I’m a massive advocate of protein being included with every meal, and a well-balanced protein smoothie is a great way to “break fast” for the first meal of the day.
Protein plays a large role in keeping our blood sugar balanced and decreasing inflammation. Getting enough protein evenly dispersed throughout the day is an important foundation of good health and eating!
It’s protein that our body needs to make enzymes. Enzymes are absolutely necessary, being catalysts for every chemical reaction in the body. Think of building muscle, making hormones, breaking down food to its macro and micronutrients, and creating our energy day to day!
Protein is also integral for healthy detoxification liver function. Firstly, balanced hormones rely heavily on a well-functioning liver. It’s protein that’s one of the high influencers of how well the first detoxification pathway works and how well the hormones are metabolised.
Finally, protein influences the release of the hormones that control our appetite and satiety. Including the right amount of high-quality protein throughout the day can help put a stop to any mid-afternoon energy slump. However the trick is to included the right amount of protein in the first meal of the day.
Fibre is also integral to a good diet. Putting it simply, if you don’t have healthy digestion your hormones cannot be healthy.
The final stage of estrogen’s metabolism occurs in the gut, where once estrogen has been used by the body it needs to be successfully eliminated. When it reaches the gut after having been packaged and bundled up through the liver pathways, it’s important that this bundle remains tied up and eliminated from the body to avoid recycling of what the body now considers a toxin. A healthy digestive tract is essential here for the biochemistry to stay attuned, along with daily bowel movements. You could say that a daily bowel movement is one of the signs of good digestive health!
A good food to include in your diet to support gut and hormone health is kiwi fruit. Several studies confirm kiwifruit can be a star player when it comes to alleviating constipation and keeping us regular. This beautiful fruit is a good mix of both soluble and insoluble dietary fibre. Just one humble kiwi fruit includes an impressive 4.5g of fibre! Quintessentially, with one serve of kiwifruit we are looking after not only our regularity and hormone health, but also the quality and diversity of our gut microbiota.
Here is one of my favourite kiwi fruit smoothie recipes to start the day:
Ingredients
- 2 kiwi fruit, peeled and halved
- 1 cup almond milk
- 20-30g Protein Powder
- 1 handful baby spinach
- half teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon flax seeds
- 1 teaspoon pepitas
- quarter teaspoon matcha powder (optional but a goodie!)
- 1 teaspoon almond butter
Method
Place the kiwi fruit, protein powder, almond milk, baby spinach, pepitas, flaxseeds, cinnamon, and matcha powder, almond butter, in the bowl of a strong blender and blend for 60 seconds or until smooth and creamy.
Note: If you are not going regularly and have tried gentle forms of fibre without luck, I encourage you to investigate this further. There could be several other underlying root causes for why the gut isn’t working and where the brain’s communication that it’s time to go is hindered. Please seek the advice of a professional health practitioner or nutritionist in this instance.
