Embracing Menopause Health: Heather Carey’s Real Food Stories on Nutrition, Health, and Positive Mindset Choices

Are you navigating the complexities of menopause health and feeling overwhelmed by the changes in your body? You’re not alone. Join Heather Carey, a passionate nutritionist and chef, as she delves into the often-taboo topic of menopause and its profound impact on women’s health and nutrition. In this enlightening episode of Real Food Stories, Heather shares her personal journey through menopause, revealing her feelings and the societal pressures that accompany this significant life transition.

With her new initiative, the Midlife Makeover Club, Heather aims to empower women by providing them with factual information about their bodies and fostering a positive mindset towards health and nutrition. She passionately emphasizes that menopause is not a medical condition demanding drastic dietary changes, but rather a unique opportunity to embrace healthier eating habits that can enhance your well-being.

Throughout the episode, Heather offers invaluable nutrition advice and healthy eating tips tailored for women experiencing menopause. She discusses specific foods to avoid, such as alcohol and sugar, which can negatively impact your health during this phase. Instead, she encourages the incorporation of nutrient-rich foods, including phytoestrogens, calcium-rich items, and healthy fats, to support hormonal balance and overall vitality.

With her expert insights, Heather dispels common myths surrounding menopause diets and reinforces the importance of listening to your body and making informed dietary choices. This episode is not just about food; it’s about embracing midlife body positivity and understanding how women’s health and nutrition evolve over time.

The conversation wraps up with an invitation for personalized coaching, designed to help women navigate their health during menopause health transitions. Heather encourages listeners to leave a review, sharing their thoughts and experiences, which can help foster a supportive community around this crucial topic.

Whether you’re interested in cooking for health, menopause health, exploring mindful eating practices, or understanding the seven pillars of abundance, this episode is packed with insights that resonate with personal food journeys and family food traditions. Tune in for a transformative discussion that promises to inspire and empower you on your weight loss journey and beyond!

Let’s Be Friends
Hang out with Heather on IG @greenpalettekitchen or on FB HERE.

Let’s Talk!
Whether you are looking for 1-1 nutrition coaching or kitchen coaching let’s have a chat. Click HERE to reach out to Heather.

Did You Love This Episode?
“I love Heather and the Real Food Stories Podcast!” If this is you, please do not hesitate to leave a five-star review on Apple or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Transcript:

Speaker #0
Well, hello, everybody, and welcome back. And if you are just tuning in with me for the very first time, it’s so nice to meet you. And I’m really glad you’re here with me today. I am your host, Heather Carey, nutritionist, chef, mom, and a woman who has been around the block with food. I want to open up about real food in relation to health, weight, and our bodies so you can make peace with what you eat. Hey everybody, welcome back. So I’m not gonna lie, menopause sometimes to me feels like that all-girls club that I was just never asked to join as a kid. I’ve never been good with all-girl groups. Even when I was little, I think I spent a day in Girl Scouts. How I ended up in an all-girls boarding school in high school is beyond me, even though I did end up loving it. But after that, I couldn’t do sororities in college or anything that was like too girly like that. Maybe I was just too much of a tomboy or just always a little bit rebellious. But suddenly, I’m seeing marketing everywhere for menopause and female empowerment. I just saw Oprah talk about it on Instagram. And this says something about the popularity of menopause as a movement right now. Oprah is almost 70 years old and well beyond the perimenopause and menopause phase, and Oprah is an entrepreneur. She’s no fool. Menopause and conversations around it are becoming very, very popular. And I guess that is a very good thing right now because we need to get this conversation out in the open. Except, of course, for the people who will want to take full advantage of you. There are too many diets and anti-aging cures to count. But. If you’re interested, all you need to do is type in menopause into the search bar on Instagram, and then good luck deciphering it all. There are some very well-meaning and educated dietitians and nutritionists, and then there is the rest of them. And back to those clicky girl groups. Throwing in the aging and reverse movement, and it feels like too much pressure to just perform. Make sure you do it with a smile on your face or get run down because there is a woman’s summit near you filled with lively women speakers waxing poetic about how much better it is in middle age and how they found their freedom and all the wisdom that comes from it. Just more burden. What if you don’t feel that way? What if menopause and getting a little older just feels like too much. So before I start talking about the food, which is what I wanted to focus on today in regards to menopause and perimenopause, I wanted to let you know that I’m starting a new club, the one that lets women simply do their best amidst a very confusing time in our lives. It’s for the women who have a desire to really know fact from fiction when it comes to our bodies, and we can just be real. Real about how you feel about your weight, your self-esteem, your experience of menopause, your health, and what you want for the second half of your life. It’s for women who want to strive to live a healthy life while actually feeling at peace with their bodies. My new club is called the Midlife Makeover. And right now, I am in the process of creating this exciting you course and membership. So I hope you can join me when the doors officially open and I will be sharing that in the near future and I can’t wait to tell you all about it. Okay, so let’s get back to menopause. Today, as promised, I wanted to talk about food and eating during perimenopause and menopause and this gets me excited because honestly, it’s my area of expertise and I love talking about eating real healthy food. I love talking about preparing healthy food and I really love growing healthy food. If you listened to last week’s podcast, actually that was two weeks ago, which was episode 35. And if you haven’t, you might want to go back there now because I talked about the three things that can trip up our weight during menopause. Our loss of muscle mass because losing muscle means lowering our metabolism. Muscle is much more efficient at burning calories than anything else. So the more muscle you have, the better. We also talked about age and our metabolism. And of course, we talked about that dip in estrogen, which can literally wreak havoc on your metabolism as well. Now, I haven’t gotten into this yet because I’m saving this for another podcast, but I wanted to just as a side note, put this out that estrogen can also interact with other hormones such as insulin and cortisol. Insulin is that hormone that regulates your blood sugar levels, and estrogen can impact insulin sensitivity, which can affect how the body processes glucose. Cortisol is a hormone that is produced in response to stress, and estrogen could also impact cortisol levels, which can affect your mood and your energy levels and your metabolism. Now, additionally, Estrogen can interact with your thyroid hormones, which are responsible for regulating metabolism and energy levels. Low levels of estrogen can impact thyroid hormone levels, leading to symptoms such as fatigue, weight gain, and decreased metabolism. I’m not going to go down this road in this episode because I really want to deep dive in a very near future episode, but I wanted to just put that out there just to explain a little bit further how estrogen can interact with other hormones and then in turn affect your weight. But let’s talk about food because it is a question I get asked frequently. The what am I supposed to even eat anymore? And are there certain foods I can add into my diet that will help with my health? Now let me tell you, I get these questions from Everybody, not just from women going through menopause. And these are good questions, no matter who you are and what age you are. But for some reason, social media would have you believe that if you are in menopause or in perimenopause, that you need to now totally change your way of eating and living, as though menopause is a medical condition. It is not. There is nothing wrong with you. But I want you to start changing your mindset here. Rather than looking at this change of life as a punishment and thinking about all the things that you have to give up in your life, I want you to start looking at menopause as an opportunity. We know that when our estrogen dips and our metabolism slows, certain changes are going on in our bodies. We need to accept this as a natural and normal part of life. And if your way of eating has been less than stellar, Take this as a sign to up your healthy eating game. It’s not a jail sentence. Healthy food can actually be really delicious, but it is a time to start taking the reins of your own health. You might want to consider all the healthy foods that you can actually add into your diet while nudging out the others that no longer serve you. Another gentle reminder of the power of our hormones. As we get older and lose estrogen, we up our risk for a few other key health issues. Our heart, and that includes blood pressure and cholesterol, our bones, other lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and certain cancers. I also talked in last week’s episode about choosing to take hormone replacement therapy. While it is great for some symptoms and for some people, it’s definitely not for everyone. It really is a very personal choice. Now, you might be curious about the food you eat and if certain foods can actually help with menopause and with eating our healthiest right now. Are there specific foods to help with menopause? And if you’re hesitant to use hormone replacement therapy, or if you are not a candidate for hormone replacement, can what you eat actually help those vaccine hot flashes and night sweats and a host of other issues. So I’m going to talk about three important things today. The foods we can lose and why, the foods we want to consider adding in and why, and as a bonus, I wanted to talk about supplements that are marketed specifically for menopause relief. Okay, so let’s jump in. Now let me bust a few myths straight off. Women going through menopause do not need a special diet. You need to eat real, whole, good-for-you foods, and you might need to get educated on what to eat. But let me repeat, you do not need a special diet. The diet industry is crazy for you. It’s crazy for the menopause diets and crazy for thinking that you are broken and something is wrong. So let’s promise right now to avoid those high-protein diets, high-fat diets, scare tactics, wearing a blood sugar monitor, or anything so extreme. Ask yourself if this would just simply be too much. If it feels like too much, it’s… It definitely is. Instead, let’s start tapping into your gut feelings, which may be more of an intuitive feeling, but this is the time to take care of yourself more than ever and treat yourself gently and kindly. I mentioned last week that our desperation for thinness and not getting older can kick into a lot of fear and desperation. If you’ve leaned into dieting and possibly disordered eating, For some of your life or most of your life, this is really a time that it can kick back in. If you think social media is a terrible influence on young girls and boys, just start scrolling around the menopause diet pages. It can be equally as damaging. Let me remind you of some of the things questionable doctors and diet gurus will say to you to get you nervous and scared so you will buy their products. They will use words such as root cause, which means the fundamental reason for the occurrence of a problem, which in my research means eat more fruits and vegetables about 99.9% of the time. Root cause is a favorite saying of health gurus and functional medicine experts. They might also use the words hormone imbalance. Yes, our hormones are not in the balance they were when you were 30 years old. This is normal. I will dive deeper into hormones, like I said, in a future episode. But for right now, know that you do not have to spend money on expensive testing for a lab to tell you that you are menopausal. Again, another favorite of alternative health gurus. Another thing I hear a lot in the menopause diet world is unresolved food sensitivities and gut problems and healing yourself through detox. This is a big one in the menopause diet world. You may have a sensitivity to a food, you may have an allergy, and you may have some digestive issues, but you do not need to start detoxing and going through some weird phase of a diet. One more, stubborn weight is another catchphrase I find funny because that can certainly scare women. Can weight actually be stubborn? What does that mean exactly? stubborn weight gets… marketed as a way to promote diets. As in, you’ve done all you know how to do, but you have yet to discover the real secret to weight loss. And then cue the keto diet or another high protein diet. One diet that seems to be on everyone’s radar lately is the Galveston diet. This seems to be pretty popular these days as many diets similar to it. First of all, and I have talked in previous episodes about how to identify a quacky diet. Any eating plan that calls itself a diet is, well, it’s a diet. And almost any diet that is created and promoted by an MD means that doctor is going to make a lot of money off promoting the diet. Dr. Haver, who created the Galveston diet, speaks directly to menopausal women with stubborn body fat because she herself is a woman who gained weight during menopause. In turn, she decided to create a diet just for herself and was so successful that she wrote a book about it. Big red flag right there. Her own personal testimonial does not mean the diet works for everybody or anybody. Dr. Haver throws out popular and alarmist terms such as anti-inflammatory and intermittent fasting. She also throws in the plethora of supplements she sells on her website. And well, Now I’ve really gotten turned off. You do not need collagen, powdered fiber, and her $35 turmeric supplement. Are you kidding me? I don’t believe strict diets work in the long run, and these doctors know this too. I could go on about specific menopause diets, and I might do that in another podcast, in another episode, but I wanted to at least point out one of them just to give you something to think about. And I know because when you are going through perimenopause and menopause, you feel totally confused. I know. I’ve been there. Your body is changing. And if you’re gaining weight, you want to lose it. So I wanted to go into detail about the best foods to include in your life right now and what can go by the wayside. I’m not going to hand you a plan to lose weight or the one that worked for me. Today I want to share some of the just the top foods that support our hormone changes and why that is. But first let’s talk about what would be beneficial to crowd out about everyday eating. Now I use the words crowd out because I do. don’t mean to say that you have to totally eliminate all these things and that there’s strict rules. That’s diet thinking. But when we add in more of our favorite healthy foods, there becomes less room for these other maybe more undesirable foods. So I want to crowd them out and not give them a lot of space. Now I want to tell you why we want to crowd these foods out because the why is what gives. this list of foods meaning and what may give you the nudge that you need. Okay, number one, the first one, you may not be surprised to hear this, is alcohol. So let’s get real here. I’m not in the business of lecturing and I know firsthand how compelling the relationship with alcohol can be. And if you want to hear my story about why I gave up drinking for good, definitely tune in to episode 27. Now from a health and menopause perspective, here are five important reasons to let alcohol go from your life. Number one is improved physical health. Alcohol consumption can have a negative effect on your physical health. It can damage your liver. It increases your risk for heart disease, high blood pressure, and increased risk of cancer. Quitting alcohol can help reduce these risks and improve your overall physical health. It can have mental health benefits when you quit drinking because drinking alcohol can also have a negative effect on your mental health such as increased anxiety and depression. What do they call it? Anxiety when you’re hungover and it just creates a whole spiral of anxiety. Quitting alcohol can improve your mental health and lead to better overall well-being. There’s financial benefits to quitting alcohol. It’s expensive and quitting can lead to you saving money by not purchasing alcohol. I mean, I remember doing some numbers after I stopped drinking and the costs were huge, not to mention the healthcare related costs related to alcohol. You will definitely sleep better when you do not drink. Alcohol can disrupt your sleep patterns, which can lead to fatigue and overall lack of energy, just two things that we cannot afford. as women in menopause to have. Quitting alcohol can help you get a better quality sleep, which can lead to an increased energy and better overall health in general. And then not to mention improved relationships. Alcohol consumption can also have a negative effect on relationships with your friends and family, right? Quitting alcohol can help improve these relationships. It leads to more positive communication. with your spouse. Trust me on this. I know this firsthand. And it gives you a different kind of a social life. Now, what about alcohol and menopause symptoms? There is definitely a connection between alcohol and menopause. During menopause, women experience hormonal changes that can affect their overall health, including their ability to metabolize alcohol. As you age, Your liver function decreases, making it harder for your body to process alcohol. This can lead to an increased risk of alcohol-related health problems. Again, like I said, liver disease, high blood pressure, breast cancer. You might have even realized that you cannot tolerate the amount of alcohol that you used to 20 years ago. Alcohol consumption can also worsen certain menopausal symptoms, such as hot flashes and mood swings. It can trigger… Your hot flashes by causing your blood vessels to dilate, which can increase body temperature, which then in turn triggers a hot flash. It can also disrupt your sleep. Like I said before, it can contribute to fatigue and irritability, which exacerbate mood swings and on and on in a repeat cycle of menopausal symptoms that we do not want. And finally, drinking alcohol can definitely contribute to weight gain. Of course. It is calories. It is empty calories, which can be a problem for women during menopause due to hormonal changes, right? We already know this. Overall, it’s just important for women during menopause and perimenopause to start to be really mindful of their alcohol consumption and consider limiting or thinking about avoiding it altogether to support your overall health and manage some of these vaccine symptoms that you have. Next food that we want to think about crowding out is our sugar consumption. We don’t have to eliminate it. but we do want to just give it a little less room in our life. And here’s a couple reasons why. Number one, sugar is linked to a risk of chronic diseases, right? High sugar intake is associated first and foremost with type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. So during menopause, hormonal changes can only increase the risk of these conditions. So reducing your sugar intake can help lower the risk of developing these chronic diseases. And this is a time when these diseases seem to pop up. Reducing our sugar can also improve our mood. Sugar can lead to mood swings and mood crashes, which can be particularly challenging during menopause when mood changes are already common. So reducing our sugar intake can help stabilize blood sugar levels. leading to a more stable mood. We also might want to consider crowding out sugar because of our weight. We know this, right? When we start to go through menopause, our metabolism dips and on and on. We’ve talked about the reasons why we might end up gaining more weight during the menopause transition. High sugar intake only contributes to this weight gain. So reducing our sugar can just only help. with managing our weight during this time. A fourth reason why we want to start thinking about reducing our intake of sugar is that it can help reduce the frequency and intensity of our hot flashes. Sugar reduction also helps improve our bone health. Menopause can increase the risk for osteoporosis and high sugar intake has definitely been shown to contribute to bone loss. So reducing our sugar intake can help maintain bone density and improve our bone health. So overall, reducing or giving up sugar intake during menopause can definitely lead to significant health benefits. And that’s reducing our risk for chronic diseases, improving our moods, better weight management, reducing our hot flashes, and improving our bone health. So there’s a lot of good reasons to start thinking about getting mindful with you that sugar habit you might have right now. The next food group you want to think about crowding out is processed foods and takeout. And there’s a lot of good reason why we want to give up processed, junky, quick food like this. So let’s talk about a couple of these in relationship to menopause and our overall health. The first one is improving our nutrient intake. So when we remove processed foods, which are typically empty of a lot of good for you nutrients, and then often high in calories, salt, sugar, and unhealthy fats, you improve the nutrient content of your diet just by crowding these out and adding in the healthier foods that have lots of vitamins, minerals, and fiber. The next reason why you want to start thinking about just crowding out processed foods. is again, we’re going back to weight. Processed foods are often calorie dense rather than nutrient dense. They are full of calories. They can be highly satisfying right in the moment, but they can also contribute to a lot of weight gain. So giving up processed foods can help you manage your weight and maintain a healthy body weight. Next reason is reduced risk of chronic diseases, processed foods being often high in salt, sugar, and unhealthy fats. have been known to increase the risk of chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. So are we seeing a pattern here of these things that we want to crowd out? Giving up processed foods can reduce the risk of developing these diseases. Giving up processed foods can improve our digestive health. Processed foods are typically quick, convenient, and they are low in fiber, and like I said, a lot of those vital essential nutrients. So this in turn can all contribute to digestive issues such as constipation, for example. Now by giving up these processed foods and including more whole foods into your diet, you can improve your digestive health a great deal. Crowding out processed foods can definitely help improve your mood and your mental health. Processed foods have been linked to higher rates of depression and other mental health issues. They are quick fixes. They are quickly and highly satisfying and can really play a number in your brain health. So giving up processed foods, including more whole real foods in your diet, definitely leads to improved mood and mental health. Now what about caffeine? Because the jury is definitely out on this. I think personally that caffeine is really okay. But when it comes to menopause, there is some scientific evidence to suggest that caffeine can contribute to hot flashes in some women during menopause. Now hot flashes are caused by changes in hormone levels that affect the body’s temperature regulation system. Caffeine is a stimulant that can increase heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, which may trigger or worsen hot flashes in some women. There was a study published in the Journal of Women’s Health that found women who consumed more caffeine definitely had a higher frequency of hot flashes and night sweats compared to those who consumed less caffeine. There was another study that was also published in the journal Menopause you that found that caffeine consumption was associated with an increased risk of hot flashes and night sweats. Now, it’s important to note, again, not all women will experience hot flashes or worsen symptoms as a result of caffeine consumption. So if you feel like caffeine and hot flashes for you go hand in hand, you might want to consider cutting back on it or even cutting it out altogether. Another group of foods that I wanted to talk about. that you might want to consider crowding out are spicy foods. Now, there’s nothing wrong with spicy foods. There’s nothing wrong with spices. Actually, spices are really good for you. But there is some scientific evidence to suggest that spicy foods can trigger hot flashes in some women during menopause. Hot flashes, as I’ve mentioned, are caused by changes in hormone levels that affect the body’s temperature regulation system. Spicy foods contain capsicum. which can cause blood vessels to dilate and increase blood flow, potentially contributing to hot flashes in some women. Okay, so we have talked about alcohol, sugar, processed foods, caffeine, and spicy foods. But what about herbs and supplements that promote menopause balance? Are these needed? Are these necessary? Because if you check out… the internet, there is a whole world of over-the-counter supplements that are, quote, proven to prevent hot flashes and other menopause symptoms. It’s a bit dizzying. Actually, when you look on Amazon at the number of herbs and pills, it is overwhelming. Just like the menopause diets, I fully understand this need to want to do something more, quote, natural and not to have to give in to hormones. But please… understand that most of these supplements and their results are based on very tiny studies and very little evidence that they help with really anything, much less even a hot flash. Supplements have no regulation by the Food and Drug Administration, and they are expensive. Sometimes trying some of these supplements can just lead to more confusion, because if you spend the money and they don’t work, you may begin to wonder if it’s just you. So it can be really discouraging. Here’s a couple names to just be aware of when you start to dive into the world of menopause supplements. Matcha, Maca, Ginkgo biloba, ginseng, rhubarb extract, black cohosh, don quai, red raspberry extract, wild yam extract, which is a form of progesterone that you can literally buy on the internet. Again, I get it. Who doesn’t want to take a pill like… Pure Essences transition supplement that promises to, quote, reduce hot flashes, support positive moods, promote natural balance, whatever that means, and calms transitional discomfort. Again, what on earth does that mean, transitional discomforts? And then the claims get…Even more strange after that, there are literally hundreds of supplements for menopause, and I have to believe that if any of them truly helped, we’d all be taking them. I know many women who have spent a lot of money taking these formulations for at least a few months at a time and then dropped off because they didn’t seem to be doing anything. My takeaway is don’t waste your money and don’t waste your time. So we got that out of the way. All the things to maybe crowd out or to lose or to not even consider. So what about the food? What about the food that we can add in? And does food affect our hormones? Can food help to balance things, as they say? And can food help us feel better and relieve any of those menopause and perimenopause symptoms? I mean, after all, if we know that losing alcohol, sugar, and processed foods, for example, will help improve some symptoms. Then what about all those good foods that we can add in? So as a culinary nutritionist, I’m a big believer that what we eat can greatly affect how we feel. And how we feel is the operative statement here. How do you want to feel? Right now, rather than focusing on the numbers on the scale or how much of your percentage of body fat is, I want you to consider. that most importantly, food has the power to make you feel vibrant and energized. It has the ability to contribute to great health, restful sleep, and just overall better moods. How you feel as a result of eating certain foods is everything in the world of nutrition. If you feel good as a result of eating the best and healthiest foods, you might naturally lose weight without trying too hard. Your moods might feel more stable. and your energy even. While food is not medicine per se, what we eat is extremely important to our overall health. Fruits and vegetables are like edible vitamins. Whole grains are some of the best foods for your brain. Lean proteins keep our energy even, and healthy fats assist in hormone production. And this is just the start. I don’t mean to be blunt, but when you feeding yourself a diet of alcohol, processed foods, and sugar. You are doing your miraculous body a disservice. Menopause and perimenopause are the time to focus on deep compassion for yourself and treat your body very kindly. You deserve every moment of that. So I’m going to go through the list of the best foods to eat right now. While in perimenopause and menopause, that can support your hormone health and help make you feel your best overall. Food number one are phytoestrogens. I mentioned phytoestrogens briefly in my last podcast because they are pretty important when it comes to hormones. So just as a review, phytoestrogens are naturally occurring compounds found in only plant-based foods, and they have a similar structure to the hormone estrogen. They can interact with estrogen receptors in your body, and they exert weak estrogenic or anti-estrogenic effects. So they’re not as strong as the hormone estrogen. They’re not as strong as what you’re going to get in hormone replacement therapy, but they do have estrogen like properties. So phytoestrogens are found in a variety of plant-based foods, including soy products, and those would be tofu, tempeh, soy milk, edamame. They are found in flax seeds in high amounts and sesame seeds. They’re found in legumes such as chickpeas, lentils, and kidney beans. Whole grains such as oats, fruits like apples, berries, and pomegranates, and vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, and kale. So are phytoestrogen foods a good alternative to hormone replacement therapy? If you have mild symptoms or you are not a candidate for hormone replacement therapy, then adding in these foods into your daily eating is definitely worth a try. Plus, all of these foods, tofu, beans, whole grains, fruits, vegetables, such as broccoli and cauliflower, are foods you want to be eating anyway. So it’s not a sacrifice to try and add these foods into your diet and see how they work for you. Okay, next on the list of important foods to include in your diet. during perimenopause and menopause are calcium rich foods. Now women in menopause are at an increased risk for developing osteoporosis, which is a condition where bones become weak. and brittle. This is because during perimenopause and menopause, there’s a decrease in the level of the hormone estrogen. I’m going to keep repeating that. Estrogen helps to protect your bones. So as a result, women may experience a loss of bone density, which makes them more prone to fractures. Now, calcium is an essential mineral for maintaining bone health, and getting enough calcium in the diet can help prevent osteoporosis. When you are in peri or menopause, it is definitely advised to consume calcium-rich foods to meet your daily calcium requirements. You want to get your calcium from food first, rather than getting it from a supplement. Getting calcium from supplements have a tendency to create kidney stones or create health issues with your heart. So the recommended daily intake of calcium for women. over 50 is about 1,200 milligrams. This can be easy to get from food, but you have to be very, very mindful about the foods you choose when trying to get 1,200 milligrams of calcium. So calcium-rich foods include dairy products, first and foremost. That’s the highest amount of calcium in any food. That’s milk, cheese, yogurt. leafy greens such as kale, spinach, and tofu, you want to start making a concerted effort to make sure you’re getting enough calcium. I can’t stress this enough because the truth is women are not getting enough. And dairy is one of the quickest sources. And I know many women who do not eat dairy because they’ve been told by their naturopath or their chiropractor that dairy was bad for them. Most women also do not eat enough leafy greens in a day to get their calcium. But as I said before, tofu is a great source of calcium. So there’s your double hit of phytoestrogens and calcium. Just as a side note, it’s also important to note that vitamin D is needed for the absorption of calcium. So it’s recommended to get enough vitamin D from a small amount of sunlight exposure every day, or even supplements if you feel like you’re not getting it from food. And vitamin D is one supplement I would recommend actually taking if you are deficient. And that’s an easy blood test you can get from your doctor. The next food that we want to be really mindful about adding in even more of is protein. So there’s always that question, do women need more protein as they get older? It’s something I always see on the internet that we really have to focus on our protein. I think in this country, we’re pretty obsessed with getting protein. So let’s just get clear on exactly what this means. Protein is essential for building and repairing tissues, and it plays a key role in maintaining muscle mass and bone density. As women age and go through menopause, they may experience a decrease in muscle mass and bone density. We talked about this in the last episode, making it even more important to consume. adequate amounts of protein to replace this muscle mass. The recommended daily intake of protein for most women is about 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight. But some experts agree and suggest that women in menopause may benefit from slightly more protein. And I agree with that as well. Some experts have recommended going as high as 1.2 grams per kilogram of body weight. So for example, to clarify this, if you weigh 130 pounds, you would be 59 kilograms in weight. And you would want to strive for 71 grams of protein per day if you were doing 1.2 grams per kilogram. There are four calories in a gram of protein. So that’s about 285 calories of protein. per day. This is not hard to get, but again, you want to start to get really mindful of what you are eating. A five ounce piece of salmon, for example, has 30 grams of protein. Four ounces of chicken breast have about 40 grams. Half a cup of beans has seven grams. And here’s tofu again, which has about 12 grams for three ounces. A glass of milk has eight grams. A cup of yogurt has about 14 grams of protein. Plus milk and yogurt have calcium. So can you see a pattern here? Why not pick foods that give you tons of bang for your buck? You want to mix up your proteins with plant and animal because we want to limit the saturated fat that is found in animal protein. So overall, good sources of protein include lean meats, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy products, legumes, nuts, seeds. It’s important to choose protein sources that are low in saturated fat. processed ingredients. Additionally, consuming protein alongside calcium-rich foods may help improve calcium absorption and bone health. So another good reason to eat those food sources that have calcium and protein in them. Alright, next step. We want to start eating more fiber. We do not eat enough fiber and women in menopause can definitely benefit from increasing their fiber intake As you age and go through menopause, your risk of developing certain health conditions, such as heart disease and osteoporosis, for example, definitely increases, as we’ve talked about. Fiber can help reduce the risk of these conditions by improving digestion, reducing inflammation, and promoting healthy gut bacteria. The recommended daily fiber intake for women in menopause is the same as for adult women, which is 25 grams per day. Now it’s… Easy to get enough fiber in your diet if you’re eating a healthy diet that has fiber-rich foods. So this is where we’re going to focus on plant-based foods such as beans, whole grains, vegetables, and fruits. Remember those vegetables that are a really good source of calcium? Broccoli, cauliflower, and kale, they’re also an amazing source of fiber. How about those beans that have a lot of protein? half a cup of black beans. has eight grams of fiber plus all that great protein plus calcium. Are we seeing a trend here yet? Focusing on plant-based foods is a great idea and checks off a lot of boxes for healthy eating. So other great sources of fiber include all sorts of fruits and vegetables, whole grains such as brown rice and quinoa, for example, nuts, seeds, legumes. Last but not least, we really want to be focusing on foods that are rich in omega-3s. Omega-3 fats are a type of polyunsaturated fat that are essential for good health and must be obtained through your diet. They have been shown to have a number of health benefits, including reducing inflammation, improving heart health, and supporting brain function. And women in menopause, omega-3 fats may also help alleviate certain symptoms, such as hot flashes again and joint pain. Research has shown that omega-3 supplementation may help reduce the frequency and severity of hot flashes and improve joint pain and stiffness in women with arthritis. So omega-3 fats are found in fatty fish such as salmon, tuna, sardines, as well as in plant sources such as flax seeds, chia seeds, and walnuts. We’re also seeing a trend here again in overlap. It’s recommended that adults consume at least two servings of fatty fish per week to obtain the recommended amount of omega-3 fats. And if you don’t consume enough of these foods, you may consider taking an omega-3 supplement. It’s not a terrible idea, but again, always best to get your nutrients from food first. And the last thing I just want to mention, and this doesn’t have anything to do with the specific food is. To make sure that you go through your day and you do not go hungry, this is not the time to start skimping on calories and not eating enough. I frequently see women in my practice who complain that they cannot lose weight. And when asked what they eat in a day, often it is way too little. Undereating might have been something that worked as a weight loss tactic back in college, but trust me, it will not work now. When you go hungry, your metabolism will dip even further than it has already, and your body will fight like hell to hold on to every calorie it can, and then some. So focus on the foods I talked about today, phytoestrogen-rich foods, calcium-rich foods, a little more high-quality protein from plants and animals, a good amount of fiber, and healthy fats from omega-3s. Start there. See where foods overlap. such as protein, calcium, and fats from salmon, or fiber and calcium in broccoli, and keep the emphasis on these foods. Now, all the foods I mentioned today are just good for you foods, the foods that can help you feel good, help your energy, your health, and your hormones, and you will thank yourself. I’m going to say this again, that food is not the full answer to menopausal symptoms. But the right foods can certainly have a big influence on how you feel. I know that the menopausal transition can be confusing, and I am definitely here to help. If you’re interested in more personalized one-on-one coaching to help you feel your best during menopause, let’s have a chat. I have a link in my show notes to set up a time to talk for free about what is on your mind with your weight and your health. I can’t wait to hear from you. And as always, if you loved this podcast, please consider gifting me with a five-star review. It is so helpful for me to get the word out on real eating, our real bodies, and real food stories. Thank you so much and have a great week. Bye for now.