Thyroid dysfunction and metabolic syndrome go hand in hand. Chronic high blood sugar from eating too many carbohydrates is the root cause of metabolic syndrome. Eating too many carbs which convert quickly to sugar , as we saw earlier, causes problems with insulin levels. If insulin levels are too high for too long, the body stops responding to it properly.

This causes more insulin production, which can lead to insulin resistance. Hormones are an intricate communication system in your body, and they are all interconnected.

When levels of one hormone are off, other hormones are influenced as well. You do NOT need to cut out carbohydrates altogether to avoid sugar-related hormonal imbalances. Your body needs carbohydrates, just like it needs protein and healthy fats. But you can do plenty to both lower your intake of refined sugar, reduce cravings, and support hormonal balance.

Here are my top suggestions:. The glycemic load refers to the impact that the carbs you eat will have on blood sugar. Simple sugars, like those found in processed foods, cause quick increases. Complex carbohydrates consumed with fiber, protein and healthy fats allow for slower rise and fall in blood sugar and insulin levels.

There are many small steps you can take to lower the glycemic load. Brown rice and sweet potatoes are great substitutions. Skipping a side heavy in carbohydrates in favor of extra vegetables is another. It always surprises me when women who are careful about the foods they eat are addicted to soda, coffee loaded with cream and sugary syrups, or even fruit juice in large quantities.

One soda has more sugar than is recommended in an entire day for women! Hydration is essential for a healthy body, and filtered water is the best option. If drinking water holds little appeal, try infusing it with fruit or adding just a touch of real fruit juice.

Naturally flavored sparkling water is another good option. American breakfasts are carb central! Even eggs, an otherwise good choice, are often served as a sandwich. One of the easiest ways to reduce consumption of simple carbs is to overhaul your breakfast menu.

Try eggs scrambled with meat and vegetables, a protein shake, or even leftovers from dinner instead! Cravings can be powerful, but you still have control. Pause for a few minutes before reaching for the doughnut you think you want. Take a drink of water. Eat a piece of fruit instead. Quitting sugar might seem challenging, but it doesn't mean you have to eliminate all sweetness from your life.

Instead, you can still enjoy treats and desserts, but with a conscious effort to choose healthier sweeteners and manage your sugar consumption to maintain stable blood sugar levels. Begin your day by eating a nutritious breakfast within 90 minutes of waking up. A well-balanced breakfast can help stabilise your blood sugar levels.

Skip the sugary cereals and opt for foods that provide sustained energy, like an omelette. Opt for a substantial lunch as your main meal of the day. Include complex carbohydrates like legumes that are also naturally high in protein and healthy fats like avocado in your lunch.

This approach can help you feel satisfied and reduce sugar cravings later in the day. When you experience sugar cravings, reach for alternative sweeteners that have a milder impact on your blood sugar.

Prepare homemade sweet treats whenever possible. This allows you to satisfy your cravings without resorting to store-bought candies or cupcakes laden with excessive sugar and other inflammatory ingredients. When baking, you can have greater control over the sugar content and easily adapt the recipe by reducing the amount or replacing it with a sugar substitute.

Incorporate plenty of fibre-rich foods into your diet to support liver detoxification. A healthy liver can produce more of the FGF21 hormone, which helps curb sugar cravings and eliminates excess oestrogen from your body.

When grocery shopping, be vigilant about hidden sugars lurking in various products, from pasta sauces to bread. Sugar can be disguised under different names on ingredient labels, so it's essential to read them carefully. Additionally, be mindful that fruit-based juices and smoothies lacking fibre can have as detrimental an impact on your health as sugary sodas!

By following these practical tips and making informed choices, you can reduce your sugar intake, support hormonal balance, and embark on a journey towards a healthier lifestyle without sacrificing all the sweetness in your life. Remember, moderation and awareness are key to maintaining stable blood sugar levels and overall well-being.

Sugar consumption primarily affects hormone health by promoting insulin resistance, which can disrupt hormone balance.

It can also lead to increased cortisol levels and leptin resistance, impacting various aspects of reproductive hormones.

Insulin resistance occurs when cells become less responsive to insulin's signals. Once the glycogen stores in the liver are filled, this glycogen gets stored as fatty acids and triglycerides in our tissues hello, weight gain! After consuming sugar, your immune system is depressed for a few hours, meaning you are more susceptible to catching a cold or other illness while riding that sugar wave.

Refined sugar is also known for stressing your adrenal glands which regulate cortisol, the stress hormone, and aldosterone, which controls your blood pressure and your thyroid which secretes hormones responsible for maintaining your metabolism, cognitive function and body temperature.

Thus, excess sugar consumption can leave us with premature wrinkles and an aging complexion. B vitamins are crucial to our mental health, hormonal health and overall energy levels. Without them, we feel increased feelings of anxiety and depression , have a higher likelihood of insomnia, our cortisol is out of whack, our sex hormone production declines bye bye, libido!

Excess sugar consumption is also linked to exacerbated PMS symptoms such as headaches, cramps, irritation and moodiness. The key to keeping our sugar cravings at bay is to eat to stabilize our blood sugar. Eating a well-balanced diet of fiber-rich carbohydrates, quality protein and healthy fats will satiate you, free you from constant cravings, and keep your hormones in balance and blood sugar normalized.

Regular exercise and sleep also decrease active blood sugar and lower cortisol levels. This will keep you keep you full and sane, kicking those sugar cravings to the curb. Jamie Forward is a holistic health coach. We get it: you like to have control of your own internet experience.

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Chronic high blood sugar from eating too many carbohydrates is the root cause of metabolic syndrome. Eating too many carbs which convert quickly to sugar , as we saw earlier, causes problems with insulin levels.

If insulin levels are too high for too long, the body stops responding to it properly. This causes more insulin production, which can lead to insulin resistance. Hormones are an intricate communication system in your body, and they are all interconnected.

When levels of one hormone are off, other hormones are influenced as well. You do NOT need to cut out carbohydrates altogether to avoid sugar-related hormonal imbalances. Your body needs carbohydrates, just like it needs protein and healthy fats.

But you can do plenty to both lower your intake of refined sugar, reduce cravings, and support hormonal balance. Here are my top suggestions:. The glycemic load refers to the impact that the carbs you eat will have on blood sugar.

Simple sugars, like those found in processed foods, cause quick increases. Complex carbohydrates consumed with fiber, protein and healthy fats allow for slower rise and fall in blood sugar and insulin levels. There are many small steps you can take to lower the glycemic load.

Brown rice and sweet potatoes are great substitutions. Skipping a side heavy in carbohydrates in favor of extra vegetables is another. It always surprises me when women who are careful about the foods they eat are addicted to soda, coffee loaded with cream and sugary syrups, or even fruit juice in large quantities.

One soda has more sugar than is recommended in an entire day for women! Hydration is essential for a healthy body, and filtered water is the best option. If drinking water holds little appeal, try infusing it with fruit or adding just a touch of real fruit juice.

Naturally flavored sparkling water is another good option. American breakfasts are carb central! Even eggs, an otherwise good choice, are often served as a sandwich.

One of the easiest ways to reduce consumption of simple carbs is to overhaul your breakfast menu. Try eggs scrambled with meat and vegetables, a protein shake, or even leftovers from dinner instead!

Cravings can be powerful, but you still have control. Pause for a few minutes before reaching for the doughnut you think you want. Take a drink of water. Eat a piece of fruit instead. When you eat a sweet treat by itself, your blood sugar levels will rise quickly — and crash just as quickly.

A small dish of ice cream after a balanced dinner is much easier on your body than a cookie or several between meals. Hormones under assault need some gentle support. A high-quality multivitamin that includes zinc, vitamin C and B-vitamins can help curb sugar cravings.

An Omega-3 supplement also reduces cravings and inflammation and improves insulin sensitivity. I have a range of pharmaceutical grade supplements designed to support overall health as well as specific hormonal problems in my online store.

Stress is as hard on your body as sugar. If both are in play at the same time, balance will be exceedingly difficult to maintain. Cortisol impacts blood sugar, cravings, and the balance between estrogen and progesterone. Deep breathing is one of the most effective stress busters — and you can do it anywhere!

If you do only one thing to decrease stress, I urge you to make a habit of taking deep, cleansing breaths several times each day. I start and end my day with deep breathing. I also practice while on hold, standing in line, and any other time I have a few moments of waiting to fill.

Both exercise and quality sleep impact your hormones, including insulin. Setting up routines for good sleep hygiene can help you get the sleep your body needs and keep hormones balanced. Set a regular time for both going to bed and waking up in the morning.

Ensure that your environment is cool and relaxing. Part of that likely includes delicious little indulgences. First the downer: Sugar can throw your hormones off balance, making perimenopause a pain. Now the good news: Knowledge is power.

While many cut sugar in this life phase for their weight, doing it for all of these other quality of life needs is even more compelling.

First, a refresher on perimenopause and how hormones change in women after Sometime between our late 30s and early 50s but usually around 40ish , our bodies slow down on producing estrogen, progesterone and testosterone.

And the stress hormone cortisol builds. After years of relatively predictable hormone cycles, our bodies start feeling unfamiliar. Some of the signs include:. As we get older, the relationship between sugar and hormones gets even more fraught.

Remember how high blood sugar is associated with perimenopause? Hormonal changes can lead to stress eating, a penchant for snacking and a hyperactive sweet tooth. Unfortunately, lowered hormone levels also impact insulin resistance, which means that we require more insulin to balance our blood sugar.

The irony is that just when we feel like going crazy on carbs, our bodies are less equipped to handle sugary snacks. Our bodies respond to heightened blood sugar by spiking insulin, which then lowers levels of a protein called sex hormone binding globulin or SHBG for short.

SHBG is supposed to help regulate estrogen levels, so its absence means that our estrogen levels soar and overtake progesterone. This imbalance is tied to:. Many of the signs of high sugar intake are so common, we tend to consider them unavoidable parts of modern life.

You may find that cutting back on sweets helps you ride the hormonal waves. This is correlated with hormonal changes, heightened insulin resistance and elevated blood sugar.

Without recommending that you remove all sweet treats from your life we would never! Choose whole grains and dark leafy greens - The more complex a carbohydrate, the less it will spike blood sugar.

Whole grains provide a more gradual rise and fall in blood sugar, which our bodies are equipped to handle. Plus, whole grains are high in fiber! Many experts in menopause recommend boosting fiber to 25 g daily.

And when you can, replace sweets with nutritious snacks like nuts and fruits. Yes, fruits contain sugar, but it's unrefined. TIP: Have a sweet tooth? Take heart. Gymnema sylvestre , found in our Stave the Crave chai , is an herb that can reduce sugar cravings.

Limit caffeine and alcohol - On top of the high sugar content in many caffeinated and alcoholic drinks, these beverages can mess with your cortisol levels and increase stress. Exercise - We all know that movement is great for overall health. This means that when you have good exercise habits, your body processes sugar more effectively and it's less likely to spike in your system.

Many experts recommend prioritizing weight lifting, body resistance training and yoga in this life phase to aid bone density, support long-term mobility and yes, keep your metabolism on high.