Cooking for Hormone Balance: A Proven, Practical Program with Over 125 Easy, Delicious Recipes to Boost Energy and Mood, Lower Inflammation, Gain Strength, and Restore a Healthy Weight

by Magdalena Wszelaki

From the founder of the popular Hormones Balance online community comes this life-saving program and cookbook filled with more than 125 tempting, nutrient-dense recipes to restore hormonal balance and achieve optimal health—resulting in improved energy, weight loss, lower stress levels, and enhanced emotional wellbeing for a wide-range of hormonal-related conditions.

Millions of women suffer from the life-altering, often debilitating symptoms resulting from hormonal imbalances caused by thyroid conditions, adrenal fatigue, menopause, endometriosis, fibroids, PMS, and PCOS, among stubborn weight gain, brain and mood issues, low energy, and more. The good news is that most of these conditions are reversible. Holistic nutrition coach Magdalena Wszelaki knows this firsthand. Developing hyperthyroidism and then Hashimoto’s, adrenal fatigue and estrogen dominance propelled her to leave a high-pressured advertising career and develop a new way of eating that would repair and keep her hormones working smoothly.

Now symptom free, Magdalena shares her practical, proven knowledge so other women may benefit. In Cooking for Hormone Balance, she draws on current research to explain the essential role food plays in keeping our hormones in harmony, and offers easy, flavorful recipes to help us eat our way to good health. She also offers clear, concise action plans for what to remove and add to our daily diet to regain hormonal balance, including guides for specific conditions.

Magdalena provides dozens of delicious, easy-to-prepare recipes using twenty hormone-supporting superfoods and twenty hormone-supporting superherbs. From condiments, appetizers, and snacks to soups and salads to main courses and desserts, this comprehensive cookbook shares recipes for kitchen staples such as Creamy Mayo Four Ways and Healing Bone Broth, and options for every meal of the day, including Teff and Cherry Porridge, Sweet Potato and Sage Pancakes, Porcini Mushroom Beef Stew, Creamy Rosemary Chicken, Kohrabi Kraut, Zucchini Olive Oil Bread, Coconut Kefir Chia Pudding, Chocolate Lavender Muffins, and Turmeric Cardamom Latte. While a select number of dishes have become fan favorites on Magdalena’s website, eighty percent are new and exclusive to this cookbook.

With make-ahead meals, quick meals ready in under twenty minutes, and time-saving tips and techniques, Cooking for Hormone Balance emphasizes minimal effort for maximum results. In addition, each recipe comes with modifications for Paleo, Paleo for Autoimmunity (AIP), anti-Candida, and low-FODMAP diets. Cooking for Hormone Balance is the comprehensive food-as-medicine approach for tackling hormone imbalance and eating your way to better health.

Genres: Health, Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Self Help, Reference

379 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 10, 2018

About the author

I am a Certified Holistic Health Coach accredited by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. I received my education from The Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City. Before becoming a health coach, I had a long, fast-paced career as a strategic planner for the advertising powerhouse called WPP in both Asia and the US. I am also a regular Vipassana (insightful) meditation practitioner and a Level II Reiki healer (a form of energy healing).

My own journey with health issues and the failure of the medical world to adequately address them started with Graves’ Disease (an autoimmune condition that causes hyperthyroidism) in 2001, later Hashimoto’s Disease in 2008 (an autoimmune condition that causes hypothyroidism) and adrenal fatigue stage 2. In 2012 I was diagnosed with estrogen dominance and high heavy metal toxicity.
Every part of my journey made me wiser, kinder and more patient. Today I’m in remission from Graves’ and Hashimoto’s, my adrenals feel rested and I have managed to reverse my estrogen dominance. I feel better today as a 40-year-old woman than I did in my twenties.
As part of this exciting, often frustrating and self-discovering journey, I founded Thyroid Diet Coach, a highly successful nutrition coaching practice helping women with thyroid conditions to heal and thrive. Hormones Balance is the expansion of my practice.
Every part of my healing journey had elements of significant dietary and lifestyle changes. I now believe in good, clean food and no restricted dieting.

The key focus of my work lies in the restoration of the digestive system, balance of a person’s sugar levels, liver detoxification and emotional wellbeing, like self-love. I put my trust in the healing powers of real food, sleep, and emotional healing.

Reviews

[chell · Rating 3 out of 5]

The information and excellent explanations of how to determine what foods you need for your specific problem is something that really helped me.

Once you found your diet, there's handy weekly meal plans that get you started easily, but it would've been nice to 1. Add shopping lists, 2. Add info on the recipe if you are with 1 or 2 people. A lot of recipes are for 4 or 6 people. For meal prepping this is fine, but I'm often left with huge amounts of food and my freezer is overflowing. It's easier to create the recipes for1 or 2 people and if your whole family is ging to join you on your diet, just double or triple the ingredients.

The recipes though... Especially the hot meals are bland uninspiring. I actually threw away a pan of veggie soup because it tasted like babyfood and there was nothing I could do to spice it up. A fish stew recipe also went down the toilet, even though a tripled all the taste makers, like garlic, onions etc.

The breakfasts, salads and snacks are mostly really good, but double or triple the ingredients that give anything any taste. There's a cashew based lime pudding for instance where I tripled the amount on lime juice to get any taste out of it.

If you are not a fan of coconut, this book is not for you. Same goes for nut allergies.

[Dana Stanek · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is not for amateurs! I have done hours upon hours of research and listened to podcasts from doctors all over the world on the topics of preventative health, gut healing, hormone balancing, etc.; this book does a great job of consolidating most of the consistent messages and reoccurring themes that I have found across functional/integrative/food-is-medicine platforms.

The author does a great job laying out the healing path with concrete steps to follow. There is a TON of good information in here, which makes up the first half of the book. The recipes make up the second half, and I believe her intentions with the recipes were to provide readers some tools to use in the journey. Personally I love the recipes, but I would suggest integrating them with a few other simpler-but-still-compliant recipes found on your own. Prep work on this plan is critical for success.

With that said, I am at the point in my health journey that this book does not overwhelm me. I’m a health food nut and obsessed with gut health. I am convinced this will be the way of medicine in the future, but our general population is not there yet (especially in the US).

If you are going into this book blindly in regards to hormones, gut health, AIP, elimination diets, blood sugar control, food intolerances, supplements, etc., this may be too intense for you. If you have a bit of background, you will find lots of useful information in here.

[Roe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was diagnosed with uterine fibroids in 2021 and they eventually grew so large that I needed surgical intervention. (I'm actually 20 days post-op as I type this!) Throughout my information-gathering journey that ensued in trying to understand what fibroids were (a hereditary hormonal imbalance due to high estrogen and low progesterone), there seemed to be such an information desert around the topic. I found support systems and intel via Reddit and Facebook, but I knew that once my surgery was done I needed to TRY do something to prevent fibroid grow-back (which can very much happen to those who are not on the cusp of menopause (I am 33)).

Western doctors tend to have little to no guidance on this topic: The "how can I prevent fibroid grow-back and rebalance my hormones" question. I essentially got shrugs all around when asking this question. Because there is no magic pill to make this completely go away forever (birth control unfortunately is not the answer), I knew it was up to me to figure out a way to deal with this holistically (as diet is the only thing I feel I have SOME control over). I met with a nutritionist and while she was able to guide me on certain principles of hormone balance (maintaining health blood sugar above all other things, as well as eating plenty of protein and vegetables and high-quality carbs), I was thirsty for more information and knew it must be out there.

When I discovered Magdalena's cookbook I felt like a prayer had been answered. Firstly, the first two sections of this book are essentially an EDUCATION in hormonal health, the likes of which I'd never been taught before. This book is so thoughtfully written and laid out that before I even got to the actual cookbook section of it, I already felt like I was learning so much - Things that no one had ever told me or taught me regarding hormones and the body. I believe this information to be absolutely essentially to every BODY, but especially those who might be suffering from any issues resulting in hormonal imbalance.

The critiques of this book from fellow readers are valid: Many recipes in this book require uncommon ingredients (bound to lead you on some Amazon or Whole Foods wild goose chase) and what some might consider time-consuming cooking. I think that's fair. Many of the recipes in this book can be a little odd, and definitely not "convenient" (although there are many that can be made in 30 minutes or less). And to be honest, I have only READ the book, not actually cooked anything from it (although I plan to once I've more fully recovered). But in reading this book, I was able to better understand my hormonal health in a new way and now have a reliable treasure trove of information I will most certainly be using to eat better and hopefully balance my hormones naturally through diet, which in my opinion is way better than just resignedly doing nothing, possibly risking fibroid grow-back.

If this review resonates with anyone out there who either has fibroids, or is suffering from another hormonal imbalance ailment, please go to your local library and check out this book. You could learn something, even something small, and it could help you.

[OvercommuniKate · Rating 1 out of 5]

At one point, the author blames baby formula and birth control for causing relationship abuse. While a

The recipes start around halfway into the book and most contain ghee.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Who am I trying to kid with this book?!? While it looks interesting and many of the recipes look inviting, I know I'm not going to read the whole thing. I'm not going to cook anything, any time soon. I'm not motivated enough to actually do anything about boosting my flagging energy, or lower my constant (I'm sure) inflammation, or gain strength when I am the most sedentary person I know! And as for trying to restore a healthy weight? HA! I haven't seen that in 10 years now!

Just the title alone sounds exhausting. And I should know since it's been glaring accusingly at me from the arm rest of my couch each night since some time in January! I can picture my headstone now: She might have lived longer if she ever bothered to read that book!

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a wonderful source for learning about hormone problems and working to naturally balance them. It covers adrenal health, low progesterone, estrogen dominance, high testosterone/androgen dominance/PCOS, low thyroid (including Hashimoto's), and insulin resistance. There are many great pointers for the vast array of hormones discussed. Each hormone imbalance has a corresponding diet to follow and the recipes are included for all. The only thing I didn't love about this book was that many of the recipes did not appeal to me. Around slightly less than half had corresponding pictures, the ingredient lists were quite long, and some recipes contained hard to find or expensive ingredients.

[Sbwisni · Rating 2 out of 5]

Saved a couple recipes to try, but too many specialized and restrictive ingredients to consider trying anything to actually treat something. Too much on the herbs, bone broth, and essential oil end of things for me. I would much rather lean into WFPBNO menus when I need a body reset. While I would stay at a spa for a week or month and eat all these foods (if someone paid for me), I’m no where near that level of commitment at home.

Still a somewhat interesting read, although kind of difficult to plow through the information as just a reader and not someone just using it as reference to treat their particular symptoms or ailments. Gotta be better things out there if you’re just perusing. Maybe I should’ve just browsed social media 🤣

[Michelle Fournier · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think her advice is good but this was way too confusing to implement, especially if you take her diagnostic tests and find you qualify for multiple diet plans 😅😂.
The recipes I have tried were mostly drinks and those have all been really good-I love that she incorporates so many herbal suggestions.
But for a diet plan, I’d rather just follow the AIP diet again, or some other similarly straightforward plan, this had too many contingencies (-decision to make 🙈). Which may be helpful, I get that each person is different and there is a reason for so many plans, but in reality for me it was just overwhelming.
Too unorganized to be very helpful.

[Melissa Halbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great whole good recipe cookbook filled with plenty of traditional recipes to peak your interest in the kitchen, although a good majority of them I looked up alternatives for due to food allergies and sensitivities, and adjusting recipes to accommodate my dietary needs. While this book or program isn't for everyone, there is a lot of wealth to having this book in your collection, and Magdalena spent a great deal of time doing her research. I believe you can get a lot out of this book even if you are just replacing a meal or two a week.

[Kahlee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is full of realistic recipes and well researched information. I borrowed it from the library but now plan to purchase my own copy. The only thing keeping it from 5 stars is that around 25% of the recipes seem too involved for me or would require ingredients that would need to be purchased online or from specialty stores.

[Michelle Leduc Catlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an outstanding book on understanding how the food we eat is at the core of most of our health issues. It has been incredibly helpful to me in dealing with peri-menopause, Hashimoto's, and especially Candida.

But all that aside, Magdadena's eclectic tastes and diverse travels have brought together some of the most interesting, delicious, and healthy ingredient combinations I've found.

[David McNamara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note: in the Seed Rotation Porridge on pages 186-187, the actual recipe looks nothing like the picture (clearly made something just for pictures), and the toppings are reversed. Do your own research of course, but what I mean is that the squash with sesame/sunflower topping is probably more what your body needs to its menstrual phase. I say "probably" because I'm no expert on this.

[Tonya · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was hard to know how to rate this book. There is an abundance of information on foods, hormones, elimination diets, etc., and it really is a lot to take in. A lot of the information was helpful, however, I am also not positive how accurate some of the information is, and the recipes are not great. I think I'll keep researching myself.

[Charity · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great info but many recipes are labor intensive to the point of infeasible. As a temporary methodology it may be necessary but no way could I make my own everything all the time. Going to take the overall info but combine with recipes and offerings from local stores.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little too intense and detailed for me, but found a handful of good healthy recipes.

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

very interesting

[Sarah Wexler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Working on healing and this book is practical for the journey.

[Sharon Shoemaker]

Helpful. I do have too many allergies to follow the program.

[Raha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very thorough and informative!

[Lana Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good banana bread recipe

[Bree · Rating 4 out of 5]

Notes::
Great health info
Recipes leave much to be desired, coconut heavy

[Amber Koenig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent information and guidance to help heal yourself from hormonal imbalances. Definitely recommend to everyone!

[Britnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're looking for a book to dip your toes into the naturopathic world look no further! A real gem of common sense info!

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cooking for Hormone Balance was an insightful read and a book I recommend to anyone looking to resolve personal health issues.

There is a TON of information but the author has organized it in a way that is readable, easy to access and refer to.

The recipes sound delicious and do not appear difficult to make; there are easy substitutions for ingredients you may not have access to or do not like to eat.

This book is similar to so many others on the market purporting to help you resolve or manage your health woes. Many of us forget that some health related issues are related directly to the foods we consume and as our body ages, some of the foods we once enjoyed as children and teenagers now have a detrimental effect.

This book sheds a bright light on the foods we we, the hormonal changes women battle each and every day no matter your age, and how to take back your health, improve your eating habits and your quality of life.

The recipes and steps outlined by the author are no cure-all, as she mentions. Rather, they are a lifestyle change to help you manage your health, reduce the side effects of serious illnesses and enable you to live a more active, productive, and hopefully, happier life.

[DaCane · Rating 5 out of 5]

The proof is in the pudding and I have read it but must cook it!

So, it takes a while to incorporate dietary restrictions and inclusions into your life. I applied everything I could remember and hold on to since September 2022. It is now December 2022 & my hormones are absolutely more balanced and what I eat or don’t eat I am extremely conscious of and would certainly say it has changed my life.

There were things I was brought to understand that I can eat although I thought I could not as I believed those were the things harming me and I have stuck to many things from this work and it certainly has helped me! I will still reread it again and see what new I can retain and learn to cook. Now honestly I cooked what I was already cooking that she recommended for my types. I just cooked it more often and more deliberately and purposely so. I am due a revisit to this material soon for a recap and further inclusions.

[Ambur Taft · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of really great information not just for the over 40 crowd getting ready for perimenopause or menopause but also for younger women with mental & physical problems that may actually be hormone related.
Many different elimination diet options and tips on supplements & foods to help with hormone imbalance, and links to get more information in specific areas. The hormonal imbalance quiz in the beginning was enough to get me thinking about many different things to look in to & motivated to change a few things I wasn’t aware were messing with my system.

[Carolyn Moor · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you need to understand the power of food has on your overall health and energy levels and determining how to balance your hormones simply by making good choices to support your bodies changes- this is the book. Magdalena has done a great job online and now, with this book to inspire a practical and tangible way to make a shift in better direction. I really enjoyed the recipes and learned how my body is functioning and an be thrown into dysfunction.

[Lyndsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the way she described there being no pill or secret ingredient to good health. It can't be found in any one trend diet or supplement, rather it is a balance dictated by the individualities of your body, your genetic makeup, and the food you choose to eat. I read this and began the elimination diet in an effort to battle my canker sore breakouts, as well as other hormone-related ailments. The recipes were okay.

[Ella Zvulun · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not for me.

Loads of info, I'll give it that.

There is a horrible tone of "you should stop" throughout this book. It didn't feel like anything that I could apply to my life, and it made me feel overwhelmed and confused. I am lucky I found what works for me before I picked this one up.

It is simply discouraging and definitely not something I would recommend to a person who is struggling to understand their situation.

[Gleave_girl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great recipes. The recipes incorporate the "let food be thy medicine" philosophy. Many incorporate both culinary and medicinal herbs. I also really like that her recipes use a variety of different gluten free flours, unlike some books that only use one or two types of flour for all the recipes