How Seeds Can Help to Balance Your Hormones Naturally
Welcome to week two of my female health-focused blog series! Last week I wrote a long one on the four different types of PMS and how to reduce (and even eliminate) your PMS symptoms, which you can check out here. This week I’m sticking with the hormone trend and talking about hormone imbalance and seed cycling! If you suspect your hormones to be out of balance and you’ve never heard of seed cycling, this blog post is for you. This post is also for you if you haven’t got a clue what’s going on with your hormones but you’re either (a) on the pill, (b) experiencing pretty bad PMS every month, or (c) experiencing several of the tell-tale signs of hormone imbalance which I outline below.
Tell-Tale Signs of Hormone Imbalance
- Adult acne, especially on your chin and jaw or the kind that gets worse during your time of the month
- Other skin problems, such as eczema or premature aging and wrinkles
- Difficulty falling or staying asleep or full-blown insomnia
- Feeling “wired and tired”
- Menstrual headaches
- Difficulty losing weight
- Thinning hair
- Mood swings, irritability, agitation, or decreased stress tolerance
- Low libido
This is by no means a comprehensive list, of course, but is a good start and contains a lot of the most common symptoms women experience when their hormones are out of balance. Fortunately, there’s something you can do if you are experiencing two or more of these symptoms!
An Overview of your Cycle and How Seeds(?!) Can Help
Before we get into what exactly this mysterious seed cycling thing really is, it’s important that you know a bit about your cycle first. The typical menstrual cycle is approximately 28 days long and consists of two parts or phases; the first 14 days is called the follicular phase, and the last 14 days is called the luteal phase. During the follicular phase, between day 1, the first day of your period, and day 14, ovulation day, estrogen increases as your egg matures in preparation for ovulation. During days 15 to 28, the empty follicle which held the maturing egg produces progesterone, a hormone essential for thickening your uterine lining in preparation for pregnancy.
Of course, if you don’t get pregnant, that lining is shed and so begins day 1 of another cycle. Exciting stuff, right?!
Keeping your estrogen and progesterone ratios balanced during the two halves of your cycle is like a goldilocks zone; too little or too much of either can negatively impact everything from skin health to mental health (as you saw in the list of symptoms above.) Hormone balance can be affected by consuming too many pesticides, breathing in exhaust fumes or polluted air, drinking chlorinated and fluoridated tap water, not getting enough exercise, nutrient deficiency due to not eating enough nutrient-dense foods, eating too many processed foods, or untreated digestive issues, etc.
Luckily, amazing mother nature has got your back! By strategically using certain seeds in your diet during the different phases of your cycle, you can regulate your hormones naturally.
Here’s how seed cycling works in a nutshell: Depending on where you’re at in your cycle, you’ll be adding 2 tablespoons of freshly ground seeds into your diet daily. The seeds chosen for your follicular phase help to support healthy estrogen levels and the seeds chosen for your luteal phase help to naturally increase progesterone levels. These seeds contain fiber to help with healthy estrogen metabolism all cycle long and contain essential fatty acids and minerals like zinc and selenium which are essential for a healthy hormone system.
Follicular Phase (Days 1 to 14)
Seeds: Flax and Pumpkin Seeds
Amount: Consume 1 tablespoon of each per day
Important notes: Flaxseeds contain very delicate omega-3 oils that are easily oxidized and turned rancid, so your best option is to buy smaller bags of whole unground flax at a time and keep them in an air-tight and cold container. If you want to save money, buy whole flaxseeds at Costco instead of ground flax, which is much more easily denatured and will go rancid way faster. Both flax and pumpkin seeds should be freshly ground to ensure maximum nutrient absorption.
Luteal Phase (Days 15 to 28)
Seeds: Sunflower and Sesame Seeds
Amount: Consume 1 tablespoon of each per day
Important notes: Both sunflower and sesame seeds should be freshly ground within a few days of consuming (and kept in a cold, air-tight container). Random fact: If you’re sensitive to sunflower seeds, 2 brazil nuts per day is a great replacement!
How Should I Consume the Seeds?
I’m the kind of gal who likes things to be as easy as possible, so my preference is throwing them in a smoothie! That way you don’t have to worry about grinding them fresh since the blender does that for you already.
However, if you’re fancy, you can make delicious and super nutritious seed pesto, grind up your own fresh seed butters in a small food processor (add in some nuts and spices… yum!), or add the freshly ground seeds to oatmeal or soup. For the larger seeds like pumpkin and sunflower, it’s not that important to grind them, so they make great salad or yogurt toppers, but the smaller seeds should be grounded for full benefit.
Who Is Seed Cycling For?
Seed cycling is for anyone who wants to gently balance hormones! The nutrients in the seeds and the support they provide your estrogen and progesterone levels to balance out is gentle enough that you can do this when you’re on the pill or trying to improve fertility.
This isn’t just for menstruating women either! Peri- and post-menopausal women can benefit greatly from seed cycling as well (we’ve all heard or experienced the horror stories of the night sweats and hot flashes that go hand-in-hand with majorly fluctuating estrogen and progesterone levels during this transitionary time.) If you no longer have a cycle due to menopause, simply start your day 1 with pumpkin and flaxseeds on the new moon and switch to sesame and sunflower on the full moon. Warning: deep feelings of your divine feminine connection with mother nature may occur.
There are a few other reasons you may not be menstruating (this is called amenorrhea and can be caused by intense exercise, low caloric intake, and high stress levels) but you can still seed cycle to help nudge your hormones back into balance.
If your body does not follow the textbook 28 day cycle, it’s all good! Just divide your cycle into two halves, doing your best to switch to the second half when you’re ovulating. Period tracking apps (my favorite is Clue) can help you figure this out.
Rebalancing your hormones can be that simple! But remember- it will take some time for you to start noticing a difference. I’ve read a lot of anecdotal evidence of this method working and I’ve even experienced it for myself not too long ago when I was having issues with amenorrhea and bringing my cycle back into balance, so I highly recommend it if you’re looking for a natural way to balance your hormones.
If you’ve read this and you feel like your hormonal imbalance will take a lot more than some seeds to bring back into equilibrium, lets chat! I can help you create a personalized plan based on your specific situation and health concerns.
But don’t underestimate the power of the seeds 😉If you’ve tried seed cycling, I’d love to hear about your experience below! If you want to try it but have some questions, toss them in the comments section below and I’ll do my best to answer them!
