The more I talk to women who are struggling daily with weight gain and debilitating symptoms of peri-menopause, the more deeply I feel that it is imperative midlife women to find a trusted resource to empower themselves with nutritional knowledge and place their personal health and wellbeing as a priority in their life.
Did you know that there are foods, seeds and fruits, packed full of gentle-on-the-body phytoestrogens which help you to reduce your symptoms of peri-menopause?
That’s right.
The food you put in your mouth can drastically reduce your experience of the 34 symptoms of peri-menopause putting you back in control of how you feel daily.
Phytoestrogens are found in plants and are fibres called polyphenols that mimic estrogen in the body in a very gentle way. If you load your diet with these beneficial fibres, you get a gentle top up of the estrogen you are missing in your body in hormonal change.
Conversely, if you are in that part of what I call ‘the peri-menopausal dance’ where estrogen spikes and hot flashes take over, you can calm your body down as phytoestrogens trigger the feed-back loop that switches off estrogen production in your ovaries.
These plant based fibres that gently act like estrogen in the body are perfectly safe for women at midlife and help to balance and soften our hormonal change.
You can find a list of these foods below:
Ground Flax (keep in the refrigerator to protect omega 3's)
Sesame seeds
Chickpeas/ Garbanzo beans and chickpea miso paste
Chia seeds (again in the refrigerator because they are packed with omega 3 fatty acids)
Berries especially raspberries
Organic edamame and other fermented soy products such as tempeh as and miso.
Sunflower and pumpkin seeds
Alfalfa, soybean or mung bean sprouts
Organic tofu or soy milk (these can be hard to digest if you already experience some bloating, gassiness or adult acne and your digestion is not at 100%. Avoid until you have your digestive health supported)
Dried prunes, apricots and dates
Lentils, adzuki beans, mung beans
Maybe after reading this you would like to make yourself a bowl of Red Lentil and Lemon Soup or a serving of Beet Hummus, a Ground Flax and Blueberry Muffin or make your own Granola, to which you can add berries and raw nuts and seeds so that you can reclaim control over your peri-menopausal experience in a safe and gentle way.
The path to being a woman who finds menopause is a breeze is accessed through the food you eat each day. Plate by plate you can support your body to shift from a stressed out and sweaty peri-menopausal nightmare to daily cool, calm relaxation.
Now that we are the generation that has started the conversation about menopause, let's be the women who empower ourselves around this natural hormonal change with natural nutrition based solutions, that offer no risk to our health and wellbeing as our first line of defence.