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Seven Pillars of a Healthy Menopause
2. Diet
No Miracles
There’s an uncomfortable truth about perimenopause and menopause — and about growing older in general. We’ve always known what’s good for us, we just got away with it for a long time — and we can’t get away with it any longer.
There are no miracle menopause diets. There are foods that contain phyto-oestrogens, molecules in plants that are thought to bind to oestrogen receptors. There’s very little evidence that these actually change our menopause symptoms. And even if they did we’d have to eat ridiculous amounts of them.
There are suggestions that Japanese diets, for example, help with menopause — but it’s hard to separate that from other aspects of Japanese culture, which views menopause very differently.
Plants!
So what does help? Firstly plants! As many different ones as possible. They’re full of essential vitamins and minerals and fibre — including magnesium which sits at the heart of every single green chlorophyll molecule. You can’t have too many plants in your diet — and a plant based diet is a great idea.
Fibre
One of the reasons plants are so great, is because you need the fibre. Constipation is a common problem. Our muscles can struggle in perimenopause…
