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As a member of the adrenal fatigue club, you’ve scoured the Internet and the pharmacy shelves in search of remedies for your symptoms. But have you expanded your search for relief to the grocery store? Turns out, more and more folks with adrenal fatigue have discovered that they can eat to heal.
This is great news! The idea of eating your way towards better health should make you ecstatic! What’s better than eating your favorite meals and snacking during the day?
Of course, there’s a right way to eat if you’re eating to heal. Let’s dive in!
What Is Adrenal Fatigue?
Adrenal fatigue is your body’s response to excessive amounts of stress. Whether it be physical or emotional, your adrenal glands are only designed to handle so much pressure.
When you reach your personal limit, adrenal fatigue can cause chaos in the form of:
- Weight gain
- Exhaustion
- Loss of focus
- Food cravings
- Mood swings
- Irregular menstrual cycles
The list of symptoms can go on and on when you consider a body’s need for balanced hormones. Operating with adrenal fatigue can sometimes feel like driving a car with a tank full of french-fry grease… something’s off.
Everything that you put into your body has some power to improve or further damage your hormonal balance, so trying to eat to heal really makes sense!
What Should You Eat to Heal Adrenal Fatigue?
If only all foods were built the same. (Did anyone’s ears perk up when I mentioned french fry grease?) Alas, the “eat to heal” method only works if you steer towards the right foods. It may be challenging, but the reward is so worth the effort if you tweak your diet to help with your adrenal fatigue.
Organic Lean Meats
Did you know that the meat you eat to heal your adrenal fatigue might be doing more harm than good? Unfortunately, many cuts of meat are pumped with hormones that will throw off your own delicate balance when you eat it.
To help with adrenal fatigue, you should shop for organic alternatives to your favorite protein sources. White meats and meats that are labeled free-range or grass-fed are usually good options! But don’t overdo it: too much protein from any source can confuse your adrenal system even more than it already is.
Avocados
Avocado is loaded with good fats and fiber to help you eat to heal. It is a common misconception that less fat is better for the body, but people with adrenal fatigue need some fat from nature in order to control their cholesterol and hormone levels.
To be more specific, your body’s need for fat doesn’t excuse a trip through the drive-through on your lunch break! Foods that grow from the ground like the much-loved avocado will do more to heal your adrenal fatigue than a milkshake ever could.
Pumpkin Seeds, Also Known as Pepitas
You may only think of pumpkins around Halloween time, but the truth is that pumpkin seeds can work some magic for people with adrenal fatigue any time of the year. You can eat to heal with pepitas as they come with a great dose of vitamins, magnesium, and zinc.
The nutrients packed in a tiny pumpkin seed can kickstart your natural hormonal balance and help you feel more relaxed. Makes you consider growing your own pumpkin patch at home, doesn’t it?
Sea Salt
You might not know the effects of salt on your body with adrenal fatigue. As it happens, you should be eating some iodized sea salt to help boost your adrenal system naturally. Failure to include salt in your diet can leave you feeling dizzy, foggy, or just downright tired…making the rest of your “eat to heal” journey a struggle.
Pro tip: try adding your own iodized salt to your meals in moderation. Adding your own salt ensures that you don’t take in too much. You can measure and mix at will.
Related: 8 Foods For Adrenal Fatigue You Should Eat (and Which To Avoid)
Clarified Butter, Also Known as Ghee
This tip will not only help you eat to heal… it can help turn you on.
Clarified butter differs from other forms of dairy, which are packed with their own hormones and proteins that mess with your body. Instead, eating ghee can give you a healthy boost of cholesterol (without the usual hit of pesticides or other production chemicals) which can jumpstart your libido!
Accomplishing greater closeness and confidence associated with a healthy sex drive has its own advantages for folks with adrenal fatigue. Be sure not to forget clarified butter when writing your shopping list.
What Should You NOT Eat to Heal Adrenal Fatigue?
Of course, for every high there is a low. And for every food that you should be eating to ease your adrenal fatigue, there is also one that you shouldn’t be. Keep this short list of no-no foods in mind if you want to eat to heal your adrenal fatigue.
Gluten
Foods that include gluten are made from:
- Barley
- Rye
- Wheat
- Ancient grains
Before you feel too sad about needing to avoid gluten, take a moment to celebrate all of the great alternatives to gluten available nowadays! You’ll adjust to delicious foods with substitute ingredients that won’t trigger adrenal fatigue flare-ups.
Turn to foods made with rice (rice flour) or quinoa. The adrenal fatigue club is pretty vast, so you can expect to find excellent replacements for all of the gluten-rich foods that you come to miss.
Caffeine
Yes, really! This is likely a tough pill to swallow on your “eat to heal” tour, but it’s absolutely necessary if you want to give your adrenal glands a break.
Caffeine creates stress in your body where there formerly was none. That means what you’ve been interpreting as an energy booster all of this time is actually a huge interference to your body’s natural restoration process.
Switching to decaffeinated beverage options for a short period of time can help you sleep better and will invite your adrenals to step back in as your body’s main energy driver. Once you’re all healed up, you can allow yourself caffeine every once in a while—but you might not want it by then!
Alcohol
Alcohol blocks your body’s ability to repair itself. Even if you used alcohol to unwind before your adrenal fatigue diagnosis, understand the impact that it has on you now is counterproductive.
Alcohol is like liquid bread. Outside of making you feel loopy, it seriously messes with your blood sugar and makes your body work twice as hard to regulate after you drink it.
Strive to avoid alcohol while you’re struggling with severe adrenal fatigue symptoms. Again, this isn’t goodbye forever—just until your eat to heal ventures are complete and get you the results you want.
You can completely reset your body’s systems when you eat to heal. Viewing the foods that you put into your body as helpful or harmful (rather than tastes good or tastes bad) will forever change the way that you navigate the refrigerator. Stay strong and make these necessary adjustments to your diet for a seriously improved quality of life!
