Diet tips to support hormonal balance

Your body has a complex, invisible network called your endocrine system, and the messages it sends are hormones. Focusing on your diet and lifestyle can support this awe-inspiring system to help you feel your best.

What Exactly Are Hormones?

Think of hormones as chemical messengers that constantly monitor your body's state and take action to maintain balance. They are produced in various glands and organs (like your thyroid, pancreas, and ovaries) and released into your bloodstream in response to a trigger.

A simple example: the sandwich

1. You eat a sandwich, and your blood glucose rises.

2. Your pancreas notices this rise.

3. The pancreas releases the hormone insulin.

4. Insulin acts like a key, gaining access to your cells and helping them absorb that glucose for energy, bringing your blood sugar levels back to a healthy, balanced range.

Hormones are not just about sex

While we often associate hormones like oestrogen and testosterone with the reproductive system and gender traits, their influence is much wider. For example, women have receptors for oestrogen on virtually all their cells—including brain, bone, muscle, and immune cells. This is why an oestrogen imbalance can contribute to conditions like osteoporosis, raised blood pressure, anxiety, weight gain and sleep disturbances.

However, oestrogen isn’t just for women. You may not be aware that men also produce oestrogen. It is vital for their bone, heart, and brain health. When levels are out of sync, it can reduce libido, alter mood and increase fatigue.

The whole-body crew

Beyond sex hormones, your chemical messengers are involved in countless vital jobs including:

• Energy and weight: they regulate appetite, feelings of fullness, metabolism, and energy levels.

• Mood and sleep: they facilitate brain messaging, influence your mood, and help manage your sleep/wake cycle.

• Body maintenance: they control your blood pressure, body temperature, and the turnover of cells in your bones, joints, and muscles.

How diet and lifestyle may impact your hormone health

Your  daily diet and lifestyle choices can have a powerful influence on this system, as nutrition provides the building blocks and support to enable your hormones to function correctly.

Here are a few strategies that can help you maintain hormone balance:

1. Manage stress and sleep. Long-term stress might keep levels of the hormone cortisol high. This can disrupt other hormones, including insulin and melatonin (your sleep hormone). By prioritising sleep and participating in activities to manage stress, you might support balance of these hormones.

2. Feed your gut. Your gut microbes play a role in activating some hormones and, crucially, helping your body remove excess hormones (like used-up oestrogen) through digestion.

3. Support your liver. Your liver is the body's main recycling plant. It deactivates hormones once they've done their job and prepares them for excretion via the urinary system.

4. Eat whole foods. Every stage of hormone production, function, and removal requires specific vitamins and minerals that are needed from your diet.

Your hormone support shopping list

While your individual needs are unique, building your diet around these nutrient-dense foods will provide a good foundation for your hormone health:

• Healthy fats  from omega-3s: Found primarily in oily fish (including salmon, mackerel, sardines) and seeds like flaxseeds. These fats provide building blocks for hormone production and help maintain cell health to support your hormones’ messaging potential.

• Cruciferous vegetables: Think broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, rocket, watercress, pak choy and Brussels sprouts. These vegetables contain a compound called sulforaphane, which is has been shown to support your liver’s ability to process and remove old hormones.

• Quality protein: Include protein from beans, lentils, eggs, nuts, seeds, and lean meat and fish. Protein is crucial for the production of the hormones themselves, as well as the enzymes required for hormones to exert their desired effect.

• Mineral power: Ensure a good intake of Zinc and Magnesium from nuts, seeds, wholegrains, and dairy. These minerals act as essential co-factors, helping hormones do their job properly.

• Eat the rainbow. Consuming a wide range of brightly coloured fruits and vegetables ensures you get a broad spectrum of vitamins, minerals, and protective plant compounds that can support every bodily system, including your endocrine one.

• Get the recommended 30 grams of fibre a day from wholegrains, beans, lentils, and the skins of your fruit and vegetables. A happy gut is a major contributor to hormonal health.

Which one small change can you make this week? Perhaps, adding a handful of seeds to a meal, or choosing a green vegetable to support your internal messengers.