By Womaness Editors 1-Minute Read
Welcome to ASK AN EXPERT, a series where we pose your real questions to our menopause experts for the intel you need. Need an answer? Post your question on The After Party, our private Facebook Group.
Your Question:
“Does a plant-based diet affect my changing hormones?”
The Answer:
From Dr. Tasneem Bhatia, known as Dr. Taz, MD, Board Certified in Integrative Medicine, Founder and CEO, CentrespringMD, and author of The Hormone Shift:
“Ooh, good question. A plant-based diet is great for hormones as long as it's truly being done with plants, meaning you’re doing it with vegetables, fruits, and whole food.
But when you switch over and follow a plant-based diet with a lot of processed foods or mimicking foods like Beyond Meats—those types of things—you're just increasing your intake of processed food. And that actually has a liver load, so it's not great for hormones.
“A plant-based diet is great for hormones as long as it's truly being done with plants, meaning you’re doing it with vegetables, fruits, and whole food.”
Because technically, you can be plant-based and eat pizza and drink beer! And that kind of ‘plant-based,’ where you're not getting healthy real food or whole food or you're consuming lots of substitution foods or fake meats, is not good for the hormones.
So, doing a plant-based diet where you're getting fiber, antioxidants, and real whole food is fantastic. The only trap you have to watch for there is, are you getting enough protein to stabilize your blood sugar and your insulin?”
Get More Answers
Ask an Obesity Doctor: "What should I eat for breakfast?"
Ask an OB/GYN: "Intermittent fasting: Any benefit beyond weight loss?"
Ask a Doctor: "What the heck is perimenopause?"
