Diet in menopause
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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At the onset of menopause the state of health and appearance of a woman is very dependent on nutrition. Diet with menopause helps not only to maintain metabolism and maintain a good figure, but also to improve health, to prevent the possible development of age-related diseases, and to reduce the manifestation of climacteric symptoms.
Every woman in life comes a period when her reproductive function fades, the ovaries gradually "fall asleep", which is accompanied by certain changes within the body. Unpleasant symptoms, such as headache, hot flashes, puffiness of the extremities, instability of blood pressure, irritability, change in body weight, joint problems are the most common manifestations of menopause. The main goal of the diet is to alleviate these symptoms, support the body in such a difficult period for him. Certain changes in nutrition will help to survive this time painlessly and unnoticed.
The essence of the diet with menopause
When the first symptoms of menopause appear, there is no need to immediately run to the pharmacy - leave it for an emergency. Most of the symptoms can be eliminated with changes in the diet.
The most common symptom - hot flushes - is significantly reduced if you exclude from the diet coffee, cocoa, chocolate, fatty foods. You should also eat less sweets.
It is recommended to exclude coffee, alcoholic beverages to stabilize blood pressure. It is better to switch to green tea and fresh fruit or vegetable juices.
To normalize the digestive system, doctors recommend reducing portions of meals, but increasing the frequency of food intake. In the menu it is desirable to enter a sufficient amount of plant foods, nuts, seeds - this will ease the burden on the gastrointestinal tract and make the intestine work more efficiently.
In addition to green tea, it is useful to drink tea based on herbs. Especially useful for menopause is dogrose, sage, berries, valerian. Such drinks relieve irritability, soothe nerves, relieve of sleep disturbances.
To prevent osteoporosis (weakening of the osseous system) it is recommended to include dairy products (especially cottage cheese and yogurt) and oatmeal in the diet - these are the best sources of calcium and phosphorus.
Reducing the manifestations of the climacteric period can also the products of the sea, which contain a large number of amino acids. A weekly diet should necessarily include fish, shrimp, seaweed.
Diet with menopause for weight loss
The next problem, topical during menopause, is the appearance of excess weight. What to do to avoid undesirable manifestations?
First of all, it is not recommended to "sit down" on too strict diets - starvation, monotonous nutrition, etc. The climacteric period is the time when the body, as never before, needs useful substances and microelements. Restricting nutrition, we only worsen the situation and aggravate the uncomfortable state.
What to do? Indeed, some products will have to be excluded from the menu, or replaced by more dietary ones. However, the food should still be diverse and full-fledged.
To stabilize the hormonal background and normalize weight, it is important to reduce the intake of animal fats, or to limit them to a minimum. Preference should be given to vegetable oils, or to cook food in a double boiler. This approach not only helps to avoid weight gain, but also reduces the risk of developing atherosclerosis of blood vessels and hypertension.
However, even eliminating from the diet fatty foods, it is impossible to maintain a normal weight, eating sweets several times a day. Certainly, carbohydrates are necessary for the body, and it is impossible to exclude them completely. But preference should be given to complex carbohydrates (for example, cereals), as well as fresh fruits and berries. In the morning, honey is allowed in reasonable quantities. It is better to refuse sugar and white baking. Under the ban fall carbonated sweet drinks, juice from packets, yoghurts with sweeteners.
If there are no pronounced edemas, drink more pure water - this will help maintain the necessary metabolism, and also quickly remove all possible accumulated toxic substances from the body.
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Diet in menopause in hot flushes
Tides are one of the characteristic signs of the climacteric period, which represents a sharp and short-lived sensation of heat, mainly in the face and upper body. Often this condition is accompanied by reddening of the skin and a sudden attack of sweating. The tide lasts from half a minute to 2-3 minutes. Let's face it, such a symptom does not cause women positive emotions, so many people think about how to ease the tides, and even better - get rid of them.
In order to reduce such manifestations, it is necessary to adjust the hormonal background. What is needed for this? First of all, you need to saturate the body with all the necessary nutrients, eliminate the lack of vitamins, minerals - in a word, strengthen and stabilize metabolic processes. It is important that the level of metabolism does not postpone the negative impact on the content of hormones in the blood.
What substances are worth paying attention to?
- Tocopherol (Vit. E) - an antioxidant that helps improve cardiac activity, reduce the amount and intensity of hot flashes, prevent swelling of the mammary glands, and eliminate dryness in the vagina. Tocopherol is found in asparagus, wild rice, yolks of eggs, legumes, in the peel of potatoes and vegetable oils.
- Omega-3 fatty acids - prevent fluctuations in blood pressure during hot flashes, prevent the onset of headaches and feelings of heat. The best source of such acids are sea fish, flax (seeds and oil), nuts.
- Magnesium is a mineral substance with a sedative effect. Helps overcome a bad mood, tearfulness, anxiety, irritability. Magnesium can be obtained by eating nuts, seaweed, salad leaves, bran.
- Polymer lignin - a substance that is contained in almost all plants, so it is recommended to climax on vegetable food with climax. Abundance in the diet of vegetables, fruits, herbs and berries will help to weaken the manifestation of tides and stabilizes the microflora in the vagina and in the intestines.
In addition to adding to the diet of nutrients, it is recommended to abandon the products that destabilize the hormonal background - coffee, chocolate, cocoa, alcoholic beverages, spices, to eliminate tides.
Dukan Diet with menopause
The main essence of a fairly well-known diet Dyukana - it is predominantly protein nutrition with a restriction of the consumption of fats and carbohydrate food. At the same time, a person does not go hungry at all, since there is no special restriction on the amount of food. The diet consists of several stages, two of which involve periods of intense weight loss, and the subsequent ones are designed to fix and hold weight in the norm.
The list of the main products that are recommended for consumption during a diet is any meat, dairy products without fat, chicken eggs, fish products.
It would seem that the diet is not bad - it is offered without restrictions, choosing products from the allowed list. But is everything so good?
The fact is that the abundance of protein foods can be dangerous for women with kidney disease, digestive system. During this diet, lethargy, insomnia may increase, besides, the hormonal background also does not change for the better. Dukan's diet is not recognized as balanced, and the balance of nutrients is an important component of proper nutrition, including during menopause. As a consequence - deterioration of the skin, weakened immunity, reduced absorption of minerals (especially important is calcium, which in women serves as prevention of osteoporosis - weakness of the osseous system).
To normally transfer the menopause, you do not need to look for any new and fashionable diets. It is important to take into account the needs of the body at a specific time, in this case, with a climacterium - that is, ensure sufficient metabolism, adhere to the balance of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, which will not allow the hormonal background to deviate.
If you still decide to follow such a diet, then consult a doctor - after 40-50 years, almost any person already has any chronic diseases, and in this aspect the main rule of any changes in the diet is not to harm or aggravate health problems.
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Diet menus with menopause
In order to make it easier to make a menu with a climax, we offer you an approximate version of a weekly ration, painted on the days of the week - from Monday to Sunday.
1 day
- For breakfast, you can prepare muesli with yoghurt.
- The second breakfast is a handful of nuts.
- We have lunch with vegetarian cabbage soup, supplemented with a salad of carrots and cabbage.
- Snack is a banana.
- We are having dinner with a piece of boiled fish with a beetroot salad.
2 day
- Lunch cottage cheese with prunes and sour cream.
- As a second breakfast - berry smoothies.
- Lunch chicken soup with meatballs.
- Snack - kefir with fruit.
- Dinner - potato casserole, salad from tomatoes and cucumbers.
3 day
- Breakfast - oatmeal with raisins.
- Instead of a second breakfast - marshmallow, herbal tea.
- We have lunch with tomato soup and rice cutlets.
- Snack is a big pear or apple.
- Dinner - fish casserole with vegetable sauce.
4 day
- As a breakfast - steam cheese cakes with honey.
- The second breakfast is a salad of kiwi and orange with yoghurt.
- We have lunch with okroshka and carrot cutlets.
- Snack is freshly squeezed juice.
- We dine with chicken cutlets for a couple with greens.
5 day
- For breakfast - pumpkin pancakes with honey.
- Instead of a second breakfast - a handful of dried fruits.
- We have lunch with fish soup and potato salad.
- We have a bite of berry jelly.
- For dinner - cabbage rolls with sour cream.
6th day
- We have breakfast rice casserole with berries.
- At the second breakfast - whole-grain bread with peanut butter.
- We have lunch with milk soup and potato cutlets.
- Instead of a snack - baked apple with cottage cheese.
- Dinner - vegetable stew.
Day 7
- For breakfast - an omelette with vegetables.
- Instead of the second breakfast - a cocktail of milk and fruits.
- Lunch onion soup and a portion of beans in tomato.
- Snack - yogurt.
- We dine with a piece of boiled fillet with stewed zucchini.
Components of dishes, as well as the dishes themselves, can be combined depending on their taste, as well as products that are available (of course, if they are on the list allowed for menopause). And do not forget to drink enough fluids!
Diet recipes for menopause
- A simple onion soup. Ingredients: 0.5 liters of vegetable broth, 350 ml of milk, salt, 2 tbsp. L. Dark flour, 400 grams of ground chicken, 4 tbsp. L. Grated cheese, finely chopped chubby garlic, 4 slices of dried bread, 2 large onions, sour cream, 2 yolks. Vegetables are cleaned, finely chopped and fried in 1 tbsp. L. Vegetable oil, about 5-6 minutes. Add minced meat and fry another 10 minutes. Then we pour in the flour, fill the broth, wait until it boils. Add milk and a little sour cream to taste, seasoning. After 20 minutes, remove from heat. In the meantime, whisk yolks with grated cheese, put on bread and bake in the oven or microwave for 5-10 minutes. You can serve!
- Rice cutlets. Components of the dish: 400 g of chicken fillet, one and a half glasses of round rice, egg, 50 grams of hard cheese, vegetable oil, seasoning. Cooking: boil rice, let the meat through the meat grinder, add seasonings. Mince fry, add grated cheese, rice, mix and cool. We roll balls from the mass, dip in a beaten egg and breaded. Fry in vegetable oil or cook in a double boiler. Serve with greens or sour cream.
- Pumpkin Pancakes. We will need: ½ kg pumpkin, one egg, 3 tbsp. L. Flour, honey, vegetable oil, cinnamon, salt on the tip of the knife. Pumpkin is peeled and grated. Add an egg, a spoonful of honey, salt, mix and leave for 15 minutes. Pour in flour and cinnamon, stir. Spoon spoon on a hot frying pan with vegetable oil and fry from two sides. Bon Appetit!
What can you eat with menopause?
- Products with calcium (low-fat milk products, nuts, soybeans, sea kale, seeds and seeds).
- Foods rich in useful fatty acids (vegetable oils, nuts, fish).
- Cereals, dark varieties of flour, any porridge, bran.
- Sparkling seasonings.
- Any vegetables, berries, greens, fruits and juices from them.
- Dried fruits.
- Legumes (beans, peas, chickpeas, mung beans, lentils).
- All kinds of onion, garlic.
- From sweets are allowed products of beekeeping, natural marmalade, marshmallow, jelly.
- Green tea, teas on herbs (with valerian, mint, chamomile, dog rose, sage, fennel).
Dishes should preferably be cooked in an oven, in a double boiler or boiled. Welcome raw fruits and vegetables, as well as salads from them.
What can not eat with menopause?
It is necessary to severely restrict or remove from the diet the following foods and dishes:
- salt, sugar;
- semi-finished products, fast food;
- fat, fatty meat, smalets, margarine, spread;
- alcohol;
- sausages, smoked products, by-products;
- Coffee, chocolate, cocoa, sweets;
- sharp spices;
- sweet soda, juices from packages.
Reviews about a diet with menopause
According to reviews, the diet with menopause is not that difficult. This is more likely to be called proper nutrition than a diet, so many women continue to adhere to it and after the disappearance of unpleasant symptoms. Changes in the diet contribute to the maintenance of general health, while improving the appearance of hair and skin, normalizing the work of sebaceous and sweat glands.
Dietary recommendations will be more effective if they are combined with other simple tips:
- Dressing follows the weather, do not overheat;
- sleep in a well-ventilated room, preferably with an open window;
- refuse to visit the steam room and take a hot bath;
- perform feasible physical activities;
- Do not smoke;
- give enough time to rest.
Some women still have to resort to hormonal drugs, but the decision to prescribe such drugs should only be taken by a doctor.
Diet in menopause in any case, if not remove, so greatly alleviate the unpleasant manifestations of this period, so treat food seriously and strictly adhere to simple, but very effective recommendations.