Clothes, hair, and makeup aren’t the only ways to enhance your femininity. The foods you eat can also have an impact!
Did you know that over 300 common foods contain plant estrogens known as phytoestrogens?
These foods and herbs have been used for natural hormone balancing for centuries. And since phytoestrogens mimic the effects of estrogen, they could potentially lead to feminizing effects such as:
- Breast growth
- Softer skin
- Redistribution of body fat
- Fuller, thicker hair
While phytoestrogens aren’t a substitute for transgender hormone replacement therapy, these foods can help give you a feminine boost.
As an added bonus, they’re also super healthy and can help maintain an ideal weight. (Very important to your overall female appearance!)
Here are 5 phytoestrogen-rich foods worth including in your MTF diet:
Flaxseed
Among all foods, flaxseed is the richest source of lignans, which are a type of phytoestrogen. Flaxseed is also high in fiber and omega-3 fatty acids.
To get the full phytoestrogenic effect, you should consume ground flaxseed (instead of whole flaxseed) for easier digestion.
Try sprinkling ground flaxseed on cereal, yogurt, fruit, and salads. (It’s super tasty!)
Soy
Soy is the most popular high-phytoestrogen food. There are tons of soy foods available, so it’s easy to work them into your diet. Here are some options to try:
- Edamame
- Tofu
- Miso
- Tempeh
- Soy beans
- Soy milk
- Soy yogurt
- Soy protein powder
Fruits and Veggies
Many common fruits and vegetables contain phytoestrogens, giving you another reason to eat your fruits and veggies.
High-phytoestrogen fruits include:
- Dried fruits (especially dried apricots, dates, and prunes)
- Peaches
- Raspberries
- Strawberries
- Pomegranates
High-phytoestrogen veggies include:
- Alfalfa sprouts
- Winter squash
- Green beans
- Collard greens
- Broccoli
- Cabbage
Lentils
Lentils (and beans in general) are rich in phytoestrogens. They’re also low cal and high in protein and fiber, making them a great MTF diet staple.
Yams
Yams are another healthy, phytoestrogen-rich food. In fact, a particular type of yam (wild yam) is one of the most commonly-used herbs for female hormone balancing.
Bonus: Bustea
While not technically a food, many teas are also high in phytoestrogens. Check out your local health food store for fenugreek tea, fennel tea, or licorice tea.
Or if you’re feeling ambitious, try making Bustea. This recipe was originally shared by Dr. James A. Duke in his classic book, The Green Pharmacy. The tea is concocted of various “bust boosting” herbs, hence the name!
Ingredients:
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup fenugreek
- Dash each of anise, basil, caraway, fennel, marjoram, licorice, lemongrass, dill
Directions:
Combine the ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil. After it cools, add honey and lemon to taste. Dr. Duke recommends drinking 1-2 cups per day.
Note: Since Bustea is very high in phytoestrogens, I don’t recommend over-consuming it if you take prescription hormones. (Always speak with your doctor before combining herbs and hormones or other prescription meds.)
Love,
Lucille
P.S. Curious about using herbs for breast enhancement? Check out The Flat to Femme Program. This one-of-a-kind program reveals specific techniques for natural male to female breast enhancement. Learn more here!
transformation tips?
I’ll try a Pro-Estrogen diet, they say the younger you start, the better the results, now 16 btw. Thank you for this site, I’ll update my results.
I love your site
What about Organic Mothers Milk Herbal Tea?
I think is has fenugreek, fennel, in it too.
Just a thought.
Have a Great Day everyone.
MP
I just came off 6 sessions of em sculpt and feel so wonderful…but I have been using flax seed, powder and seeds sprinkling over everything I eat…I love the way my skin feels now…huggs all
Wow OMG I’m so addicted to this site it just gets better everyday thank you ever so much for the wonderful tips
Thanks for the great suggestions. I’ve been trying to find a decent list of phytoestrogen rich foods for a while now. That being said, many of the comments are making foolish recommendations; at least, as it pertains to this article.
If you want to boost your femininity, have a healthy diet AND become a better cook, remember these important facts.
1. Avoid processed foods, especially canned goods. Remember, processing and canning was invented for the purpose of preserving food and increasing shelf life. It’s terrible for food quality. Canning and most processing destroy most nutrients in food. So, try to eat fresh foods as much as possible.
2. Avoid high temperature cooking. Heat breaks down nutrients, destroy hormones and can even cause some oils to break down into toxic chemicals. So, try to eat as many fresh fruits and vegetables as possible. And when you do need to cook your food, cook at low temps. Simmering your fruits and vegetables. Not only will you preserve the nutrition of your food; the taste and texture of your food will improve.
3. Whenever possible, prepare your food from scratch. Yes, it takes longer. And you have to plan ahead. And it takes time to learn how to cook from scratch. The advantage is that your food will be healthier, you will be healthier, and you will enjoy your food more.
And of course, the most important benefit to us, is that we can see some significant improvement to our femininity.
Thanks for your very good infomative post and I’ll try to follow your suggestions, dear Sarah
Really enjoyed everything, super helpful and look forward to learning much more. Thank you so much. Sincerely Sofia
I concur with your comments, but I gotta add, canned stewed tomatos, especially Italian flavored, taste better than most grocery tomatos. A can of those mixed with a can of salmon is exquisite all by itself!
Bon appetit!
(I see this is a repeat and I have posted before, but some things bear repetition)
Great post!, Very relevant and true. A lot of the recommended herbs can be found in bulk food and spice sections of many grocery stores. Huge $ savings. You can make teas, or grind and add to stuff. To avoid medicine interactions, take 3 hours apart. Fenugreek seeds are hard, but grinding helps, or soaking in boiling water. Turmeric is also a good antiandrogen. Also for soy, “texturized vegetable protein” is fun to use, a meat substitute.
An anecdote: before I started hormones, I was taking a mix of all the herbs I found recommended. I found that was almost as effective as the later hormones!