Protein and Hormone Health

This month I have introduced The Hormone Club Podcast, where I deep dive into nutrition topics to further support you in your hormone and nutrition journey!

This months deep dive is all about protein - what it is, why it’s important, and how to eat it. I’ll offer an overview of the discussion below, but listen to the full podcast here. 

Protein is the building block of every cell in your body. When you eat protein, your body breaks it down into amino acids and then uses these amino acids to build your organs, tissue, muscles, hormones, and so much more. 

In fact, your whole hormone physiology relies on amino acids, from making hormones through to eliminating them. 

You need protein for hormone production, conversion, transport, function, detoxification and elimination. Your liver in particular relies heavily on amino acids to break down waste products such as oestrogen, without optimal protein intake your liver will be sluggish. 

This is really important as many conditions such as Endometriosis, Adenomyosis, Fibroids, PMS, PMDD, and heavy, painful periods are oestrogenic conditions. This is why liver health is one of the key steps I work on with my clients, and it always starts with consuming enough protein. 

Optimal protein intake supports healthy blood sugar balance, steady energy, stable mood, and reduces sugar cravings. It also supports healthy hair, strong nails and glowing skin. 

Where you get your protein from matters, this is why I am an animal based Nutritionist. The amino acid profile in animal foods is far superior than plant food due to the bioavailability. You would have to consume a very high amount of plants to obtain adequate protein - this comes with many problems like digestive irritation due to the high fibre, and also an increase in calories for little nutrient gain. 

I recommend having eggs, yogurt, milk, cheese, bone broth, free range poultry and pork, grass fed beef and lamb, as well as fish and shellfish, and even some organ meat. 

I also like to use protein boosters such as collagen powder or protein powders to help increase protein intake to optimal levels - you can find my recommended products here. 

But how do you know if you’re eating enough protein? I want you to workout what your ideal healthy body weight is in pounds. For every 1 pound of body weight you want 1 gram of protein. If your ideal healthy body weight is 150 pounds, then you would want to consume 150 grams of protein every day.

I recommend you use an app such as Cronometer or MyFitnessPal to roughly track how much protein you’re currently eating for a few days, and my Build A Healthy Plate Guide can also help you get an idea. 

If you’re consuming very low protein, then start by aiming for 20 grams of protein at each meal first, once you’re confident with this slowly increase your intake until you are hitting your daily protein goals. This can take a while, so don’t rush. Just start with 1 meal at a time and slowly increase your intake. 

Next month we will be looking at balancing your protein intake with healthy carbs and fibre so that you get the most out of your nutrition choices. 

I recommend you spend September prioritising your protein intake, and learning how much protein is in different foods. For example there’s about 6 grams of protein in 1 egg and 35 grams of protein in a large chicken breast. So you can see the difference of having 2 eggs for lunch vs a chicken breast. 

Please feel free to post your questions in the Facebook group, and use the recipes in The Hormone Club to support increasing your protein intake. 

I’m busy working on my brand new personalised nutrition programme for Endometriosis, Beat Your Endo. If you want to be the first to hear about it just join the interest list here and receive a free guide! I will email you when I am ready to launch.