How to Design a Healthy Menopausal Diet
We all have heard about the inevitability of death and taxes and yet there is one other inevitable event, for women anyway. Around the age of 40-50, females have a change taking place in their lives and bodies that is known as menopause. Hormones begin to shift and the levels change, which brings about some exciting and empowering events.
According to doctors, this is a natural phenomenon that happens as you leave child-bearing years behind and move into a bright new time of life. You will begin to experience power surges (hot flashes), great depth of feeling (mood swings) and your body takes on new curves (excess weight).
This seems a bit unfair to have to deal with excess pounds on top of all of the other symptoms, but nonetheless it happens. One of the reasons that menopause predisposes us to weight gain is because our natural estrogen levels begin to decrease during these years.
Over a third of most women between the ages of 45 and 50 are shown to gain a minimum of 5 pounds, although the most reliable studies indicate that actual menopausal weight gain is between 10 and 15 pounds. Less than half of all women in the studies maintained their same weight throughout the menopausal years and this was only through extreme dieting and determination.
Weight control is important because increased weight can increase the chance for diseases such as high blood pressure, stroke, and heart disease. Exercise is a key factor which helps in maintaining proper weight, and the females should be involved with the cardiac activities as well as weight training.
The diet for women who are in the menopausal age range should be packed with nutrients and be well balanced. Even before menopause symptoms occur, women should be eating fresh fruits and vegetables, lean protein, whole grains and calcium containing foods on a daily basis.
If you want a healthy life, free of many of the most common menopausal symptoms, adjust your diet to include healthy foods including all of the necessary vitamins and minerals.
Some foods you should avoid are: sugar, processed foods, salt, edamame (soybeans), soy based products like tofu.
You will fly right through menopause when you add these healthy foods to your diet and acquire more daily activity. When you are in the second half of your life, you can certainly have some of your best years due to the cumulative experiences you’ve had.
Products that should be in your Diet: Vitamins A, D, C and E, calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, fiber, phytoestrogens, and isoflavones; cottage cheese; yogurt; seafood, especially fish; fresh berries and other fruits; whole-wheat cereals and breads; leafy greens like spinach, kale, and broccoli.
When you bring a new healthy diet and exercise program into your life you can meet those menopausal months with a bright smile. Many of those annoying symptoms can be decreased or eliminated and you can sail through this normal transition in style. With increased activity and natural, whole foods it is possible to make this new time in your life the best and most productive years of all.
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