I figured that would get your attention.
Here’s the deal. Unfermented soy products, such as soy milk, soy ice cream, or soy nuts, are endocrine disrupters and mimic hormones in your body. They block the receptor sites in your cells for naturally produced hormones to lock into and interrupt the feedback loop throughout your entire endocrine system.
When this happens, hormones run amok. It’s the equivalent of a ship without a captain: none of the shipmates would know what to do without the captain’s direction. If you’re hormones are off, you’ve got the same situation going on inside your body.
To make matters worse, xeno hormones in our environment like BPA (Bisphenol A) found in plastics and the ink on register receipts; petroleum byproducts in food, candles, and personal care products (think petroleum jelly for 1); and even household furnishings like carpet, disrupt hormones too and create a new hormone called Sex Hormone Binding Globulin.
Sounds icky right? Well it is. SHBG, for short, occurs as a result of being exposed to xeno hormones, or estrogens, and bonds with testosterone so it can’t be absorbed, rendering it unusable. So even if your body is making testosterone, it can’t be used.
This sets the stage for an increasingly common condition known as estrogen dominance, for women and men.
It’s bad enough testosterone drops 10% a year for men as it is, now this? And too much estrogen in a woman can result in break outs, excess fat, and even worse – breast cancer.
There’s mounting evidence too that breast cancer in men is on the rise as well thanks to xeno hormones. Join the club guys.
Historically the emphasis has always been on women, but with an overly adulterated food supply, hormonal imbalances are cropping up in more and more men nowadays. They’re wrestling with unexplained feelings of depression , crankiness, and bouts of crying, and can’t seem to figure out why.
And to top things off, all of this leads to low libido. Ee gads!
So what do you do? No worries, I wouldn’t leave you hanging. Here are my top 3 tips to help you reduce or eliminate soy from your diet and steer clear of xeno hormones:
1.Use nut mylk instead of soy milk. A lot of people shop the health food store thinking that puffed brown rice cereal and soy milk = healthy. Wrong. It’s better than Cap N’ Crunch and homogenized cows milk, but it’s still processed and it’s still soy.
My suggestion => try nut mylk, such as almond, hemp, or coconut, instead. They’re a better source of protein and healthy fats, and most importantly don’t mess with hormone levels or production.
2.Eat fermented soy only. Fermented soybeans are a staple in many Asian cultures, but in the US we’ve mass produced the soybean without fermenting it first. Fermented soy doesn’t block protein digestion like unfermented soy does, and it isn’t a threat to your thyroid.
Unfermented soy has goitrogens, which are anti-nutrients and suppress your thyroid, plus inhibit healthy thyroid function. Fermented soy includes tofu, natto, miso, tempeh, shoyu, and tamari, however I recommend eating it no more than twice a week.
3.Detox your liver quarterly. Without a healthy functioning liver, it’s hard to be healthy. Your liver processes your hormones, and is also responsible for converting T4 into T3 thyroid hormone so that your thyroid activates. Wioth xeno estrogens in the mix, it’s very hard for your liver to break them down and do its job properly.
I’m a big fan of detoxification. With the toxic burden we’re under every day, it’s impossible to experience true health if you don’t clean out your system on a regular basis, so I suggest doing a liver cleanse every 3 months. A great 1 I know of is from Biotics Research, simply called the Biotics Cleanse, which can only come from a health care practitioner. My clients get great results on this cleanse. E mail me for more info.
It’s my mission to help 1 million people by 2012 restore full function to their bodies so that they’re not reliant on drugs or harmful medications any longer. If you want to learn more about how hormonal imbalances can be easily corrected, contact me at angela@wellnesswithangela.com .
Angela Minelli is a Weight Loss & Wellness Coach and founder of WellnessWithAngela.com. She specializes in coaching overworked men and women on how to reverse the damaging effects stress has on their bodies so that they feel their best and can live an extraordinary life!
Having an over 20-year corporate background, Angela knows stress only too well. She often logged 70, 80, or 90 hour workweeks in her former career, which eventually took a toll on her body and led to near burnout. It became obvious that a change was necessary, so soon after, she switched careers and became a Holistic Health Coach and Certified Natural Health Practitioner and opened her coaching practice in the field of natural health. She now maintains her emotional and physical well-being by choosing to follow natural health protocols and has never felt better, and she teaches her clients how to do the same so that the quality of their lives improves as well.
In 2009, Angela quickly rose to the top of her game becoming a highly sought after speaker and 1:1 nutrition coach. In 2010, she was featured as a guest expert on Lifetime TV’s The Balancing Act, a morning show for women, and later that year created her 1st signature system, Crack the Code on Sugar Cravings: 4 Simple Strategies to Slim Down, Shape Up and Regain Control in Less Than 30 Days!™ that offers step-by-step instruction on how to eliminate refined sugar from your diet without feeling deprived, thereby reducing your risk of developing long term disease such as diabetes, stroke, and cancer.
Eliminating sugar invariably leads to weight loss, and her overall approach to losing weight is considered to be less restrictive and much more innovative than typical diet plans which sets her apart in the industry. While diet centers focus mainly on cutting calories, extreme exercise, and willpower, Angela understands that weight loss is multi-faceted and goes much deeper than just what’s on the surface. She’s skilled at identifying the root cause of symptoms, including excess weight, fatigue, mood swings, and more, and helps her clients work in reverse so that they not only balance their bodies for life, but ultimately become their own best expert.
Her client’s results include natural weight loss averaging 15-20 pounds, balanced mood swings, less cravings, and generalized feelings of euphoria They often report relief that they’re not stuck counting points all day or forced to eat like a rabbit. Angela believes that lasting weight loss is inevitable once your mindset shifts, which is what her clients find to be an invaluable component to their success, and a reliance on outdated behaviors such as weighing and measuring food that don’t serve you simply melt away along with the weight.
Angela is passionate about helping clients forge a renewed relationship with themselves so that they build trust in knowing that they are their own nutritional novice. She offers private and group health coaching to clients worldwide and is also a lecturer, blogger, accomplished copywriter, and freelance holistic health writer.
To access Angela’s free virtual workshop, The Top 10 Secrets to Conquer Sugar Cravings Fast! plus 2 FREE RECIPES and a 9-Week E Course on the Hidden Causes of Cravings, visit WellnessWithAngela.com.
She lives in her hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, where she spends her time with family, friends and her pets, Shelby, Molly, and her latest addition Bella!