Q&A: How to Use Nutrition to Support Your Hormones at Every Stage
An interview with Anja Lee Hall, founder of Julienne and the Modern Women's Nutrition newsletter
One of my favorite parts of being on Substack is connecting with other like-minded writers in the health space. For example, I recently had the opportunity to chat with Anja Lee Hall, the founder of Julienne and the Modern Women’s Nutrition newsletter.
Anja fell in love with food—and cooking—at an early age. She has been a nutritional-focused professional chef for 20 years and has founded four successful healthy food-focused companies.
Throughout her career, she developed thousands of recipes, designed gourmet menus for celebrities and professional athletes, led a large catering team for 10 years, and continues to teach healthy cooking classes. Plus, she’s appeared on the Food Network twice and won the Supermarket Stakeout cooking competition!
At Julienne, Anja and her team of experts (including those with backgrounds in nutrition, healthcare, and culinary arts) help women feel confident about their nutrition during their fertility and pregnancy journey.
Anja’s newsletter, meanwhile, takes a broader approach to covering women’s health and nutrition, offering the latest, science-based nutritional insights directly tied to hormonal health, fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum health.
Ahead is my interview with Anja, where she shares more about her business, her favorite healthy gluten-free swaps for balanced blood sugar, and her top nutritional advice for those who are trying to conceive or are currently pregnant.
Q: Why did you start Julienne?
A: During the COVID-19 pandemic—when my catering business shut down—many people asked me to teach them how to cook healthier at home, so I offered cooking classes virtually for team-building and built high-quality kits to pair with the classes (which are still available today).
This soon inspired me to focus more on women’s health. Being in my 30s, I’ve watched friends struggle through the perinatal journey and many who’ve had a hard time finding verified information for their nutrition-related questions.
Knowing that about 10% of women get gestational diabetes, 8% get preeclampsia, and both can often be avoided with nutrition, I saw that there was an opportunity for me to help. So, I launched Julienne last year to create resources and programs aiding women with their health and diet for a successful pregnancy.
Q: Who’s the target audience for your newsletter?
A: In Modern Women's Nutrition, I write about hormone health for every stage of life, why we react to food in certain ways, and why diet matters. Many people don’t want to face the importance of understanding that what they eat impacts their hormones and how they feel, and I’m empowering them to learn the stuff they really need to know.
Our hormones are so much more than the perinatal journey. While Julienne is currently focused on pregnancy (with plans to expand) because that’s a very important piece of the puzzle, my newsletter allows me to speak to a much broader audience about different topics that will affect women over the next 30+ years.
Q: Switching gears. Many gluten-free packaged foods, like bread and cereal, are surprisingly low in nutrients—even though there’s an assumption that being gluten-free is healthier. What’s going on there?
A: I’ve had many times where I’ve fallen for the gluten-free label thinking that the gluten-free version was the better of the two options. I’ve thought that maybe it would offer a little more nutritional value–which can be hard to judge sometimes.
Since blood sugar is directly related to our hormone health, it’s worth noting that sometimes glutenous products include fiber from the husk, which can help with blood sugar levels.
Whether gluten-free or not, it always comes back to trying to go for the most wholesome grain—for something that looks like it was when it was pulled off the plant.
If you can focus on finding a grain that still has fiber and protein included, then you’re on the right track. Quinoa, wild rice, and millet are three examples of gluten-free grains that will keep your hormones happy.
Q: I enjoyed the post you published on your favorite whole grains. What are some of the best gluten-free whole grains, and how can you incorporate them into your diet?
A: We love quinoa at my house—it's just so easy. It cooks in 15 minutes. It's full of protein and fiber, so it's really satisfying. And, it goes with almost anything.
You can roast vegetables and put them on top, like in this delicious Happy Hormone Bowl recipe. I love to throw a handful of spinach or herbs into a blender with a few nuts and a garlic clove to make a pesto-ish sauce to pair with my quinoa, just like I did in this tasty recipe. Pairing quinoa with any meat is great too.
As for rice, wild rice and black rice—sometimes known as Forbidden Rice—are my favorites. They contain the highest amount of fiber you can get from rice. In my research, I’ve found that wild rice and black rice are the least likely to be stripped of the husk, which helps our bodies to digest naturally and slow any potential blood sugar spike.
If you’re willing to try something you may not be as familiar with—a hidden gem, in my opinion—go for millet. It tastes like cous cous (delicious!) and cooks so fast, in about 15 minutes. It’s packed with many vital nutrients and is easy to digest.
Carbs are really important too, despite what all of the fad diets say. However, the kind of carb matters. A lot of people rely on rice or tortillas, and the quality and type of both of these will make a big difference in how you feel—and so does making sure to pair it with ample fiber and protein.
On the other hand, sweet potatoes are a great alternative and have an excellent amount of fiber. Incorporating those as a carb into your weekly meals will make a difference.
Q: You help women in the perinatal stage navigate fertility. What are some nutritional issues women should be aware of during this time?
A: As soon as we start thinking about getting pregnant, it’s common to be hyper-sensitive to what’s happening with our body—it’s a wild ride! But before we talk about nutrition, stress is important to consider. We may start to stress about what to eat all the time and how we feel about what’s going on in our belly—but that’s not always super helpful, and stress may even make fertility worse.
On top of that, sleep is essential for this piece of the puzzle. Our blood sugar levels can change significantly if we don’t sleep. From recent research, we’re finding that our glycemic index (which is used to measure how quickly a food causes our blood sugar levels to rise), is correlated to a variety of full-body hormone-related issues.
So, along with nutrition, thinking about stress and sleep—going for a short walk before bed, giving yourself time to digest and relax, breathing deeply, etc.—are all equally important to feel your best and have a successful pregnancy.
Additionally, other factors affect our fertility and glucose levels too, which can cause cravings and trigger nausea. One of these is the lack of sufficient protein at the right times.
We currently have a protein obsession in America—I don’t want to say we need to consume more protein because I don’t think we do as a whole. However, during pregnancy and while breastfeeding, a slight increase in protein is important. No matter what, the key is to think about when you consume protein and how to balance it with carbs and sugar intake.
If you want to have something sweet and delicious, great, enjoy it. But ideally consume it after you’ve had a high-quality protein and fiber-rich meal to help your body process the sugars more slowly. This will help keep your blood sugar and hormone levels more balanced, and, in turn, help you avoid cravings and calm nausea, allowing you to feel your best.
A great example: cereal for breakfast. Commonly, women who are trying to get pregnant are also busy, on-the-go, and career-driven—and they’re pouring something like Raisin Bran into their bowls because it’s an easy go-to option that seems healthy. It may have some fiber, but it’s actually one of the highest sugary cereals you can find with very low protein.
This will cause a large blood sugar spike, which can lead to imbalanced hormones. Doing this often may affect your fertility. When you’re pregnant, this may lead to nausea soon after eating, and you’ll be quickly hungry again.
Recent research shows that relying on cereals like this, and other foods stripped of their fiber and protein and covered in sugar, is correlated to the increase in gestational diabetes, which is my primary focus.
Gestational diabetes currently affects about 10% of pregnancies in America, and the numbers are on the rise. Genes can also be a factor in what our gestational diabetes risk is—but if we pay attention starting today, our chances of developing this and many other complications are much lower.
To touch a bit more on nausea, we can’t forget that it’s often a moment of pure survival when you consume whatever is possible for you to eat. This is typically the traditional comfort food, such as plain rice and pasta. However, without protein and fiber, our blood sugar doesn’t stay level, and this can lead to more nausea. Yikes!
Q: If someone did have a craving for comfort food during pregnancy, what could they reach for that won’t spike their blood sugar?
A: If you’re thinking, “I need plain pasta,” I’d suggest a high protein and fiber pasta—such as chickpea or quinoa pasta. (I love Banza, which also makes delicious pizza crusts—but beware that the waffles have added sugar.)
These products are still processed, and therefore they’re less likely to digest perfectly, but they contain protein and fiber that regular pasta is less likely to have. While they aren’t exactly the pasta you might be used to, I find that they taste satisfying and delicious just the same.
If you’re going to have toast or bread, make sure it’s packed with seeds and nuts. This will likely help with calming nausea and keeping your blood sugar more steady. Today, some brands are making huge strides when it comes to convenience foods that are a little bit better for our health. I like Hu Kitchen’s crackers, as well as products from Simple Mills, which are made from nuts and seeds.
It’s important to also complement those foods with other whole foods—vegetables, cheese, fruit—so your body feels like it has the nutrients it needs and thrives. A lot of the time, a lack of certain nutrients causes us to crave more foods or still seem hungry. It’s not because we didn’t eat enough, it’s because we didn’t eat the right foods.
Q: Is there anything else you want to add about women and their unique nutritional needs during pregnancy and other life stages?
A: This is so much more than just nutrition. This is about the confidence that women have. There’s such a rollercoaster that we have to go through in general with our hormones—and especially during pregnancy.
Our joints change monthly, we can get hurt more easily, and we're given the task and the pressure of making and creating a baby that can be very hard to wrap our minds around. It’s so much to handle.
So, this is so much more about us feeling OK in our own bodies, feeling confident that we’re making the best decisions for ourselves today, and sometimes having to face when we’re not able to achieve what we’ve dreamt of doing our whole life.
The bottom line: I think what’s important for people to realize is that making little changes in nutrition is hopefully empowering you to find ways to be more confident in your own body and be more confident in many other situations in your life.
For more of Anja’s expert advice and to explore working with her, check out her company Julienne and subscribe to her newsletter, Modern Women’s Nutrition! You can also follow Anja and Julienne on Instagram.
Disclaimer: If you click on a link, I may get a small commission. This helps support this newsletter so I can keep writing it.
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Such a joy working with you Christina!!
This is such an interesting read!