Individuals experiencing menopause often encounter challenges in maintaining weight. As women age, declining estrogen levels contribute to this significant hurdle in weight loss.
In addition, factors such as poor sleep quality and reduced metabolism further complicate adherence to a diet that can effectively address these concerns.
Nonetheless, adopting a sustainable diet continues to be one of the most powerful approaches to overcoming these challenges.
This article provides a comprehensive overview of following a diet on menopause, including a sample 7-day plan featuring daily meals and a corresponding shopping list.
Why Diet is Important on the Menopause
Diet can play an important role in influencing how the menopause. Hormonal changes that occur during menopause have various effects on the body, and a good diet can help manage certain symptoms.
In particular, diet and menopause can be linked in the following aspects:
- Weight Management: declining estrogen levels bring challenges in maintaining weight. A balanced, nutrient-rich diet can help prevent weight gain.
- Bone Health: Women are at an increased risk of developing osteoporosis, a condition characterized by weak bones. Consuming foods high in calcium and vitamin D can help bone health and reduce the risk of fractures.
- Heart Health: Estrogen plays a role in protecting heart health in premenopausal women. After menopause, the risk of cardiovascular disease increases. Therefore, prioritizing a diet low in saturated fat and high in foods like fruits, vegetables and whole grains can help reduce this risk
- Mood and Emotional Well-Being: Hormonal changes during menopause can cause mood swings, irritability and anxiety. A good diet rich in omega-3s and B vitamins is good for brain health.
Menopause Diet Foods to Choose
You’ll want to eat a healthy diet overall, but there are certain foods you should prioritize if you want your diet to help relieve some of the symptoms of menopause.
Dairy
Reduced estrogen caused by the menopause can cause bone loss. This means post-menopausal women are at greater risk of developing osteoporosis and bone fractures.
Dairy products contain all the essential vitamins and minerals you need for good bone health (1). These include:
- Calcium
- Vitamins D and K
- Magnesium
- Potassium
- Phosphorus
In one study, women with the highest intake of dietary vitamin D had a 17% lower risk of early menopause than women with the lowest intake (2).
In another study of 746 healthy postmenopausal women, there was a beneficial effect of eating animal and dairy protein on bone strength and microstructure (3).
Common dairy foods to eat include milk, cheese and yogurt.
Whole Grains
Whole grains contain lots of fiber and B vitamins. Fiber can with problems women on menopause regularly have. These include lowering cholesterol and blood sugar levels and preventing constipation.
Whole grains
Another study including 11,000 postmenopausal women found women who consumed on average 4.7g of whole-grain fiber per 2000 calories had a 17% lower mortality rate than women who only consumed 1.3g of whole-grain fiber per 2000 calories (5).
Good choices for whole-grain foods include:
- Barley – is rich in beta-glucan, a type of soluble fiber that can help lower cholesterol (6).
- Oats – may lower total cholesterol by 5% and “bad” LDL cholesterol by 7% (7).
- Bulgar
- Brown rice
- Wholemeal bread
- Quinoa
Healthy Fats
Healthy fats include unsaturated fats that contain lots of omega-3 fatty acids. These fatty acids may be useful for menopausal women to help manage symptoms.
Consuming foods high in omega-3 fatty acids has been shown to confer excellent health benefits. For example, postmenopausal women who ate 30g of flaxseed per day reduced their risk of cardiovascular disease as seen by lowered LDL cholesterol levels (8).
However, other studies are not as conclusive about whether increasing your omega-3 intake can improve symptoms like hot flashes and severe night sweats (9, 10).
It may still be worth testing increasing your omega-3 intake to see whether it helps menopausal symptoms.
Foods high in omega-3 fatty acids include:
- Fatty fish – salmon, mackerel, sardines
- Seeds – flax seeds and chia seeds
Fruits and Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables contain lots of the vitamins, minerals, fiber and antioxidants you need to help improve your health.
One study found eating more vegetables, fruit, fiber and soy had 19% fewer hot flashes compared to the control group. This reduction was linked to the weight lost (11).
Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower and kale may be particularly effective. One study found that eating broccoli reduced the type of estrogen linked with breast cancer (12).
Protein
Reduced estrogen levels caused by the menopause have been correlated to reduced bone density and muscle mass (13).
This means it can be useful for menopausal women to eat more protein.
One study found that eating dairy protein was linked to an 8% lower risk of hip fracture while eating plant protein was linked to a 12% reduction (14).
High-protein foods include:
- Meat – chicken, beef, pork
- Seafood – salmon, tuna, mackerel
- Beans and lentils – kidney beans, fava beans, chickpeas
- Dairy foods – cheese, milk, yogurt
- Eggs
Menopause Diet Foods to Avoid
These are foods that aren’t healthy and tend to cause weight gain, hot flashes and poor sleep.
These include:
- Foods with added sugar – high blood sugar has been linked to more hot flashes in women going through the menopause (15, 16).
- Alcohol and caffeine – studies have found that caffeine and alcohol can trigger hot flashes in women going through menopause (17, 18).
- Salty foods – postmenopausal women are more at risk of osteoporosis. In one study, those who ate lots of high sodium and salty foods (more than 2g of salt per day) were 28% more likely to have a low bone mineral density (19)
What’s the Best Diet for Menopause
Although there is no single diet for menopause, many scientists recommend following a Mediterranean-style diet.
Although it is best known for improving health and reducing heart disease risk, studies show it may also help you lose weight (20, 21, 22).
Another study found that a traditional Mediterranean diet significantly helps estrogen levels in healthy postmenopausal women (23).
It’s regularly rated as one of the best diets to follow, both because of how healthy it is and how sustainable it is to follow over the long term. US News ranked it as the number 1 diet.
This is great for people who want a long-term solution that they can stick to forever rather than a short-term fix.
Various leading organizations also support eating a Mediterranean diet to help with osteoporosis, including:
Menopause Diet Meal Plan
Sample Menu
In the meal plan are recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
| Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | Blueberry Blues Porridge | Greek Salad | Haddock Risotto |
| Tues | Basil & Spinach Scramble | Falafel Wraps | Eggplant & Lentil Bake |
| Wed | Tomato & Watermelon Salad | Carrot, Orange & Avocado Salad | Mediterranean Chicken, Quinoa & Greek Salad |
| Thurs | Blueberry Blues Porridge | Mixed Bean Salad | Grilled Vegetables with Bean Mash |
| Fri | Basil & Spinach Scramble | Panzanella Salad | Salmon & Chickpea Salad |
| Sat | Tomato & Watermelon Salad | Spiced Carrot & Lentil Soup | Chicken Gyros |
| Sun | Blueberry Blues Porridge | Moroccan Chickpea Soup | Spicy Mediterranean Beet Salad |
Snacks are recommended between meal times. Some good snacks include:
- A handful of nuts or seeds
- A piece of fruit
- Carrots or baby carrots
- Berries or grapes
Day 1: Monday
Breakfast: Breakfast Blues Porridge
Nutrition
- Calories – 347
- Protein – 15g
- Carbs – 42g
- Fat – 15g
Prep time: 5 minutes
Ingredients (for 2 people)
- ½ cup (50g) porridge oats
- ⅚ cup (200ml) milk
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp Greek yogurt
- ⅛ cup (25g) chia seeds
- ¾ cup (150g) blueberries
- ⅓ cup (25g) flaked almonds
Instructions
- Mix the porridge oats, milk, vanilla extract, Greek yogurt and chia seeds in a bowl and soak for one minute. Once the oats have softened, add some of the blueberries.
- Place the mixture into two bowls and add any remaining berries and almonds.
Lunch: Greek Salad
Nutrition
- Calories – 273
- Protein – 6g
- Carbs – 14g
- Fat – 24g
Prep time: 5 minutes
Ingredients (for 2 people)
- ⅘ cup (120g) cherry tomatoes,
- 1 cucumber, peeled, deseeded and roughly chopped
- ½ red onion, thinly sliced
- ⅓ (60g) or about 16 Kalamata olives
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- ⅓ cup (50g) feta cheese, crumbled
- 2 tbsp olive oil