Is Chocolate Good for Hormones?

What are the best foods to eat for hormone health? What are the best foods during menstruation? These are popular questions that I get asked a lot!

A well-balanced diet combined with proper exercise and good rest are the essential pillars of hormone balancing.

It’s important to eat a diverse array of nutritious foods to get the full-spectrum of necessary nutrients for optimal health and hormonal balance all of the time — not just when you are feeling crampy or bleeding. A healthy diet through the whole month will help to regulate cycles, reduce inflammation, and ease hormonal imbalance through consistency.

The main foods that I encourage women to focus on are the 3 F’s: Fiber, Fats, and Fermented foods — but don’t worry, you can still eat FUN foods too!

I recommend enjoying a rainbow of vegetables and fruits for fiber, antioxidants, and micro-nutrients. Green leafy vegetables and cruciferous vegetables are both high on this list for hormone health.

I also like to emphasize orange vegetables like raw carrots and cooked sweet potatoes for their fiber as well as beta-carotene, which is a necessary pre-cursor for vitamin A production in the body. Vitamin A deficiency can lead to endometriosis, fibroids, and heavy menstrual bleeding, according to research in neuroendocrinology. Eat those carrots!

Fiber is very important for supporting a healthy gut microbiome — and good gut health is foundational for hormone balancing, particularly for producing good-feeling serotonin, eliminating excess-estrogen, and reducing overall systemic inflammation (including prostaglandins which can cause uterine cramping and aggravate PMS).

But it’s not just about veggies, healthy fats are essential for hormone production. Cholesterol is a precursor for hormone production, so we need good fats in our diet. Just be sure to avoid trans-fats from fried foods, junk food, and processed food which can aggravate inflammation. Good fats are naturally occurring in whole foods such as coconuts, avocados, olive oil, wild fish, and whole raw dairy.

Fermented foods such as sauerkraut, yogurt, kimchi, miso, and more are also healthy staples for a happy hormone diet, because they help to feed the gut microbiome with the good bacteria that it needs to digest our food, extract the nutrients our body needs, and eliminate what we don’t need efficiently. A healthy gut leads to happy hormones!

But eating a hormone balancing diet does not mean green salads and sauerkraut all the time!

Fun foods can be good for the hormones, gut and mood too! Like, chocolate!

Oh yeah, dark chocolate is a happy hormone food as well. It’s filled with antioxidants, plus boosts serotonin, and other mood-boosting hormones. Dark chocolate also has magnesium, iron, vitamin c, and fiber in it. Particularly in it’s most natural state as raw cacao, which is how I prefer to partake of it.

I’m not talking about candy bars at the store packed with corn syrup and dairy. Chocolate can be healthy but it’s worth it to get the best kind! Preferably, raw cacao.

Here’s a recipe I created for a healthy hormone balancing treat that’s made with healthy-fat filled coconut, fiber-rich dates, and mood-elevating raw cacao. They are easy to make and are so good — plus they will satisfy the biggest premenstrual chocolate craving without throwing your hormones out of whack!

Check out my delicious recipe for a healthy chocolate treat on my blog and save the recipe for later:

Chocolate Coconut Mounds: A Healthy Easy Recipe

I hope you enjoy this recipe!

Originally published at https://wellnessblessing.com on April 16, 2021.