Dr. Alicia Stanton, Chief Medical Officer of BodyLogicMD was recently featured on Twin Cities Live where she discussed her new book: Hormone Harmony. Watch her interview here.

HOST - Hormones they take the blame for a lot of problems like crankiness hot flashes and more. But, what if keeping them in control was as simple as what you eat. Maybe with hot dish I don't know we are going to find out. The author of a new book Hormone Harmony says getting your hormones balanced either going through menopause or not it is as easy as what you put on your plate. Dr. Alicia Stanton is here with us today. Thanks for being here.

DR. ALICIA STANTON: Thank you for having me.

HOST- So hot dish, huh?

DR. ALICIA STANTON: Yes

HOST - Okay, you think that ranks? Okay, well we are going to find out cause we are actually talking about pasta.

DR. ALICIA STANTON: We are, we are.

HOST - So tell us about hormones with what you eat? You brought tons of food here, what is the deal. Can it really impact you?

DR. ALICIA STANTON: It can, I brought a wide variety of food and the key to keeping your hormones balanced with what you are eating, is limiting your sugars and refined foods. The real key is keeping your blood sugar stable which keeps your insulin stable and reduces your need for cortisol. And, cortisol has the same building block as a lot of your hormones. So if your blood sugar is not stable and your cortisol is going up and down, you're going to miss the building blocks of your hormones and unbalance them.

HOST - So that's the goal is to keep your blood sugar steady at the same time. Okay, so how do we do that, what are we eating to make this happen?

DR. ALICIA STANTON: What you need to do, is look for foods with lower glycemic index. And glycemic index is something that was developed in 1979 at the University of Toronto, and it is to help diabetics get a better handle on how their blood sugar works. And what they do is they compare foods to glucose and rate them on a number from 0 to 100, 100 being the highest, and pure glucose is 100. And, we want to keep with lower glycemic index food such as the vegetables we have here.

HOST - So high glycemic index food, does that mean it shoots right to sugar in your body?

DR. ALICIA STANTON: That's exactly right. High glycemic index foods convert the carbohydrate in the food right to blood sugar.

DR. ALICIA STANTON: You have an issue as far as insulin is concerned which calls on cortisol and you unbalanced hormones.

HOST - So obviously, I don't think that low glycemic index foods are going to be chocolate cake. So, we are talking vegetables.

DR. ALICIA STANTON: Unfortunately, the thing is you can have a lot of fun with the low glycemic index foods. So chocolate cake is not low glycemic index foods, but, however, you can see a lot of the awesome vegetables like spinach and broccoli, string beans, peppers, those are all low glycemic index foods.

HOST - Those are going to keep you all a little more steady.

DR. ALICIA STANTON: They are going to keep you more steady, and also you can mix them, you want to keep them as raw as you can, as lightly steamed as you can because cooking them can break down some of the bonds in the food and it can make it a higher glycemic index.

HOST - Okay, when you cook it. What about potatoes? Because people think of potatoes as really starchy.

DR. ALICIA STANTON: They are. There is a difference the potatoes here are a little bit more starchy there is a little bit more moderate glycemic index. But, some of the other root vegetable, the yams, the radishes, the beats, those are lower glycemic index foods and again the less you cook them the better off you are with them.

HOST - So you think women who are going through menopause and are dealing with a lot of hormones or maybe even are pregnant, so they are dealing with a lot of hormones, really eating low on the glycemic index can make a difference with them?

DR. ALICIA STANTON - I think it can make a huge difference. And it actually is not just women who are going through menopause or women who are pregnant; it is all men and women. And, if you could be doing this your teens, twenties and thirties it makes the forties and fifties much, much better.

HOST - Oh, that's interesting. What about fruit, because fruit id sugary and delicious?

DR. ALICIA STANTON - Fruit is actually very, very good, these are actually some of the lower glycemic index foods and you want to think about fruits that grow in the northern climates and in the Mediterranean. So here we have some apples and pears and berries. The more tropical fruits: bananas, mangos tend to be higher glycemic index so what happens is the sugar again converts to sugar right in your blood.

HOST - Oh, the banana I love bananas.

DR. ALICIA STANTON - I know, but the thing is this one is a very ripe banana so that's even faster. The sweeter and riper they are, the worse it is. So, if you are going to go for the bananas go for the less ripe ones.

HOST - So we are lucky here, because these are all local things for us. That's a good thing.

DR. ALICIA STANTON- Yes, that's a very, very good thing. And I do that a lot.

HOST - What about pasta and bread? I mean my down fall.

DR. ALICIA STANTON- Okay, the pasta is actually, as long as you using, they are cooked al dante. So if the fettuccini for the hot dish was cooked al dante then it is low glycemic index or lower glycemic index. The breads if you look at things like the whole wheat, the rolls the white bread those actually all have the same higher glycemic index.

HOST - So it doesn't matter if they are whole wheat or not?

DR. ALICIA STANTON- Doesn't matter if they are whole wheat or not doesn't matter if it is rolls, those are all higher glycemic index and convert to sugar must faster in your system. Sour Dough bread, because it is acidic it is slowly absorbed and that is lower glycemic index. So, if you're going to do breads the sour dough breads, or you can take you higher glycemic index bread and mix it with balsamic vinegar and you're going to increase the acidity and slower to be digested and lower glycemic index.

HOST - That's great, dip it in there. This is very interesting. Thank you so much and for more information about hormone harmony and where to get Dr. Stanton's book just head to kstp.com and click on twin cities live.