Fibroid Diet Plan
Healthy nutrition will allow your body to strengthen your immune system, lower body weight, and cope with uterine fibroids. To be exact, estrogen contributes to fibroid development, and lowering the amount of estrogen in your body with low-estrogen diet can help you manage uterine fibroid symptoms and growth.
⇒Related: Fibroid Diet during the Holiday Season
According to the latest research in the field of nutrition and gynecology, uterine fibroid diet follows all the general rules of proper and healthy nutrition: frequent, balanced meals in smaller portions made of healthy, non-processed ingredients.
Growth of fibroids is associated with estrogen dominance. This is why women with fibroids often find that myomas shrink or disappear after menopause, when estrogen levels are lowered. By paying attention to your diet, you can impact your hormonal balance and tune up the internal ecosystem that is working with estrogen overload.
Dr. John Lipman on Low Estrogen Fibroid Diet
Fibroid Treatment Diet or Foods That Shrink Fibroids
Of course, a diet cannot cure uterine fibroids. But with the right treatment supervised by your doctor, a fibroid diet plan can deliver good results. Fibroid diet also can help manage unpleasant symptoms and potentially slow down the growth of the tumor(s).
However, a specific fibroid diet plan can significantly improve the patient’s quality of life before fibroid treatment.
Food cannot shrink fibroids – that’s a fact. But some products can stimulate the growth of a benign tumor, while others may inhibit it.
For example, some estrogen-containing foods in large quantities increase estrogen levels in the female body, causing increased fibroids and worsening symptoms. Eating foods that help lower estrogen production can help prevent further fibroid growth and reduce symptoms.
General Recommendations for Low Estrogen Fibroid Diet: Can A Fibroid Diet Help?
A healthy fibroid diet should give you energy and enrich your body with all necessary microelements and vitamins.
A plant-based diet is effective for fibroids, as the plant substances contained in it have a regulatory, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and antiproliferative effect.
These substances have an inhibitory effect on fibroids:
Epigallocatechin Gallate (EGCG): green tea
Curcumin: turmeric
Resveratrol: grapes, mulberries, peanuts
Isoliquitritigenin: licorice root tea
Quercetin: onion
Ellagic acid: pomegranate, berries
Mustard oil glycosides (indole-3-carbinol): all cruciferous plants such as broccoli, cauliflower, all other types of cabbage, watercress, mustard, arugula, etc.
Lycopene: tomatoes, watermelon, papaya
Allicin: garlic
Sulforaphane: broccoli (raw) and broccoli sprouts
In addition, proper hydration is important. Water intake should be limited only at bedtime to prevent multiple visits to the bathroom overnight. Excess thirst can be triggered by frequent intake of salty and spicy foods, so try to avoid them before bed.
When a woman has uterine fibroids, she should exclude any foods with high cholesterol, saturated fatty acids, and instant carbohydrates from her diet. When shopping for groceries, check the food labels for ingredients and nutritional information.
Other basic rules of fibroid diet:
– Try to choose brown bread (or whole wheat).
– Try to add nuts to your diet (if not allergic). It will give your body valuable monounsaturated fats.
– Try to eat vegetables and fruits every day. They are rich in vitamins, flavonoids, antioxidants.
– Omega-3 fatty acids can help fight tumors; include fish like salmon, sardines, tuna into your diet (in reasonable amounts).
– Legumes (peas, beans, lentils) are rich in protein that can give you more energy to exercise and stay active.
Fibroid diet limits the use of the following foods:
– margarine, butter mixes, butter;
– fatty meats (and processed deli meats);
– smoked products;
– hard cheeses with a high percentage of fat, processed cheeses, sausage cheeses;
– muffins and pastries (and other white flour products);
– sweets, including ice creams, cakes, fudge, sodas, and other sugary foods.
As mentioned above, a healthy fibroid diet can help manage fibroid symptoms and potentially slow down fibroids’ growth but it cannot cure uterine fibroids. If you would like to treat fibroids, contact Dr. John Lipman to learn more about UFE (uterine fibroid embolization), a non-surgical, outpatient procedure that will help you get rid of fibroids and their symptoms, and keep your uterus.
Call Atlanta Fibroid Center at 770-953-2600 or make an appointment online.