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Today’s article comes from Magdalena Wszelaki, who works to help women rebalance their hormones through simple, wholesome foods. A while back, we published her article on the seed rotation diet. Since there was so much interest, we asked her for another article on how to use food to balance hormones.
Why Breakfast Impacts Your Hormone Levels
It can be hard to imagine that the right kind of breakfast can be instrumental in rebalancing our hormones. Today you will learn why that is so and what breakfast can make such a difference.
The biggest challenge many of us face is feeling confused what to eat for breakfast. Many others think they are eating “healthily” but, in reality, they’re consuming a breakfast so full of sugar that it might as well be called “morning dessert.”
We grew up with the belief that a good breakfast should contain large amounts of fruit, flavored yoghurt, grains, cereals, bars and oat meal.
Here is the problem: they are full of carbohydrates and sugars.
This creates three hormonal and metabolic problems
1. Sugar Addiction
When we consume too many carbohydrates and sugars for breakfast at, say 8am, we will then experience a sugar dip by 11am and feel hungry or shaky, moody and unfocused.
So what do we do? We reach out for something sweet again, like a bar, fruit or coffee to “rebalance our sugar level” and this way we end up only adding more sugar to our lives.
It’s not uncommon for many people to eat as much as 30 teaspoon-equivalent of sugar per day without even realizing it. One thing you can do today is to check the sugar content of the food you eat, especially for breakfast by using the simple conversion of 4 grams = 1 teaspoon of sugar.
As an example, Starbuck’s Vanilla Frappucino contains 69 grams of sugar which equals 17 teaspoons of sugar. Naked’s 15-oz orange juice will set you back with 42 grams (or over 10 teaspoons) and a Trader Joe’s Gluten Free Blueberry Muffin label states 24 grams or 6 teaspoons of sugar.
As you can see, it’s easy to fall in the sugar trap and become dependent on sugar.
2. Sugar Lows and Adrenal Exhaustion
The second problem is that sugar addiction and sugar dips create STRESS to the body which calls for a release of cortisol by the adrenal glands to rebalance our sugar levels.
One of the functions of your adrenals (other than helping us deal with stress) is to rebalance our sugar levels.
As it is, many women suffer from compromised adrenal and these sugar dips weaken our adrenals even further.
Compromised adrenals have been linked to premature aging, dry skin, fatigue, coffee addiction (another skin-aging factor), weight gain, moodiness, frequent sickness and feeling depleted and de-motivated.
3. The Connection Between Breakfast and Sleep
Many women note that their carbohydrate-rich breakfasts and sugar dips are big contributors to their insomnia, poor sleep and waking in the middle of the night. That’s not surprising – we often experience compromised sleep due to sugar level dips and cortisol spikes which is what keeps us awake or wakes us up in the middle of the night.
Their sleep typically improves with a change of breakfast, more on that below.
What is a Good Breakfast?
OK, so what do you do?
In today’s article, there are tips that will help you stop craving sugar, help you feel grounded, focused, satiated, and they might help you achieve deep and restful sleep.
Tip #1: PFF Breakfast
PFF stands for “Protein, Fat and Fiber.”
Yes, this means we will be loading up our breakfasts with protein, fat and fiber. Why?
Because they will guarantee us no sugar dips, they will sustain our sugar levels so we don’t exhaust our adrenals and they will help us break our sugar habit (or addiction).
Proteins are also full of amino acids which are the building blocks of our hormones. The sources of proteins in your breakfast could come from fish, beef, chicken, bison, lamb, tempeh (if you can tolerate soy), coconut butter but also from moderate amounts of pre-soaked nuts and seeds, if tolerated.
I know, it might sound a bit unusual to be talking about dinner food for breakfast, right? But if you think about it, all global cuisines have savory breakfasts – the Turks would eat plenty of salami and cheese, the Chinese dim sum is fat and protein-heavy, a traditional Japanese breakfast would have some miso soup and fish, which are also savory and rich in protein and fats.
Tip #2: Real food only
Many people think of protein shakes and powders when they hear the word “protein” and “breakfast.”
Well, in this new approach to your breakfast, the focus is on using only real and fresh food, not processed foods like powders and shakes.
As humans we were designed to eat, metabolize and absorb real food and not food that can sit in a box for two years – like protein powders.
That’s not real food. That’s just great marketing and gimmicks that make us feel fearful that we can’t get the right nutrients from real food.
It might be hard to hear to put away your protein powder. But, if you suffer from hormonal challenges, why not try something different for just the next three days and see how your body responds?
There are a couple of recipes at the end of this article for you to start out with.
What to Expect?
People who follow the PFF breakfast recommendations report massive improvements. Many of them start losing weight, feel focused and grounded, their sugar addiction ends or lessens, their urge to binge diminishes, their energy returns, they sleep better and many report less PMS and less hot flashes.
Is it not amazing? From a simple change like that?
So let’s get to work. Try the recipes below and pay attention to how they work for you:
- How did you feel after having them for a few days?
- Are you craving sugar the same way?
- How different is your skin now?
Hormone Balancing Breakfast Recipe #1: Farmer Wife’s Breakfast
A hearty and savory breakfast is a wonderful way to start the day feeling grounded and satisfied.
Healing foods in this recipe:
- Sauerkraut – A good source of probiotics, which can help regulate estrogen.
- Mustard greens – Packed with nutrients that help regulate estrogen.
- Avocado – Balances sugar, nutritionally dense.
- Ghee – A precursor for a precursor of steroid hormones like estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, cortisol and DHEA.
Note that Magdalena uses meat in this meal, but you can certainly leave it out. We know that many of you choose not to eat meat or eat it very rarely. We try to post healthy recipes that accomodate all diets, so feel free to tailor this to your food preferences.
Time to make: 20 minutes
Serves: 6
Ingredients:
Sausage (Serves 6):
- 1 lb of ground lamb (you can also used pork, beef or chicken or a combination of any of them)
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp ground fennel seed
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 tbspscoconut aminos
- 1 tbsp of ghee
Plate (for one):
- 1⁄2 avocado
- Handful of organic green mix (e.g. arugula, mizuna, baby kale, spinach)
- 1 cup of ferments (pictured is sauerkraut and cauliflower)
- 1 tbsp of olive oil
- Juice from 1⁄2 lemon or lime
- Pinch of sea salt
Directions:
- Mix all the sausage ingredients (except for the ghee), kneading them well.
- Shape the sausage to a desired shape – round and flat or long.
- Heat up the skillet and add the ghee.
- Add sausages and fry them for approximately 7
minutes on one side and 4 minutes on the other. - In a separate bowl, toss green salad mix with olive, lemon and salt until the leaves are well covered with the dressing.
- Place greens on a large plate, then add the sausage, avocado and ferments to the plate.
Hormone Balancing Breakfast Recipe #2: Chocolate Cherry Smoothie
This low-sugar breakfast recipe can easily be adapted to become a decadent snack or a healthy dessert. The fat from the avocado and coconut butter along with the protein from the hazelnuts and pumpkin seeds will help keep blood sugar levels stable.
Healing foods:
- Cacao – Contains magnesium, flavonoids, vitamin Bs and E.
- Avocado – Balances sugar, nutritionally dense.
- Coconut butter – Healthy fat for long term energy, high in fiber, precursor for many hormones.
- Pumpkin seed – High in magnesium, zinc, protein, fiber, anti-oxidant.
Time to prepare: 10 minutes
Serves: 2
Ingredients:
- 1 avocado
- 2 tbsp raw unsweetened cacao
- 1 tbsp coconut butter
- 1 handful of pumpkin seeds
- 1 handful of hazelnuts, pre-soaked overnight
- 1 handful of dry cherries, pre-soaked in hot water for 10 minutes (you can replace with goji berries too)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp lemon or lime juice
- 1⁄2 tsp cinnamon powder
Directions:
Put all ingredients into the blender and blend until smooth.
Do you eat a hormone balancing breakfast? Tell us about it in the comments below!
This article was contributed by Magdalena Wszelaki, a nutrition coach, hormone specialist and a chef. She has a long history of hormonal challenges herself (from Hashimoto’s, adrenal exhaustion to estrogen dominance) which she has managed to reverse with the use of the right nutrition.
Love my greens in the morning. . .sauté garlic, onions, shiitake mushrooms, gr. lamb (small amt.) maybe delicata squash, apples, grated turmeric root &/or ginger root with greens. . .kale, arugula, chard, beet greens, cabbage (whatever Iight have) & sometimes broccoli or zucchini. Like to top with fresh minced parsley & other herbs (basil or thyme or tarragon) & calendula petals. ?
Hi, I quickly read through the ingredient lists and as a vegan I don’t quite agree with some of the ingredients used here, but apart form that I thought it might help others if I shed some light on some of the ingredients as I’ve educated myself in nutritional science for years.
This is based off of nutritional knowledge alone, not morals or ethics.
First, you shouldn’t be using ghee because ghee is dairy, it’s a “purer” form of butter, but any form of butter is just concentrated dairy. Dairy is proven to disrupt hormones and is linked to acne based on human studies. Dairy contains natural hormones, not just those which are added to produce more of it. Even if hormones were never given to these animals in the animal agriculture industry, dairy (like all mothers’ milk) has naturally occurring hormones that are there in order to make a baby grow into a full grown adult. So not only would it not be good for full grown human to consume the milk made for an infant to grown into a full grown human, but what do you think happens when you consume something designed to make a calf grow into a full grown cow? You can learn more about this in The China Study, Cowspiracy, Nutritionfacts.org, the book “How Not To Die” and in many other places.
Teaspoon of sea salt might not be such a good idea for a single meal. Having too much salt, even just a teaspoon can significantly and immediately impact arterial function and drastically reduce blood flow even to the skin! Balancing salt out with potassium is likely to help (from whole foods, not supplements which can be dangerous), and flooding the body with vitamin c also negates the negative impact of too much salt. A couple of my favorite foods that are awesome for blood flow are turmeric (be sure to consume with black pepper to increase curcumin absorption 1000 fold!) and raw tomatoes. You can learn about all these things on nutritionfacts.org
Any animal flesh is incredibly harmful to our bodies. Animal protein causes our bodies to create very high IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1) hormone levels which not only is a known cause for cancer, but also drastically promotes the spread of cancer cells that already exist or may form. We definitely DON’T want to increase THOSE hormones.
Instead, try getting protein from hemp seeds, beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, etc. And don’t forget that all plants contain protein. And you don’t have to soak nuts or seeds, it’s ok to eat them raw and un-soaked and cooked are healthy as well, but soaking is fine too 🙂
Some protein powders can be fine if they’re a whole foods based powder, though I agree whole foods in general is your best bet. Though I don’t agree that if you can’t store it for years, you shouldn’t eat it, e.g. dried beans and legumes can last years and are amazing for our health 🙂
Another awesome thing about getting our protein from beans and legumes (lentils, peas..) is that it has this magical effect on our blood sugar, in science it’s referred to as the “lentil effect” but it works with all beans, chickpeas, etc. Eating these foods drastically controls blood sugar to such a degree that if you ate beans or lentils for dinner the night before, then woke up the next day and had a donut for breakfast, your blood sugar even eating a donut would be controlled to an outstanding degree just because you ate beans for dinner last night! But I don’t recommend eating donuts for many reasons, blood sugar included.
Cinnamon… Regular cinnamon is great for blood sugar control but unfortunately does have a substance in it that can cause liver damage which is why it’s not considered a safe natural medication for diabetes patients to take in regular fairly high amounts. Ceylon cinnamon is totally safe, has all the amazing antioxidants as regular cinnamon (which is the stuff just labeled “cinnamon”) but unfortunately doesn’t have the same blood sugar stabilizing ability. But our liver is so important to our hormones. A sprinkling of regular cinnamon should be fine but having a teaspoon a day or anything like that, I’d recommend ceylon cinnamon.
Cacao- AMAZING stuff!
Lemon juice is one of my favorites as lemon (juice and peel… the rind and skin is awesome for us too!) promotes DNA repair! 🙂
Apple Cider Vinegar is great at preventing blood sugar spikes too! So that’s a good one. But don’t overdo it and take unnatural amounts for this reason as it can interfere with potassium if you do so. But regular amounts are safe. You can learn more about that on nutritionfacts.org
And I’m glad they didn’t advice against soy in this article (just be sure to get non-GMO or better yet, organic). People think because soy contains estrogen-like compounds, that it increases estrogen in the body. On the contrary, because these compounds mimic estrogen but are MUCH WEAKER than our own natural estrogen, our bodies hold onto the WEAKER forms of estrogen-like compounds from the food, and we excrete our own unadulterated estrogen. This is part of why soy has actually been shown to help in preventing breast cancer. You can learn more about this on nutritionfacts.org
As far as oil goes, I would recommend using it in very small amounts if you use it. I’m not one of those afraid of oil, but do recognized that it is an isolated part of food and that part is pure fat. Fats are incredibly healthy but in whole foods they’re mixed with fiber and so many other nutrients and compounds. When isolated into pure fat, that’s where you need to pay attention to portion for heart health.
It’s also really important that I add that soy is the closest plant protein to animal protein. Plant protein is highly absorbable and what our bodies are actually meant to run on and does not increase IGF-1 hormones. However, because soy is the closest protein structure to animal protein in the plant community, eating an extraordinary amount of soy every day could increase IGF-1 hormones, but you would need to have in extreme amounts to get the spike in IGF-1 as you would from just eating regular amounts of animal protein. You can learn more about that on nutritionfacts.org.
I also wanted to add that simple antioxidants alone maintain proper blood sugar levels (from food, NOT supplements, supplementing antioxidants does not work at best and can actually be harmful which you can learn about on whfoods.org for a full scientific explanation. Just search the site for the article “Can you get too many antioxidants?” *spoiler, you can’t… the more the better! But only from real foods, not supplements.
Ironically, meat (including fish) can actually INCREASE blood sugar spikes. If you eat some white rice, for example, with a piece of chicken or fish or other type of meat, it actually drastically increase the glycemic impact of the rice as opposed to if you just ate the rice alone. You can find a video on this on nutritionfacts.org
I felt compelled to share incase this information helps anyone. This is all based on science, not just beliefs within the health communities as often things are. Always look for the science and then apply your own critical thinking.
Thank you for all of this wonderfully detailed info, Lydia! We appreciate you sharing your knowledge of the vegan diet/lifestyle with our audience. Different strokes for different folks 🙂
Thank you, Lydia. I was going to reply with the same information, but you did a wonderful job of it.
Excellent post . . . this has given me new ideas for breakfast! Thank you.
My favorite breakfast is a banana topped with a tablespoon of peanut butter(organic,no added oils and mixed with raw honey) and two soft boiled eggs.I make sure to drink a glass of water before to balance my hormones and I also take a good multi with this breakfast(vitamin code) to benefit from the fat soluble vitamins.
Thanks…this is great! I use dr. Sara gottfried’s protein powder shke…any feedback?…I too have hormonal issues and continue to try and find what works for me.
Thanks agin….I live nee receipes too.
Debra k.
Great reading this article, thank you. I’m battling hormone changes, lacking energy motivation etc and am certain it is linked to adrenal fatigue.
I currently have either mushrooms with English spinach for breakfast or asparagus (in season here at the moment) with spinach and an egg. Are these OK? My concerns are for later when i have a coffee, maybe chocolate later in the day or evening.
Thanks again! It’s hard to work out what to do and where to start. R
While these recipes look delicious and healthy, they also look impossible for me since I travel for work and am in a hotel room for 5 days a week. I would love to see things I can have for breakfast with no utensils that are quick and easy and the ingredients can be stored in a small hotel refrigerator.
Thanks for the suggestion, Elaine! This would make a great post 🙂
Usually I have two eggs over easy, homemade refried beans or cooked pinto beans with cilantro and onions and avocado. I consider eggs as protein, beans as fiber but also fat since refried beans are cooked in oil. How do I switch up to a PFF meal? Will try out the first PFF meal but would like my eggs back.
How healthy is my breakfast. I have a bowl of oats in which i add some flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, some gojk berries n half a walnut or so. I also have 5 soaked n peeled almonds, 1 date, before breakfast i have a glass of fenugreek seeds water which r soaked overnight. After breakfast i have a cupnof tea with milk but no sugar,, a little later a fruit like papaya or an apple
Hi!
Your breakfast sounds great 🙂
Is there a way to print the recipes? So far all appear to be a winner.
I copied into a word document and then you can print it
I don’t like coconut butter , it does not melt in a recipe and I end up eating chunks
Where do you find coconut butter and cream coconut? Are they found in the refrigerated sections of the store?
I so appreciate the vital information and recipes you have given. Where have you been all my life? I am menopausal, 40 pounds overweight, and am addicted to carbs. Would love more recipes to balance hormones!! Cant wait to try your recipes.
Thank you so much
Laura
Thanks for your advice .
but how about oat with fruit and nuts coconut milk i think this kind break fast is the best for the whole family u don’t need to add sugar if can put some good honey on the top and start your healthy day that is my opinon depend every person condition of healthy diet alergies so on…
Why is there no liquid? Don’t see how you can call it a smoothie.
thank you
what if you have a restricted diet of healthy fats because you are a fat
absorber, like me? I do love avocados and all of the nuts, but I can have
33 grams per day or I gain fat around my waist.
Can I have healthy bacon and eggs for protein?
thanks,
Gwen
The Chocolate Cherry Smoothie looks scrumptious! I will definitely try it. But I cannot bring myself to eat animals. Are there any vegetarian/vegan options besides the Chocolate Smoothie? Thanks!
<3
Maybe you are stepping over the line making such claims !! Promoting saturated fats like lamb and beef as a remedy to counteract too much sugar intake seems like a stretch for a health claim. She is making a claim based on her own improved health. Grains like einkorn are so healthy! The complexity of nourishing the cells which make up our body is so involved and every scientist and educated doctor has an additional study on what makes and keeps us healthy. Eating animal protein seems a bit extreme to fix imbalances.
Just watched the truth about cancer, 9 part series by Ty Bollinger and learned so much about cells from renowned doctors and scientists who have spent YEARS studying the cells. Dr. Mercola, Dr. Blaylock, Dr. Quillin to name a few and many others.
Just some thoughts, Kathy
I have been eating dinner for breakfast which is a little bit of chicken, the carb from Himalayan basmati, plus plenty of vegetables. My breakfast is easily digested and provides me with energy for my morning exercise which is usually a jog on the beach (sand dunes).
I have read that this type of breakfast speeds up your metabolism.
Thanks for your great article.
What about good old British Bacon and Eggs? with maybe some mushrooms and a tomato
These recipes look great. What to do if I’m allergic to avocado?
Hi Jen,
Perhaps you can substitute another healthy fat, such as walnuts or olives.
I’m in the same boat, but with Pumpkin products.
This sounds great and I will try it. Thank you!
A few questions:
Do we swap out the breakfasts every other day or just whenever we feel like it?
How do you presoak hazelnuts? With the skin on, overnight, then peel them in the morning? Would other nuts work? Would they still need to be soaked?
Raw pumpkin seeds? I assume not roasted or salted. Sorry, I just want to make sure I do this right.
Hi Jill,
Ideally, you want to be eating a PFF breakfast everyday, but not necessarily these exact recipes.
For the hazelnuts, you don’t need to remove the peel. Just soak and blend.
And yes, raw pumpkin seeds.
You can find out more in Magdalena’s free workshop –> https://www.annmariegianni.com/hormonebalance
Thanks for much for this article. I’m battling sugar addiction right now and need all the great motivating info I can get. These recipes are very appealing and I can’t wait to try them! <3