Bottom Line/HEALTH: How does diet affect menopausal symptoms?

Holly Lucille, ND, RN: When it comes to menopause, there are some recommendations that can really mitigate symptoms associated with menopause. Certainly avoiding trans fats, decreasing saturated fats, and one of the most important things to do is stay plant-strong. That means nutrient dense.

There’s this great thing called the ANDI scores – aggregate nutrient density index. For 1 calorie, it’s the amount of nutrients. Like King Kale is top 1,000 on the ANDI score. So if you really want to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to staying nutrient dense, stay plant-strong.

Also, phytoestrogens are really important. Of course, soy comes to mind. There’s some controversy around soy, and that’s a whole other conversation, but if it’s fermented and non-genetically modified, it is a phytoestrogen. So, it’s a plant type of estrogen. Flaxseeds as well. Things like red clover, too.

Bottom Line: In terms of phytoestrogens, that would be like miso.

Dr. Lucille: Yeah, and I always say fermented is best. So miso, tempeh, natto. Phytoestrogens are different from our own bodies’ steroidal estrogens, and they can work as adaptogens – meaning they can block stronger estrogens and, if needed, give a little bit of estrogenic life support.

Bottom Line: So that’ll help to replace some of the estrogen that the body’s losing at that point in time.

Dr. Lucille: It’ll definitely help. This period can happen very quickly for some folks, and depending on the health of the entire endocrine web – you touch one strand and the whole web trembles – it can be turbulent during this time for folks. So it will definitely ease the ride, let’s say.

Bottom Line: How about some of the chronic inflamers that we all consume in terms of the white breads, the candies, the sugars, the fried foods, the alcohol, and caffeine?

Dr. Lucille: Decreasing those are going to really help mitigate the symptoms associated with menopause, absolutely. Because if you look at it, most of these things are nutritionally valueless. Those nutrients are not just a couple aisles in your health food store; these are what drive your biochemistry.

Every single biochemical reaction you have in your body – the way my finger is going up and down right now, the way my eyes are blinking, my liver is processing the coffee that I drank this morning – they’re fueled by cofactors that are vitamins or minerals. And we don’t make them; we need to ingest them. So eating those nutritionally valueless foods, to your point, which are very inflammatory are going to spur on a hot flash. It’s also going to increase weight gain. But staying plant-strong and nutrient dense is definitely how you mitigate menopausal symptoms.

Bottom Line: All right, so as painful as it is, the worse your menopausal symptoms are, the more you might really want to watch your diet.

Dr. Lucille: The better your diet needs to be, that’s right.

Bottom Line: Or on the flip side of it is, the better your diet, your menopause may not be so bad.

Dr. Lucille: Sarah, I’ve got to tell you, I see it all the time. Women come up to me like, “What should I take?” I was like, “For what?” She’s like, “For menopause.” I was like, “How are you feeling?” “I’m feeling great,” they say. She’s got garlic on her breath and she’s got a mustache of green juice.

Bottom Line: Keep eating the kale.

 Dr. Lucille: And she really is going through this phase with very, very few symptoms. So you she doesn’t need to do anything. We just need to understand each individual’s process.

Bottom Line: Interesting. And again, I think a really important point: menopause is not a disease to fear. It’s just a phase of evolution.

Dr. Lucille: It is a normal, natural – and guess what? – once honored, once celebrated time. I think between you and I, we’re going to get that culture turned around and everybody’s going to be looking forward to this lovely time that we’ve both gone through.