10 Real Foods Women Should Eat More Often for Good Health

“Less cellulite at 30 than 20?” My friend was ready to eat the next words out of my mouth when I told her I blamed one dietary change for my incredible loss of cellulite.

Quite often others counter my claim with a strange question: “How do you know?”

I’m sure their intentions are simply curious, but it’s a little uncomfortable to answer the obvious: “Um…I can see it.” My husband, as the only other person qualified to analyze the situation, concurs (with great joy, I assure you).

Men, I’ve noticed, do not worry about their cellulite. They also do not discuss monthly flow, experience PMS, or bear children. Although women often go to great lengths to prove that they are equal to men, we are far from “the same.”

Women’s Health Issues

When it comes to women’s health, there are many ways women have different challenges and different opportunities than men:

• Women can bear children; men can’t. This alone opens the door to a huge list of health care topics, such as menstruation, PMS, fertility/ovulation, healthy pregnancies, and menopause.
• Breastfeeding and postpartum care
• Higher risk of breast cancer, osteoporosis
• Different signs and symptoms of heart disease
• Cellulite
• Estrogen balance (Men have testosterone to balance, and we ought not be sharing our estrogen with them, one of the many reasons natural family planning is the green way to go.)

Considering I’m barely scratching the surface of women’s health issues, it seems clear that women ought to have some different dietary focuses than men.

Five Foods Women of Childbearing Age Should Eat More Often

The whole womb thing really sets us apart from men. Ladies, if you’re having menstrual cycles, trying to conceive, pregnant, breastfeeding, or nearing or experiencing menopause, make sure you’re paying attention to your intake of the following:

1. Eggs

Whole eggs, especially the yolks, provide choline for healthy eyes and brain development (for you and any unborn babies in your life), vitamin D for general health, and all the essential nutrients a human being needs. If you have a meal of one item, it may as well be eggs, which are nearly the perfect food for humans. Pay no mind to disillusioned health professionals who tell you the cholesterol in eggs will clog up your arteries. Whole eggs are back in style.

They won’t raise blood sugar because they’re a well-balanced protein and fat, and they even improve the look of your hair and nails. Eggs provide iron, which is hindered by calcium, so skip the milk with your omelet. Did you know Chinese women eat ten per DAY when pregnant? I shot for two eggs a day when I was trying to grow smart babies.

Other Resources:

• Find Perfect Nutrition in a Whole Egg and how to eat more of them (no egg white omelets, please!)
• What Do Labels on Egg Cartons Mean?
• Strawberry Milkshake (with raw eggs*)
• Eggs = Fertility Superfood
• Vitamin D Creates Lower Risk Pregnancies
• Garlic Leek Soup with Egg

*Food safety note: eggs should be consumed raw, very undercooked, for superb health benefits. However, I would only advise eating raw eggs from a trusted source with free range, well-cared-for chickens.

2. Spinach/Greens

Spinach may just be, as Popeye would have us believe, the ultimate superfood. It battles nearly every disease you can think of, but it’s especially important for pregnant women because of the high level of folate, along with iron, and even protein, all vital for fetal development and mother’s health. The lutein in spinach, especially when paired with eggs, is a powerful weapon against eye degeneration. (That photo above is salmon spinach crustless quiche from The Healthy Breakfast Book, and it has 3 of the foods listed here in it!)

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Why folate? This B-vitamin is vital for a pre-conception/pregnancy diet; helps prevent birth defects, specifically spina bifida; builds baby’s brain; and helps avoid premature birth, high blood pressure, low birth weight and miscarriage.¹ For those not looking to conceive, folate can help prevent strokes, heart disease, depression, and cancer.²

Other Resources:

• Spinach: to Cook or Not to Cook, plus how many days it takes for the folate to disappear – eat it quickly!
• Best Scrambled Eggs Ever (no, this is not in the wrong category)
• I don’t see any spinach in this Strawberry Peach Slushie (but it’s there!)
• Apple Pie Smoothie Recipe
• All spinach recipes at KS and those with greens

3. Salmon

Fish can be a tough menu item for most homes: it’s notoriously easy to cook incorrectly, is often high on the “I don’t like it” list, can be expensive, and is rife with controversy about whether it’s safe to eat or not. Wild salmon is also the very best way to get your omega 3s and DHA, which support hormones, fight depression and help mood issues.

Fish also battles menstrual pain, osteoporosis, breast cancer and negative effects of menopause. Salmon improves babies’ IQs when eaten by pregnant or breastfeeding moms. If ever there was a food for women contest, I’d give a blue ribbon to wild salmon.

That said, it is important to know how to find sustainable seafood. Luckily, the inexpensive stuff in the cans is almost always “wild Alaskan” and can be easily made into no-fail salmon patties. (Eat the bones, too, for an incredible calcium boost!) Now if I could just get my husband not to run screaming from the room when I open the can… UPDATE: He will eat this fish with spicy seasoning recipe.

Don’t be afraid of eating fish – they have more benefits than deficits. An article from Harvard states: “Women should recognize that avoiding seafood altogether is likely to harm their babies’ brain development.”

Other Resources:

• Health Benefits of Omega 3s
• Why You Might Not Need More Omega 3s…Just Fewer Omega 6s
• If you can’t source wild salmon, try Vital Choice. It’s expensive, but might be worth it.
• The health benefits of sardines – which are less expensive than salmon and also super high in omega-3s!

4. Full fat dairy/butter

Do you buy skim milk? Always grab the low-fat/fat-free versions of your favorite dairy products? If you’re hoping to conceive anytime soon, you may be making it an uphill battle for your womb. Research shows that women who eat low-fat dairy twice a day have an 85% greater risk of anovulatory infertility than those who go for the real thing.^{5, 6}

When I recommend one change to someone seeking pregnancy, it is always to get rid of all the butter substitutes, margarine, and shortening in the house, pronto, and switch to real butter. You’re not only cutting out toxic trans fats and industrial oils, but you’re adding brain-boosting saturated fats. Grass-fed butter in particular, although pricey, has incredibly higher levels of Vitamins D, A, E and K2.⁷

No matter what your gender, fat-soluble vitamins like A and D must be eaten with fat to be metabolized in the body. Your salad with fat-free dressing? Practically useless. You need to dip those carrots in a fat-full dressing in order to get the Vitamin A into your cells where it belongs.

If you’re worried that going from low-fat to “Hi there, fat!” will make you fat, you’re not alone. For our family, I can truthfully say that in nearly two years of trying to incorporate more fat into our diets, including going from skim milk to farm fresh, grassfed milk with at least three inches of pure cream on the top of every gallon, neither my husband or I have gained a pound, and his cholesterol even dropped the first year. You might also like to read Kelly’s “Does Fat Make You Fat?”.

Other Resources:

• Superfoods for Fertility
• Giuliana Rancic: Low Fat and Infertile
• 100 Ways to Eat More Fat
• What Kind of Milk Should I Buy?
• Butter vs. Margarine vs. Spreads
• All Milk is Not Created Equal
• Sourcing Quality Cheese

5. Liver

Organ meats.

If that sounds a little “primal” or “hunter-type” to you who would rather be a gatherer and eat some berries and nuts, check this out – liver has one of the highest level of B vitamins^{8, 9, 10} and iron^{11, 12} of any food. B Vitamins give energy (what woman, especially a mom, doesn’t need more of that?), and iron is super important for women because of the quarter cup of menstrual blood we lose every month (I know, it seems like more sometimes).

“Women of childbearing age have an RDA of 15 mg per day for iron, which  doubles with pregnancy.”¹³ Iron also keeps energy up and helps avoid anemia. Iron deficiency anemia affects about 20% of all women and fully half of mothers-to-be, yet only 3% of men.¹⁴“Having too little iron can result in fatigue, hair loss and brittle nails (Oh, vanity!), irritability, weakness, lack of being able to think clearly, etc.” (Sarah of Heartland Renaissance (no longer available))

The famous liver and onions might not go over well at your kitchen table (it didn’t the one time I tried it), but putting a bit of liver in with hamburgers, meatloaf, casseroles, spaghetti and soups is a great way to incorporate a cheap superfood with power-packed nutrients. (Here’s my post on how to eat liver in other recipes.) Just be sure to only eat liver from organic sources, preferably local and grassfed, as factory farmed beef or chicken livers would be a net for toxins.

No?

Okay.

If you really can’t handle the liver, red meat like beef provides a great deal of iron and B Vitamins, too. If you can find grassfed beef, meaning the cattle eat only real grass or harvested hay and alfalfa, you get the most nutrients and a good source of CLA, a healthy fat that’s hard to find elsewhere, and even a high level of omega 3s. Don’t be afraid of red meat, ladies.

Other Resources:

• Do You Have Adrenal Fatigue?
• Superfood Muffins: Liver, Beef and Garlic
• Health Benefits of Grassfed Meat
• How to Eat Beef Tongue
• My new Pin board about “Real Food Beef Recipes to Make with a Quarter Cow” – I could use some good ideas!
• Liver powder is another option if you don’t want to cook and taste liver. Look for organic, grassfed sources. Green Pasture Desiccated Liver is an excellent choice and Radiant Life is another really good source.

Now there’s no reason that the first five foods aren’t healthy for men or children, but they do seem particularly suited to the needs of women.

Five More Foods That Everyone Should Eat to Boost Immunity

Moms don’t get sick days.

Women in general have to be pretty tough, and no one likes being under the weather. The next set of five foods is not only great for women but are particularly helpful to boost immunity for any age and gender.

There are even two foods that fight the flu and cellulite, believe it or not!

6. Cruciferous vegetables

Why everyone should eat more: Vegetables always bring nutrients along, and the deeper the color, the better they are. Everyone needs to bulk up on antioxidants to fight the toxins in our air, our food, and our water, and broccoli and kale especially fill this need. Antioxidants support the immune system and fight cancer.

Why women should eat more: Cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, kale, cauliflower, cabbage) have a special compound called indole-3-carbinol, which reduces estrogen in the body, i.e. fights build-up of synthetic estrogen that all women take in from our environment. I tackled that subject at Green…Your Way with “Does Your Water Have Estrogen in It?”

Other Resources:

• Why you should cook your cruciferous vegs
• Reduce your carbs with this cauliflower trick
• Sausage, Bean and Kale Soup

7. Chicken stock

Why everyone should eat more: Properly prepared chicken stock has gelatin (use the coupon KS10 for 10% off!) to boost your immune system, aid digestion, increase protein efficiency (i.e., you can eat less meat and have the same benefits), and pump up bone density. You won’t believe how many diseases chicken stock can help!

Why women should eat more: Glucosamine in the stock rebuilds connective tissue damage that helps cause cellulite (see more at Cellulite Investigation). The collagen (use the coupon KS10 for 10% off!) from the bones may also help the cellulite deal, but this is not even the food I assumed was responsible for my loss!

Other Resources:

• Health Benefits of Chicken Stock
• How to Make Traditional Chicken Stock/Broth
• Buy organic chicken broth at Wise Choice Market

8. Cod liver oil

Aw, man. I know, cod liver oil (or “CLO” for those in the know) sounds really yucky. Our family just started taking it this fall, and I cannot tell a lie: it is really yucky. We’ve learned to toughen up and take it because it’s good for us. Did you know CLO also comes in capsule form? Lovely.

Why everyone should eat more: Among the nutrients we really need for immune system and general health, Vitamin D is at the top of the list. Cod liver oil has twice as much Vitamin D as the next closest food in the running (pastured lard), four times that in sockeye salmon, and over 50 times as much as pastured eggs. The Vitamin D in CLO is more bioavailable than the synthetic stuff in your breakfast cereal or store whole milk. It also helps us balance our omega 3s with our omega 6s, which is key for many health issues. (You can also lower your intake of omega 6s by cutting out polyunsaturated vegetable oils.)

Why women should eat more: Omega 3 fatty acids and DHA, a healthy fat found almost exclusively in fish and breastmilk, both serve to help women build healthy babies, balance hormones, and fight depression and mood issues. Vitamin D also helps proper absorption of calcium, for which women over 40 have a particular need. If it’s really too gross for you, TriLight Health had many herbal immune boosters and a whole Pregnancy category.

Other Resources:

• Vitamin D deficiency and infertility
• Lower risk pregnancies with Vitamin D
• Cod liver oil from Perfect Supplements (use the coupon KS10 for 10% off!).

9. Yogurt

This one is pretty easy to swallow, and just about everyone will agree that more yogurt is healthy for you.

Why everyone should eat more: Our guts house 80% of our immune system. I kid you not. If you want to have a balanced intestinal flora, you need to make sure you invite “good bacteria,” aka probiotics, to be among your 100 trillion microscopic houseguests. Make sure your yogurt has “live and active cultures” listed on the container, or make homemade yogurt to save money and increase your nutrition even more.

Why women should eat more: Probiotics help protect from yeast infections and osteoporosis, and they also ease symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome, recently pegged as an attacker of more women than men. Yogurt also helps you feel full longer, a nice bonus.

Other Resources:

• Buy a yogurt starter from Cultures for Health
• Making thick creamy raw milk yogurt
• The definitive homemade yogurt troubleshooting guide
• How to dehydrate yogurt
• How to make countertop culture yogurt
• Recipes for homemade yogurt (to make with the yogurt you already made)
• Tip: If your yogurt is too runny, make smoothies and freeze extras into popsicles.

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You’ll get lots of info about the superfoods, essential oils, and simple, natural remedies that can heal urinary tract infections, bacterial vaginosis, and yeast infections… naturally!

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10. Coconut oil

Why everyone should eat more: As a saturated fat, poor coconut oil has gotten a bad reputation in our time. However, coconut oil is still a plant oil, and its medium-chain fatty acids are unmatched in their ability to give quick energy. Lauric acid, a crucial component of breastmilk, is found in nature almost exclusively in coconut oil, to the point that formulas have to include coconut oil just to get it right. This fat is metabolized quickly and would be hard-pressed to stay on your figure as stored fat/extra pounds.

Coconut oil is naturally antiviral and antibacterial, so who wouldn’t want to have it regularly in their system while the viruses and bacteria from your neighbor’s sneeze are trying to take root?

Why women should eat more: The lauric acid is great for mother’s milk supply, and coconut oil also promotes strong bones for women as we age. Personally, I think the easily digested saturated fats may have been my cellulite’s undoing. Including coconut oil in our regular diet was one of many changes I’ve made in our family’s nutrition over the past two years, so my claim is certainly not backed by empirical data…but the coconut oil surely isn’t hurting!

Other Resources:

• Buy coconut oil at Wildly Organic (use the code STEWARDSHIP to get 10% off)  
• Coconut Oil and Cellulite at Cellulite Investigation
• Is Coconut Oil Healthy or Harmful?
• How to Use Coconut Oil – Baking, Cooking, and Personal Care

I hope you’re inspired to include these healthy foods for women in your diet as much as possible, like I was when I served salmon patties fried in coconut oil and a spinach and broccoli salad last night, along with egg drop soup for my fish-hating husband. I can’t tell you where I hid the liver in the meal; he might be reading!

Disclosure: There are affiliate links in this post to Amazon, Vital Choice, Wildly Organic, Perfect Supplements, Wise Choice Market, and others from which I will earn some commission if you make a purchase. See my full disclosure statement here.