Improving Your Menstrual Cycle With Seed Cycling? Let's learn together
Recently I had a client ask me if I knew anything about Seed Cycling with regards to menstrual cycle regulation. My only knowledge up to that point was hearing it spoken. So, inspired by our conversation I decided to look more into it.
What is seed cycling?
Most simply put seed cycling is incorporating different types of seeds into your diet at different phases of your menstrual cycle to support hormone heath and cycle health. As many of us know food is medicine and in this case different seeds support different hormones and thus the different phases of our cycles.
What seeds for what Part of our cycles?
What I have gathered from my bit of reading is that there are 4 types of seeds, two to support the follicular phase of the cycle and two to support the luteal phase. During the follicular phase it is recommended to to eat flax seed and pumpkin seeds. This phase is where estrogen is most at play and in Chinese medicine this is a time to nourish KD yin and boost blood. Flax and pumpkins are know to help support health levels of estrogen. The lignin in flax sees are helpful for binding excess estrogens if that is what the body needs, while pumpkin seeds are high in zinc which is needed to support and produce progesterone which is needed in the luteal phase.
The luteal phase progesterone is the highlighted hormone. Sesame seeds and sunflower seeds are the two seeds of the luteal phase. In TCM the luteal phase is the time to support the spleen/pancreas and kidney. In TCM food therapy sunflower seeds are sweet, work with the spleen/pancreas and large intestine networks. They nourish yin and moisten the large intestine. Sesame seeds in general work on the kidney, liver and large intestine meridians. However black sesame is thought to strengthen the liver and kidney and nourish yin where brown sesame are thought to nourish the blood more.
I think is interesting to note is that in TCM food therapy each of these seeds is supporting the next phase, while also supporting the western named hormone of that phase. For example so while sesame and sunflower seeds are supporting progesterone which is dominant during our yang phase of cycle the nature of these seeds is also supporting yin for an easy transition into next yin phase. It is a beautiful example of the yin/yang symbol-yang moving into yin and yin moving back into yang and both containing the other.
What you need to know to seed cycle.
Where are you in your cycle- First off you need to know what phase of your cycle you are in. Day 1 is the first day of bleeding and this is the first day of your follicular phase. This phase should last about 12-15 days. Then you should ovulate and enter into the luteal phase and time to change seeds.
How many seeds do I need to have- From what I have gathered you need to have 1 tablespoon of each seed a day for the length of each phase. So during the luteal phase you would have 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds and 1 tablespoon of sunflower seeds every day.
So if you feel like trying to get your birdie on and eating some daily seeds seed cycling may be the perfect fit for supporting your menstrual cycle! Have fun!