The Reason Why Hormones Are So "Colorful"
Hormones are inextricably linked to women's health. Why do the various changes in hormones manifest so prominently in women? Food is a crucial factor for supplementing hormones. Why does eating more yellow-colored food help more in promoting female hormone secretion?
The human body secretes more than 75 types of hormones, each playing its own role. Women with high hormone levels look much younger than their peers with lower levels. 21-22 years old is the peak of youth, and also the peak of the endocrine system's function. Starting from age 25, the body's hormone secretion decreases by 15% every 10 years, and the body's organs and tissues begin to gradually age and atrophy. The skin becomes noticeably dull, and energy levels decline. At 60, hormone secretion is only about one-fifth of what it was in youth.
Symptoms of Hormone Deficiency in Women
Symptom 1: Insomnia and Headaches
Manifestation: Insomnia, dreams, fatigue, headaches. All night-time sleep aids have been tried, but still, eyes are wide open. During the day, it's hard to concentrate, feeling drowsy and sleepy, which seriously affects daily life.
Symptom 2: Irregular Menstrual Cycle
Manifestation: The "old friend" never arrives on time, either early or late. Early is manageable, at most causing some unpreparedness, but being late is unsettling, anxiously counting the days or wondering if the condom failed. After finally waiting for it like waiting for the stars and the moon, it's reluctant to leave when it's time to go.
Symptom 3: Skin Aging
Manifestation: Skin becomes loose, fair skin gradually becomes rough, pores expand and become coarse, and even dark spots appear to cause trouble. The reflection in the mirror is that of a typical "yellow-faced woman."
Symptom 4: Irritability and Chest Tightness
Manifestation: Palpitations, shortness of breath, easily agitated or even manic. Arguing with colleagues or family over trivial things, always looking "unhappy," and sometimes it's hard to control emotions. Waking up at night due to chest tightness, and in severe cases, blood pressure can also flip like a bad temper.
The Reason Hormones Are "Colorful"
From the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the human body has five main organs: kidney, liver, spleen, heart, and lung. The organs most closely related to hormone secretion are the liver, spleen, and kidney. The kidney regulates the balance of hormone secretion and is the first to react to adverse symptoms in the body. The liver provides crucial support when hormone secretion is imbalanced. The proper functioning of both the liver and kidney depends entirely on the spleen. Therefore, to alleviate the adverse symptoms caused by hormonal imbalance, one must start by strengthening the spleen and stomach.
Reason 1: Colored Food Affects Hormone Secretion
TCM believes: humans are a unified organism. The five organs correspond to the five elements, five flavors, and five colors in a relationship of generation and restraint. Different colored foods have a harmonizing relationship with the body's organs and viscera. Properly matching foods in your diet can help increase hormone secretion. Black foods with a natural salty taste correspond to the kidney. Yellow foods with a natural sweet taste correspond to the spleen. Green foods with a sour taste correspond to the liver.
Yellow Foods Strengthen the Spleen: Yellow foods can strengthen the spleen, enhance gastrointestinal function, restore energy, and replenish vital energy, thereby alleviating symptoms of weakened female hormone secretion. Yellow foods are very therapeutic for the digestive system and also help with memory decline.
Representative Foods: Tofu, pumpkin, summer orange, lemon, corn, banana, and quail eggs, etc.
Soybeans: Help restore gastrointestinal vitality, are natural plant-based female hormones, and can help regulate female hormones. Also helps relieve menopausal and menstrual symptoms and can prevent hormone-related cancers.
Pumpkin: Boosts energy, replenishes vital energy, and increases metabolism.
Summer Orange: Has the effects of expelling wind, aromatics, and nourishment, and can alleviate mental tension symptoms.
Lemon: Eliminates fatigue, promotes blood circulation, increases immunity, and delays skin aging.
Persimmon: Strengthens the spleen and whets the appetite, moistens the lungs and promotes fluid production, and improves cardiovascular function.
Banana: Strengthens the digestive system, removes toxins from the blood, and has antidepressant and immunity-boosting effects.
Black Foods Nourish the Kidney: Black foods help improve the metabolism and reproductive system closely related to the kidneys, bladder, and bones. They can regulate the body's physiological functions, stimulate the endocrine system, promote saliva secretion, aid gastrointestinal digestion, enhance hematopoietic function, and have a certain effect in delaying aging.
Representative Foods: Black sesame, black fungus, black beans, shiitake mushrooms, black rice, shrimp, shellfish, etc.
Black Rice: Has the effects of nourishing yin and strengthening the kidney, replenishing blood and qi, enhancing intelligence and brain function, and boosting metabolism.
Black Jujube: Has the effect of enhancing the body's immunity.
Black Beans: Has the effects of nourishing the kidney, strengthening bones and muscles, warming the stomach, brightening the eyes and boosting vitality, and promoting urination and detoxification.
Black Sesame: Has the effects of nourishing the kidney, strengthening the brain and moistening the lungs, nourishing blood and darkening hair, and preventing aging.
Black Fungus: Cleans the stomach and intestines, and enhances the body's immunity.
Green Foods Nourish the Liver: Green foods contain chlorophyll and various vitamins beneficial to liver health. They can cleanse the intestines to prevent constipation and reduce the incidence of colorectal cancer. Additionally, they can maintain the body's acid-base balance and strengthen the constitution under stress.
Representative Foods: Spinach, green shiso, cabbage, celery, lettuce, chives, broccoli, etc.
Spinach: Has the effects of nourishing blood, stopping bleeding, moistening yin and relieving dryness, anti-aging, and promoting cell growth.
Broccoli: Can enhance the liver's detoxification ability, increase the body's immunity, and reduce the risk of breast cancer.
Chives: Can warm and nourish the liver and kidneys, promote gastrointestinal peristalsis, and have the effect of dispersing blood and detoxifying.
Reason 2: Regulate Hormones, Yellow is the Driving Force
Strengthening the kidney, liver, and spleen is the secret to restoring a woman's vitality, among which strengthening the spleen is extremely important. If the spleen is healthy, it can well digest and absorb foods beneficial to the kidney, liver, and spleen, maintain the balance of hormone secretion, and prevent adverse conditions in the body. Therefore, yellow food is the original driving force for supplementing hormones.