Stop Eating These 6 Foods Immediately—They're Destroying Your Hormones | Dr. Janine

[00:00:00]Let's go through the six foods that can possibly disrupt your hormones, especially if you're a woman. Okay, number one on my list, unfortunately true, but caffeine. And having too much caffeinated beverages, that could be chocolate that has caffeine and other caffeine foods and even supplements can seriously disrupt your hormones. And we know that caffeine can be dehydrating, but also can affect your other stress hormone, of course your cortisol levels, when especially consumed at the wrong time of day. So, watching your caffeine, and you may find as your hormones are changing, ladies, that you can tolerate that caffeine so much less than what you did when you were a little bit younger.

[00:00:38]It can become a problem, especially as those hormones are changing. Okay, number two on my list is alcohol. Now, we know that alcohol, again, can disrupt the hormones, and you also may find going through perimenopause and menopause that your body just simply does not tolerate that alcohol that it once did when you were younger. And we know that the liver needs to process alcohol, but it also needs to process, of course, your hormones. So, that's one of the reasons why when things are a little bit, you know, less balanced, let's say, during those changes with your hormones, that could be PMS time, but that could also be, in terms of the perimenopause and menopause, too much alcohol is not going to be your best friend. Okay, number three on my list is refined sugars. Now, we know that that refining process removes a lot of the minerals. That means that you're just left with pure sugar in that and maybe some chemicals in there as well as part of that refining process. We know the chemicals are bad for the liver, but that pure sugar now is really going to spike your blood glucose levels, which could already be sort of out of balance when your hormones are changing and disrupting your hormones even further.

[00:01:44]And this can lead to insulin problems and, of course, insulin resistance and issues with your leptin, which usually happens first before the insulin issues, because of too many refined sugars in your diet. So, we really want to make sure that we are limiting. If you do need to have something sweet, make sure it's a more natural and whole food type of maybe fruit or vegetable that will give you some of that sweetness. Okay, number four on my list is refined oils.

[00:02:09]Now, again, because of the refining process, they use a lot of chemicals.

[00:02:13]One of them are the phthalates, and this is a group of plasticizers that is used to make plastics more flexible. But, and they also have been found in a whole range of refined cooking oils like olive oil, avocado oil, and even coconut oil.

[00:02:26]They may also use PFAS, so per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which they use as part of that refining process.

[00:02:34]Again, chemicals that your liver has to process, and this can further disrupt your hormones. Okay, number five on my list is packaged foods. Now, part of that packaging process, if it's plastic packaging, that can contain BPA, which we know is an endocrine disruptor, messing up the hormones. And even if your packaged foods are wrapped in paper, if that paper is bleached, then there could be some dioxins in there, which again can disrupt your hormones.

[00:03:00]Okay, number six on my list is the artificial sweeteners. Now, I'm talking about things like aspartame, which can be metabolized into formaldehyde, which is a xenoestrogen, so a less healthy estrogen, a chemical estrogen. Also, acesulfame K is something that can increase your stress hormones and disrupt the balance of your gut flora, and that can affect your glucose and insulin metabolism. So, again, for they're disrupting those hormones because of, you know, these artificial ingredients and chemical ingredients in your diet. So, always aiming to have whole food ingredients, you know, directly from the earth or from the farm, is going to go a long way in terms of keeping your hormones balanced, and always eating local and seasonal food in the season in which it's growing, local to where you're living. And that's going to go a long way for your body's ability to actually properly metabolize those foods. Now, I do have some more information for you ladies about supplementation. And a lot of people get this wrong in terms of what types of supplements to take, but there are very specific ones for women, and I want you to learn about those in this video, top five supplements women should take. I'll see you there.