Exactly What To Eat (And What To Avoid) To Eliminate Stress And Support Your Adrenals

Start to implement these foods into your day-to-day life to feel more vibrant, refreshed, and energized:

Getting enough protein in your diet is essential for combating adrenal fatigue. High-quality protein sources will help balance energy levels without spiking your blood sugar. Blood sugar regulation is an important part of supporting your adrenals. When you are dealing with adrenal fatigue, your body's cortisol balance is out of whack. When your body is not able to regulate cortisol properly, your ability to control your blood sugar becomes faulty as well. The two are completely intertwined. When your adrenal hormones are lower, your body has a harder time balancing your blood sugar throughout the day, and those who are constantly dealing with low blood sugar also often suffer from adrenal fatigue. This is why it’s so important to do everything in your power to manage your blood sugar levels through dietary measures. When it comes to animal products, I emphasize grass-fed animal products because they are free from hormones, antibiotics, and steroids commonly found in conventionally raised animal products. I recommend that my patients consume some sort of high-quality protein source with each meal. Pairing this with a healthy fat and a quality complex carbohydrate will help to keep blood sugar levels stable throughout the day.

Avocados are great because they are an excellent source of healthy fat. I cannot stress enough how important getting enough fat in your diet is when you are suffering from adrenal fatigue—it helps balance hormone levels and keep blood sugar stable. As discussed above, blood sugar regulation is a key part of supporting your adrenals, and both the healthy fat and fiber content of avocados can help you do so. About a third of an avocado contains 3 grams of dietary fiber and lots of healthy fat to slow down the absorption of carbohydrates, keeping your blood sugar level and less likely to spike. Try snacking on one-third of a sliced avocado with a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of sea salt once per day as a replacement for a high-carbohydrate snack.

Many of my patients with adrenal fatigue will have hypotension (low blood pressure), which can cause you to feel lightheaded upon standing or waking up in the morning. Those with adrenal fatigue may also find that they crave salty foods such as chips and pretzels. Oftentimes, this can be due to low aldosterone levels, which is a steroid hormone produced by the adrenals and plays an integral role in regulating blood pressure. Not having enough aldosterone in the body can also cause an electrolyte imbalance, which can cause your sodium levels to become out of balance. Because of this, I recommend that my patients with adrenal fatigue add some high-quality sea salt to their diets—I even recommend starting your day with an eighth of a teaspoon in water. Keep in mind that those with hypertension, heart disease, or kidney disease should always consult with a medical professional before adding extra salt to their diet.

We all know that vegetables are an essential part of a healthy diet, but they can also help nourish the adrenal glands due to their anti-inflammatory properties and vitamin and mineral content. Adding anti-inflammatory foods into your adrenal-fatigue-supporting diet is important because chronic inflammation can only further exacerbate adrenal symptoms like brain fog, fatigue, pain, and even anxiety and depression. I recommend starting with nonstarchy vegetables to help avoid any blood sugar spikes—foods like asparagus, carrots, celery, and dark leafy greens are excellent. In my practice, I recommend that my patients include a vegetable with each meal. This makes getting these veggies into your diet a bit easier, and you can even add them to snacks, too, by adding things like leafy greens to smoothies. If you work vegetables into each meal, you will be sure to provide your body with powerful anti-inflammatory properties at each meal.

One of the most important parts of eating to support adrenal health is to eat real food. Why? Because eating whole and natural foods will help your body combat inflammation, better manage glucose levels, and sustain energy. All three are incredibly important factors in supporting your adrenal health. Ditch the processed and sugary foods and stick to the real options such as the foods on this list. Here are a couple of other tips to help you get started:

These are the top foods for fighting inflammation. Plus, this diet will keep your blood sugar balanced all day long (so good for those adrenals!).