Menopause is something every woman who lives long enough will experience. Yet we tend to talk about it as though it's a medical problem that suddenly needs to be fixed: Hot flashes. Weight gain. Mood changes. Brain fog. Difficulty sleeping. Changes in libido.
When I spoke with nutritional therapist Alison Bladh, I wanted to approach the problem from a different direction.
What can a woman do to make the transition easier?
And:
Can changing what you eat help?
Alison is a registered nutritional therapist and beauty esthetician who works primarily with women over 40. Her approach combines nutrition, lifestyle, stress management, and mindset rather than looking for a single solution.
One thing she made clear from the beginning is important.
Food doesn't replace hormones.
Nutrition Isn't Hormone Replacement
As women move through menopause, production of estrogen and progesterone changes and eventually declines. I asked Alison an obvious question: Could a woman change her diet enough that she wouldn't need hormone replacement therapy?
Her answer:
“There isn't any form of nutrition or lifestyle that is going to replace your hormones.” If the objective is literally to replace hormones, that's what hormone replacement therapy does. Nutrition doesn't.
That doesn't mean nutrition is irrelevant.
Alison says she works with women who don't use hormone replacement therapy and manage the transition through a combination of nutrition, exercise, stress management, and lifestyle changes. The question isn't:
Can food replace estrogen?
It can't.
The question is:
Can nutrition and lifestyle help reduce some of the problems associated with the transition?
That's where things get practical.
Start With Real Food
Her first recommendation wasn't a supplement, exotic ingredient, or complicated menopause diet. It was:
Reduce highly processed and refined foods and get back to basic foods.
Vegetables. Fish. Meat. Eggs. Nuts. Seeds. Healthy fats. Foods that look reasonably similar to what they were, before someone manufactured them into something else.
That sounds obvious until you walk through a grocery store. “Processed food” doesn't only mean fast food, hot dogs, or frozen dinners.
Look at the ingredients.
A seemingly simple product can contain sugar, oils, flavorings, preservatives, and a long list of ingredients that weren't part of the food you thought you were buying.
Alison's approach is positive, not restrictive:
Don't begin by asking what you aren't allowed to eat.
Ask what better foods you can add.
One of the mistakes she sees women make during menopause is becoming more restrictive. Weight starts creeping up, so the natural response is to eat less and exercise harder.
Don't Be Afraid of Fat
For anyone who grew up during the low-fat era, this requires a mental adjustment. We were told that fat was the enemy. Healthy fats are an important part of the diet, including foods such as:
- olive oil
- avocado
- nuts and seeds
- fatty fish such as salmon
- other minimally processed sources of fat
Py attention to where the fat comes from. Get away from thinking about food solely in terms of fat = bad, and carbohydrates = bad, and consider what you are eating.
Is There a Menopause Superfood?
I wanted to know whether there was some secret ingredient. Maybe a spice. something you could throw into dinner that would make menopause a little easier.
There isn't a magic menopause seasoning. Alison encourages using herbs and spices, including turmeric, ginger, basil, parsley, and others.
She makes a ginger tea by grating fresh ginger and adding hot water.
Turmeric can be added to soups, stews, drinks, and other foods.
The idea isn't, eat turmeric and your menopause symptoms disappear, rather it's that eating well doesn't have to mean eating bland food or following a miserable diet.
That led me to ask a question.
What Would You Cook?
Suppose your partner is beginning menopause and you want to make her dinner.What should you make? Alison's suggestion was simple:
Start with a protein such as salmon or cod.
Bake it with tomatoes, olive oil, fresh basil, and black pepper.
Add a broccoli salad with greens, cucumber, peppers, seeds or nuts, olive oil, and vinegar.
You could add a turmeric dressing.
If additional carbohydrates fit your needs, add something such as a small serving of brown rice or sweet potato.
Drink water or sparkling water, perhaps flavored with lemon, lime, cucumber, or berries. There's nothing exotic about that meal. Eating better doesn't require making nutrition complicated.
Mood Swings
Suppose you're having a bad day.
Is there something you can eat or drink that immediately fixes the mood swing? Rather than looking for a menopause emergency smoothie, build a foundation through diet, stress management, and blood-sugar management.
She suggested something that has nothing to do with food:
Recognize what's happening.
If you're becoming unusually irritated or overwhelmed, acknowledging that you're going through a physiological transition can itself be useful, as can explaining it to the people around you.
Your partner may be wondering:
What happened? Why is she suddenly acting differently?
He/She/It may be wondering the same thing. Understanding the change doesn't make symptoms disappear. It can keep everyone from inventing explanations for behavior they don't understand.
What About Libido?
I asked Alison whether there were particular foods that could help with another common concern during menopause: reduced libido. I was hoping there might be some smoothie or combination of foods that would help.
Her answer was complicated.
Changes in libido during menopause can involve estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. They can also involve vaginal dryness or discomfort, stress, fatigue, weight gain, poor sleep and simply not feeling like yourself. Looking for an aphrodisiac is trying to solve the wrong problem.
If sex has become physically uncomfortable, that's a different problem than lack of desire.
If someone is exhausted, stressed and sleeping poorly, food alone may not be the solution either.
Alison suggests if you're making a smoothie, think about nutrition, rather than loading it with fruit and sugar: greens such as spinach, avocado, some berries, nuts or seeds, and perhaps a good-quality protein powder.
There wasn't a secret ingredient.
Stress May Be Part of the Problem
Menopause doesn't occur in isolation. A woman may simultaneously be dealing with work, relationships, children, aging parents, financial pressure, changing health, poor sleep, and a body that suddenly doesn't respond quite the way it used to. Add phones, email, text messages, social media, and the expectation that we're supposed to be available all the time.
During our conversation, I told Alison about something that happened when my phone stopped receiving text messages.
I couldn't fix it immediately.
Then something unexpected happened.
I felt relieved.
Nobody could text me.
Nothing terrible happened.
Alison's stress-management suggestions were similarly simple: deep breathing, sitting quietly for a few minutes, having a cup of tea without interruptions, putting down the phone, and creating periods without constant stimulation.
Sometimes improving health isn't about adding another intervention.
It's about removing one.
Sleep Is Part of the Equation
Menopause can disrupt sleep. Once sleep deteriorates, it's easy to imagine how everything else becomes harder.
You're tired.
You're irritable.
Exercise becomes harder.
Food choices become harder.
Stress becomes harder to manage.
Look at what happens during the hours before bed. Reduce stimulation. Put away the phone and computer. Pay attention to caffeine. Avoid large meals immediately before sleeping.
Be cautious about using alcohol as a sleep aid. Alcohol may make someone feel sleepy initially. Falling asleep isn't necessarily the same thing as getting good sleep.
What do I do if I'm not watching television or staring at my phone?
Read a book.
Talk.
Go for a walk.
Sit quietly.
We've become so accustomed to constant stimulation that doing nothing can feel like something we need to learn how to do again.
The Weight-Loss Trap
A woman notices she's gaining weight during menopause. So she does what she's probably been taught to do:
Eat less and exercise more.
She becomes highly restrictive with food, and starts doing intense workouts.
She becomes frustrated when it doesn't work.
Change the strategy: Eat nutritious food rather than simply eating less.
Move. Walk. Do yoga. Exercise.
Don't assume that punishing yourself with hunger and increasingly intense exercise is the answer.
Menopause Isn't Something to Fight
I started wondering whether our framing of menopause itself contributes to the problem. We talk about it in terms of loss:
Loss of hormones.
Loss of fertility.
Changes in appearance.
Changes in sexuality.
Aging.
Menopause isn't a disease. It's a transition into another stage of life. The objective shouldn't be, how do I stop my body from changing? It should be: how do I help my body through the change? Alison described women reaching this stage and deciding to do things they've wanted to do for years—starting businesses, traveling, changing direction, and entering a new phase of life.
Nutrition is one piece. Exercise is another. Sleep matters. Stress matters. Mindset matters. Medical treatment may matter. What works for one woman won't necessarily be what works for another.
The objective isn't to find the menopause diet.
It's to understand what's changing and create the conditions that make the transition easier.
Not fighting your body. Helping it through the next phase.
Editor’s Note: This article is based on my podcast interview with Alison Bladh. The ideas discussed here originate from that conversation. The structure, emphasis, and commentary are my own. Any errors or interpretations should be attributed to me, not to Alison Bladh.
Watch or listen
Alison Bladh on The Daniel Stih Podcast:
Apple Podcasts • YouTube • Spotify
About Alison Bladh
Website: https://www.alisonbladh.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alison-bladh-b5178638
About the Author
Daniel Stih is an aerospace engineer, software engineer, indoor environmental consultant, and author of 12 books. Through engineering, investigations, and interdisciplinary research, he explores how people define problems, interpret evidence, and make conclusions when there's uncertainty. Learn more in Why I Think This Way.