What is a healthy menopause diet? Do you have to completely change the way you eat, if you're a woman in your 40s or 50s?
If you're already enjoying a healthy diet, then that's fine. A good diet, based on fresh and wholefoods, with plenty of - you know what comes next - fruit and veg will stand you in good stead for the whole of your life.
But it's time to adjust your menopause diet if:
your daily eating pattern leans too much towards fast, processed foods
you've noticed your weight creeping up
you're keen to cut your chances of developing the ailments of increasing years, like osteoporosis, heart disease and cancer.
What Is a Healthy Menopause Diet?
The secret of healthy eating for menopausal women is the same as it is for any age group.
Choose fresh food, not processed, as often as possible. Prepare simple meals from scratch, rather than buying a ready-made whatever.
Make real efforts to consume your five portions (that's a minimum, by the way) of fruit and veg every single day. Err towards vegetables rather than fruit, to keep your sugar intake within reason.
Add some fresh fruit or vegetables to every meal and snack you prepare from now on - make it a habit as part of your new healthy eating initiative.
Try sliced apple on cereal, carrot sticks and a dip for a snack, salad in your lunchtime sandwich, a handful of dried apricots with a teatime biscuit, two or three veggies (not just one measly portion) with your evening meal, a banana before bedtime...
Cut back on highly energy-dense foods. It's the foods like cheese, which pack masses of fat and calories into a tiny portion, that are easy to eat way in quantities that are far too large. Reduce the amount of saturated fats you eat, in foods like meat, cheese and dairy products. Choose low fat alternatives, or eat smaller portions.
Go for wholegrains in bread, pasta, breakfast cereals and rice. Turn your back on white, refined foods - they're stripped of nutrients and fibre, and often partnered with fat and sugar in junk foods - think cake, biscuits, burger buns, just for example.
And speaking of junk foods, take them out of your menopause diet except for the occasional treat. In fact, if you change your way of eating, you'll probably find that junk food loses a lot of its allure, and you won't even want to eat it.
Wise up on what consistutes a healthy diet and make gradual changes to the way you eat. After all, now that you've reached the menopause, it's essential to take extra good care of your health so that you can stay fit, healthy, active and independent into the longterm.
Weight Gain In Menopause
Why is it, that the pounds tend to creep on, especially around the midriff? A lot of it's to do with hormone changes that lead midlife women to store fat differently, and make it harder to say goodbye to that wretched spare tyre.
As a rule of thumb, you can help combat menopausal weight gain by:
Avoiding slimming diets - they create more problems than they cure, unless you can stick to them for a lifetime. Better by far to adopt a healthier, sustainable eating pattern and reduce calories by eliminating junk foods.
Eating healthy and exercise is the magical combination that will really show results around your waistline. Get active, and you'll benefit your health in all sorts of ways.
Be careful about portion sizes. Go for maller helpings of protein and fats, balanced by larger servings of vegetables, grains, wholefoods and fruit.
Cut the junk, focus on the fresh. Simple.
Menopause Diet and Your Health
What you eat doesn't just affect your waistline.
Our diets have far-reaching effects on longterm health. Follow the healthy eating guidelines on this page, and you'll also be giving yourself a heart healthy diet - a very important consideration for menopausal women. Think about this: heart disease is one of the major killers of post-menopausal women, and it creeps up quietly, often showing no symptoms until - bam! - a heart attack. You can do a lot of lessen the chances of this happening to you, by modifying your menopause diet, and upping the amount of exercise you do.
Cancer is another disease that is linked partly to ageing, and so becomes more common after the menopause. By adopting an anti-cancer diet, which centres fresh, unprocessed foods, you can take action to keep yourself out of the cancer statistics.
Osteoporosis is a menace post-menopause, leading to softened, easily breakable bones that in turn can reduce your mobility longterm. It's never too early to start eating bone-friendly, calcium-rich foods, including low fat dairy products, fish like sardines and pilchards and leafy green vegetables.
Your health into the future relies on a healthy and balanced menopause diet. Start making changes now - you won't regret it.
The secret of healthy eating for menopausal women is the same as it is for any age group.