8 HORMONE BALANCING FOODS THAT SOOTHE YOUR MIND, BODY, & SKIN

Eating enough proteins, fibers, herbs, spices, antioxidant-rich vegetables, and healthy fats supplies the body with what it takes to balance hormones and keep your mind, body, and skin healthy. Besides, you need sleep and de-stress to maintain good health, and early studies also see potential in CBD for the same.

Your mind, body and skin health speak volumes about your overall health. Your self-esteem is high when you can focus and pay attention to your work, enjoy a good skin glow, and boast of a healthy weight. This article shares information about foods you must eat to balance hormones and keep the mind, body, and skin healthy. It also looks at the plight of CBD in the mind, skin, and body health. Peer into it to know what to include in your diet to work your way up to good health.

CBD Basics

Following the passing of the 2018 Farm Bill, CBD has become the talk of the town, and you can find it online and in the stores. It is available in different products, including gummies and oils, which people flock to. What is CBD, and why do many relate to it? Mascal et al. (2019) and Bauer et al. (2020) define CBD as a non-psychoactive chemical compound in cannabis plants, although it is mainly extracted from hemp. Non-psychoactive means CBD does not make you high, unlike THC, which affects psychosis.

Can CBD Influence Your Mind, Body, and Skin Health?

Studies like Watt & Karl (2017) reported that CBD is therapeutic, and many more keep appreciating the cannabinoid. Does CBD do anything to your mind, body, and skin health? According to Shannon et al. (2019), CBD can reduce anxiety and pain and boost sleep quality. Meanwhile, García-Gutiérrez et al. (2020) noted that the cannabinoid could fight stress, anxiety, and depression to improve one's mental health. How about the skin? Does CBD treat skin problems? There is insufficient evidence to support this, but the American Academy of Dermatology (Feb 2018) reported that many CBD fans resort to CBD topicals like patches, balms, and creams to manage eczema, psoriasis, and other skin challenges. Still, we cannot count on CBD to balance the hormones responsible for overall growth and skin health. Here is what it takes to keep your hormones balanced and the mind, body, and skin healthy.

Clean Proteins

Proteins are part of a balanced diet, and you certainly need them for hormonal balance. Why is this the case? Hormones are made from healthy fats, most of which come from clean proteins. Besides, proteins are the foundation of cells and are needed quite a lot for optimal cellular function. Still, you must choose your proteins well, keeping off those that put too much fast on the body. Clean proteins include lean meat, fish, lentils, legumes, soaked nuts, and seafood.

Healthy Fats

We have always been told that fats are bad and that they make you put on too much weight. The same has been echoed about cholesterols and claimed to increase your risk for heart disease. However, this is not the case since you need healthy fats for hormones to balance and keep the body, mind, and skin healthy. The basics of hormones are fats and cholesterol, without which they are not formed. Imagine all the hormones needed for good health; ghrelin, cortisol, adrenaline, insulin, estrogen, and progesterone, among hundreds of others. Healthy fats and cholesterols are the building blocks needed for them to form, showing that without them, the hormones do not form.

Antioxidant-Rich Vegetables

Spinach, kales, cabbage, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, name it all, are a few of the many vegetables you must include in your diet to keep hormones balanced and have the mind, body, and skin in perfect health. Besides, they are key in the production and maintenance of hormones. For instance, Mancini et al. (2019) reported that such vegetables help keep the pituitary and thyroid glands healthy and functional. These two are the most important glands in the human body and mark the region of production of all hormones. Besides the dark green vegetables above, you can opt for colored ones, including tomatoes, onions, and green/yellow/red bell peppers.

Herbs and Spices

We love herbs and spices since they add flavor, taste, and seasoning to our foods. There are many options to tap into, including ginger, turmeric, cumin, and cilantro are some of the spices and herbs that do not miss out on most dishes. Besides being great flavoring agents for your food, they have healing properties and have long been used in folk medicine to promote the fast healing of wounds. According to Kargozar et al. (2017), herbs and spices help balance hormones, although more research is needed to prove this. Meanwhile, you can add spices and herbs to your foods to season them.

Fibers

Fibers are a key part of a healthy diet. You need them to maintain blood sugar levels, improve satiety, and fight constipation. Yet, they have many far-reaching benefits. For instance, Hervik et al. (2019) reported that fibers help improve the sensitivity of the fullness hormone, ensuring that you feel satiated fast and do not take too much food. The same study showed that fibers keep insulin hormone sensitive to detect when there is too much sugar and respond accordingly.

Food for Gut

You also need hormones for good gut health, and the right amounts keep the gut healthy. Thus, the two are related, and a compromise on one side affects the other side. According to Lee et al. (2019), low hormone levels affect insulin sensitivity, hyping one’s risk for diabetes. In fact, many diabetic people have compromised insulin levels.

Get Enough Sleep

Besides the foods in the preceding section, you must get enough sleep to ensure hormonal balance and good skin, body, and mind health. Lack of sleep or poor sleep quality leads to less productivity, but the effects are more far-reaching. According to Cooper et al. (2019), lack of sleep leads to low HGH, ghrelin, insulin, and cortisol levels. Conversely, getting enough sleep ensures these hormones are produced in the right amounts and regulated as need be.

Reduce Stress

Reducing stress levels is as important as getting enough sleep as far as keeping hormonal levels balanced. Cortisol is called a stress hormone since it is produced in response to stress. However, getting stressed too often leads to the overproduction of cortisol. Besides, Joseph et al. (2017) reported that too much cortisol production ultimately leads to cortisol insensitivity, where it does not work, no matter how much is produced.

Conclusion

Hormones are key for good health. Besides, they are critical in maintaining good skin, mind, and body health. To keep the hormones balanced, you must eat the right foods, as this article shows. It does not have to be complicated; antioxidant-rich vegetables, clean vegetables, healthy fats, fibers, herbs, and spices are among the foods that will keep your hormones in the levels they need to be. Although CBD research finds the cannabinoid therapeutic, there is insufficient evidence to prove it helpful in balancing hormones.

References

American Academy of Dermatology. (Feb, 2018). Public, researchers demonstrate growing interest in cannabis treatment. Topical application shows promise for skin diseases. https://www.aad.org/news/topical-cannabis

Bauer, B. A. (2020). What Are The Benefits Of CBD–And Is It Safe To Use? In Mayo Clinic.

Cooper, C. B., Neufeld, E. V., Dolezal, B. A., & Martin, J. L. (2018). Sleep deprivation and obesity in adults: a brief narrative review. BMJ open sport & exercise medicine, 4(1), e000392.

Elms, L., Shannon, S., Hughes, S., & Lewis, N. (2019). Cannabidiol in the Treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Case Series. Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.), 25(4), 392–397.

García-Gutiérrez, M. S., Navarrete, F., Gasparyan, A., Austrich-Olivares, A., Sala, F., & Manzanares, J. (2020). Cannabidiol: a potential new alternative for the treatment of anxiety, depression, and psychotic disorders. Biomolecules, 10(11), 1575.

Hervik, A. K., & Svihus, B. (2019). The Role of Fiber in Energy Balance. Journal of nutrition and metabolism, 2019, 4983657.

Joseph, J. J., & Golden, S. H. (2017). Cortisol dysregulation: the bidirectional link between stress, depression, and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1391(1), 20–34.

Kargozar, R., Azizi, H., & Salari, R. (2017). A review of effective herbal medicines in controlling menopausal symptoms. Electronic physician, 9(11), 5826–5833.

Lee, C. J., Sears, C. L., & Maruthur, N. (2020). Gut microbiome and its role in obesity and insulin resistance. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1461(1), 37–52.

Mancini, A., Festa, R., Di Donna, V., Leone, E., Littarru, G. P., Silvestrini, A., Meucci, E., & Pontecorvi, A. (2010). Hormones and antioxidant systems: role of pituitary and pituitary-dependent axes. Journal of endocrinological investigation, 33(6), 422–433.

Mascal, M., Hafezi, N., Wang, D., Hu, Y., Serra, G., Dallas, M. L., & Spencer, J. P. (2019). Synthetic, non-intoxicating 8, 9-dihydrocannabidiol for the mitigation of seizures. Scientific reports, 9(1), 1-6.

Watt, G., & Karl, T. (2017). In vivo evidence for therapeutic properties of cannabidiol (CBD) for Alzheimer's disease. Frontiers in pharmacology, 8, 20.