Flax, marijuana, hops, and 44 other phytoestrogen sources you might not know you’re consuming

Phytoestrogens are a topic of hot debate in the medical literature. To eat, or not to eat? To cure cancer, or to beget it? As chemicals that act like–but are not identical to–estrogen in the human body, phytoestrogens complicate biological functions. Sometimes it appears as though they have a helpful role, but many other times, as in the case with female fertility and typically with PCOS, phytoestrogens can cause a lot of harm.

Phytoestrogens are found in plant foods. They can also move up the food chain into animal sources, which is a consideration for women with endocrine issues who eat factory farmed animals. They are reasonably well tolerated by people with “healthy” hormonal systems and livers. The body responds easily to these semi-natural disturbances and can flush the phytoestrogens out of the system. OR the body responds easily by maintaining estrogen production even while phytoestrogens are consumed. This is not always the case for women. Some are extraordinarily sensitive to phytoestrogens.


What I say in that article, briefly, is that phytoestrogens take up places on estrogen receptors in the body. This has big time implications. Many medical professionals hypothesize that this is helpful for estrogen deficient women. This would be by filling up unused estrogen stores, and therefore hypothetically increasing estrogen levels. But other health researchers (including myself) believe that supplementing with phytoestrogens plays a reverse role: instead of increasing estrogen activity, the increased phytoestrogen load (especially given the fact that phytoestrogens are far less efficacious in performing bodily functions) tells the body to stop producing it’s own estrogen, which ultimately results in a decline in estrogen-related power in the body.

Phytoestrogens can also be harmful for women with estrogen dominance, if their bodies do not respond to the increased estrogen load and instead end up over-burdening their systems.

All that being said, I still believe phytoestrogen intake can be helpful for some women if their bodies respond in a hormonally healthy way. This may particularly be the case for menopausal women, whose bodies have more or less stopped produced estrogen in the ovaries anyway. Phytoestrogens may alleviate the pains of menopause while not causing any pituitary-related damage. However, this is an issue, again, of individuality. Some women may find it works, while others find it horrific.
Edit 2016: Recently, after learning about new research and working with even more women, I’m finding that plant-based phytoestrogens may promote ER beta activity, which can lower estrogenic potency in the body as a whole, thereby decreasing the risk for certain cancers (this is not true of synthetic estrogen, like that in hormonal birth control or estrogen replacement therapy).

My personal experience is that I am enormously sensitive to phytoestrogens. I have narrowed down over many years the list of foods that give me acne, and aside from dairy, they are all phytoestrogens. This past summer I achieved clear, soft skin for the first time in three years (save for the scars). I experience small acne bumps when stressed, which is something I am okay with and working on slowly. The only times, however, in which I have experienced cystic breakouts are when phytoestrogens I didn’t know I was eating were sneaking into my body.

These were flax, soy protein isolate (did you know it’s in virtually all brands of chewing gum?! and tootsie rolls? and also that I consumed tootsie rolls?!), and thyme.

We all talk about the dangers of soy and phytoestrogen intake, but the list of phytoestrogenic foods is long and complicated. Many different studies list different foods as having different phytoestrogen content. My inability to navigate them has been the bane of my skin for years. But now I have compiled, however, a list of all of the foods, herbs, and substances that seem to be the most problematic and crop up in continuous studies.

Finally!
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Phytoestrogens can be summed up as: virtually all beans, peas, seeds, and nuts, some herbs, and a handful of fruits and vegetables.

They are as follows, with the most potent foods listed with an asterisk:

***Flaxseed and flaxseed oil (3 x as potent as soy in some studies!)
***Soy, soy oil, soy protein isolate, tofu, textured vegetable protein, and all of it’s derivates
All beans
*Mung beans
*Bean sprouts
*Chick peas
Peas
*Sesame, sesame seeds, and sesame oil
*Sunflower seeds
*Fennel
*Alfalfa
*Licorice
*Verbena
*Tumeric
*Thyme
*Red Clover
*Yucca
Cinnamon
Sunflower seeds
*Red Clover leaf and extract
Garlic
Olive Oil
Apricot (especially dried)
Prunes (dried)
Dates (dried)
Sweet Potatoes
Parsley
Thyme
Whole grains: Rye, *Oat, Barley, Millet, Wheat, Corn, Quinoa
*Most nuts:
Chestnuts
Almonds
Peanuts
Cashews
Walnuts
Hazlenuts
Pistachios

And to a somewhat lesser extent the fruits and vegetables…

Blackberries
Pomegranate
Asparagus
Winter squash
Broccoli
Green beans
Collards
Onions
And the substances…
*Hops
*Marijuana

And, yes! Marijuana and hops (a primary ingredient in beer) are both phytoestrogens. It is worth noting that crude marijuana extract smoke and not just the physical plant matter competes for the estrogen receptor in receptor studies. This means that inhaling marijuana, whether through one’s own cigarette or in the company of others who are smoking, counts as potential estrogenic activity. All that being said, these chemical results were not replicable in vivo on rats, so it’s as yet undecided in trials if it has an effect on humans. Personally, I don’t risk it these days.
Sorry. I’m sad, too.
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And as I final note, I strongly encourage you to check the label on anything processed you are considering consuming. Like I noted above, Tootsie Rolls are made out of soy. I had three on a road trip with my family and woke up the next morning with a painful cyst. I didn’t think to check– I though the risk small– but it turns out I was wrong. It took me a week to figure out what I had done wrong, and when I finally checked the ingredients in Tootsie Rolls I face palmed myself in a big way. Lots of anxiety over nothing at all.

Other big sources of soy protein and phytoestrogens in a processed diet are protein bars, cereals–particularly “protein plus” cereals, oat-based cereals, granolas, flax-containing granolas, granolas or cereals made with any kind of seed oil, triscuits, wheat thins, every kind of chewing gum, the more chewy types of candy, and probably most baked goods.
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All of which is to say, again, that phytoestrogens are complicated. I don’t advocate that you go crazy controlling your intake of all of these substances. Absolutely I do not. Please keep eating broccoli. But for those of us who are particularly sensitive to estrogen flucutations, such as I am, it can be enormously helpful for understanding why we are getting breakouts, experience fluctuations in our sex drive, or failing to produce as much vaginal discharge as we normally do on occasion. Huge doses of peas or garlic over a couple of days can make a real impact, as can the accidental consumption of soy. So if you’re into the nitty gritty of troubleshooting, this list should be helpful.

And finally: what is your experience with phytoestrogens? Anyone as sensitive as I? Or the total opposite, and robust?
Are they helpful? Harmful? In menopause, or at reproductive-age?

via Paleo for Women

The above article was written 5 years ago. The one below is a current one written by the same person. As you can see, the author is basing this on her research of the affects on women. I would wonder if the same goes for men? It is purely her perspective on info she has come across. My thoughts are you can always take at least 1 thing away from anything.

Why I now believe phytoestrogens may be good for you



Phytoestrogens are estrogen-like compounds that come from plants, and are found in particularly high quantities in soy and flax seeds. Lower quantities of phytoestrogens can be found in all legumes and nuts, such that women with sensitive hormonal systems may find themselves reacting to chick peas, black beans, or macadamia nuts (all foods that I personally react to).

Most paleo authors are hard-liners on the issue of whether we should consume phytoestrogenic foods: the answer is “no.”

Why? Their concern is that the hyper-estrogenic character of the phytoestrogens in the Standard American Diet contributes to inflammation, to the feminization of the male body (such as development of breasts, which is true), and to cancer. These are all considerable risks and I take them very seriously.

When I first began writing in the paleo blogosphere I considered it my duty as “the female paleo expert” to get to the bottom of the phytoestrogen issue fairly and come to the right conclusion about them. Yet after diving deep into the literature I found more questions than I did answers.

There are many several different types of phytoestrogens and they all have different chemical characteristics. There are also different types of estrogen receptors in the body. These different phytoestrogens interact with the estrogen receptors in different and complex ways, and different tissues in the body have different kinds of estrogen receptors…
You can see why it’s so complex.

Looking at data from studies on women and from collecting my own data working with women, I developed my own beliefs about phytoestrogens and what to do about them. As far as I could best tell, phytoestrogens would increase estrogenic activity in many respects for women with low estrogen levels but also perhaps decrease it in other respects. As for women who have high estrogen levels, phytoestrogens may help decrease this excess, since they take up space on estrogen receptors but are not as potent as the body’s own estrogen stores.

Usually, I end up concluding: “you won’t know how phytoestrogens affect you until you try, so eliminate them for a few weeks, then add them for a few weeks, and see what happens.”
That seems to satisfy people well enough, and it really is the most truthful recommendation I can make.

Today I am able to augment that recommendation since I have discovered a bit more clarity about the issue and. Here is, in a nutshell, what I’ve learned:

The body has two types of estrogen receptors

As I have mentioned, the body has two types of estrogen receptors: alpha and beta.
What I did not know previously, however, is that estrogen receptor beta activity to some extent inhibits estrogen receptor alpha activity.
When estrogen receptor alpha is dominant, estrogenic activities in the body get carried out.
When estrogen receptor beta is dominant, on the other hand, estrogenic activities in the body are suppressed.
Now, as I mentioned before, different tissues in the body have different amounts of the two receptors. And, very importantly, different environmental conditions can contribute to the success of one over the other. Having a robust gut flora population, for example, supports estrogen receptor beta activity. The gut flora have a lot of different impacts on hormone levels (healthy gut flora will help break down old hormones and excrete them, for one, or can selectively reabsorb estrogen back into the bloodstream). In this particular case, they help estrogen receptor beta keep a lid on runaway estrogenic activity in the gut and at the gut-bloodstream barrier.
So then what happens when we consume phytoestrogens?

Phytoestrogens, by and large, enhance estrogen receptor beta

Phytoestrogens are estrogen receptor beta agonists (here). This means that they increase the activity of estrogen receptor beta, which you’ll remember inhibits excessive estrogenic activity.

Now of course, different phytoestrogens will do this to different extents, though lignans, some of the most common phytoestrogens and those found in soy, do have this ER-beta enhancing effect.

As a quick aside and demonstration of how this might work in an individual, some of you may remember that I struggle with acne. I noticed that when I consumed phytoestrogens the quality of my skin got worse, despite the fact that estrogen is supposed to help with skin quality. Skin cells have a plethora of estrogen receptors beta, however. So even while I was consuming a plant-based estrogen and even while some estrogen recpetors alpha were certainly active in other parts of my body, my skin quality suffered because the phytoestrogens actually decreased the estrogenic activity in my skin.

This may also be important for particular cancers, specifically the female cancers like breast and ovarian cancer, and also gastroenterological cancers like colon cancer. Like this article demonstrates, “the ER alpha/beta balance seems to have a relevant influence on colorectal carcinogenesis and ER beta appears to parallel apoptosis, thus exerting an anti-carcinogenic effect.” Increasing phytoestrogen consumption may promote ER beta activity, which can lower estrogenic potency in the body as a whole, thereby decreasing the risk for certain cancers.

Of course, there are still very many studies to be done for any of this to be certain, though most professionals in the medical field are interested in the possibilities for phytoestrogens to play a (small) role in cancer prevention and remediation.

Estrogen replacement therapy and the birth control pill on the other hand…

Plant estrogens increase the activity of ER beta and can therefore reduce estrogen dominance, risk of certain cancers, leaky gut, inflammation in the gut, and more.
Estrogens that are synthesized in the laboratory, however, have a much more potent estrogenic effect. For what I can tell of perusing the literature, these estrogens do not have the same bias for ER beta. They activate both ER alpha and ER beta, and therefore do not limit estrogenic potency in the body, but instead may simply directly increase it. They also appear to increase inflammation and risk of disease in the gut, as illustrated by this study.

The body has many mechanisms in place to help modulate estrogen levels in the blood: the liver filters out excess, “old” hormones for example, and the pituitary gland produces less estrogen of its own if its detects higher levels of circulating estrogen in the bloodstream.

But those may not be sufficient to handle the extra estrogen load that comes from the birth control pill and high levels of hormone replacement therapy. From what I can tell, any time you signficant reduce pure estrogen levels above what is “normal” or “healthy” you increase your risk for a lot of things, including inflammation, mood swings, ulcerative colotis, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer and uterine cancer.

What to do about it

First and foremost, I think the best thing to do for women who eat a paleo diet is “not all that much different.”
I think it may be wise to re-consider our ban against soy and other phytoestrogenic foods, particularly for women who are estrogen dominant. In fact, I recommend at very least that estrogen dominant women experiment with a very small serving of soy or flax, or a moderate serving of chick peas or other beans, daily for two weeks to see if positive changes happen.

I think women who are going through menopause may wish to seriously consider consuming phytoestrogens to see if it helps alleviate symptoms. This can help with some menopausal symptoms by increasing ER alpha activity to some extent, but will most likely prevent increasing the risk of cancer by the complementary increase in ER beta. There is a chance phytoestrogens will simply make your own symptoms worse, but there is enough evidence out there to suggest it is worth a shot.

The potential risk of elevated estrogen levels from supplementation does not mean I am necessarily against using pharmacological estrogen for various conditions: sometimes it is entirely appropriate to take estrogen supplements. For example, when going through menopause, small doses of hormones may be more helpful than harmful, as a low dose of estrogen will most likely not overwhelm estrogen receptors alpha and beta. This can be a great way to alleviate symptoms, especially in the short term, though as I mentioned above the phytoestrogenic route may be preferable. For another example, low dose estrogen therapy may be crucial for women with chronically low estrogen levels to help boost bone health, for example. For a final example, if a low enough dose and in good balance with progesterone, birth control pills may be an acceptable method of family planning.
Nevertheless, most data on the relationship between HRT and cancer seems to indicate that there is something worrying there that needs further investigation. My preference for women who are in menopause or otherwise have low estrogen levels is to try to fix things with a nourishing, relaxing paleo approach first, to try playing with phytoestrogens second, and then as a last resort go on a low dose therapy.

…And this, then, is why I now believe phytoestrogens may help reduce the risk of certain diseases and cancers for women, particularly those of us who are estrogen dominant.
Every body is different, but this may be an important piece of information that helps you figure out what the best path forward is for you! As I always say, I am a big fan of personal experimentation.

If you’ve personally done studies on yourself or noticed effects that different phytoestrogens have, please chime in! This is a hugely complex area of health and research… I need all the help and wisdom I can get!

Interesting


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