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Nutritional Advice
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How To Beat The Heat Of Menopause Naturally
July 09 2008
The secret of happy hormones
Some women breeze through the menopause, while others aren’t so fortunate. I see many women in my clinics who are having a difficult time with hot flushes and night sweats. Not surprisingly, they want to know how to ease their symptoms in a natural way.
So, how can you modify your diet to enable your body to cope with the hormonal changes that take place at this time in a woman’s life?
Phytoestrogens - plant hormones found in a variety of foods - have been researched widely and have been found to reduce hot flushes and night sweats. It is thought that these plant chemicals have a balancing effect on hormone levels by naturally boosting oestrogen when levels are low, as in the menopause.
These weak plant oestrogens are found in legumes, including soya, chick peas, lentils, kidney beans and peas. Seeds such as linseeds, sunflower, sesame and pumpkin seeds are also a good source. When shopping for vegetables and herbs look for garlic, broccoli, rhubarb, fennel, celery, sage, cinnamon and parsley. Good fruit choices include plums, apples and cherries - juicy local cherries are in the shops now. Whole grain rice, oats, wheat barley and rye should also be on your shopping list.
For maximum benefit, make sure that you eat phytoestrogen foods at regular intervals throughout the day. Here are some ideas for breakfast and snacks to help you to increase these foods in your diet:
Breakfast
• Porridge made with water and soya milk with a sprinkling of seeds and grated apple
• Plain live yoghurt or soya yoghurt with a fruit salad – include some plums or cherries – and a sprinkling of seeds
• Muesli containing a mix of seeds and grated apple with milk or soya milk
Snacks
• Vegetable sticks (e.g. carrots, celery, fennel) with guacamole
• Oat cake or rice cake with houmous (you can make your own houmous by whizzing together chick peas, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and tahini)
• A piece of fruit (apple, pear, plum) with a handful of pumpkin and sunflower seeds
• A helping of bean and rice salad with a drizzle of olive oil.
A few words of caution about soya: if you have an underactive thyroid, keep soya consumption to a minimum; it blocks the uptake of iodine from the blood, which is essential for thyroid health. Also, stick with traditional forms of soya, such as soya sauce, tofu and organic soya milk. Chemically treated soya is used widely in processed foods and may not confer the same health benefits.
The menopause is a natural event in a woman’s life and should not be feared or dreaded. As you have read, there are some delicious and inexpensive everyday foods that can help to ease the troublesome symptoms that are experienced by many women at the menopause.
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