MENOPAUSE FOODS TO AVOID

Understanding all the information around nutrition and menopause can be hard. We receive a lot of questions about which foods to eat and which to avoid. This blog post will cover the foods (or food groups) to avoid. We’ll follow up with foods to add into your diet in another post. 

Quick sidebar

First, we want to state that our take on nutrition (and most things) is that every body is different. We recommend all our clients spend a few days documenting what they eat and tracking their menopause symptoms. We aren’t trying to track calories here- we are looking for patterns and determining which foods work and which do not work for our clients. When we have a better understand of which foods are trigger foods for our clients, we are able to design nutrition plans that allow them to maximize their nutrient intake, while avoiding foods that don’t work well for their body. 

With that being said, we do recommend everyone avoid a few foods.

Foods to avoid in menopause 

Alcohol

We recommend all of our clients avoid alcohol. Study after study (after study) has shown there is no benefit to consuming alcohol. In fact, alcohol has been proven to worsen menopausal symptoms, and increase the risk for menopause-related health concerns.

We love how popular mocktails have become, and these are a great way to satisfy the urge to have a fun drink, while incorporating beneficial nutrients. We’ll share some of our favorite recipes in a blog post soon! 

Simple/ refined/ added sugars:

We also recommend our clients taper down sugar consumption, and eventually avoid it altogether. We recommend avoiding simple, refined, or added sugars- basically any high glycemic, easily digestible form of sugar that can spike blood sugar levels. (This can be seen on a nutrition label under the “Added Sugars” section.) Carbohydrates found in food like fruit and vegetables are healthy, and we recommend swapping in these natural sources of sugar when a sweet craving hits. 

Diets high in sugar have been linked to increased menopausal symptoms, especially vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes and night sweats,) as well as increased insulin resistance. 

Highly processed foods

Similar to refined sugars, highly processed foods can be tied to more frequent menopause symptoms, an increase in cardiovascular disease, and increased insulin resistance. The empty calories in highly processed foods can contribute to excess weight gain, and can limit the amount of nutrients consumed if most of the diet is made up of processed foods. We recommend all of our clients completely avoid highly processed foods, and we work with each of our clients to find healthy replacements if processed foods make up a large chunk of her diet. 

Foods to limit in menopause

These foods are probably good to limit once in a person is enters perimenopause. Studies have shown that both spicy foods and caffeine can worsen menopause symptoms for some women. If you can’t give up your morning coffee, or can’t live without your hot sauce, we understand. If these are trigger foods for you, you can limit your intake. You may even find that these foods don’t trigger menopause symptoms, so there is no need to avoid them. 

Caffeine

Caffeine has been shown to increase menopause symptoms. In addition to possibly increasing vasomotor symptoms (hot flushes and night sweats,) caffeine has been shown to increase insomnia and anxiety. Some women can tolerate caffeine well, so we recommend tracking menopause symptoms after consuming caffeine to determine how it impacts you personally. 

Spicy foods

Similar to caffeine, spicy foods have been shown to increase menopause symptoms, especially vasomotor symptoms such as hot flushes and night sweats. We recommend being aware of your reaction to spicy foods and determining if spicy foods trigger menopause symptoms. If you notice an increase in symptoms after consuming spicy foods, we recommend limiting these in your diet. 

Recap

Avoid: Alcohol, simple sugar, and highly processed foods

Limit: Caffeine and spicy foods.

Check back later this week for our post on foods to include in your diet during menopause!