Eating for Menopause
Menopause Dietitian
Personalised nutrition coaching and support to assist with health and wellbeing in menopausal women.
Educating And Empowering Women Across
Advice and Nutrition for Menopausal Women
If you need help with the following:
Managing changes in mood and libido
Managing changes in weight
Managing high cholesterol
Reduce blood pressure naturally
Guidance with managing menopause symptoms
Menopause Symptoms Management
Menopause often occurs in women between the ages of 45 – 55. Symptoms can range from having none, to having severe symptoms that interfere with one’s everyday life. Most women will experience some symptoms, which is why it is becoming increasingly more important to work with women to combat these unwanted symptoms. Common symptoms include:
Hot flushes
Night sweats
Aches and pains in the joints
Vaginal dryness
Take a Proactive Approach
Menopause can be a very challenging time with changes to your health, your body and many other areas. You can’t stop menopause from happening but you do have the power to change other elements of your life, to reduce the risk of chronic disease development.
For most menopause symptoms and changes, these can be managed with the use of nutrition counselling and lifestyle modification. A change in lifestyle can often reduce unwanted symptoms within months, giving you peace of mind, and confidence in your lifestyle behaviours.
Improve your Menopause Symptoms
At Big Sis Nutrition, the goal is to assist you in improving menopause symptoms naturally with just a few small changes to your lifestyle, and to work together to reach all your health goals to improve your quality of life.
Bianca Woger
MDiet, BFood&NutrSc(Hons), BHealthSc
Frequently Asked Questions
The best way to manage menopause symptoms is to be open with your healthcare team and to seek help when you need it. A dietitian can help you with your menopause symptoms naturally with just a few small changes to your lifestyle.
Having a lifestyle change guided by nutrition can usually help with easing symptoms, while ongoing support from your dietitian can help you get back to feeling your best again!
It is a progressive process. Each consultation you have, you will feel closer to reaching your goals.
Dietitians offer individualised advice for each client. There is no “one size fits all” with treatment, so there is no timeline for when one might see results.
You reach your peak bone density at around 25 years of age, meaning that everything you did in those first 25 years of life will be crucial for the rest of your life. During menopause, your bone density halves, putting you at risk of osteoporosis if your bone density was not optimal to begin with. This means you should be including calcium and vitamin D in your diet. Vitamin D is produced by the body when sunlight touches the skin and helps with calcium absorption. Unfortunately, there are not many foods that contain high levels of vitamin D.
It is important to get regular bloods tests to check your vitamin D status, so you can correct any deficiencies or low levels sooner rather than later.
During menopause, many women report experiencing trouble maintaining their weight. Following general healthy eating principles such as having a diet high in wholegrains, fruit and vegetables can prevent the associated weight gain.
Fibre is found in a lot of our carbohydrate foods. The best source of carbohydrates are in our wholegrain foods, fruits and vegetables. Wholegrain foods are great for our gut health, regular bowel movements, and keep us feeling full when we eat. There is even research that shows, consuming wholegrains is protective against heart disease and bowel cancer.
It is common for women’s cholesterol levels to rise around the same time as menopause begins. Cholesterol levels are not solely affected by cholesterol containing foods (i.e. egg yolks). It is the saturated and trans fat content of meals that contributes to high cholesterol.
Having high cholesterol can lead to fatty deposits developing in your vital blood vessels. These fatty deposits can build up, making it more difficult for blood to flow freely through the blood vessel. These deposits can break off and travel through the bloodstream. If this becomes caught in the blood vessel, it can form a clot, leading to heart attack and/or stroke.
By trusting a dietitian to assist you in this next stage of life, you will be able to continue enjoying your favourite foods without restriction and uncertainty around food.
Eating phytoestrogens during menopause can assist with managing some unwanted symptoms of menopause such as hot flushes, as they act like the hormone oestrogen in the body. Phytoestrogens (plant oestrogens) act similarly to oestrogen, one of the major female hormones, and it is one that decreases when we reach menopause.
To get the best results possible, it is best to be lead by dietitians and your healthcare team to make sure this is the right approach for you.
If you have had a hormone driven breast, ovarian or uterine cancer, or a family history of these you should consult your GP and relevant healthcare providers for the best option for you and your menopausal symptoms.
