The hormone diet fix
By age 28, Angelique Panagos was suffering from PMS, polycystic ovaries and thyroid problems. So when she became a nutritional therapist, she focused on hormonal issues and healed herself
The new self-healing lifestyle plan
If you ever feel at the mercy of your hormones, nutritional therapist Angelique Panagos has been there. And from the moment she got her period, aged 10. “I’d be in pain so bad, I’d throw up,” she says. By the age of 13, she had raging PMS, too. “I’d cry and feel so angry. I’d want to eat and eat. I remember thinking, I can’t wait until I don’t have periods any more.”
In her twenties, Panagos put on a lot of weight: she loved sugary foods and drinks plus she wasn’t exercising. Working as a restaurant manager, Panagos was partying hard and getting little sleep, always tired. Wanting to lose weight, she swung into restrictive eating, “what would be called orthorexia now”, then anorexia and bulimia, and over-exercising. “I’d do a 5am run on the beach, then go to the gym in the evening and eat literally nothing.”
Going to the doctor for her tiredness, Panagos was diagnosed with an underactive thyroid, caused by the autoimmune condition Hashimoto’s. Looking back, she says this was almost inevitable with the way she was treating her body, plus the fact thyroid issues run in her family.
ANOREXIA TURNED INTO BINGE EATING.
With a petite 5ft 2in frame, she went up to 12st 4lb, a “tight” size 16. “I used to be able to pick up my stomach and put it on the table,” she says. She also still had terrible periods. “I felt as if I had PMS the whole time, even though my periods were 90 days apart.” A few years on and she was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). So when she began to study nutrition, aged 27, she tells me, her first intention was to fix herself. We are now talking in a south London café, where Panagos orders a roasted vegetable salad – without the pesto dressing or halloumi – but with added chicken, and a fresh mint tea with added sliced ginger.
It took a year or so for the whole picture to become clear to her: that there was a hormonal element to everything that was happening to her. When Panagos talks about hormones, her ‘key six’ aren’t just the sex hormones – oestrogen, progesterone, testosterone – but also cortisol (stress), insulin (fat storage) and thyroid (the master metabolism controller). “No hormone works in isolation: they work in synergy and, ideally, in balance,” she says. “Every day these interlinked hormones work in what should be a graceful Viennese waltz. But most of us are doing the hokey cokey, using the wrong feet!” An imbalance in one hormone from, say, stress can set off a cascade of effects on your menstrual cycle, fertility, weight… and so on. “Often, it’s just not feeling right, feeling that kind of low-grade awful,” she says.
Panagos did heal herself, along the way devising her six-step hormone balance programme (right).
She still takes thyroid medication but she is a healthy weight and pretty energetic, especially considering she’s breast-feeding her 13-week-old daughter Isabella and has been up since 5am. It wasn’t easy for her to get pregnant, she says. She had two miscarriages, at five and nine weeks, which she says have given
“An imbalance in one hormone from, say, STRESS can set off a CASCADE of effects”
her a deeper understanding of how her clients who struggle with fertility feel.
What’s different about Panagos’ approach from most nutritionists is she advocates a 360º programme of lifestyle changes as well as diet. Cutting stress and getting more sleep are the cornerstones to her approach. “You have to be consistent with the changes you make, allow yourself to be immersed in your new lifestyle,” she says.
“At the moment we eat the wrong foods, we are stressed, we have 24-hour internet on our phones, we’re sedentary, we eat food-like products not food, we are overfed and undernourished, we are completely and chronically stressed.” Whatever hormonal imbalance you end up with depends on your lifestyle, but also on your genetic make-up, too.
HER PLAN IS SUITABLE FOR MORE COMPLEX
CONDITIONS TOO, such as endometriosis, low libido, ovarian cysts, polycystic ovaries, fibroids and the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause, although she doesn’t promise a cure. “What I am saying is, it may correct your symptoms, or it may help you respond better to your treatment.” She stresses that if you are worried about any symptoms at all, you should see your doctor.
She has a kind approach to clients’ bodies and to her own post-baby body right now. “I don’t think having an eating disorder ever truly leaves your brain. I do catch myself thinking, what have I eaten today? But I’m so
pleased I can catch those thoughts.” She’s just gone back to the gym – but gently. “I’ve got a mum tum, even though I’ve lost all the pregnancy weight. I’m not beating myself up, a baby doesn’t mind if you have a bit of flab.”
Her programme is slow and steady, with no sudden detox. Some of her clients feel different in a week, she says, for some it takes four. “This isn’t about rigid rules
or perfection. This is a sustainable, long-term solution that has worked for me, and for many others.”
The Balance Plan: Six Steps To Optimize Your Hormonal Health by Angelique Panagos (Aster, £20; out 27th July)