Anti-estrogenic Diet

An anti-estrogenic diet is a diet that involves minimizing high levels of estrogen to reduce the chance of hormone-related risks, eliminating estrogen-rich foods. It is similar to other diets such as a paleolithic diet, where anti-estrogenic diet is a slight alteration on the type of foods consumed. This implies that one could be on an anti-estrogenic diet yet still consuming foods like organic-products that still contains small amounts of estrogen which does not heavily impact the level the estrogen in their body.

An anti-estrogenic diet requires people to mainly focuses on consuming grains, cruciferous vegetables and fruits. These include beans, citrus, eggs, nuts and seeds. This diet excludes meat and dairy as they contain high levels of estrogen. The anti-estrogenic diet is encouraged for those with high levels of estrogen and are effected alongside by health issues due to estrogen-dominance. There is a lack of evidence regarding weight loss or mental health issues related to this particular diet. It is not a diet that could lead to any serious nutritional deficiencies besides a potential lack of protein intake.

Health and Foods

Testosterone and estrogen are the two types of hormones that exists naturally in the human body. Generally, males tend to have higher levels of testosterone and females have higher levels of estrogen that make up and determine our physical appearance such as facial hair and size of breast, as well, it controls the messages and coordinating activities that goes around the body. Therefore, it is essential to maintain the right amount of each hormones relative to that individual in order to reach optimal body functioning, and this could be achieved through controlling one’s diet. However, other factors such as ethnicity and age would also contribute to one's hormonal state.There are many reasons that may cause one to have a higher estrogen levels, common factors include a “hormonal imbalance which is low levels of testosterone or progesterone, medication, low-fiber diet, drugs and alcohol”. It is important to maintain a regular level of estrogen balance in order to control for body weight and illnesses.

Estrogen is hard to avoid since it is in almost everything: food, drinks and cosmetic products. To fight this excess numbers of estrogen, we could try focus on foods that contain less amount of estrogen and starting consuming product that are organic and not processed.

Foods to eat

There are 4 main recommendations that will assist people who suffer from estrogen-dominance and are hoping to change their eating habits to achieve optimal body functioning and health. These food products are the "sources of cancer-fighting phytochemicals":

Porridge oats before cooking

• Cruciferous vegetables: cabbage, cauliflower, garden cress, bok choy, broccoli - Daily servings of cruciferous vegetables have demonstrated a significant decrease in breast cancer risk and improve other health benefits in the long run.
• Oats and whole grains - fibre-rich that appears to black harmful estrogens. Also able to control for weight gain.
• Soybased foods: soybeans and tofu - contain high levels of phytoestrogen that has estrogen-blocking properties which reduces the risk of breast cancer.
• Citrus fruits: oranges, lime, lemon, grapefruits - fights against breast cancer and down-regulates estrogen receptors. It is also a primary source of vitamin C.

Foods to Avoid

It is recommended that people who are facing medical risks such as heart disease and breast cancer to avoid food such as meat, dairy, eggs. They contain high levels of estrogen which could be a threat and act as a risk factor towards their current illness and health conditions.

Estrogen and Health Effects

There are three different types of estrogen that controls hormonal activity: estrone, estradiol, and estriol. Actions of estrogen have a diverse effect on brain activities throughout the central nervous system. This plays a role in sexual differentiation as well as hippocampus which determines one’s emotional state. An imbalance level of estrogen in one’s body could also affect the reproductive system, immune system as well as sickness and mood. Due to the lack of evidence that illustrate the correlation between the effect of estrogen and diet, studies have struggled to make conclusions upon its impact in relation to particular disease. However, studies have shown that high levels of estrogen increases the risk for both males and females for heart disease and cancer.

For Males

Estrogen essentially controls male’s immune system as well as body parts such as bones and muscles. Most men who has an elevated level of estrogen often has low testosterone levels, this is a common issue that decreases with age. One may experience symptoms such as fatigue, sexual dysfunction, enlarged breast, increased abdminal pain and low sex drive if testorone levels are relatively low. In turn, estrogen is able to control and regulate sperm maturity and healthy libido within their reproductive system if the estogen levels are balanced. Aromatase is a component that is found in fat tissues which are able to transform testosterone to estrogen, this suggests that excess body weight may increase the risk of higher levels of estrogen therefore foods such as cruciferous vegetables could help increase estrogen detoxification. From this, it is important to keep a good balance hormone levels of estrogen with testosterone. Obesity is becoming the main concern that is the cause of countless different health issues including male infertility.

For Females

Estrogen levels fluctuate in different stages in particularly during menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and menopause, which is why many studies investigate the effect of estrogen during those stages. Too many and too little estrogen changes the hormone levels in the body which impact on their daily lives, such as mood swings, low sex drive, stress, fatigue and fertility. Levels of estrogen can vary easily through external factors such as contraceptive pill rather than just their diet.There are major health risks that may concern women regarding to increased levels of such as ovarian and breast cancer which automatically creates an estrogen imbalance in their body. Evidence have indicated that there is a strong relationship between the risk of breast cancer and diet-estrogen.

Low Fat Diet and Breast Cancer

Studies have shown that a low fat diet lowers the risk for breast cancer in comparison to those with diets that is higher in fat as it has impact upon their estrogen metabolism. High intake of dietary fat show a high correlation for mortality rates during postmenopausal disease. According to Boyar et al. (1988) have suggested that "high-fat diet promotes the progression of breast cancer". Comparing Eastern and Western diets, women in Asia revealed a "lower urinary and bloody levels of estrogen” as their traditional diet is higher in estrogen and low in fat, which explains the result of having lower risk breast cancer as Western diets are high-fat and low estrogen diets with high hormonal values.

Ovarian Cancer

Other studies have shown that there is a link between dietary fat consumption and the risk of ovarian cancer however results are still inconclusive. Results show that there is no connection that illustrate dietary-fat intake influences the risk of ovarian cancer. Moreover, other results have claimed that there is a conflict on the role of estrogen levels in ovarian cancer. In turn, evidence suggest a “positive association between saturated fat intake and ovarian cancer risk. This evidently explains that food such as meat have an impact upon ovarian cancer as it is high in estrogen level therefore people who have a higher risk of getting ovarian cancer should avoid meat as it may be a threat to this disease. Ovarian cancer is more prevalent in European countries versus Eastern Asia.

Obesity

Obesity has been an ongoing issue especially in Western places such as America and Australia where the rates of obesity are much higher due to their diet and family history. There is a link between obesity and cancer in which studies have indicated that they may be caused by other related components such as sex hormone levels and nutritional factors. There is a positive association between obesity and the increasing number of cancers caused from the responding tissues of estrogenic stimulation. Hence, obesity have significant impact on both men and women’s “decreased levels of sex hormone metabolism as well as increased clearance rates of several hormones”. It is an emerging issue that distresses infertility for both sex’s that also influences one’s physical and psychological state.

Soy based foods

Soybeans and tofu are two of the main food products that contain high levels of phytoestrogen. Studies do suggest that despite the relatively high concentration of some estrogen, it does help many health issues such as breast cancer and cognitive functioning. An anti-estrogenic diet also focuses on weak phytoestrogenic foods intake that lessen the effects of estrogen, this include “pomegranates, flaxseeds, berries, oats and organic non-GMO fermented soy”.

Soybeans

Soy is a commonly studied food product in many cases that investigates both the estrogenic impacts on hormone levels in the human body as well as one’s diet. Many of which suggested that soy products have both negative and positive effects that strongly relate to health risks and benefits. This is an issue that focuses more toward females as it impacts fertility and behaviour.

Phytoestrogens can alter and interact with estrogen receptors in the human body. This compound is present in our diet as it is derived from plants in which we consume daily. Soy products are isoflavones-rich and contains high levels of phytoestrogen. There is a lack of evidence which illustrate that phytoestrogens protect against menopausal osteoporosis as it has not been confirmed in human trials. Older women tend to be more susceptible in the risk of osteoporosis in postmenupasal, though results indicate otherwise, that food that contain isaflavones have a weak prevention for postmenopausal osteoporosis. Nonetheless, it is used to balance for the lack of estrogen levels in menopause stage.

Soy Beans Photographed by Trisorn Triboon 02

Soy is known as a type of food that fight against diseases such as heart disease, cardiovascular disease as well as breast cancer. Research have demonstrated that there have been a decline of hormone-related cancer rates due to daily intake of soybean, evidently shown that Asian countries such as Japan have a much lower mortality with breast cancer due to their traditional diet in comparison to Western diets where the consumption of soy foods are much less visible, reducing levels of isaoflavone intake as whole.

Tofu

Tofu is another food that is phytoestrogen-rich, also containing high amounts of isoflavones. According to Grodstein et al. (2000), though not proven, that estrogen-related factors could have an impact in cognitive functioning. This is evidently supported in animal models where it appears to control for learning abilities as well as memory. Both soy and tofu demonstrate long term effects which have the potential to protect the ageing brain. Nonetheless, there have been several observational studies that have found no significant effects of phytoestrogen intake on cognitive functioning, though their findings may not be accurate as the studies were focused upon low estrogenic-product consumption population.

File:Tofu 4.jpg

Firm tofu

There is a distinct difference in dietary habits between the Western and Eastern cultures, where places such as China and Japan have much lower rates of health issues like breast cancer and osteoporosis compared to the American and European population. Another study have also explored the relationship difference between these two cultures where they have found an increase of breast cancer rates in Asian Americans, though they are still lower than White Americans but this can not justify that the intake of soyfoods such as tofu is an indicator to lower health risk rates in the Eastern diet.

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