Did you know that your gut health has an effect on your fertility?
Our gut microbiome is an incredibly complex system and we’re only just beginning to learn how it impacts our health. One key feature of this system is to ensure healthy estrogen levels. This is called the estrobolome – a collection of microbes within the gastrointestinal tract that impacts the metabolism of estrogens and the balance of circulating and excreted hormone levels. Imbalances in estrogen levels – either too much or too little estrogen – can lead to physiological changes to reproductive health including endometriosis, PCOS, endometrial hyperplasia, and infertility.
Lucky for us, we can support the healthy diversity of our gut microbiome through the foods we eat. Gut-friendly foods fall into two categories; PROBIOTIC foods, which are foods with live good bugs in them (otherwise known as fermented foods), and PREBIOTIC foods, which are food FOR your good gut bugs. Examples of probiotic foods include yogurt, kefir, kimchi, sauerkraut, kombucha, miso, tempeh, real sourdough bread, raw fermented salsa, etc.… Examples of prebiotic foods include fresh fruits (especially blueberries and bananas), fresh vegetables (especially sweet potato, kale, avocado, onion, Jerusalem artichoke, leek, broccoli, cauliflower), legumes (beans), quinoa, walnuts, hemp & chia seeds.
