What Is Seed Cycling?
Have you heard the hype about seed cycling? Let’s break it down.
Seed cycling is a naturopathic therapy that has been used for many years. It means eating specific seeds during different phases of the menstrual cycle to support hormonal balance.
Our hormones are changing every day, and a healthy period depends on a cyclical change in hormones every month, like this:
🔹 During phase 1 (days 1-14 of your cycle), estrogen levels gradually rise to trigger ovulation on day 14.
🔸 During phase 2 (days 15-28 of your cycle), progesterone levels peak.
The idea with seed cycling is to eat seeds during phase 1 that support estrogen metabolism and seeds during phase 2 that support progesterone.
Like this:
🔹 Eat 1 tablespoon each per day of ground flax seeds and pumpkin seeds during phase 1.
🔸 Eat 1 tablespoon each per day of sesame seeds and sunflower seeds during phase 2.
It’s best to eat ground seeds so that you’ll absorb the most nutrients from them.
We know that seeds are rich in healthy essential fatty acids as well as nutrients and minerals like zinc.
But to be clear—even though seed cycling has been used by thousands of women who report improvements in their menstrual cycle, there are no actual clinical trials on this method.
Still, there is no harm in eating nutritional seeds every day, so it’s something that I often recommend as part of a complete naturopathic approach to hormone balance.
Especially for women wanting better periods.
Have you tried it?