5 Foods to Lower Cortisol (Better Than Supplements)
If you've been Googling "cortisol belly" at 2am or wondering why you can't lose weight no matter what you try, the answer could be sitting in your pantry right now.
Before you reach for the ashwagandha or rhodiola, try these 5 foods to lower your cortisol levels faster.
Your body is smart. When it's stressed, depleted, or running on fumes, it cranks out cortisol to keep you alive. But chronic high cortisol doesn't just make you feel wired and tired, it also messes with your weight, your sleep, your mood, and your ability to make progesterone.
And despite what you may hear from “wellness influencers” these days, a simple diet for lower cortisol doesn’t require a cabinet full of fancy supplements to start supporting your stress response. Let’s talk about 5 foods that can lower cortisol naturally instead.
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Why Your Cortisol Levels Matter (And How Food Helps)
Cortisol gets a bad rap as the “stress hormone,” but it's actually a normal, necessary hormone. You need cortisol to wake up in the morning, respond to stress, and stay alive. The problem is when cortisol stays chronically high because your body thinks you're in constant danger.
When you're stressed, under-eating, not sleeping, or dealing with inflammation, your body prioritizes making cortisol over everything else, including progesterone. That's because your stress hormone (cortisol) and your "calm down" hormone (progesterone) come from the same source (pregnenolone), and cortisol always wins.
Not sure if you have an issue with your cortisol levels? High cortisol shows up as:
afternoon energy crashes
trouble sleeping
Most women don't realize that what you eat directly impacts your cortisol levels. But a healthy diet for lower cortisol doesn’t mean restricting more or cutting things out. Adding in nutrient-dense foods that support your adrenals, calm inflammation, and stabilize your blood sugar will give your body the raw materials it needs to handle stress.
5 Foods to Lower Cortisol Starting Today
1. Kiwi
Kiwi might be the most underrated food to lower cortisol on this entire list. Here's why I'm obsessed with it.
First, kiwi is loaded with vitamin C, which is one of the top nutrients your adrenal glands need to function without burning out. Your adrenals literally use up vitamin C when they're producing cortisol, so if you're stressed out all the time, you're depleting this fast. Vitamin C also supports progesterone production, which helps balance out cortisol.
Kiwi is also a prebiotic food, which means it feeds the good bacteria in your gut (lactobacillus). This helps with stress resilience, sleep quality, and lowering inflammation. These bacteria also help with GABA production, which is your body's natural calming neurotransmitter.
And if you're really brave, eat the kiwi skin too! It's really high in fiber and great for bowel movements.
Other great prebiotic foods to add to your diet for lower cortisol are:
Green bananas
Sweet potatoes
Garlic
Onions
Leeks
2. Avocado
Avocados are rich in potassium, which I like to call your "stress mineral." The more depleted you are in potassium, the more stressed you feel. And the more stressed you are, the more depleted you get. It's a vicious cycle.
Potassium helps calm your nervous system and keeps your body from overreacting to stress. Plus, avocados are packed with healthy fats that stabilize blood sugar and stable blood sugar means lower cortisol.
Avocados are also high in fiber, so again, you're supporting your gut health while you're calming your stress response. Double win.
3. Wild-Caught Salmon
If inflammation is driving your high cortisol (and for most of us, it is), wild-caught salmon is going to be amazing for you. Salmon is loaded with omega-3 fatty acids, which lower stress-induced inflammation and support your HPA axis (the communication system between your brain and your adrenals).
Omega-3s specifically help reduce inflammatory cytokines, which are chemical messengers that tell your body to stay in stress mode. When you lower inflammation, you take pressure off your entire stress response system. Less inflammation means less cortisol.
By the way, wild-caught is key here. Farmed salmon doesn't have the same omega-3 benefits and often contains more inflammatory omega-6s.
4. Pumpkin Seeds & Beef Liver
Pumpkin seeds are high in both magnesium and zinc, two minerals that are essential for calming your nervous system and supporting healthy cortisol levels.
Magnesium is your relaxation mineral. It helps your body shift out of fight-or-flight mode and supports better sleep, which is critical for cortisol regulation.
Zinc is a calming mineral too, and it also supports ovulation (which is when your body starts making progesterone to balance out cortisol).
Beef liver is actually a better source of food-based zinc than pumpkin seeds. You'd have to eat a ton of pumpkin seeds to get the same amount of zinc you'd get from a small serving of liver. But pumpkin seeds also have that fiber benefit, so why not eat both?
If you're not into liver (trust me, I get it!), start with the pumpkin seeds. Sprinkle them on salads, blend them into smoothies, or snack on them plain.
5. Pasture-Raised Eggs
I think of pasture-raised eggs as a multivitamin, and when I say pasture-raised, I mean chickens that are actually running around outside eating bugs, not just living in a slightly bigger cage.
Eggs are high in choline, which supports your nervous system (and your baby's brain if you're pregnant). They're also full of B vitamins, which you need for energy production, stress management, and so many different processes in your body.
But the real reason eggs are a great food to lower cortisol is getting that protein and fat at breakfast time is going to stabilize your blood sugar for the entire day. And again, stable blood sugar means stable cortisol.
Women who skip protein at breakfast almost always see higher cortisol levels throughout the day.
And no, one egg isn't enough to get that benefit. You want to be getting at least 30 grams of protein in the morning to really set yourself up for success here.
Chronic under-eating is one of the biggest drivers of high cortisol.
You can have the best diet for lower cortisol but if you’re simply not eating enough, your body will think it’s in a famine. And when your body is in famine mode, your cortisol skyrockets to keep you alive, and progesterone gets shut down because baby-making is not a priority when survival is on the line!
If you've been restricting calories, cutting out fats, or eating "clean" but still struggling with stubborn weight and hormonal symptoms, you might actually need to eat more.
In the Hormone Reset Program®, I often have clients who are shocked when they start eating more (especially healthy fats and quality protein) and finally start losing weight. Your body literally can't balance your hormones and release excess weight if it's constantly trying to protect you from starvation.
What to do Next
If you want to start lowering your cortisol naturally, here's what I'd focus on:
Add in these five foods to lower cortisol.
Kiwi
Avocado
Wild-caught salmon
Pumpkin seeds and/or beef liver
Pasture-raised eggs
You don't have to eat all of them every day, just start incorporating them more regularly. And eat enough! Especially healthy fats and protein. Your body needs calories to make hormones and manage stress.
Support your digestion.
If you feel like you're not absorbing nutrients well, consider adding in a digestive enzyme while you work on deeper gut healing. I like Enzymedica Digest Gold and Smidge Digestive Enzymes (if you haven't tested for H. pylori, go with the Smidge enzymes without HCL). You can find all my favorite supplements on Fullscript and create a free account to get a discount!
If you want to go deeper with functional testing to see exactly what minerals are impacting your cortisol and hormone levels, or if you want personalized support for your specific situation, that's what we do inside the Hormone Reset Program®.
But if you take away just one thing from this post, go eat more kiwi. Seriously do it. It’s going to be so so good for you!
Find more cortisol lowering recipes inside my Cycle Syncing Recipe Ebook!
This hormone-friendly recipe ebook is packed with tasty gluten and dairy-free recipes (including desserts) tailored to each phase of your cycle so you know exactly what to eat and when.
