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Hey, Ladies! You probably have some favorite vegetables, but perhaps you don't know all the good they're doing you. Here are three ways that vegetables balance your body:
1. Vitamins and Minerals, especially Sodium and Potassium, Calcium and Magnesium, are key for the signaling that cells do, and for the ingredients for the brain molecules you want to have. Salt your vegetables to taste with an unrefined salt such as Himalayan pink salt.
2. Fiber - As your liver processes hormones each month, excess hormones are broken down and recycled, or bound to fiber and excreted. More fiber, in the variety of different kinds which naturally occurs in vegetables, also means a healthier gut, because fiber feeds the bacteria you want to have. More fiber also means steadier blood sugar, and when your body isn't managing excess sugar, it can run the other systems better.
3. Phytoestrogens - or plant estrogens. These are the compounds that have a small hormone-like effect - they fit into some receptors - and thus balance the levels of hormones in our bodies. Christiane Northrup uses the analogy of a movie theater - if all the seats can be sold at full price (real estrogen in receptor sites), you wouldn't give any away for free (weaker plant estrogens), but if there are empty seats you'd let them go for a bargain price in order to have them filled.
Especially after 35 when the hormone supply can be uneven, phytoestrogens from plant foods provide the hormonal "cushion" to smooth out the supply. Soy is well-known for phytoestrogens, but that's just successful marketing. All plants have some kind of phytoestrogens, so pick the ones you like, that agree with your digestion best.
