The menopause brings a number of changes caused by declining levels of the hormone oestrogen, including hot flushes, night sweats and weight gain. These symptoms can be controlled with hormone replacement therapy (HRT) but not everyone wants to go down this road. The fact that Asian women seem to suffer less with these symptoms is thought to be down to their high dietary intake of foods containing phyto-oestrogens. A number of phyto-oestrogens (from a variety of plants and herbs) are now also available in supplement form. The following are good sources of phyo-oestrogens.
Foods: lentils, chickpeas, broad beans and soya beans.
Herbal suppplements: black cohosh, ginko
biloba, ginseng, sage, red clover and soya.
NB: red clover isoflavones cause less environmental impact that intensive farming of soya beans.Once you are over 60, your energy requirements drop by about 100 calories a day. Falling oestrogen levels make you more sensitive to insulin, so space out your carbohydrate foods over the day.
