support different types of bacteria in your microbiome. Having a diverse microbiome helps support your immune system making your body more resilient to stressors like parasites, toxins and bacterial overgrowth. If you’re already structuring your diet around whole foods, you’ll have many opportunities to eat fruits and vegetables to support your gut and hormone health. Aim to get in 20-30 different fruits and vegetables each week. An easy way to do this is to mix up the foods that you’re already eating. For example, if you have a kiwi with breakfast every morning, cut it up and mix it with other cut fruit like pineapple, grapes, raspberries and oranges. A rainbow in a cup at your first meal of the day sets you up for success! As a bonus, eating whole food vitamin C with your high protein breakfast helps facilitate the natural production of collagen in your body.
Eat cruciferous vegetables regularly
This tip fits in nicely with the first two. If you’re already structuring your meals around whole foods and diversifying what you eat, this will be easy to do! Let’s get a little bit more specific on this type of vegetable and why it’s important. A naturally occurring compound in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, arugula and Brussels sprouts may support detoxification. These vegetables contain diindolymethane or DIM, which you may have heard of in supplement form. DIM may help reduce high estrogen levels by supporting the detoxification of estrogen in the liver and possibly support the prevention of cancer. These vegetables are also a great source of fiber which should be included in all of your meals to support your digestion. So, make sure you’re getting these veggies in daily to support your detoxification pathways!
