Numerous plants contain phytoestrogens that are similar in molecular structure to that of human oestrogen. They have, however, a weaker and different effect. Plant oestrogen, being thus less powerful, is comparatively slow in generating benefits. But they are safer than synthetic oestrogen, which may produce adverse side effects. Moreover, some foods, notably vegetables of the cabbage family, increase the rate at which body burns up and disposes off oestrogen circulating in the body.
Legumes, especially soyabeans, have particularly strong oestrogenic activity, and are now the commercial source for compounds used to make birth control pills.Research studies show that there are at least 300 plants, many of them edible, which possess “Oestrogenic Activity”. They help regulate the female hormone oestrogen.
FOOD THAT REGULATE HORMONE OESTROGEN
Beans, Cabbage, Low-fat Foods, Peanuts, Soyabean and Wheat bran.
Beans
Beans possess oestrogenic activity. Their consumption may help protect women from breast cancer. This is presumably due to the fact that they contain so-called phytoestrogens that help block the activity of cancer-promoting oestrogen. This opinion has been expressed by researcher Dr.Leonard A. Cohen, Ph.D., at the American Health Foundation in Newyork. Dr. Cohen says that Hispanic women in the Caribbean and Mexico are known to have less breast cancer than American women. In a new study, Dr. Cohen believes he has found the reason for this. According to him, Hispanic women eat twice as many beans, as American women.
Hispanic women consume over 115 grams of beans daily for six days a week, compared with same quantity of beans consumed by African-American women three times a week and twice a week for white American Women. Beans also possess several anti-cancer compounds, including protease inhibitors and phytates, say Dr. Cohen.
Cabbage
Cabbage and other cruciferous vegetables possess oestrogenic activities. They manage oestrogen and thereby .help immunise against breast cancer. These vegetables can hasten the removal of oestrogen from the body, by speeding up its metabolism and burning up the hormone, so that less is available to feed cancer.
Low Fat Food
The amount of fats eaten in the diet also helps regulate both female and male hormones. A fatty diet may play havoc with a man’s hormones and thus, his sex life. The quantity of fat women eats also influences oestrogen levels. A high-fat diet increases oestrogen. Thus cutting back on fat seems to check breast cancers, and perhaps other hormone-dependent cancers, by giving them less oestrogen to feed on. Several studies show that both premenopausal and postmenopausal women who reduce fat significantly, say from 35-40 per cent of calories to 20 per cent, have a substantial drop in blood oestrogen levels.
Peanuts
Peanuts, as a rich source of mineral boron, possess oestrogenic property. Eating boron-rich food can boost oestrogen levels in postmenopausal women to a remarkable degree. The extent to which levels of oestrogen can be raised by taking such foods equals oestrogen replacement therapy. This has been reviled by a study conducted by U.S. Department of Agriculture researcher Dr. Forrest Nielson. According to him, boron seems to work, by increasing steroid hormones in the blood. He discovered that in women getting adequate amounts of boron, the most active form of oestrogen, oestradiol 17B doubled, reaching levels found in women on oestrogen replacement.
Soyabean
This vegetable is of great value as an oestrogenic food. It contains some compounds that can manipulate oestrogen. It can also directly inhibit the growth of cancerous cells, thereby reducing the risk of breast cancer in women. This has been explained in Chapter 11 on ‘Cancer Fighting foods’.
Soyabeans offers a special type of lecithin, unlike lecithin found in other foods. Soyabean lecithin contains an abundance of auxines, identified as “vegetable hormones,” which nourish and replenish the glandular system and help them pour forth youth-building hormones.
Wheat bran
Wheat bran possesses oestrogenic activity. It helps curtail oestrogen levels in blood and thereby reduce the risk of breast cancer. This however does not apply to other cereal brans like oat bran and corn bran. The main difference is that wheat bran fibre is highly insoluble, giving bacteria in the colon much to chew on. That, through an intricate series of biological events, causes less oestrogen to be released back into the bloodstream. Some authorities believe that the wheat bran would curb oestrogen, blocking cancer promotion in older, postmenopausal women also.
In fact, wheat fibre can suppress blood oestrogen even better than a low-fat diet does, according to a study at Tufts University School of Medicine. Investigator Margo Woods reported that both cutting fat and increasing fibre checked one type of oestrogen, namely oestrone sulphate, but only fibre reduced levels of oestradiol, which is considered to be a major villain in breast cancer. In animals, low fat, high-wheat fibre diet cuts the incidence of breast tumours to half. Other studies find that women who eat high-fibre diets have lower rates of breast cancer.