Conditions we support › Menopause & Perimenopause

How it works

Protein at every meal helps you hold onto muscle and stay full. Plenty of non-starchy vegetables and fiber, along with fewer refined carbs, keep your blood sugar steady. Calcium and vitamin D look after your bones. And we ease back on the things that tend to trigger hot flashes and poor sleep.

Who it's a good fit for

Women in perimenopause or menopause who are noticing weight settle around the middle, energy dips, or trouble with sleep and hot flashes, and want to eat for this stage of life.

What the research shows

Menopause isn't just about hot flashes. When estrogen drops, a few things shift at once, and food has a real say in all of them. Muscle starts to slip away faster, which is why protein moves to the front of every meal here. Getting enough of it, along with some resistance training, is the best-studied way to hold onto the muscle that keeps your metabolism and blood sugar steady. Estrogen also seems to have been quietly protecting your heart. Once it falls, total cholesterol tends to rise, HDL (the helpful kind) tends to dip, and weight starts settling around your middle, where it does the most metabolic mischief. A Mediterranean-leaning way of eating has the most evidence behind it for keeping cholesterol and heart risk in check through this stretch.

Two more places food earns its keep. The first is your bones. Bone loss speeds up sharply around menopause and keeps going for up to a decade after, so calcium and vitamin D stop being optional (most women over 50 need around 1,200 mg of calcium a day, which is more than they usually get). The second is your symptoms. There's decent evidence that losing even a little excess weight eases hot flashes. In one analysis, every 5 kilograms, roughly 11 pounds, came with about a 30 percent improvement. Soy foods may help some women too, though the effect is modest and varies from person to person.

What to keep in mind

Eating well can genuinely soften this transition, but it works next to your medical care, not in place of it. Whether hormone therapy is right for you is a decision for you and your provider, ideally alongside a bone-density check if you haven't had one. And if you have a history of breast cancer or another hormone-sensitive condition, mention it before you lean hard on soy foods, since the guidance there is more individual. The simplest way to think about it: we handle the food, your provider handles the hormones and the screening, and together that covers a lot of ground.

Perimenopause vs. menopause: what’s the difference?

Perimenopause is the transition leading up to menopause, the years when hormones fluctuate and symptoms like irregular cycles, sleep changes, and midsection weight gain often first show up, typically starting in the forties. Menopause itself is the point twelve months after your last period. Nutritionally we treat them together here, because protein, fiber, steady blood sugar, and bone-supporting foods matter through the whole stretch.

Common questions