The Hormone Diet

The Hormone Diet is a three step, six week program designed to balance hormones, improve your health, eating habits and result in weight loss for both men and women.

According to doctor and author Natasha Turner, balancing hormone levels is the secret to losing weight, sleeping, being more energised, stress-free and feeling better.

The Hormone Diet starts with a two-week detox phase where foods are removed that have the highest allergenic, inflammatory or migraine causing ability.

You can expect to lose 4-12 pounds in the first two weeks. That includes fluid loss. In the following weeks, weight loss will be closer to 2 pounds per week, similar to weight loss guidelines.

Step two advises you to slowly add foods back into your diet and observe for signs of tolerance.

Step three adds yoga, cardiovascular and strength training exercise for strength, vigor, and emotional balance.

What You Can Eat

The Hormone Diet promotes a clean, natural, preferably organic diet of foods free of preservatives and processed foods.

Only a small part of the book is devoted to the diet. Most of the book is quite complicated and deals with a lot of issues about wellness, living longer, exercise, sleep, sex, and hormones.

Foods allowed in the detox phase are gluten-free grains, vegetables, fruits (except citrus, canned, and dried), nuts, seeds, fish, meat, feta or goat cheese, olive, avocado, flaxseed and canola oils, eggs, nondairy milk, and soy products.

Turner also recommends lots of supplements, including a probiotic supplement, herbal cleansing formula, bowel-cleansing formula with fibre and omega 3 fish oil during detox.

After the detox, dieters start step two, or the ‘glyci-med’ approach of eating the right foods, at the right time and avoiding ‘hormone-hindering’ foods, including peanuts, high fructose corn syrup, fish high in mercury, salmon, raisins, dates, non-organic meats, and non-organic coffee.

Foods not allowed in step two include refined sugars, refined grains, trans-fats, processed meats, excess saturated fats, foods with nitrites, and artificial sweeteners.

The plan calls for supplementing the diet with a cocktail of pills, including multivitamins, vitamin D, basic antioxidant, calcium-magnesium, and a whey protein isolate. It also recommends drinking plenty of water, at least eight glasses per day.

Recipes, shopping, and food lists are provided.

How It Works

The rules are simple, Turner says: If you eat the right foods at the right times (about every 3-4 hours) and avoid the ‘hormone-hindering’ foods, you’ll balance hormones and lose weight.

A self-assessment test helps you determine which hormones are out of balance and how to correct them with diet changes, supplements, stress reduction, sleep tips, and other lifestyle behaviours.

Food for Thought

The Hormone Diet contains a low-glycemic, low-carb, Mediterranean-type diet that, for the most part, is a healthy, low-calorie plan. You’ll lose weight on the plan because it is low in calories. But promising that it can ‘balance hormones’, cure a range of problems and diseases, restore sleep, result in glowing skin, healthier hair, and more, is not based on solid scientific evidence.