Diet for menopause
Menopause is the transition in a woman’s life when their menstrual cycles come to an end. Despite being entirely natural, it can cause numerous symptoms that can make day-to-day life more challenging. For some women, these symptoms can begin years before menopause (often known as perimenopause) and continue long after, so finding ways to help manage them is essential.
While some medical treatments, like hormone replacement therapies (HRT), are available from your doctor, lifestyle factors, like maintaining a healthy weight, exercising regularly, and eating a healthy, well-balanced diet, can also help manage your symptoms and improve your overall wellbeing.
In this article, we focus on how diet can help with menopause symptoms, including foods that may help reduce them and those you should try to limit.
Why is diet important during menopause?
As well as causing the telltale signs of menopause like irregular periods, hot flushes and night sweats, falling oestrogen levels can cause multiple changes in a woman’s body that impact your overall health.
Some of these changes can mean the foods you eat can play an even bigger role in maintaining your overall health while also helping reduce menopause-related symptoms. Common conditions to watch out for that can be linked to diet include:
- Weight gain
- Higher blood pressure and cholesterol levels, which can increase your risk of heart disease
- Loss of calcium and increased risk of osteoporosis
Weight gain
During menopause, it is normal for a woman’s muscle mass to reduce. This can mean you need fewer calories than you once did to maintain your weight. Many women are not aware of this and, as a result, may experience weight gain during menopause.
Being more aware of the calories you consume and exercising regularly can help you to maintain a healthy weight.
Heart health
Falling oestrogen levels in women experiencing menopause can cause a rise in their blood pressure and cholesterol levels, which for some can increase their risk of heart disease. As a result, eating a heart-healthy diet is recommended to help keep your cholesterol levels and blood pressure within a healthy range.
Following a heart-healthy diet includes making simple dietary changes such as:
- Reducing your saturated fat intake by choosing unsaturated fats oils and spreads
- Eating nuts, beans and pulses at least once or twice a week
- Including more fibre in your diet
- Eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day
- Eating at least two portions of fish per week
- Reducing your intake of refined sugars
- Reducing your salt intake, which can include not adding it to meals and trying to opt for home-cooked options instead of ready meals
Bone health
Although we all begin losing calcium stores from around the age of 35, the rate of loss increases in women when their oestrogen levels drop during menopause. This can put women at an increased risk of osteoporosis and other bone problems as they age.
As a result, choosing foods rich in calcium, like dairy or fortified cereals or taking a calcium supplement can become beneficial to women as they age.
But it is also important for women to get enough vitamin D, as it helps the body absorb the calcium it needs from the foods we eat. Our guide explains the link between vitamin D and calcium, including why taking a vitamin D supplement is recommended in the UK from the end of September to the beginning of April.
Best diet for menopause
When it comes to which diet is best to follow during menopause, there is no right or wrong answer. The key is to aim for a healthy well-balanced diet that provides you with the nutrients you need while maintaining a healthy weight.
However, by incorporating certain foods into your diet, you can help boost your overall health and reduce some menopause-related symptoms.
The best foods to help maintain a healthy diet and reduce menopause-related symptoms include:
Dairy products
Due to an increased decline in calcium levels during menopause, incorporating more dairy products into your diet can help you to reduce your risk of fractures or other bone problems, like osteoporosis.
Milk, yoghurt and low-fat cheese are all good options, but if you don’t eat dairy you can opt for fortified dairy alternatives, like soy yoghurts, to help boost your calcium levels. You can find out more about how to get enough calcium on a vegan diet in our guide.
Healthy fats
Although fats are often labelled as ‘bad’, our bodies need a certain amount to function normally, especially during menopause. However, it’s important to choose healthy fats, like omega-3 fatty acids, which are linked to a lower risk of health conditions like heart disease.
Foods high in omega 3 fatty acids include:
- Oily fish, like mackerel, salmon and anchovies
- Seeds, like flax, chia and hemp
Learn more about the benefits of incorporating omega 3 fatty acids into your diet, in our article ‘What is omega 3 good for?’
Whole grains
Some studies have suggested that women who eat more whole grains like brown rice, wholegrain bread, quinoa and oats, have less severe menopause-related symptoms.
A higher consumption of whole grain foods is also linked to a lower risk of heart disease, some cancers and premature death, so incorporating more whole grain foods into your diet is a beneficial way to boost your overall health.
To get started try to make simple swaps like switching from white to wholegrain bread or white to brown rice. You can also try swapping your usual cereal for a wholegrain option or eating porridge oats instead.
Fruits and vegetables
Packed with multiple vitamins and minerals beneficial to your overall health, some studies have linked an increased consumption of fruit and vegetables with reduced menopausal symptoms. Dark berries have been found to be particularly beneficial to women experiencing menopause.
Phytoestrogen-containing foods
Phytoestrogens are compounds found in foods that act as weak oestrogens in your body, and there is some evidence to suggest that they can help alleviate some menopause symptoms by helping balance hormone levels.
Foods rich in phytoestrogens include:
- Soybeans
- Chickpeas
- Peanuts
- Flaxseeds
- Barley
- Grapes
- Berries
- Plums
- Green and black tea
High-quality protein
As muscle mass naturally decreases during menopause, it is important that women eat enough protein. Guidelines suggest that menopausal women eat between 1-2g protein per kilogram of body weight a day.
Foods rich in quality protein include:
- Eggs
- Lean meat like chicken
- Fish
- Legumes
- Dairy products
Foods or drinks to avoid during menopause
Incorporating certain foods into your diet can help ease menopause-related symptoms and boost your overall health. However, it is also important to limit your intake of foods that could exacerbate symptoms, like hot flushes, weight gain, and sleep problems.
The most important foods and drinks to cut back on include:
- Highly processed foods, such as ready meals, bakery items and fried foods
- Foods and drinks with added sugar, such as energy drinks or baked goods
- Alcohol
- Caffeine
- Foods high in salt
Check your hormone health
If you are experiencing symptoms you believe may be related to menopause or perimenopause and want to know more about your hormone health, why not book a private Advanced Menopause Profile blood test?
At Bluecrest Wellness, our complete female hormone package provides insights into five key female hormones as well as a private GP consultation to discuss your symptoms to help determine if you are experiencing menopause. It can also help you plan and adjust treatment options like hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to your bespoke needs.
We offer appointments across the UK, so you can book a private hormone profile blood test at a time and location to suit you. Plus, you can be confident that we will deliver fast, efficient and accurate results as we have established links with leading UK laboratories and are fully accredited for a wide range of private blood checks.
