Fava Beans: Great For Hormone Replacement With Anti-Cancer Potential

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Fava Beans: Great For Hormone Replacement With Anti-Cancer Potential

Monday, January 07, 2008 by: Kal Sellers

Key concepts: hormone replacement, hormones and anti-cancer foods.

(NewsTarget) Two years ago this month a good friend of ours joined us

for a humble beginning of our natural nutrition and whole food

preparation classes. She was one of those students who just took

everything and ran with it. She lost about 15 pounds, her bowels started

moving better and she looked ten years younger.

For all of this, she complained that she was being driven crazy with hot

flashes and did not want to go on hormone therapy. She decided to come

see me professionally.

I spoke with her and quizzed her about her diet. She had been following

our health program exactly. I figured that she just needed an infusion

of plant based hormones.

I explained to her that plant hormones are the best protection in the

world. They are large, weak structures that will fill up all the hormone

binding sites and keep them satisfied as needed without ever reaching

toxic strength. When your body releases hormones erratically (as happens

during many times of life but especially during menopause) those

hormones can be absent or can be at toxic levels. With plant hormones

binding up the receptor sites all the time, you never even know that the

levels are up or down and the potential toxic levels (which can cause

estrogen-dependent cancer) are never reached.

The best part of all this, I told her, is that your body will stop

working so hard at meeting hormonal needs and will get to rest and

re-set itself to a new level of health.

I explained that if we all ate natural diets all the time, that we could

not avoid huge amounts of plant hormones every day and that our bodies

really are designed to get most of their hormone needs from the diet.

She, of course, wanted to know what to do.

I told her about fava beans. These are the most estrogen-dense food

known. When sprouted, they become far more so, 3-30 times more.

I had her sprout dry fava beans (which took one afternoon in a bowl of

water) and then low-heat them. Low heating is a technique perfected in

Traci's

Transformational Kitchen Cookbook and Traci's Transformational Health

Principles, which allows the bean to stay alive (in fact it will grow

during the process and in the fridge thereafter) while softening the

hard exterior.

She was then to blend them with a little extra virgin olive oil and

seasonings to make a smooth savory " soup " . She was to eat at least 1/4

cup every day.

She actually blended them with tomatoes and onions when she did it for

real. She had it for dinner and then that night she got sick. I have

never seen this before or since. She stayed sick for that night and was

a little queasy the next day. After that she stopped having hot flashes.

She went a whole year without having hot flashes and then, when they

began again, she began eating 1/2 cup of edamame three or four times per

week. She has been hot-flash free since that time.

Often today I read articles that are leading the readers to believe that

soy is the premier source of phyto-estrogens. Not so at all. Further,

many people are reacting to soy as a food reaction and their health gets

damaged by it. Besides this, soy protein (which is what many people are

using) is a by-product of making soybean oil and is very chemical rich.

Edamame, a green soybean, has none of the drawbacks and most people will

not react to it even if they are allergic to dry soybeans and soy

products.

Still, fava beans are the best source. They are usually experienced as

tasty and are easy to digest. When sprouted, they become the best

phyto-estrogen supplement known.

I have given fava beans to many people having hormone problems and I

find them reliable relief. As with all sources of phyto-estrogens, fava

beans are also somewhat anti-inflammatory.

Herbally (after all, this is an herbal medicine column), we use blessed

thistle, black cohosh, kudzu root, wild yam, sarsaparilla, wheatgrass,

red clover blossoms, alfalfa, vitex, dong quai and many others for

herbal hormone foods. Most of these contain phyto-estrogens, wild yam

and sarsaparilla contain steroidal saponins which are hormone building

blocks.

I no longer reach first for the herbal aids, however, but recommend

sprouted, low-heated fava bean soup.

About the author

Kal Sellers, MH is a lifelong student and practitioner of the natural

healing arts.

Kal is a Master Herbalist, a Massage Therapist, Technician of the Rolf

Method of Structural Integration, Iridologist, Mind-Body Medicine

Practitioner, Mental Re-programmer, Life Coach, Natural Nutritionist,

Reflexologist and more.

Kal is currently attending Life University in preparation for

chiropractic school.

Kal currently operates and maintains www.KalsSchool.com, an on-line

school for natural healing and herbal medicine.

Kal also maintains www.BestFoodist.com as the website for the

distribution of his and his wife's books on natural nutrition and

companion recipe book (Traci's Transformational Kitchen Cookbook and

Traci's Transformational Health Principles).

Kal and Traci have five children, the last three of which were delivered

at home, the last by Kal. They live now in Powder Springs, GA where they

maintain live classes on food and medicine for anyone choosing to master

medical independence and life-long optimal health!