When it comes to menopause and hormone balance, most women fail to look beyond the obvious culprits—stress, lack of sleep, genetics.

But what if I told you some of the biggest hormonal disruptors are hiding right in your kitchen? Foods and ingredients you’re consuming daily, and even ones you consider healthy, could be making your menopause symptoms worse by increasing inflammation, disrupting hormone production and throwing your metabolism off balance.

Let’s take a closer look at these hidden hormonal disruptors and how you can swap them out for healing, hormone-friendly alternatives.

Oils are a slippery slope and many of them, although touted as “healthy,” are actually causing chaos with your hormones. Highly processed vegetable and seed oils, like canola, soybean, corn and sunflower oil are found in nearly every packaged food and restaurant.

The problem is two-fold. Not only are these oils high in omega-6 fatty acids, which promote inflammation when not balanced properly with omega-3s, the extraction process can render them toxic when used with heat or moisture, adding a double dose of inflammation. Chronic inflammation contributes to insulin resistance, weight gain and makes menopause symptoms like hot flashes and brain fog worse.

Swapping out the seed oils for cold-pressed olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, grass-fed butter or ghee will fuel your body with healthy fats that actually support........

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