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Wellness Coach Deborah Kesten shares why a woman's menstrual cycle can stop because of a change in diet.
Deborah Kesten:
Many women who are weight conscious, which is most of America, will under-eat, and what under-eating means, it varies for the individual, and very often there’s a phobia with carbohydrate foods, which really it come from plant-based foods, fruits and veggies and grains especially, and also beans, which isn’t too typical in this country, but we are scared of carbs. It’s always carb-phobia and fat, and when you start under-eating, you are not having enough vitamins and minerals and food and calories. Your body is not getting what it needs for all of the systems to operate optimally, and that includes producing hormones.
The food you consume produces hormones; progesterone is one example, estrogen is another example. Food helps your body produce hormones. Your liver produces about 1,100 milligrams of cholesterol a day for most of us, that’s about the average, and cholesterol helps your body create different hormones. Your thyroid is a key indicator of the hormones that are going to be produced throughout the rest of your body. It’s kind of a parent of hormones, and it produces all these other hormones.
So when you under-eat, you are not giving your body what it needs to do what it needs to do. And so your body, your period may shut down, you may start getting very dry skin, you may start losing some hair. It depends what your weak link is, because food is going to either enhance, if you are eating optimally, your health, or depending on your weak link and your tendency, some people are prone to heart disease, some are prone to cancer, some are prone to diabetes. What’s your weak link, and depending on what you’re eating, that’s going to exacerbate if it’s not optimal, your health vulnerability.
About Deborah Kesten, M.P.H.:
Deborah Kesten, M.P.H., is an international nutrition and lifestyle researcher and educator, with a specialty in preventing and reversing obesity and heart disease. She was the nutritionist on Dr. Dean Ornish’s first clinical trial for reversing heart disease through lifestyle changes, and Director of Nutrition on similar research at cardiovascular clinics in Europe. More recently, she has created the pioneering Enlightened Diet, a “whole person” optimal eating and weight loss program, the results of which were published in the peer-reviewed medical journal Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing. With more than 200 published health articles, she is the award-winning author of The Enlightened Diet, Feeding the Body, Nourishing the Soul and The Healing Secrets of Food, a comprehensive, evidence-based nutrition program about the power of food to heal physically, emotionally, spiritually, and socially.
Visit Deborah Kesten at her website