Sarah-Jane Hunter is a top personal trainer and well known media commentator on the fitness industry. We don’t advocate ‘sweating it out’ in the gym but everybody knows that moderate exercise is good for you and will help you lose weight and tone up. Sarah-Jane is brilliant at creating easy to watch videos that show you exactly how to do simple exercises at home if you want to.
Here are some suggestions that will help your Menopause Diet.
1. Boost your daily intake of fruits.
2. Choose melons, bananas and citrus fruits like oranges and lemons, which are high in potassium.
3. Potassium rich foods help balance sodium and water retention. Also include some dried fruit like apricots and figs.
4. Boost your daily intake of vegetables (inc. salad) Choose in particular, yam, dark leafy vegetables like kale, collard greens, spinach, pak choi, broccoli and cabbage, as well as peppers, tomatoes and a variety of others.
5. Introduce soy foods (eg. soybeans, calcium-fortified soy milk, soy yogurt and tofu.) into your daily eating.
6. Eat regular amounts of fibre, especially soluble fibre Junk the fried foods, instead broil or bake. Junk the white bread/flour, eat wholegrain bread, oats, rye, wheatgerm.
7. Junk the white rice (except basmati), switch to long grain brown rice.
8. Eat fewer regular potatoes, eat more sweet potatoes and pasta.
9. Add regular helpings of beans and lentils to your meals.
10. Junk the processed cooking oils, switch to unprocessed oils Choose extra virgin olive oil, canola, wheatgerm and flaxseed oil.
11. Make oily fish like salmon, mackerel) a regular feature of your diet.
12. Oily fish is rich in omega 3 (brazils, walnuts), seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, linseeds), dried fruit (apricots, figs).
13. Try adding seaweed to your diet; ask at your local health food store. Choose Nori, Wakame, Kombu, Arame, which contain natural hormones and plant chemicals which help during menopause.
14. Drink more mineral/bottled water, less caffeine and modest amounts of alcohol.
15. Enjoy high-calorie junk foods as an very occasional treat only.