Eating for Hormonal Harmony: How Nutrition Impacts Your Body

Hormones are involved in countless functions to support your health every day. While many things can throw hormones off-balance, just as many can support healthy hormone regulation — like what we’re eating.

Let’s examine some of the most prominent hormones involved in everyday wellness and how to balance hormones with food.

Hormone Basics

Before we get into hormone-balancing foods, I want to cover the basics of some key hormones always at work in your body. Your hormones are part of your endocrine system, which is a network of glands that produce and release hormones into your bloodstream, regulating functions like metabolism, growth, and mood.

Let’s start with insulin, a main player in regulating your blood sugar. I consider insulin the ACE in the house of cards when it comes to hormones. Insulin is produced by your pancreas in response to eating. It helps transport glucose from your blood into cells to be used as energy or saved for later.

Next, we have the sex hormones, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. Estrogen is a predominant female sex hormone but is also present in small amounts in men. This hormone is produced by ovaries, adrenal glands, and fat cells that are involved in reproductive health and menstrual cycle regulation.

Another primarily female sex hormone is progesterone which works alongside estrogen to support menstruation and pregnancy. Finally, testosterone is a primary male sex hormone (women have it in smaller amounts) that influences libido, mood, and brain function.

Thyroid hormones are also important to understand. Thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) regulate metabolism and affect nearly all organ systems, influencing temperature, digestion, energy, and heart rate. If they’re thrown off balance, it can cause noticeable symptoms.

Finally, cortisol is produced by your adrenal glands. Known as the “stress hormone” it helps you get moving when you wake up in the morning, it is also released as part of the body’s stress response.

Your hormones work together synergistically to support your health, many times in ways we don’t realize until something is off balance. When one hormone is out of whack, this affects other hormones in the endocrine system. For example, when you’re under a lot of stress, it affects your blood sugar, heart rate, and even the appearance of your skin. Think of the endocrine system as an orchestra. When one instrument screws up, it messes with the harmony of the whole system.

Common Causes of Hormone Disruption

Healthy hormone balance is essential but there are always factors that can disrupt this, like:

• Significant weight fluctuations or excess abdominal fat
• Menopause, which involves a natural decline in estrogen and progesterone
• Chronic stress, which promotes excessive cortisol
• Thyroid disorders like overactive and underactive thyroid
• Birth control pills, patches, or IUDs that introduce synthetic hormones into your body
• Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) which can disrupt levels of testosterone, insulin, and estrogen
• Lifestyle habits like an unhealthy diet, poor sleep, lack of exercise, and exposure to environmental toxins

What Does Food Have to Do with Hormones?

There’s a long list of things that can potentially disrupt your hormones, but I want to focus on food. We have multiple opportunities every day to either support or work against a healthy hormonal balance through nutrition. Remember, we want to keep our symphony or orchestra sounding great!

Your body needs certain nutrients to carry out specific purposes, which can be found in hormone-balancing foods we’ll get into later. The overall quality of your diet influences inflammation levels, the health of your gut microbiome (the community of microbes in your digestive tract), and your metabolic function, all which impact hormone balance.

Foods That Cause Hormonal Imbalances in Females

While one meal or “off” day won’t make or break your hormone balance, it’s important to pay attention to the nutritional quality of your overall diet. Both men and women are at risk of certain hormone imbalances being triggered by a nutritionally poor diet, but women are particularly sensitive to these foods due to cyclical and life-stage hormonal changes.

If there were four things I’d recommend avoiding in your diet for optimal hormonal health, it would be these:

Ultra-processed foods

These types of foods are high in added sugar and sodium and promote inflammation. They’re called “empty-calorie foods” because they contribute calories without beneficial nutrients. Examples include refined carbohydrates like white bread, packaged snacks, candy, pastries, and sugar-sweetened beverages.

Trans fats

Some trans fats exist naturally in animal products, but others are manmade. The latter are unsaturated fats that have undergone hydrogenation, a process that turns liquid oils into solid fats. In this case, trans fats are added to certain packaged foods to increase their shelf life and improve texture. Good examples are hydrogenated, processed vegetable oils, as well as fast food items and commercial baked goods.

Trans fats can affect hormones by influencing fat metabolism and cholesterol, which may interfere with hormone signaling pathways. They can also promote inflammation, oxidative stress, and insulin resistance over time.

Excessive caffeine

This popular morning beverage may interrupt your adrenal glands, which are responsible for producing hormones like cortisol in response to stress. Caffeine can be overstimulating, leading to elevated cortisol and symptoms like fatigue and anxiety.

Too much caffeine may even reduce insulin sensitivity and can disrupt your sleep patterns, which can worsen hormone imbalances related to stress response, metabolism, and appetite regulation.

Alcohol

Excessive alcohol intake can damage your liver and make it harder to metabolize hormones effectively.

It can also stimulate the release of stress hormones, disrupt reproductive hormones (potentially affecting the menstrual cycle), promote insulin resistance, and interfere with thyroid hormone production. Drink moderately and responsibly, if at all.

Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals in Food

Nobody likes to think about how food could be harming our health, but unfortunately, sometimes it’s more than the food itself we need to consider.

Pesticides, herbicides, and plasticizers are examples of endocrine disruptors, substances that interfere with your endocrine system, often by mimicking or blocking certain hormones. They can lead to hormonal imbalances and adverse health effects, including reproductive issues, developmental abnormalities, and metabolic disorders.

Unfortunately, endocrine disruptors can leach into food from packaging materials, growing practices, and processing methods. Long-term exposure is linked to health problems like reproductive issues, metabolic disorders, and an increased risk of cancers.

Some of the most pervasive endocrine disruptors in food are:

• Bisphenol A (BPA) in some canned foods and plastic containers
• Phthalates in food packaging, including plastic wrap and containers
• Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in non-stick cookware and food packaging
• Organophosphate pesticides in conventionally grown fruits and vegetables
• Dioxins in fatty animal products like meat, dairy, and fish
• Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in some fish, especially those high in fat, like salmon and tuna
• Glyphosate (best known as the herbicide Roundup) in conventionally grown crops like soybeans, corn, and wheat

While you can’t always avoid these, you can reduce your exposure with a few practical changes. First start by ditching plastic as much as possible, which reduces the toxic load on your body. Toss your plastic food storage containers and water bottles for stainless steel or glass. Avoid using reusable or PVC-free food wraps.

Canned foods are also a source of hormone-disrupting BPA, so be sure to choose BPA-free canned goods.

Finally, aim to choose the highest quality food whenever possible. Consider buying local, in-season produce. Opt for USDA Organic produce and non-GMO soy whenever possible.

Explore the Environmental Working Group’s 2024 consumer guides for purchasing produce. The Dirty Dozen lists the 12 fruits and vegetables that tend to contain the most contaminants and the Clean Fifteen list highlights the lowest-risk produce.

Hormone Balancing Foods

Nutrient-dense foods are best when we are learning how to balance hormones with food. They provide a balance of important macronutrients, micronutrients, and phytonutrients.

Macronutrients

Complex carbohydrates (whole grains, fruit, and legumes) provide energy for hormone production and regulation.

Proteins (legumes, lean meats and poultry, fish, nuts, and seeds) are essential for making hormones and receptors.

Healthy fats, like omega-3s (fatty fish, walnuts, and flax seeds), support hormone production and help maintain the integrity of your cell membranes, facilitating hormone signaling.

Micronutrients

We don’t need vitamins and minerals in large amounts, but that doesn’t make them less important. Hormone-regulating foods should contribute plenty of these:

• Vitamin D: Supports normal insulin, parathyroid hormone, and sex hormone functions. Find it in fatty fish, UV-treatment mushrooms, egg yolks, and fortified milk.
• Vitamin B6: Supports the function of brain chemicals and steroid hormones like serotonin and estrogen. Get it from beans, fortified cereals, meat, leafy greens, and bananas.
• Zinc: Acts as a cofactor in processes involving insulin, thyroid hormones, and sex hormones. Good sources include shellfish, eggs, legumes, nuts, and whole grains.
• Magnesium: Needed to activate enzymes involved in hormone production and metabolism. Find it in nuts, seeds, whole grains, legumes, tofu, and avocado.
• Iodine: A component of thyroid hormones involved throughout your entire body. Get it from iodized salt, sea vegetables like seaweed, and dairy products.

Phytonutrients

Found in plant foods, phytonutrients benefit health, disease prevention, and hormone balance:

• Isoflavones: These have a similar structure to estrogen and can bind to certain estrogen receptors in your body to either mimic or block the effects of estrogen. Evidence shows they have benefits when consumed from healthy whole foods sources. Find isoflavones in barley, sunflower seeds, lentils, arrowroot, broccoli, and cauliflower, and in smaller amounts in split peas, green tea, chickpeas, and flax seeds.
• Flavonoids: Found in fruits and vegetables, flavonoids have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and interact with enzymes involved in healthy hormone regulation.
• Polyphenols: These antioxidants are especially rich in green tea, berries, and nuts. They’re involved in hormone signaling pathways, including those involved in insulin sensitivity, thyroid function, and sex hormone regulation.

Final Thoughts

Balanced hormones are important for your health and you have more influence over it than you may think. While many external factors can interfere, nutrient density is key to learning how to balance hormones with food.

Interested in personalized guidance around hormone-regulating foods? I can help you manage symptoms of hormonal imbalance, identify potential triggers, and regain your health. Schedule a complimentary 15-minute consult here.