Brassicas and Oestrogen Dominance

Cruciferous/brassica veggies (kale, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, rocket, bok choy, radish, turnips, mustard greens) contain something called Indole-3-carbinol, I3C, which turns into Diindolylmethane, DIIM, in the body. DIIM *helps the liver detoxify oestrogen*. If this isn’t happening enough you get something called oestrogen dominance which you may have heard of. 

Signs of this include irregular periods, heavy bleeding, PCOS symptoms… essentially a lot of the bad PMS signs. If you get spots around your jawline and they are cystic and painful, these ‘hormonal’ spots are often a sign of this unwanted build-up of oestrogen.

Detoxifying oestrogen is especially important during the 2nd phase (luteal) of the cycle (days 14-28), so during this time you can eat brassicas up to twice a day.  You can also get DIIM in supplement form, but its got some side effects so better, as always, to go for the foods. Broccoli sprouts have 10-50 times more I3C than normal broccoli which you can get from places like whole foods and put into salads.