Food Cycling With Your Cycle
We’ve all heard of or maybe tried low fat diets or keto diets. They work for a little while but then our body adapts. What most women don’t know is that our bodies thrive better on certain foods throughout the month than others.
Here’s a little period recap (because traditional doctors don’t explain it very well :)). Estrogen and progesterone are the main female sex hormones. Estrogen is in charge of mainly physical changes that cause our boobs and pubic hair to grow. Your ovaries are the main point of the production of estrogen ( the adrenal glands and fat tissue are secondary points of production). Estrogen moves throughout your body and affects nearly every tissue, including your brain, bones, heart, skin, and more ( WE NEED ESTROGEN but it becomes problematic in excess). Estrogen is higher during days 1-14 of your cycle.
Progesterone is produced mainly in the ovaries and the adrenal glands (and the placenta when pregnant). It is known as the “calming” hormone. Progesterone works to “counter” the effects of estrogen in the body, reducing anxiety, increasing sleepiness, helping to build and maintain bone, and promoting appetite and fat storage, among other things. Progesterone is higher during days 15-28 of your cycle.
Now that you have an idea of how your hormone levels flow throughout the month, here’s what you can do to keep them as optimal as possible. Every woman differs in the amount of macro and micro nutrients they need to live their best life. So, it is important to note what is a “normal” amount of carbohydrates, fats and proteins for you and manipulate your diet from there.
Menstruation and Follicular Phase
The first part of your cycle ( when bleeding begins) is the menstruation phase. This lasts anywhere from 2 days to 1 week. The dramatic fluctuation of estrogen during this time is to blame for symptoms like cramping, fatigue, increased anxiety/depression. On day 1 of your cycle, both estrogen and progesterone are low, which signals the pituitary gland (a small gland at the base of the brain) to release Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). FSH stimulates the ovaries to form a follicle in preparation for ovulation. Because of this shift in hormonal balance, our bodies tend to become more sensitive to insulin.
What combats high insulin levels of insulin resistance? Fats! Maintaining a HIGHER (notice I didn't say no carb) fat diet through this phase will help regulate blood sugar. Things like hemp hearts, seeds (pumpkin seeds are a great source of Zinc, which is really low during this phase), nuts, wild fish, avocado and eggs are great hormone support in this phase. This doesn’t mean you can’t eat carbs, it just means your majority macronutrient intake should be fat. Because our bodies go into a insulin sensitive mode, we tend to crave higher carb foods. So, add in some carbs but make sure they are giving you other benefits as well- leafy greens, citrus fruit, broccoli, sprouted beans will help take the carb edge off but won’t spike your blood sugar.
Ovulation and Luteal Phase
Ovulation is the part of the cycle where the ovary releases an egg. The egg travels down the fallopian tube and either implants in the endometrium (lining of the uterus) if fertilized by sperm or slowly dissolved and passed out of the body, along with the uterine lining during menstruation. The ovary produces more estrogen to prepare the uterus for pregnancy. Around days 12-14 of the cycle, estrogen peaks and triggers the release of luteinizing hormone (LH). The surge in LH causes ovulation.
During the Luteal Phase, the (now called) corpus luteum releases progesterone and estrogen to prepare for pregnancy. If pregnancy occurs, estrogen and progesterone stay high throughout the pregnancy (this is mimicked by most hormonal birth controls). If pregnancy does not occur, estrogen and progesterone drop and menstruation occurs.
So, now estrogen and progesterone are back at their homeostatic levels and we can manipulate our diet to be carbohydrate dominant for the remainder of our cycle. Again, we want to make sure we are eating complex carbohydrates that give us longer lasting energy to avoid becoming insulin resistant. These are foods like squash, Brussel sprouts, quinoa, berries, beans, asparagus and leafy greens.