So frequently, women experiencing some of the more painful physical symptoms of menopause do not realize the link between their diet and how poorly they feel.
Getting the nutrition right — using food to support your body instead of fighting against it — can make a significant difference in how a woman deals with this unavoidable phase of her life.
The difficulty is that many of us reach menopause with the same eating and drinking habits as when we were younger.
Instead, we must recognize that the days when we could skip meals, eat on the run, and drink several glasses of wine the night before and yet feel as fresh as a daisy are, to put it frankly, over.
Menopause is a physical transitional period. If you are a mother who has raised a child through adolescence, you ensured that they had adequate nutrition throughout. But not only a child’s developing body requires balanced, nutritious, and nutrient-dense meals regularly.
If you are approaching or experiencing menopause, your body will be working overtime to adjust to the accompanying hormonal shifts.
In other words, you must begin caring for yourself in the same manner as a pubescent youngster.
Unfortunately, women are not exactly conditioned to prioritize their own needs. We are hardwired to nurture, ensuring that our loved ones have everything they require without paying the same regard to our own needs. Many of us have a blind spot when it comes to recognizing the connection between our bodily issues and our failure to take adequate care of ourselves.
To accept menopause and view it as a joyful transition rather than a gloomy decline, a woman’s perspective must be altered.
Menopausal symptoms can extend much beyond the typical heat flashes associated with this period of life. Occasionally, women visit my nutrition clinic for assistance with other physical issues, without necessarily realizing they are menopause-related.
Some may discuss suffering from depression, anxiety, cognitive fog, and incapacitating fatigue. Others experience thinning hair, aching joints, and brittle nails.
Numerous ladies suffer from headaches. Insomnia, recurring UTIs, and reduced libido can cause problems, too.
As soon as I examine their regular diet, it becomes clear why they are struggling; they are not consuming the necessary nutrients in the proper quantities for their bodies to function efficiently.
“I’m still eating the same way I always have” is a common theme I hear. However, menopause places a tremendous load on the body. It must have the proper gasoline in its tank, and lots of it, to survive.
HRT aids numerous ladies with severe menopausal symptoms. But if your body is malnourished, you will still have an uphill battle despite the addition of these hormones.
Now is the moment for you to have the highest possible nutritional levels. A common misconception of what we believe we should consume in the first place is a significant barrier to accomplishing this goal.
The generation of women who are currently experiencing menopause was raised to believe that calories are something to limit and that dietary fat is the enemy. We must invert this line of reasoning.
It is a grave error to remove high-fat foods like almonds, avocado, hummus, oily salmon, and grass-fed beef simply because they are high in fat.
These foods are beneficial for menopausal women because they contain high levels of mono and polyunsaturated fats, which, when consumed in the proper proportions, will speed up your metabolism, support brain and heart health, keep your hormones balanced, and leave your skin in great condition.
Following an overly restrictive diet or a radical cleanse may help you shed a few pounds in the short term if you’re lucky, but in my clinical experience, this quick cure is quickly reversed.
More likely, you will confuse your metabolism, and your body will want to normalize the situation, causing you to regain or even surpass your initial weight a few months later.
Understanding how the body uses the calories from different types of food for different purposes helps dispel the notion that you must track and restrict them.
When it comes to assisting women during menopause, dietary fats could surely use a rebranding.
Our bodies produce sex hormones from fat. During menopause, if there is ever a time when we need to support our bodies in this crucial task, it is now. Because calories from fat can also promote heart and brain health, a very low-fat diet is counterproductive for women with brain fog.
Fats also trigger the so-called satiety response, in which the brain signals the body that it is full, so avoiding overeating. Consequently, fat is not the enemy at all.
Also, women do not prioritize protein in their diets sufficiently. It helps the body repair wounds, grow and maintain muscle strength (particularly in the body’s most vital muscle, the heart), create bones, and replenish skin, nails, and hair.
The amino acids found in protein are also used by the body to produce essential neurotransmitters that regulate mood, memory, motivation, and focus. These are all crucial factors for midlife women.
We should incorporate protein into every meal. And yet, many of my new clients tell me they eat a bowl of cereal for breakfast and a salad for lunch (because they’re tracking calories), only adding a bit of protein, perhaps chicken or fish, with their evening meal. That is not nearly enough.
Not all carbohydrates are bad.
Carbohydrates are another demonized food category. People often appear to believe that carbohydrate restriction is necessary for optimum health.
True, not all carbohydrates are made equal. The recent publication of an intriguing study done by nutritionists revealed that simple carbohydrates such as white bread, rice, and pasta can raise a menopausal woman’s chance of gaining weight and getting diabetes.
The study of more than 1,000 women revealed that postmenopausal women reported a greater blood sugar surge after consuming these items than premenopausal women of the same age.
Over time, excessive blood sugar can damage organs and lead to catastrophic diseases including heart disease and diabetes. It is of the utmost importance to prevent blood sugar rises. But you may accomplish this without eliminating carbohydrates from your diet, as they are a daily supply of rapid energy.
You should replace simple carbohydrates with complex carbohydrates, such as brown rice, rye bread, and wholemeal pasta, which provide a sustained flow of energy rather than a brief burst.
If you consume these items with a fat or protein source, or, even better, both, you will decrease the blood sugar release even further.
Vegetables, fruit, and legumes all include complex carbs and, like the wholegrain foods I just described, are loaded with fiber, which is essential for healthy digestion.
Fiber binds to old hormones, ensuring that they are expelled rather than reabsorbed into the bloodstream, where they could potentially upset the hormonal balance at a time when hormone levels are already wildly fluctuating.
Eating to combat menopause is all about consuming a variety of foods in moderate portions without obsessing over calories. A half-dozen raw, unsalted almonds and an apple would make an excellent afternoon snack if your energy levels are waning; the mix of protein and fiber is ideal for regulating blood sugar levels.
It is futile to think, “Oh, but nuts are fattening,” and then decide to hold off until dinner.
The result is that you get the munchies and end up grabbing a couple of biscuits, which won’t help you in any way.
Keep stress under control.
When our ovaries quit making estrogen, our adrenal glands, which are located right above the kidneys, take over.
These are essential throughout menopause because they produce a weak type of estrogen that keeps us fit and healthy throughout middle age and old age.
However, there is a catch: the adrenal glands are also responsible for producing our stress chemicals, cortisol, and adrenaline, and when they are too busy with this, they have no time for estrogen production.
If you are dealing with chronic stress, your menopausal symptoms may likely be substantially worse, since your adrenal glands will be preoccupied, denying your body the necessary estrogen.
It is reasonable to assume that the years surrounding perimenopause and menopause are among the most stressful in a woman’s life: managing the responsibilities of work with the needs of a growing family and the hormonal conflict if puberty coincides with menopause in your family.
Midlife is also frequently a tough moment for women to reevaluate their relationships. We are also part of the sandwich generation, as we are responsible for the care of both our old relatives and our children.
Therefore, there is a great deal of stress, which distracts the adrenal glands at precisely the time when we need them to concentrate on estrogen production.
Therefore, it is crucial to take a nutritious approach to reduce stress hormone levels in the body, so that your adrenal glands have the time and space to do their work.
Maintaining a healthy blood sugar level is essential for regulating your stress hormone levels.
Low blood sugar causes you to feel exhausted, irritated, worried, unsteady, headachey, and longing for a pick-me-up.
Sugar is the primary source of energy for the body, thus a blood sugar collapse is a bad news. As a result, the stress chemicals cortisol and adrenaline are released to restore equilibrium.
They will instruct the liver to release sugar into the blood by sending a message to the liver.
Cortisol also induces intense desires for sweet foods and refined carbs, or, depending on the time of day, a cup of coffee or a glass of wine. Your body knows instinctively that this will provide a rapid remedy.
It’s a double whammy: the liver releases its sugar reserves, you consume a sugary snack, and instead of settling back within the needed range, your blood sugar spikes and the cycle begins again.
You can see how easy it is for your blood sugar levels to fluctuate throughout the day, which means that your adrenal glands are constantly generating stress hormones, which puts estrogen production on the back burner. Typical signs of a blood sugar imbalance include exhaustion, poor energy, cravings for sweets or carbs, PMS, mood swings, sleeplessness, irritability, low mood, anxiety, migraines, dizziness, morning trouble, palpitations, reliance on caffeine or alcohol for a quick boost, and weight gain.
Two essential nutrients are required to maintain normal blood sugar levels. Complex carbohydrates are abundant in fiber and release sugar into the body more slowly than refined carbohydrates.
The second component is protein, which is difficult to digest and inhibits the release of carbohydrates, keeping you full longer and preserving the blood sugar balance.
Every meal and snack should include both protein and complex carbs.
Concurrently, you must avoid sugary and refined carbohydrate-containing items, such as cakes, cookies, and chocolate.
This may appear to be an insurmountable challenge, but if you maintain a constant blood sugar level, you will be less prone to the sugar cravings that occur during a blood sugar drop, and this will make the task considerably simpler. In essence, your brain, not your hormones, will control your eating choices.
