We are all guilty of using the phrase, “Not tonight, I have a headache.”

The most common headache triggers are hormonal imbalance and blood sugar fluctuation – not to mention food allergies, caffeine, lack of sleep, extreme weather conditions, medications and stress.

Understanding the role of estrogen in the body:

Estrogen dominance is a term coined by Dr. Lee in his first book on natural progesterone. It describes a condition in which a woman can have deficient, normal or excessive estrogen, but has little or no progesterone to balance its effects in the body.

Even a woman with low estrogen levels can have estrogen dominance symptoms if she doesn’t have any progesterone.
Here are a few things to remember about estrogen dominance.

• Fat stores estrogen. The more you gain weight, the more estrogen you will retain.
• Stress - that word we’re all too familiar with – produces cortisol, boosting estrogen levels and contributing to weight gain.
• A toxic liver will not filter estrogen out of the body.
• So many foods we eat are fed estrogen to make them grow and produce more food. Eating meat and dairy products will increase your estrogen levels.
• Plastic containers, pesticides and cleaning chemicals produce “xeno-estrogens” – chemicals that mimic estrogen in the body. Read more.

Here’s what Dr. Brian Clement has to say about EFA’S & Post-menopausal women
www.aliveraw.com

The first thing I’ll tell you is if anyone out there is taking fish oil, throw it down your toilet and flush it four times. Thank God you’re no longer promoting cancer and the other diseases you did when you consumed these ungodly substances.

The same fatty acids in seeds are also in oil. The best way to get essential fatty acids is to sprout chia. In many parts of the world, especially around the holidays, you may be able to purchase Chia dolls. You may remember the little animals you put seeds on. They’re mucilaginous. They stick to it and grow. In the 1960s we had a chia doll that grew an afro.

There are different ways you do this. You don’t need the chia clay doll to get the seeds and sprout them. In the last couple of years
we’ve found out that chia has the best profile of fatty acids of any food. Hemp is a very close behind it. Sprouted flax seeds are a very good source. Walnuts and their oils are a very good source. Eating whole foods and their sprouts is significantly the best way to do it.

If you want to take oil with a lot of fatty acids, precluding so-called fish oil, make sure you buy small amounts. Anything that has
a lot of three, six or nine in it is also vulnerable to oxidation. It goes rancid very quickly. Buy small amounts and refrigerate it. If you take it in a sprouted form it’s much less expensive.

Chia seeds are said to have:

• 2 times the protein of any other seed or grain,
• 5 times the calcium of milk, plus boron which is a trace mineral that
• helps transfer calcium into your bones,
• 2 times the amount of potassium as bananas,
• 3 times the reported antioxidant strength of blueberries
• 3 times more iron than spinach
• copious amounts of omega 3 and omega 6, which are essential fatty acids…

They are a complete source of protein, providing all the essential amino acids in an easily digestible form. They are also a fabulous source of soluble fibre.
Like flax, chia is highly ‚Äòhydrophilic’ – the seeds absorb water and create a mucilaginous gel. They can hold 9-12 times their weight in water and they absorb it very rapidly – in under 10 minutes.

Sugar Absorption

Chia slows the impact of sugars on the system, if eaten together. Chia gel creates a physical barrier between carbohydrates and the digestive enzymes that break them down, which slows the conversion of carbs into sugar. That means the energy from the food is released steadily, resulting in more endurance. This is clearly of great benefit to diabetics in particular. It also means that I can combine chia with super-sweet tastes like apple juice and not get super-spiked.

The ‚ÄòDieter’s Dream Food’
Chia has been called a dieter’s dream food because when added to foods, it bulks them up, displacing calories and fat without diluting the flavour. Thus, someone can eat a typical serving, yet only consume about half the calories they might have eaten, because the food has been bulked up with chia. PLUS, the eater gets a bellyful of nutrient-rich superfood goodness, which hydrates and sustains them – magic.
# Reference: www.rawreform.com

    * 4- tbsp chia seed
    * 1 cups almond milk
    * raw honey or agave syrup to taste

Blend all  ingredients. You can also add other flavours like vanilla, cinnamon or cardamom.

How do you use Chia?
The most common way to eat chia is to first soak the seeds. They can very rapidly absorb a large amount of liquid – between 9-12 times their volume, in under 10 minutes…

The Basic Gel
To make a basic chia gel, simply add 1/3 cup of seeds (2oz) to 2 cups of water. Stir the mixture well, to avoid clumping, then leave it in your fridge, in a sealed jar. This will yield around 17oz of chia gel. You can begin to eat the gel almost immediately if you like. Just 10 minutes is enough time for the gel to be formed. More of the nutrients will be easily accessible after a few hours however, so many people like to make up a batch like this and leave it in the fridge. It will stay good for about three weeks. Then you can just reach into the fridge and take out some of the ready-made gel whenever you need it. You might add it to smoothies, mix it with salad dressings, puddings or granola, or simply take it by the spoonful.

Beyond Water…
Chia will absorb anything – it doesn’t have to soak in water. We like soaking it in things like apple juice for example. That way, the intense sweetness of the apple juice is also offset by the chia and it tastes yummy We also often blend fruits – for example bananas and persimmons, then stir the chia into that mixture. Again, the longer the seeds are left to soak, the more their nutrients will be readily available to you, yet you could easily eat a meal like this 10 minutes or less after preparing it.

Whole Seeds
You can also sprinkle the dry seeds onto salads or add them to granola mixes. You may also want to experiment with grinding them first in a coffee grinder, to make a ‚Äòchia flour’ you can then add to smoothies, soups and so on.

The best way for a woman to eat according to her cycle is to add more life food. As we eat more life food, our periods become less painful, cramping goes away and we generally feel better.

How can we achieve this? By eating hormone-rich foods with shiny little seeds like chia seeds, flax seeds, and especially berries and figs. To get the greatest benefit from these seeds, chew them up thoroughly or put them through the blender before eating. Breaking up the seeds releases the hormones.

Here is the recipe for my favorite Raspberry Pudding:

• 1/2 cup raspberries
• 3-4 tablespoons grounded flax seed
• 1 teaspoon flaxseed oil
• 2 figs or 1 tablespoon of maple syrup

Blend in the blender to release hormones from raspberry and flax seeds and figs.

Enjoy.