Hey, guys. Dr. Axe here. In this video, I'm
going to talk about high estrogen foods you
must avoid and also estrogen-rich foods that
can destroy your health and really cause major
hormonal issues.
There are a lot of things that people are
eating today that are disrupting their hormones,
causing estrogen to be high, causing progesterone
to be low.
Some of the side effects are, for men, having
more feminine characteristics, and for women,
increased issues like hypothyroidism, autoimmune
disease, chronic fatigue, and even ovarian
cancer are some side effects of consuming
too many estrogen-rich foods.
I'm going to talk about the five estrogen-based
foods and products you absolutely want to
avoid, and then talk about a food here at
the very end that you'll want to add into
your diet to help your body detox the excess
estrogen.
So the first food that you want to avoid that
contains way too much estrogen, or what are
called xenoestrogens, is soy. We know soy
products today, especially processed soy,
most of it is genetically modified. And consuming
soy, again, a very high estrogen-based food.
Whether it be soy milk, soy protein powder,
or just regular soy beans, this is something
you want to avoid.
Now, soy started being consumed in large amounts
years ago because it was so popular in Okinawa,
Japan, but they consumed a different type
of soy. It wasn't the genetically modified
soy that we consume today. It was a type of
soy called natto, which is fermented soy beans.
So it was loaded with probiotics, vitamin
K2. It didn't have the same estrogen effects.
The reason why these estrogen foods are an
issue is because they're called xenoestrogens.
They increase estrogen in your body, or they
act like estrogen, which again increases your
risk of breast cancer and cervical cancer
in women. And for men, major testosterone
issues, impotence and other health issues.
So again, soy: number one estrogen-rich food
you've got to stay away from.
Number two food is too much sugar. Too many
sugars and carbohydrates can increase estrogen
in your body and lower progesterone. So eliminate
the processed sugar. Get rid of grains in
large amounts. If you're consuming large grains,
switch over to doing more fruits, vegetables.
Or if you need to do grains, sprouted grains
are a better option. But really balancing
out those ratios, lowering your carb intake.
Increasing your intake of healthy fats will
also help naturally balance out and decrease
excess estrogen in your body.
Now, maybe the biggest offender of excess
estrogen in your diet is consuming conventional
meat and dairy products. In fact, I read a
study recently out of Spain, and they found
that your average milk today contains 20 different
chemicals and medications, including growth
hormones like RBGH, as well as estradiol and
other hormone-based medications.
So again, think about this. You go, your regular
grocery store, pick up a gallon of milk. That
milk contains over 20 different medications
and chemicals, which is going to increase
your estrogen. This is why in my family practice
in Nashville, I had young girls coming in,
hitting their menstrual cycle closer to 9
and 10 years old, rather than 13 and 14, because
of all of these extra hormones and steroids
in the milk supply, and the same goes for
the meat you eat.
If you are shopping on a budget, and you don't
have a lot of extra money to spend, if you're
going to invest in your health anywhere, make
sure it's on your meat. So doing grass-fed
organic meat and raw organic dairy products,
because if you're doing those and they're
not organic, we know they've got steroids
and estrogen in them. That's going to increase
your risk of all the things we talked about,
from cancer to autoimmune disease to other
neurological issues.
Then last but not least, again, we talked
about getting rid of soy, getting rid of sugar,
getting rid of the conventional meat and dairy.
Then the last one here is a product, but stop
drinking out of or eating a lot of things
out of plastic containers that contain BPA.
BPA stands for bisphenol-A. It's a compound
in plastics that's known as an estrogen-mimicker
or a phyto or a xenoestrogen.
So staying away from the plastic bottles,
especially when they're heated. If you leave
a plastic bottle of water out in the sun,
actually by about 90 to 100 times of those
plastics will leach into the water. When you're
drinking those, those will get into your system,
causing these hormonal-based problems.
Another thing along with plastic are teflon
pans. In fact, when you heat up teflon pans,
that heat actually increases what are called
PFLAs, which are also estrogen mimickers,
by 400 times. So again, heating teflon pans,
doing things out of plastic bottles, another
big no-no in things you absolutely want to
avoid if you want to decrease estrogen.
Here's my last tip. Obviously, we want to
get rid of those foods and products. If you
want to start detoxing your body of estrogen,
there is a substance found in cruciferous
vegetables called indole-3-carbinol. It starts
out as a form of sulfur in your body. Sulfur
has powerful . . . or sulfurane has powerful
detoxification properties.
So if you can eliminate those foods and start
consuming more cruciferous vegetables like
broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussel sprouts,
kale, collard greens, these cruciferous vegetables
will absolutely help your body detox with
indole-3-carbinole, as well as a few other
things you may consider for detox.
There's supplementing with milk thistle and
dandelion, two other great things. So cruciferous
vegetables, milk thistle are great to support
your body, detoxifying from excess estrogen.
Hey, guys. Get those estrogen-rich foods out
of your diet. Hey, this has been Dr. Axe.