When you’re trying to eat healthy to balance your hormones, snacks can be incredibly tricky to figure out.
Sure celery and carrots are healthy, but they don’t always hit the spot.
That’s why I’ve put together this list of hormone friendly energy ball recipes from some of my favorite bloggers!
My goal is to help you take the guesswork (and boredom) out of “healthy”
snacking for hormone health.
Use the recipes as is or make tweaks to suit your taste buds (and health needs) 🙂
INGREDIENTS TO USE IN HORMONE-FRIENDLY ENERGY BALLS
The best thing about adding energy bites to your hormone balance diet is that they provide a lot of flexibility.
You can play around with a wide (or narrow) set of ingredients depending on how much time you have, the ingredients you have on hand and what makes your taste buds dance.
Regardless of which ingredients you use, your best bet is to stick to anti-inflammatory (or very low inflammatory), unrefined ingredients.
The reason for this is that an anti-inflammatory diet is best for hormonal imbalances.
And with a little bit of planning, you can easily add the recipes in this post to your hormone-balancing diet.
Here’s a look at the ingredients featured in these recipes and why they’re good for you.
Gluten-Free Flours
The popularity of modern, dwarf wheat, along with changes in the way things like bread are made (in a few hours instead of 24 hours) are exposing many of us to lots of undigested gluten (source).
This can wreak havoc on the gut, making it difficult for your body to properly detox and produce hormones.
Gluten-free flours like coconut and almond are gut-friendly options that allow your body to recover from inflammation.
Oats
Not only are oats full of fiber (which helps you feel full longer) but they are naturally gluten-free.
Now, having said that oats are usually made in factories that also process wheat.
So, this means they can be contaminated with some gluten. If you are particularly sensitive to gluten, then make sure to buy oats that are labeled “gluten-free.”
Matcha Green Tea
Matcha is simply green tea leaves ground into a powder.
This means when you use matcha you’re eating the whole green tea leaf. As a result you get a lot more antioxidants than you would from a standard cup of green tea.
As for your hormones, they benefit a lot from matcha because it fights inflammation, increases insulin sensitivity, boosts liver health, supports the adrenals and more.
(Check out this post for more on the benefits of matcha for hormone balance).
Raw Nuts
All of your estrogens, progestagens (such as progesterone), androgens and corticosteroids (i.e. your adrenal hormones) need fat as their raw material.
Without enough healthy fats, you’re basically working at a deficit.
(Read this post to learn more about the importance of fats for hormone balance).
Raw Seeds
Chia, sunflower, flax, pumpkin, and hemp seeds offer a variety of health benefits that are making them increasingly popular.
When it comes to hormone health specifically, seeds contain essential fatty acids that the body uses to make fat-soluble hormones (the same ones listed in the “Raw Nuts” section above!).
In addition, raw seeds like flax, sesame, sunflower and pumpkin can be particularly helpful if you are using the seed cycling protocol to balance your hormones.
(If you’re not familiar with seed cycling, it’s a seed-based method for regulating your hormones. It works great for teens, young adult women and women in menopause. Learn more about seed cycling for hormones here).
Nut Butters
Whether it’s cashew, coconut, almond or peanut butter, nut butters offer the same core benefit as nuts and seeds: natural fat.
That fat is necessary not just for hormone-production, but for gut health and liver function.
Plus, the lining of every single one of the trillions of cells in your body is made of fat.
If those cell walls start to lose their integrity, well, a whole lot of everything can go wrong in the body.
Honey and Maple Syrup
Unlike white sugar, which is completely void of health benefits, honey – specifically raw honey – is rich in antioxidants, supports a healthy immune system and contains prebiotics that feed the good bacteria in your gut (source).
As for pure maple syrup, it’s healthy benefits may not be as impressive as raw honey, it’s still a better option than white sugar (or artificial sweeteners).
Dates
Dates are fiber-rich, natural sweetening option that help to keep you regular (important for detoxing), fight oxidative stress and help regulate blood sugar (source).
They are also a great substitute for refined, white sugar, which makes them ideal for use energy bites and other treats.
Cacao and Dark Chocolate
Cacao has one massive benefit for hormone health: it is very high in magnesium.
Magnesium deficiency is one of the most common nutrient deficiencies these days.
That is worrisome since magnesium has been shown to reduce stress, as well as improve sleep, insulin resistance, PCOS, PMS, cramps, and peri/menopause symptoms (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
Whether you use actual cacao or dark chocolate (ideally 70% cacao or more) you’re getting a lot more health benefits than you would with milk chocolate.
Coconut Oil
It seems no list of healthy foods is complete without coconut oil, right? 🙂
This tropical oil is known to support the gut, fight inflammation, improve insulin resistance and leptin resistance (crucial for weight loss) and whole lot more.
(For more info, read this post on how to use coconut oil for hormones).
Turmeric
As I discuss in this post on the liver and hormones, turmeric fights inflammation and supports the liver.
Since the liver is responsible for detoxing excess hormones and toxins, turmeric is an important hormone-balancing herb to consume regularly.
Maca
This herb is one of the most popular adaptogenic herbs on the market.
As an adaptogen maca is able to support the body’s response to stress.
This unique ability means that maca supports healthy function of the HPA ( (hypothalamic pituitary adrenal) axis, which can produce other benefits like improved libido, fertility and vitality.
(For more on maca and other herbs, check out this post on adaptogens for hormones).
14 HORMONE FRIENDLY ENERGY BALL RECIPES TO TRY
Alrighty, so now that you’ve got the scoop on the ingredients to use in energy, let’s dive into these energy bite recipes.
They all have something a little different to offer. Experiment and see what floats your boat!
1. Matcha Mint Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites
Grab the recipe from Wallflower Kitchen.
2. Lemon Turmeric Energy Balls
Grab the recipe from Natalie’s Health.
3 Blueberry Muffin Energy Balls
Grab the recipe from The Healthy Maven.
4. 5-Ingredient Golden Milk Snack Bites
Grab the recipe from The Minimalist Baker.
5. Ginger Cookie Healthy Energy Balls
Grab the recipe for these Ginger Cookie Healthy Energy Balls from Well Plated.
6. Maca Peanut Butter Energy Balls
Grab the recipe from Fit Mitten Kitchen.
7. 3-Ingredient Nut-Free Energy Bites
Grab the recipe from Detoxinista.
8. PB and J Oatmeal Energy Balls
Grab the recipe from Lexi’s Clean Kitchen.
9. Sunflower Seed Energy Bites
Grab the recipe from Occasionally Eggs.
10. Gluten-Free Vegan No-Bake Healthy Triple Seed Energy Balls
Grab the recipe from The Healthy Family & Home.
11. Dark Chocolate Cherry Energy Bites
Visit Crumb Top Baking to grab the recipe for these Dark Chocolate Cherry Energy Bites.
12. Turmeric Maca Powder Cacao Energy Balls
Grab the recipe from Natalie’s Health.
13. Chocolate Orange Energy Bites with Hemp
Grab the recipe from Occasionally Eggs.
CONCLUSION
I’d love to hear your experiences with recipes. Drop me a comment when you try them (and of course, drop a comment for the original recipe creator too!).
Have any questions or feedback about hormone-friendly energy balls (or other hormone balancing snacks)?
Leave your thoughts below 🙂
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Diet For Hormone Imbalance: Foods and Supplements To Beat Your Symptoms
