Carrot Beet Salad For Hormone Health

I realize I sound like a broken record when it comes to functional and metabolic health. I harp heavy on the Insulin Resistance front. And I do so with good reason as so many of our modern day issues share this same root cause. Our cells are overburdened with insulin due to excess blood glucose creating a disturbance in many organs and systems of the body. For example, PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) is insulin resistance in the ovaries, hypertension is insulin resistance in the kidneys, NAFLD (non alcoholic fatty liver disease) is insulin resistance in the liver. The list sadly goes on and on throughout the body.

As you can see, multiple diagnoses, one root cause. I find balancing blood sugar and reversing insulin resistance to be one of the most, if not THE most, important thing you can do for your current health status. It will also to ensure you don’t show up with these conditions down the road. And the power is all in your hands. It’s a lifestyle disease, and one you can choose to tackle any time.

Insulin Resistance is so prevalent that 88% of Americans are metabolically unhealthy, many of whom have no idea. This is why many of the recipes and tips I share here, and on social media reflect that root cause lens.

But what about the other 12% of us who don’t have Insulin Resistance. We have our blood glucose controlled and we know that because we test! So once a healthy metabolic baseline is established, we can begin to focus on other areas of the body.

Like female hormone health.

Myself and so many women I know, love, and serve, are in the stage of life known as “peri-menopause”. This is generally defined as the 10 years around menopause. Did you know that balancing blood sugar is key in mitigating many of the symptoms associated with this time in our lives? Once that is accomplished, we can look toward optimizing other hormone relationships. For example, estrogen and progesterone.

Estrogen is dominant in the first half of our cycle from menstruation through ovulation, when progesterone levels starts to creep up. Towards the end of the luteal phase, as we cycle back towards menstruation, estrogen will be carried out of the body primarily through our digestive system. When this doesn’t happen effectively over time, we can enter into a condition known as estrogen dominance. If we don’t excrete the estrogen out completely or efficiently, it gets reabsorbed into the intestines and back into our bloodstream creating higher levels throughout our cycle. This leads to a number of unpleasant symptoms, so it’s best to get it all out as nature intended. 

Fortunately, food is medicine and nature has gifted us much of what we need to bring balance back to our lives. Enter the humble carrot!

From a blood sugar standpoint, this is a veggie that would have potential to spike someone with insulin resistance. But to the blood glucose balanced, or simply those who are in the ovulation phase of their cycle, carrots are a superhero!

They contain a special kind of fiber that binds to estrogen and carries it out of our bodies through the digestive tract. How kind and generous of the carrot!

This holds true for full sized RAW carrots, not for the cooked, steamed or the baby ones. Fortunately carrots are inexpensive, not terribly choosy on seasons and sweet to eat. Dip them in your favorite hummus or Bitchin’ sauce, crunch them on their own, or better yet, make this salad and munch on it all week long. 

The inclusion of beets is multi-faceted. They taste amazing together and beets have a supportive role to play in hormone health. They support the liver in detoxifying, support healthy progesterone levels and decrease inflammation by reducing oxidative stress. 

This salad is the perfect thing for the second half of our cycle when we are feeling a little bloated, irritable and perhaps need a little support to get that estrogen out and progesterone up!