Low Carbohydrate Diets

and Hormonal Balance

It is very common to hear low carbohydrate diets are recommended for all sorts of reasons: weight loss, insulin management, stable blood sugar, gut health, and mental health. For women who have appetite control problems, sugar addictions, and a lot of weight to lose, absolutely I believe a low-carbohydrate diet can do those wonders. For women who struggle with stress, menstruation, fertility, exercise performance, or any other hormonal problems, carbohydrates help assure the woman’s body that she is healthy and fed. This is crucial for reproductive health.

Because low carbohydrate diets are so popular for weight loss, it is common for women trying to lose weight and to “look good” to exercise often, eat very few carbohydrates, fast, and restrict food intake. The more of these restrictions a woman undertakes at once, the more and more her body reads this as living in a starved, stressed state.

The effects of this are significant: adrenal glands work overtime, livers get tired from performing so much work, insulin sensitivity drops, body fat levels fluctuate, sleep quality decreases, and libido and fertility decrease. The main point here is that carbohydrates are not just okay but important. Why?