Load up on estrogen

Certain food items known as dietary estrogen, can help women lead a healthier and happier life.

Certain food items known as dietary estrogen, can help women lead a healthier and happier life.

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Eating sensibly can have reduce the risk of diseases like ovarian cancer.

Recently the New York-based integrative wellness center Patients Medical highlighted the importance of eating phytoestrogenic foods to reduce ovarian cancer risk and promote health in women.

Phytoestrogens are part of the functional food trend category phytochemicals that are often referred to as “dietary estrogen”.

According to PlanetGreen.com, Discovery’s greener living site, women should consume phytoestrogenic foods because of their other benefits as well. In addition to ovarian health they can also help with hormone imbalance symptoms including allergy, depression, fatigue and anxiety, endometriosis, hair loss and facial hair growth, headaches, dizziness and foggy thinking, low sex drive, osteoporosis, and wrinkly skin.

However Susun Weed, the author of New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way urges women to only reach for plant-based phytoestrogens. “When phytoestrogens are isolated and concentrated, sold in pills and candy bars, then the equation changes: phytoestrogens become dangerous hormones, quite capable of promoting cancer,” cautions Weed.

Here is a list of phytoestrogenic foods you can chose from:

Soy: tofu, tempeh, soy beverages

Legumes and beans: lentils, yellow split peas, mung beans

Whole grains: wheatberries, oats, barley, buckwheat, quinoa

Nuts and seeds: almonds, flax, sesame

Herbs and seasonings: fenugreek, garlic, ginseng, parsley

Roots vegetables: yams, carrots

Greens: Cabbage, ramps

Fruit: apples, pomegranates, olives, quinces, rosehips