Fertilehealthy

We saw yesterday how our hormones affect our weight, our mood, our reproductive functions and just about every process in our bodies.

So what do we need to do to ensure that our endocrine system functions properly and our hormones are balanced?

The first step is to eat a high alkaline-forming diet.  Everything we consume leaves either an acidic or an alkaline residue in our bloodstream.  It is important that our blood is slightly alkaline, as this allows the immune system to work at its best, prevents cancer cells from multiplying, and promotes healthy endocrine function.  An high alkaline-forming diet maintains the correct mineral levels in our bloodstream and bones, preventing osteoporosis and tooth decay and allowing our muscles to contract and relax correctly.

The foods that leave an alkaline residue in our blood are raw fruit and vegetables.  Even fruits like oranges, lemons and tomatoes are alkaline to the body, although they taste acidic. 

Cooking alters the chemistry of these foods and makes them acidic, so it is important to make sure that you aim to eat a high percentage of your fruit and vegetables in their natural raw state every day.  The easiest way to do this is to have at least one fruit meal and one salad meal per day and to snack only on fruit.

Eating this way will give your endocrine system an enormous boost.  Your blood sugar will stabilize, you will have all the vitamins, minerals and fiber you need to heal and repair your body, you will delay the aging process and you will lose weight.  As a bonus, you will lose your craving for candy, baked goods and soda.

The second step is to include the right fats into your diet. 

One of the most enduring myths is that all dietary fat makes you fat and that if you you go on a low-fat or fat-free diet you will become slim and stay slim.  Unfortunately it doesn’t quite work that way.

Fats are essential in the diet.  Firstly, fat is an essential source of heat and energy.  Secondly, fat is also needed for padding and insulating organs and nerves.  Thirdly, they are needed to help with the absorption of the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K and fourthly they are a source of the essential fatty acids required for the proper functioning of the endocrine system, especially the adrenal glands.

Initially on a low-fat or fat-free diet, you may lose some weight, but as your body adjusts to a reduced energy intake, you will find that you start craving salty and fatty foods.  This craving is your body’s way of letting you know that you are lacking a vital nutrient - essential fatty acids.  And if your body is not getting these EFA’s, you could find your appetite increasing, your metabolism slowing down and your body retaining fluids.  Insufficient fatty acids can also result in skin disorders, menstrual and fertility problems, gallstones and loss of hair.

The answer is not to increase our fat intake.  We have to make sure that we are eating the right fats.  I can never get my saturated, unsaturated, poly-unsaturated and mono-unsaturated fats straight, so I’ll make it easy for you.  Your endocrine system’s enemy is heated fats, or trans-fats.  That includes cooking oil, fish oil, margarine, coffee creamers and any oil that doesn’t say “cold-pressed” on the bottle.  Obviously, if you heat your cold-pressed oil, you change it into a trans-fat!

I’ll do a separate post about why these fats are bad, but in the mean time, let me tell you how you can get good fats in your diet.  Extra virgin cold-pressed olive oil, flax oil, hemp oil, corn on the cob, butter (in small amounts, since it’s a saturated fat and therefore contains cholesterol), avocado, raw nuts and seeds and olives. 

Isn’t it ironic that these foods, that are usually verboten to dieters, are the very tools to help us lose weight?  Obviously, if we overeat on these, we will store the excess as body fat, so we need to use our common sense.

The third step is to stay hydrated.  The endocrine system is totally reliant on water for almost every chemical reaction.  With adequate water, all the systems in our body work at optimum levels to the benefit of our health.

The quality of your water is also important.  Municipal tap water is contaminated with many harmful substances, so filtered water is a far better option,  unless you live in an area where water is fluoridated, in which case you should lobby to stop fluoridation in your area and stick to bottled water.  For more on the dangers of water fluoridation, visit the Fluoride Action Network website - it will make your hair stand on end!  Filtering does not remove fluoride.

The fourth step is be exposed to natural light and preferably sunlight every day.  I wrote how this affects our weight in this post, but in short, when we are not exposed to regular natural light, our body clock may gain or lose time (like jet lag).  This disturbance in our Circadian rhythms causes hormonal imbalances, affecting our mood, weight, menstrual cycles, fertility, sleeping patterns and our body’s ability to utilize calcium.  Twenty minutes to half and hour spent outside daily with the eyes uncovered will go a long way to ensuring endocrine health.

The fifth step is to get moving.  Exercise has a direct and positive effect of at least 16 different hormones, including those that impact on your weight.  Whatever form of exercise or physical activity you choose, make sure that you get your body moving for at least 20 minutes each day.

Following these five steps will go a long way to improving the functioning of your endocrine system, which will have many knock-on effects on your health, including making weight loss easier for your body.  I am not perfect when it comes to this and we needn’t be.  We just need to try to turn these steps into habits and we will already have come a long way.

There are some foods and substances that really are enemies of our endocrine system and make our weight loss efforts more difficult.  I will be discussing them in more detail in upcoming posts.