The Importance of Diet During Perimenopause

What we eat during perimenopause is important because food affects all of the systems and processes of our body. This is especially true with how our hormones are produced and how they function¹. During this time, the level of estrogen – which is the main female hormone – fluctuates unevenly, and the level of progesterone – the hormone that is key for menstruation and pregnancy – decreases.

While all of this is going on, our bodies can get to be a hot mess – literally – if we don’t provide it with the right information through the food that we eat. It helps our hormones work themselves out in a healthy way and supports the other changes that are going on. That’s where a perimenopause diet comes in by helping to make this transition go more smoothly and a little easier.

What to Eat as Part of a Perimenopause Diet

When thinking about food or diet, it’s always better to think in terms of what we can eat as much as possible. The good news is that there are a number of foods that actively support our bodies during perimenopause.

Soy

Whether you eat a plant-based diet or eat animal products, one thing that proponents of both ways of eating generally agree on is that eating soy helps to reduce the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause. That’s why I’m diving a little deeper into this must-have in a perimenopause diet.

A study by the North American Menopause Society published in the journal Menopause found that women who ate a low-fat plant-based diet rich in soy reduced moderate-to-severe hot flashes by 84 percent – from nearly five per day to fewer than one per day. The study’s results were based on participants eating ½ cup of cooked soybeans every day for 12 weeks².

Other research echoes the effectiveness of soy during perimenopause or menopause. According to the Mount Sinai Health System, in clinical studies, “Women who eat high amounts of dietary soy protein (20 to 60 g per day) generally have fewer and less intense hot flashes and night sweats than those who eat less soy.”  

Good sources of soy that can be incorporated into your diet regularly are edamame (the whole soybean), tofu, tempeh, miso, soy milk, and soy yogurt.

Lean protein

Eating lean protein is another healthy way to support all of the changes that are taking place during perimenopause. According to Dr. Jeffrey Bland in his book The Disease Delusion, studies conducted at the Functional Medicine Clinical Research Center show that lean protein from chicken and fish help to improve the metabolism of estrogen during this transition⁴.

In addition to all of the hormone changes that are taking place, studies also show that perimenopause and menopause can contribute to women starting to lose muscle mass³. Making sure that we’re eating plenty of protein throughout the day can help to offset that so our muscles stay strong and can support our bodies in doing the things we want to do.

Besides chicken and fish, other good sources of lean protein are eggs, tofu, tempeh, edamame, lentils, and beans.  

Other foods to support perimenopause

Dr. Bland says that other foods that have been shown to help lessen night sweats, hot flashes, and mood swings associated with perimenopause and menopause are fiber-rich vegetables and beans and cruciferous vegetables. These kinds of vegetables include broccoli, kale, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and arugula just to name a few. Just like with lean protein, these foods have been shown to improve the metabolism of estrogen⁴.  

It’s important to note that if you’re taking a blood thinner, you’ll want to talk with your doctor before increasing the amount of cruciferous vegetables that you eat.

It’s also important to keep in mind that if you eat a plant-based diet and are over 40, you should be supplementing with vitamin B12. You should really be doing that anyway if you eat a plant-based diet, but it’s critical during perimenopause and menopause because our bodies need more of it during this time⁵.

Foods to Limit on a Perimenopause Diet

While it’s better to think about what we can eat than what we can’t, when it comes to a perimenopause diet, the following foods should be minimized because they may actually contribute to the frequency and intensity of hot flashes, night sweats, memory and concentration symptoms, and moodiness.

1. Sugar-rich foods and drinks⁴
2. Caffeine⁶
3. High-fat foods⁷
4. Ultra-processed food⁸

As if experiencing perimenopause and menopause symptoms in the moment isn’t bad enough, research shows that women who experience intense levels of these symptoms are at higher risk for developing heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes^9,10,11.

Bottom Line on a Perimenopause Diet

The bottom line on a perimenopause diet is that at a time in our life when our bodies are transitioning to a new phase, we can use food to gain at least a little to even a lot of control over how we feel now and in the future. Add that to regular exercise and mental health habits, and you have a powerful framework to support you.

If you want to learn more about what you can be doing to help yourself feel good now and in the future, be sure and take advantage of the special price that I’m offering to readers of this blog post for my Healthy Over 40 on-demand workshop. Or, if you have any questions about how to individualize a perimenopause diet to fit your needs, feel free to reach out to info@peppermint-tea.com.

Sources

1. Marks V. How Our Food Affects Our Hormones. Clin Biochem. 1985 Jun;18(3):149-53. doi: 10.1016/s0009-9120(85)80099-0. PMID: 3888442.
2. Barnard, Neal D. MD, FACC; Kahleova, Hana MD, PhD; Holtz, Danielle N. BS; del Aguila, Fabiola PhD; Neola, Maggie BS, RD; Crosby, Lelia M. BA, RD; Holubkov, Richard PhD. The Women’s Study for the Alleviation of Vasomotor Symptoms (WAVS): a randomized, controlled trial of a plant-based diet and whole soybeans for postmenopausal women. Menopause 28(10):p 1150-1156, October 2021. DOI: 10.1097/GME.0000000000001812.
3. Ko J, Park YM. Menopause and the Loss of Skeletal Muscle Mass in Women. Iran J Public Health. 2021 Feb;50(2):413-414. doi: 10.18502/ijph.v50i2.5362. PMID: 33748008; PMCID: PMC7956097.
4. Bland, Jeffrey, PhD, FACN, CNS. The Disease Delusion. 2014. Page 305.
5. Milart P, Wo?niakowska E, Wrona W. Selected vitamins and quality of life in menopausal women. Prz Menopauzalny. 2018 Dec;17(4):175-179. doi: 10.5114/pm.2018.81742. Epub 2018 Dec 31. PMID: 30766465; PMCID: PMC6372850.
6. Plumbo, Ginger. Study Suggests Caffeine Intake May Worsen Menopausal Hot Flashes, Night Sweats. 2014.
7. Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. A Natural Approach to Menopause.  
8. Noll PRES, Noll M, Zangirolami-Raimundo J, Baracat EC, Louzada MLDC, Soares Júnior JM, Sorpreso ICE. Life habits of postmenopausal women: Association of menopause symptom intensity and food consumption by degree of food processing. Maturitas. 2022 Feb;156:1-11. doi: 10.1016/j.maturitas.2021.10.015. Epub 2021 Oct 29. PMID: 35033227.
9. Cagnacci A, Cannoletta M, Palma F, Zanin R, Xholli A, Volpe A. Menopausal symptoms and risk factors for cardiovascular disease in postmenopause. Climacteric. 2012 Apr;15(2):157-62. doi: 10.3109/13697137.2011.617852. Epub 2011 Dec 5. PMID: 22141325.
10. Thurston RC, El Khoudary SR, Sutton-Tyrrell K, Crandall CJ, Sternfeld B, Joffe H, Gold EB, Selzer F, Matthews KA. Vasomotor symptoms and insulin resistance in the study of women’s health across the nation. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2012 Oct;97(10):3487-94. doi: 10.1210/jc.2012-1410. Epub 2012 Jul 31. PMID: 22851488; PMCID: PMC3462945.
11. Lee SW, Jo HH, Kim MR, Kwon DJ, You YO, Kim JH. Association between menopausal symptoms and metabolic syndrome in postmenopausal women. Arch Gynecol Obstet. 2012 Feb;285(2):541-8. doi: 10.1007/s00404-011-2016-5. Epub 2011 Aug 19. PMID: 21853251.

The post The Perimenopause Diet: Foods to Eat and to Limit appeared first on Peppermint Tea.

I’m going to share with you a very personal, intimate decision. After 26 years of being on birth control pills, I’ve finally decided to transition off them. I’m sharing this with you because it’s a big decision that many of you are also making. My situation is a little more complicated than most, but at the end of the day, I’m a strong believer in that if this is something that we’re going to do, we need to set our bodies up in the best possible way. 

My Birth Control Pill Story

I started on “the pill,” when I was 22 because PMS had always been a huge issue for me. We’re talking both physical and emotional misery. My doctor assured me that birth control pills were the answer and would help to “balance” my hormones. I now know from “In the Flo” author and women’s hormone expert Alisa Vitti over at Flo Living that if I was experiencing PMS that badly, my hormones were definitely out of whack. I also know now that I could have addressed the issue in a more natural way¹. 

Two kids and 16 years later, I started having debilitating migraine headaches. They were so bad, the doctors at first thought they were a type of seizure that ultimately ended up happening an average of 28 days out of the month. Suspecting that there may be a hormonal component to it, my neurologist told me to start taking the pill continuously. It wasn’t until we found the right medication though 6 months later that the migraines stopped. It’s unclear what role, if any, taking the pill continuously had to do with that. 

Where I Am Now

Flash forward 11 years to today. I’m 49 years old, well into perimenopause and still taking birth control pills continuously. I changed to a healthier diet long ago (including giving up caffeine). I strongly believe that because of my diet changes, I was able to stop taking the headache medication that I was told I would be on for the rest of my life.

I’ve been wanting to quit birth control pills for several years but have been hesitant because of fears that the migraines will come back. It’s been more than evident though lately that my hormones are running “amok,” and my body is telling me it’s time to do this. My gynecologist is fully behind it. She does have some concerns about the migraines returning, but that’s why I’m going into it as carefully as possible. 

Transitioning Off Birth Control Pills

While I’ve always been a believer in getting all of the vitamins and minerals I need from food as opposed to supplements, I fully recognize that I’m probably going to need an extra boost in getting my hormones balanced while I make this transition. That’s why I’ve started taking these supplements as suggested by Alisa Viti for the following reasons. No, she doesn’t have an exact formula for women in my situation, but this is what I’ve pieced together as a good place to start.

1. B-Complex vitamins – Low levels of B vitamins can cause low energy and fatigue. B6 also helps to boost progesterone production and works with the liver to remove extra estrogen from the body. 
2. Evening Primrose Oil – This is a source of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), which helps with prostaglandin production. Prostaglandins are hormones that control inflammation and blood flow². It’s also a popular natural therapy for helping to ease PMS symptoms and hot flashes and night sweats associated with menopause. 
3. Vitamin D3 – Foundational for hormone balance and overall health. 
4. Alpha Lipoic Acid – Promotes optimal liver function for getting rid of excess estrogen. It also reinforces healthy weight maintenance by supporting healthy blood sugar and insulin balance. 
5. Probiotic – Supports healthy gut function, which is essential for managing hormones. 
6. Tulsi (Holy Basil) Peppermint Tea and a nighttime Tulsi Sleep Tea – Holy Basil supports a healthy adrenal response, helps to stabilize blood sugar and supports liver function. 
7. Ashwagandha – An herb that helps to reduce oxidative stress and supports a healthy stress response. Alisa also says it’s been shown to safely improve sexual function and low libido for some women. 

Bottom Line for Transitioning Off Birth Control Pills

Hormones at this stage of life are no joke, but we don’t have to resign ourselves to “just waiting it out.” We can be proactive in trying to help our bodies and our minds feel as good as possible. Transitioning off birth control pills, taking supplements to help with that, regular exercise and maintaining my healthy diet are just some of the ways that I’m doing that. 

If you’re transitioning off birth control pills or are considering it, tell us about your experience in the comments below. We don’t need to do this alone!

The post My Journey in Transitioning Off Birth Control Pills appeared first on Peppermint Tea.