Depending on our diet, we can increase or decrease estrogen and testosterone in our body, as well as improve insulin function and prevent or even reverse diabetes.
The role of hormones in health and the relationship between diet is something that has only recently been studied and in a very specific area: hormone-related cancers (prostate, breast, ovarian cancers, etc.).
Hormones
Hormones are chemical messengers that play a key role in numerous bodily processes, including increasing or decreasing our metabolism, controlling reproductive function, influencing how we store fat, and even affecting our mood.
When we think of hormones, we usually think only of estrogen and testosterone, which are known to play a role in fertility, and insulin, which is key to the proper absorption of sugars. However, there are thought to be more than sixty hormones in our body, participating in all kinds of functions and processes.
Most of us think that hormonal balance is something beyond our reach, that there is nothing we can do to maintain good hormonal health except prevent exposure to certain toxins that alter our metabolism,
But diet plays a fundamental role in the levels of estrogen and testosterone that circulate in our body, in addition to helping insulin perform its function properly.
Through diet, we can “control” our hormone levels to a certain extent, alleviating many disorders, improving symptoms of diseases or even participating in reversing them, as is the case with early-stage prostate cancer or type 2 diabetes.
Hormonal health and nutrition
Diet plays a fundamental and still little-recognized role in hormonal health, our fertility, menstruation, menopause and various cancers and other disorders.
The optimal diet to prevent or even treat many of the disorders related to hormonal imbalance is high in fiber and low in fat, and avoids animal foods, especially processed meats and dairy products.
That is, a diet based on plants and whole, unprocessed foods .
Weight loss will also help us a lot , since the fat present in the muscle cells is a “factory” of hormones, especially estrogen, which can cause our hormonal balance to be lost. Foods rich in fiber , in addition to helping us maintain a healthy weight, help us because fiber plays a fundamental role in hormonal regulation, eliminating excess hormones through excretion.
Diet is not the only factor involved in our hormonal health, because exercise also influences it, as well as our mental and emotional health.
Fat in hormonal balance
Something crucial in hormonal health is that adipose tissue (the fat stored in our body) is not idle waiting for fat to be burned to produce energy, but the fat stored in the body also acts as a hormone “factory”.
Body fat produces estrogen, not only in women, but also in men. This is one of the main reasons why overweight men grow breast tissue: estrogen comes from excess fat stored in the body.
Also, on the other hand, body fat reduces SHBG (sex hormone binding globulin), a glycoprotein that binds to sex hormones and inactivates them until they are needed, preventing them from causing imbalances.
Meat-dominant diets are also generally high in fat, increasing adipose tissue, which produces estrogen and reduces SHBG.
Dairy and its effect on hormonal health
Animal foods, especially dairy products, influence our hormonal health.
Dairy products, especially whole milk and cheese, are high in calories and fat, which impacts body fat; they are also low in fiber, which reduces the overall fiber content of our diet; and, most significantly, they contain estrogens, especially cheese.
In addition to the estrogen present in milk and cheese, lactose also influences hormonal health . During digestion, lactose is broken down and releases two smaller sugar molecules, glucose and galactose. Galactose can be toxic to the ovaries and damage the cells that develop into eggs.
Male fertility is also affected by dairy consumption, especially cheese and other high-fat dairy products.
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