How Diet And Exercise Impact The Symptoms Of Menopause

what do you recommend for women who are perimenopausal or menopausal to help them deal with the side effects of menopause well for for people who are going through menopause it’s so interesting if you look around the world there are some places where the symptoms of menopause are are very unusual or you know we just don’t see them much and one of the places i think of is japan whereas in in the united states and canada in europe people experience more profound symptoms of menopause and and i think a lot has to do with body weight and hormones i think a lot has to do with our dietary choices and i think a lot has to do with our exercise habits and so for me to me i would say to to women be as healthy as you can be don’t be overweight get enough rest get enough exercise and eat an unprocessed whole food diet as much as possible lots of fruits and vegetables lots of legumes plenty of whole grains some nuts and seeds we need the essential fats in there as well and and i think that soy there are several studies showing that it may help reduce symptoms of menopause for some women and and so and i can just share from a personal perspective because i’m 61 years old uh i’m post-menopausal of course and i really barely noticed once in a while i felt a little bit of sort of warmth never what i would call a hot flash where i felt like i was sweating not even close that was it and i am a regular consumer of organic soy and and some people say oh soy’s poison don’t eat that my answer to that would be if soy was a poison it probably wouldn’t have been a dietary staple in two of the healthiest longest lived zones in the world okinawa and the seventh day adventists okinawans average two servings of soy a day soy is a legume it’s a bean uh it’s it’s you know to me it’s it’s a wonderful contributor to uh a you know very uh wonderful protein rich food and great for people who are vegetarian or vegan and so what i would say is that we need to be cautious about ultra-processed soy and how is the soy protein extracted and asked those questions if you just stick to organic you can avoid some of the issues we might be concerned with and and so organic soy tofu tempeh edamame soy beans used to make patties or whatever you’re doing with it and and those would be you know an even organic soy milk to me those are very reasonable additions to the diet i would go a little more lightly on the processed soy foods like the veggie meats but i still don’t think they need to be necessarily eliminated because i feel like they make doing this easier for people isn’t it wonderful when you know your child is going to off to a scouting adventure and they can have a hot dog on the fire like everyone else so they have a tofu hot dog or they have a veggie burger when the troupe is doing burgers it just makes life easier for people and so i think they can have a place in the diet and just i wouldn’t make them staples that’s all so so yeah so i think those are the the keys and for me and for many women i know who are plant-based we pretty much sailed through menopause