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Foods and Recipes for Menopausal Women
Menopause is a natural part of the life cycle of any woman. What is not very natural about it though is the severe symptoms that some women may have during this period. Such symptoms include hot flashes, weight gain, mood swings, brain fog, and low sex drive, among others. As a result, to make sure your body functions at its best and can deal with all those symptoms, you need to support your health with a proper diet. That is why here we give some ideas about foods and recipes you can try out.
Recipes for Bone Health
When it comes to bone health, you should make sure to eat enough protein, calcium, and vitamin D (1). Ideally, you need to get 1,200 mg of calcium and at least 800 IU of vitamin D, but most women do not get those amounts from their diets. Thus, it is vital to add them as supplements or try to eat more of the foods with these nutrients.
Hearing the word calcium, you might right away think about milk. But even though milk and dairy have a lot of calcium, there are in fact, many more products that contain this mineral. Calcium-rich foods that you should add to your diet are tofu, broccoli, canned sardines and salmon, low-fat milk and yogurt, seeds, nuts, legumes, and leafy greens.
You might get enough vitamin D during the summer because of extensive amounts of sun exposure. But in winter months, most people have a deficiency of vitamin D, which is not suitable for your bone health. You can take a supplement if you want to control your vitamin intake. And you can also include vitamin D-rich foods like fatty fish, egg yolks, cheese, and vitamin D fortified foods into your diet.
Check out these recipes for bone health:
“Superfood Chopped Salad with Salmon & Creamy Garlic Dressing”
“Grapefruit Baked Oatmeal With Walnut Streusel”
Recipes with Iodine
Many women at the age of menopause have a problem with their thyroid function. This might happen because of not getting enough iodine from their diet, the nutrient vital for thyroid hormone production. When your thyroid is healthy, you can easier manage your weight and also have no problems with sex hormone production. But when you have a problem with your thyroid, this might show up as several symptoms.
Perhaps you can try including more Japanese-style meals into your diet, because of a variety of sea veggies you can find in it. For example, seaweeds like nori, wakame, kombu, and kelp contain a lot of iodine and are rich in other minerals. Other seafood like fish and shrimp also contain iodine, and so do some dairy and grain products.
Check out these recipes rich in iodine:
“Southwestern-Style Shrimp Taco Salad”
Phytoestrogens and Recipes
Some foods like soy have plant estrogens which are also called phytoestrogens. These compounds can imitate the effect of estrogen in your body. As a result, these foods are able to help you find relief from different symptoms of menopause, thanks to the plant estrogen effect. They can also help balance your hormones so that you can keep at bay such symptoms as hot flashes (2).
Women in Japan who eat diets rich in iodine but also rich in soy products do not suffer as much from the symptoms of menopause as other women around the world. Again, this is likely a result of the work of plant estrogens. You can find these compounds in such foods as tofu, miso, tempeh, flaxseed, soy milk, sesame seeds, celery, green beans, and pumpkin seeds.
Check out these recipes with plant estrogens:
“Green Beans with Mixed Mushrooms”
“15-Minute Miso Soup with Greens and Tofu”
Fiber-Rich Foods
Many women struggle with weight gain in menopause. And many find it very difficult to get rid of the stubborn fat. But you should strive to maintain a healthy weight because weight gain in menopause could put you at risk for cancer or heart disease. Eating foods rich in fiber has been helpful for many women.
Not only fiber helps you feel full longer; it is also ideal for your gut health. Foods and recipes rich in fiber include whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and legumes.
Check out these fiber rich recipes:
“Kale-and-Chickpea Grain Bowl with Avocado Dressing”
“Southwestern Chopped Salad in Mason Jar”
Foods and Recipes for Detoxing
Your body is very good at detoxing, but it also needs some help from your side. When it comes to what you eat and how you prepare food, these choices can have a significant impact on your natural detox process. And so can hydration and other factors of your lifestyle. Another thing to keep in mind is that our body also needs to manage hormone levels, and that is where the detox process also plays an important role.
Onion and garlic are among the best for liver detox in foods and recipes for menopause. They contain sulfur that cleanses your liver and helps it function at its best. Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and brussels sprouts have nutrients that help manage levels of estrogen in the body. This is very helpful if you think about how many synthetic estrogens you are exposed to in modern society. Dark leafy greens, oats, whole grains, nuts, and seeds are also powerful detox foods.
Check out these recipes for healthy detox:
“Cold Sesame Noodles with Broccoli and Kale”
“The Perfect Okanagan Inspired French Onion Soup”
“Caramelized Onion & Garlic Pasta”
Probiotic Foods and Recipes for Healthy Gut
A healthy gut is your key to dealing with symptoms of menopause. Improving your gut microflora helps also improve your metabolism and relieve many symptoms resulting from low estrogen (3). This is where probiotic foods could help. Products like kimchi, sauerkraut, pickles, live yogurt, kefir, and kombucha have many health benefits besides helping restore your gut balance.
Check out these probiotic recipes:
“Kombucha Chia Seeds Smoothie”
“Sauerkraut Mushroom Soup (Shchi)”
If you want to improve your gut health in menopause and find relief from your symptoms, try taking a probiotic supplement. We at MenoLabs know the individual needs of women in menopause. That is why we created a line of probiotic supplements to help you live healthier and feel happier in menopause.
(1) Christopher Gallagher and Sri Harsha Tella. “Prevention and treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis.”
(2) M-N. Chen, C-C. Lin and C-F. Liu. “Efficacy of phytoestrogens for menopausal symptoms: a meta-analysis and systematic review.”
(3) James Baker et al. “Estrogen–gut microbiome axis: Physiological and clinical implications.”
