January 16th, 2013

The Effects of Menopause – Eating the Right Foods

“Human females are unique from all other females on at least two counts: we menstruate, and we cease to be reproductively available after we've lived only half of our life span” (Beck). Menopause is the end of your monthly cycle; it occurs over a time period of ten to fifteen years beginning at the age of 35, although it is not the same for everyone. Some symptoms are; sleep disruption, insomnia, mental sluggishness, short- term memory loss etc (Gittleman). Thankfully, women can still live a healthy and active life because of the research that has been done on eating and exercising with menopause. These things make living with menopause a lot easier and less stressful. There have been a lot of new methods and diets discovered in the past years on how to reduce symptoms of menopause, but that didn't decrease the chances of getting it. The number of women entering the postmenopausal years is expected to increase to fifty percent over the next decade (Red Hot). The main focus of this report is to find out what diet is considered healthy for menopausal women and if there are any ways to prevent the symptoms that come along with it.
A woman with menopause needs to be very careful with her diet and choices of foods. They need to choose foods low in fat, saturated fats and cholesterol. Eating the wrong fats, can cause obesity and heart attacks, but eating the right fats and omega-3 will be healthier for your diet than cookies, crackers and chips will. Women with menopause also need to make sure that they only have a thirty percent intake of fat in their daily diet. Eating fruits, vegetables, whole grain products, and foods high in vitamin C like: oranges, grapefruit, carrots, tomatoes, cauliflower etc, are all recommended for a healthy diet. In addition, soy products are very important for a woman's diet. Precisely, soy beans, flour, nuts, and sauce can be added as ingredients into meals, and is considered to be very healthy. These ingredients can be used in soups, when baking bread, muffins cakes etc, or eaten as snacks instead of choosing something unhealthy. Also, eating plants and greens will help because they have phytoestrogens, which are similar to estrogens and will act as that in your body.
In addition, a woman going through menopause has a lot of things she can and can not do. For example, there are four main things do. Firstly, getting enough calcium is important because it will strengthen your bones and boost your health. Eating or drinking calcium rich foods like milk products or fruits and vegetables two to four times a day will ensure that menopausal women get enough calcium in their daily diet (Cleveland). Secondly, a lot of iron is needed in the diet. Red meats, poultry, eggs, nuts and grains are a great source of iron for your body, and it is recommended to have three to five servings of iron-rich foods in a day. Thirdly, making sure to get enough fibre is important. Fibre can help prevent certain conditions that may develop after menopause, so remembering to eat enough whole grain breads, cereals, pasta and rice weekly is recommended. Lastly, and most important, after developing through menopause it is important to reduce the foods high in fat in your diet. For instance, fats should only provide thirty percent or less in the diet, along with saturated fats only providing less than ten. The reason for reducing foods high in fat is because they can easily cause high cholesterol and risks of heart disease, and having menopause can raise these risks especially if there are a lot of high fat foods consumed in your diet. Next, there are four main things you should not do while going through the stages of menopause. Firstly, do not skip fruits and vegetables or leave them out of your diet. They help strengthen your metabolism and are very healthy. It is said that women with menopause should have a minimum of two to four servings of fruit and