The Anti-Estrogenic Diet

The author of The Warrior Diet released a follow-up book that directly addresses estrogenic foods.

The Anti-Estrogenic Diet: How Estrogenic Foods and Chemicals Are Making You Fat and Sick by Ori Hofmekler is a mixed bag. The book has some great information, but a lot of it was already covered in The Warrior Diet. It covers how estrogens in our food and environment are making us sick and overweight and what we can do about it.

A simplistic overview is that we should avoid foods that are highly estrogenic and consume foods and supplements that combat estrogens. If you are following a paleo-based diet already, then there are almost no changes you’ll need to make to your diet. The paleo diet is already anti-estrogenic.

Here are some bullet points. Notice the overlap between this list and the notes I took for The Warrior Diet.

1. Avoid soy, licorice, alcohol (especially beer).
2. Consume cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage).
3. Consume garlic and onions.
4. Drink green tea.
5. Eat citrus fruits.
6. Organic dairy and meat are good. Non-organic is raised using highly estrogenic chemicals and is to be avoided.
7. Chamomile is a powerful estrogen inhibitor.
8. Omega 3 oils good (olive, flaxseed). Omega 6 oils bad (soy, corn).
9. Also good: raw nuts, seeds, avocados.
10. Spices that promote liver detoxification: turmeric, oregano, thyme, rosemary, sage.
11. Wild catch fish is recommended.
12. Green leafy vegetables are loaded with phytonutrients that will assist with liver detoxification.

If you would like more details and a deeper understanding of science, then I recommend this book. The book does have recipes and a step by step plan. The Anti-Estrogenic Diet is not a “paleo diet”, so it is not necessary to be low carb. Besides the information overlap with The Warrior Diet, my one complaint with this book was it didn’t go deeper into non-dietary environmental estrogens and strategies for dealing with them. Also not covered was water quality.