Reduce Your Hot Flashes with Great Nutrition!
- clarelouiseblakemo
- Mar 7
- 5 min read
Updated: Mar 17
Welcome back to The Little Blog Of Menopause, from me Clare, at CLB Nutrition. This month we are looking at Hot Flashes, the bane of so many women and one that can have such a profound effect on us. Whether we are in the office, the supermarket or at home, hot flashes are never welcome.
Now, I'm not a scientist, so I'm not going to talk in depth about why we can be troubled by this strange heat response. But to give you a simple over-view;
Image courtesy of Freepix
"Hot flashes happen because of changes in a woman's hormones, when our body starts to produce less of the hormone estrogen. Estrogen helps to regulate many body functions, including temperature control. When estrogen levels drop, it can confuse the body's thermostat, which is located in the brain. This causes the body to overheat. As a result, women may suddenly feel very hot, sweat a lot, and sometimes have red or flushed skin. This is what we call a "hot flash." They can be uncomfortable and sometimes interrupt daily life. The exact cause of hot flashes is not fully understood, but they are a normal part of aging for many women. While they can be annoying, hot flashes usually become less intense and less frequent after a few years"
The good news is that targeted nutrition can have a big effect on your hot flashes. The right nutrition can reduce the intensity of each flash, as well as reduce the number of flashes you have each day. So, in this month's blog I am going to talk about how we can use targeted nutrition to have such a profound effect on this symptom, as well as other menopausal symptoms. Let's dive straight in and look at the foods that will be making your hot flashes worse and the adjustments and changes you can make to stop this from happening.
Foods to avoid
Refined sugars and syrups are the number one culprit so we need to think about how to sweeten food without using refined sugars and syrups. Using whole foods such as dates and bananas to sweeten can be life changing. They do contain naturally occurring sugars, but these natural unprocessed sugars are way less of a trigger than the ultra refined and ultra processed sugars and syrups. Those of us with a very 'sweet tooth' may need to re-train the tastebuds to accept a more gentle sweetness, but it's worth it, I promise. Over the coming months I will be sharing a sweet treat recipe every month, all of them recipes that use naturally sweet whole foods instead of processed refined sugars. Each recipe will satisfy your cravings and help you keep sugar off your shopping lists.
Alcohol and caffeine are very common triggers. Alcohol was big trigger for me and I stopped drinking alcohol in the second year of my full menopause. It's been a very worthwhile adjustment. There are great 0% beers, wines, cavas and spirits out there, so making the switch isn't too tough. And check out my 'Blackberry & Lime Mocktail recipe. You'll find it on on the Free Recipes page.
I need caffeine in the mornings but I restrict my caffeine intake to just a couple of mugs first thing before switching to decaf tea and herb teas for the rest of the day. Here's my guide for healthy hydration and all the benefits of herbal tea:
Ultra processed saturated and trans fats have been linked to an increase in hot flashes. So cutting down on ultra-processed ready-to-eat foods, plus sugar rich shop bought sweets and cakes can be a big help. Over the coming months I will be talking about healthy easy to cook recipes that you can try at home, all of which are in the 'Free Recipes' here on the website.
Spicy foods can trigger a heat response. If you are a fan of the chilli pepper, keep a note, kind of a food diary, of how you respond to spicy meals - and adjust the spiciness accordingly.
Foods that help
Adding in plant estrogen, or phytoestrogen as it's called, will help to address our naturally declining estrogen levels. Foods high in phytoestrogens include flax seeds, soy beans and edamame, legumes like chickpeas, lentils, red kidney, cannellini and pinto beans, dried fruits, sesame seeds, whole grains, garlic, peaches, berries like blueberries, strawberries and raspberries, tofu and tempeh, and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli. Have a read here for more in-depth information on these foods and their effects on our health.
So, today I will be sharing with you recipes rich in these foods. Recipes that help you avoid the triggers while keeping you satisfied - and cool!
Recipes for February
This month I've got you covered for breakfast, lunch and supper and the featured sweet treat recipe is a plant based sugar-free blueberry cheesecake, a delicious treat that won't cause your flashes to go into over-drive!
Breakfast: High Protein Chocolate Smoothie. This smoothie comes together really quickly, is full of phytoestrogens, is high in fibre and plant proteins and is deliciously sweet without using refined sugars.
Lunch: A Vegetable Soup with White Beans and Thyme. A great recipe for batch cooking, it freezes really well. It travels too, if you need your lunch on the go.
Supper: Black Bean and Soy Curl (or TVP) Veggie Burger. A great plant based recipe that can be batch prepped for the freezer, it's a burger that's bursting with phytoestrogens and flavour and has a great chewable texture. I'm serving it up with mashed avocado, plant based cheese and red onion.
Grab all the recipes here in the 'Free Recipes' section of the website.
This Month's Sweet Treat!
Other Tips
I have had incredible success with a fast regime that triggers a natural bodily process called Autophagy. It has massively reduced the number of hot flashes I experience every day. And I no longer suffer from the adrenaline release that accompanies each flash either. I have published a couple of blogs that explain what this is and how it affects our menopause (links at the bottom). But most importantly, I have published a 3rd blog about my own experience with this, and how it changed my life. Read it here. I would urge you to give this a read! It has given me back my joy, my energy, my sleep, my ability to think straight; it's basically given me back my life.
Further reading and sources:
These from me here at CLB Nutrition:
Keep your eye on The Little Blog of Menopause. Every month I am publishing a new blog that looks at specific menopause symptoms and talks about nutrients and foods that help control them. With 4 key recipes each month. Subscribe to my mailing list to be sure of not missing a single one!
From around the web:
Lisa Mosconi from Weill Cornnell Institute in New York gave a great Ted Talk about women's brains and the menopause; watch it here
National Institute on Aging (https://www.nia.nih.gov)
Mayo Clinic (https://www.mayoclinic.org)
留言