What I Eat to Lower My Cortisol Levels and Improve My Gut Health
Key takeaways:
Cortisol is one of the stress hormones in your body.
Elevated cortisol levels can lead to symptoms like mood changes, weight gain, increased blood sugar, and elevated blood pressure.
Certain foods can help lower cortisol. Here’s what one woman eats to lower her cortisol levels.
In 2019, Katia Lolo was searching for a solution to the eczema and acne problems that had bedeviled her throughout her life.
She’d been diagnosed with a hormonal imbalance, but medicine was not working. Katia decided she wanted to take control of her health.
“I started looking into holistic alternatives,” says Katia, who is 29 and works in healthcare in Buffalo, New York. “It was right around the end of 2019, right before COVID started. I started doing research about how to really heal the body and balance out my hormones to control my acne and eczema.”
Seeking answers about her gut health
Katia dug deep into information on hormones and gut health. She learned about cortisol levels and the impact they have on health, including acne, weight, blood sugar, and anxiety. Cortisol is a hormone the body produces naturally. But when too much or too little is produced, it affects many aspects of health.
Katia learned she could lower her cortisol levels with the right foods.
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“I did a trial on my own body, and I would just play with variables, like I would stop eating one thing and see how my body would react,” she says. “I did that throughout COVID. I’ve completely changed my diet over the past 4 years.”
Since then, she hasn’t had an eczema flare-up, and her acne is under control. She also sees greater health benefits. She says she is less anxious, sleeps more, and weighs less, and her blood pressure and cholesterol levels are much better.
What foods could she add to her diet?
Most people think changing your diet is about what you don’t eat. Katia agrees, in part. She has cut sugar and milk, and she rarely drinks alcohol and caffeine. She also tries to avoid heavily processed foods and fried foods.
But Katia says she believes strongly in adding foods to your diet too. She focuses on eating whole foods packed with fiber, and she specifically targets foods that lower cortisol. These are some of the foods she added to her regular menu.
1. Sardines
One big addition to Katia’s diet was sardines — small, oily fish that contain nutrients, including omega-3 fatty acids, calcium, and protein.
“I did a challenge where I ate sardines for a long time to see how it would impact my skin because of the large amount of omega-3,” she says. “I would put them in scrambled eggs or in olive oil, and sometimes I crushed them and put on hot sauce. I would even make a sardine sandwich at home and bring it to work.”
What does it mean to have good gut health? It refers to the optimal balance of microorganisms in your gastrointestinal tract that support digestion and overall well-being.
What does cortisol have to do with your gut heath? Cortisol, a stress hormone, can have negative effects on the digestive system if it’s too high.
What foods lower cortisol levels the most? Read why experts recommend avocados, fermented foods, bananas, dark chocolate, and spinach.
Katia chronicled her challenge on TikTok and got a lot of positive feedback.
“It is one of my more viral videos, where people would say things like, ‘My grandpa used to eat sardines — and his skin looks great, and he still has his hair, and he’s 90 years old,’” she says. “I started realizing that it wasn’t just me. Others kind of had similar experiences with sardines.”
2. Kombucha
Katia discovered that fermented foods, including kombucha — a fermented tea beverage — are rich in probiotics. Probiotics can help maintain a healthy balance of gut bacteria, which is essential for proper digestion and nutrient absorption.
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Katia loves kombucha and drinks it regularly. She chooses the brand Synergy because it does not contain a lot of sugar.
3. Avocados
She also added avocados to her rotation.
“I also love avocados,” she says. “Avocados are rich and healthy fats, which is really important too. I eat avocados quite a bit — sometimes with breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”
4. Celery juice
Katia starts every day with 8 ounces of celery juice on an empty stomach.
“I feel like celery is a superfood, for the benefits to your kidneys and your overall health,” she says. “Because it’s made of so much water, people just assume it’s almost like lettuce. But the benefits are endless for what it does to help the body get rid of toxins and make you healthier.”
5. Spinach, asparagus, sweet potatoes, quinoa
Katia also regularly eats leafy greens such as spinach, which has B vitamins like folate that can help lower cortisol levels. She also likes asparagus, another source of folate.
And for some fiber, she goes for sweet potatoes — which are also rich in magnesium, vitamin C, and complex carbohydrates.
Or she picks a side dish like quinoa, which contains protein, magnesium, complex carbohydrates, and B vitamins.
6. Chicken and fish
Katia also pays attention to the main sources of protein she puts on her plate, which tend to be chicken or fish, such as salmon.
“Eating enough protein is necessary to balance out the cortisol in the body,” she says.
7. Watermelon, raspberries, and other fruits
When it comes to craving something sweet, Katia often turns to fruit. Her favorites are watermelon, raspberries, pineapples, mangoes, and strawberries.
She has seen other aspects of her health improve
Katia’s diet goals go beyond lowering cortisol levels. She seeks out anti-inflammatory foods and those that are healthy for the gut.
“Your body cannot fully function properly if your gut is not balanced and you don’t have the good bacteria,” she says. “When your gut is not balanced, that affects the way you approach stress and anxiety. To balance out my gut, I started eating a lot of probiotic-rich foods like kimchi, kombucha, and garlic.”
She says the results go beyond her cortisol levels.
“I was told that I [had prediabetes] when I was in high school because I had hyperpigmentation behind my neck — a pretty dark patch. The doctor said, ‘Your blood sugar is too high,’” she says. “Now it is really good. My blood pressure is great too. My cholesterol is great.”
She has also lost weight. Before changing her diet, she hovered around 185 lbs. Now she is around 165 to 170 lbs, with the added benefit of less belly fat.
“No matter how hard I worked out, I was just kind of fat in my stomach area. That area would be a little more stubborn,” she says. “I realized that was also related to high cortisol and hormonal imbalance, especially in women. It wasn’t a matter of not working out. It was just the way I was eating. It was a cortisol thing, and it was an excess sugar thing.”
What happens when she falls into old habits?
Katia is not perfect. She says she falls back into old eating habits when she’s on vacation, celebrating holidays, or at a friend’s wedding. She feels the effects pretty quickly.
“The acne will start coming back,” she says. “I will start feeling dry. I start itching everywhere. I don’t sleep well. I wake up in the middle of the night with heart palpitations. My body is letting me know the eczema is about to come back. And I start feeling anxious. If I don’t eat the right way, my body tells me.”
She prefers food over supplements
Katia says some people might achieve the nutrition goals she’s set for herself by adding vitamins and supplements, including those that lower cortisol. She encourages people to do what works for them, but she prefers getting her nutrients through food.
“The way you absorb the nutrients when you eat it in food is not the same as when you take it in pill form,” she says. So with the exception of some things that are difficult to get through food — such as vitamin D, she sticks to getting her nutrients through food.
“Why not take it in a way that will also fill me up and not make me hungry to eat other things?” she says. “It’s two birds, one stone. I’m filling myself up, and I’m not hungry, and I’m also getting the necessary nutrients for a busy lifestyle and a modern way of life.”
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