Perfectly Pl@nted
Perfectly Pl@nted
Menopause and Nutrition: Nourishing Your Midlife Health
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In this second installment of our menopause series, we dive deeper into the intricacies of menopause, focusing on nutrition, the microbiome, and overall health.
In this episode, we explore the essential changes that occur in a woman's body during menopause and how to effectively manage these changes through diet and lifestyle. Dr. Bascom provides valuable insights into the role of macronutrients, debunking common myths about metabolism and the menopause belly. We also discuss the importance of hydration, movement, and the profound impact of gut health on overall well-being.
Key discussion points include:
- Nutrition for Menopause: The benefits of a whole food, plant-based diet, and how adding more plants to your plate can optimize health.
- Macronutrients: Understanding the roles of protein, carbohydrates, and fats, and how to balance them effectively.
- Gut Health: The significance of the gut microbiome in menopause and its connection to overall wellness.
- Managing Menopause Symptoms: Practical tips for addressing common symptoms like weight gain, hot flashes, and changes in body composition.
- The Role of Estrogen: How declining estrogen levels affect various body systems, including skin health and collagen production.
Dr. Bascom also touches on the importance of sleep and stress management, setting the stage for future episodes where these topics will be explored in greater depth.
Be sure to subscribe, share this episode with friends and family, and leave us your feedback. Join us in our next episode as we continue to explore the fascinating world of menopause and women's health.
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Thank you for listening and being part of our community. Stay well.
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Keywords: menopause, nutrition, macronutrients, gut health, microbiome, estrogen, menopause belly, plant-based diet, women's health, midlife journey, Perfectly Pl@nted Podcast.
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Optimizing Health During Menopause
Speaker 1Absolutely Welcome to the Perfectly Planted Podcast, where we are dedicated to growing with you on your journey towards a happier, healthier and more sustainable lifestyle. I'm your co-host, dr Daphne Bascom, and I'm here with Esme. Esme, how are you today?
The Benefits of Plant-Based Nutrition
Speaker 2I'm doing great, daphne. I'm so excited for our conversation. You, today, I'm doing great, daphne, I'm so excited for our conversation. I know this is our dive into our part two of our menopause series and in the last episode we spoke about the basics of menopause hormones 101, and getting a better understanding of what menopause really is. We also talked about how we haven't talked about menopause. So it's such an important topic and it warrants multiple episodes. So this is why it's part two and the stages of menopause is like. What does that mean to all of us? So today we're going to dive in deeper, with a focus on nutrition, the microbiome which we hear so much about, and how that impacts our overall health, including our skin. So, daphne, since we know that estrogen levels decrease significantly during menopause, what does that mean to us? On how we should alter what we put into our bodies? We hear you are what you eat, right?
Speaker 1You are what you eat, right, bessamay? First thing first, regardless of where you are in your life stage, I would encourage you, if you're listening or watching to this, to add more plants to your plate. So lifestyle first should be the first thing we always think about. You want to think about nutrition, a plant forward nutrition, I'd say. Plant based whole food, plant based if possible. Reducing your sugars, reducing your calorie rich and highly processed foods. That would be.
Speaker 1You know, nutrition is one of the biggest levers that we can pull in terms of optimizing not only our midlife journey but also reducing our risk of chronic disease.
Speaker 1And then, on top of that, we want to talk about movement, and you know we'll talk about muscle, because muscle and bone health is key during menopause. We'll talk a little bit about maybe not this time, but in the future reducing toxins in our environment, so the role of endocrine disruptors in our life. We'll also talk about sleep and stress, but all of those are things that we need to do to optimize our health during menopause, and they also are important in optimizing our gut health, because nutrition is partly what you put in your body and you want to make sure that you're fueling your body with whole plants as close to how nature created them as possible, but making sure that you're getting enough protein, that you're getting enough fiber. You know most Americans aren't protein deficient, although they could add a little bit more, I'd say many Americans are fiber deficient. So adding more plants to increase your daily fiber intake would definitely be something that we would recommend, and making sure you're well hydrated is something else that we probably don't emphasize enough.
Weight Management During Menopause
Speaker 2No, I, I agree. I think hydration is key, especially during the summer months, um, but also in general, you know, for our body, uh, hydration also impacts the skin, like we were talking about. But let's get back into what menopause does to our body, because we talk about it when we're younger, during adolescent years, of how your body's maturing, how you know everything's changing, and we talk about it in pregnancy and you know the gestational stages of pregnancy and how your body is changing with that, but we don't talk about how your body changes with menopause. So that's really what we want to focus on, and so we've all heard the term menopause belly, so can you share more about why our body begins to really retain weight, specifically in our core area? But also I want to talk about why and everybody originally says metabolism why, and everybody, originally says metabolism, but I think we need to debunk that myth, daphne.
Speaker 1So this could be an hour long conversation in itself and I would. I would first refer anyone listening or watching to the website where the SwanAN study is documenting its amazing research. So 90% of women going through menopause will experience some change in their weight during their midlife journey and usually that is a weight increase. And if you look at some of the data that's published out of the SWAN study and we can actually put the link in our notes SWAN stands for Study of Women's Health Across the Nation. So it's a multi-institutional, multi-year study where they have tracked women's health longitudinally, looking at things like what does your body weight do, what does your lean mass do, and x-axis relative to your final menstrual period, and then kind of a index related to a positive or negative change related to your body composition, and we can think of that as body weight or lean mass or other variables that can be objectively measured.
Speaker 1It's clear that there is a increase over time in women's body weight as they move toward the final menstrual period and then that increase accelerates slightly, is reflected in the slope of the curve post-menopause, meaning after that final menstrual period, there's a concomitant change in your total lean muscle mass, which tends to decrease slightly. Part of that's age-related, part of that may be related to menopause, and there's also an increase in body fat. Not only is there an increase in body fat, but many women will experience a shift in body fat from premenopause or perimenopause. We had a little bit of roundness in our hips and glutes and for some reason this seems to be this rise where now it's settled around our belly and it may be unattractively called the menopause or you know, that little pooch that tends to occur with many women as we go through menopause. It is.
Speaker 1I would I don't know that I know the answer to say what is the root cause for why that's changing, and my guess is is it's a change in hormone health? It's a change in lifestyle, because it is not universal and any women who lives long enough will go through menopause, but only 90% of women will experience many of these changes that we've been discussing. I do think that one sec I lost my train of thought. What was the root? Was I answering your question?
Speaker 2The menopause belly, and then we were going to talk about metabolism. Oh, metabolism, that's where I was going.
Speaker 1So the metabolism, that's where I was going. So the I do think that there is a misconception that the midlife, middle, whether you call it the menopause, the menopause belly, is related to a change in metabolism. And there is another study that we can link into the show notes that is just an elegant study that came out I believe it was in Nature Medicine that show that our metabolism, if it's corrected for different variables, such as body weight and several other factors, that it really doesn't start to decline until about age 60. So, blaming all of this, all of these changes on well, my metabolism is just slowed down.
Speaker 1I want to debunk that as myth number one, and I also would like to encourage women not to feel that this is an inevitable change, but that the more you can do in perimenopause to set yourself up for a healthy menopause, postmenopause lifestyle, lifestyle lifestyle is key, in particular, nutrition and movement, in terms of reducing your risk of having a lot of these changes impact you. Now, I know you've been at this a long time and so you know having the psychological and the emotional impact of that belly. It's real and it can impact your self-confidence. It can impact your, you know, do you feel sexy like you want to be. Are you comfortable in that two-piece bathing suit that you want to wear? You can make changes, no matter when you start making lifestyle decisions, but it will take time. It's nothing that's going to. It's not a three-month journey. It may not be a three-year journey. I don't know that. I have the answer to say that everyone's middle is going to go back and look like it was when they were 20.
Speaker 2Well, I think that that's good to know about. You know that the menopause belly is really there. It's a shift, it's, but we should not fall on the heels of excuses that we should still hold ourselves accountable for our own health and to know that it can happen. You can change your health and your lifestyle if you want to. It's just a matter of getting it done and prioritizing yourself in general myself, yourself, everybody, everybody's self to ensure that they're taking the time to take care of themselves.
Macronutrients
Speaker 2I think that oftentimes that is lost from either a career or motherhood or whatever it may be in that midlife age era. So I know that there's a lot of talk about macronutrients and since our bodies are changing, can we talk a little bit more about them? So it's protein. Carbs and fats are micro nutrient. Macro nutrients how much does a woman need in each of these?
Speaker 2Because I think that everybody thinks, oh, let me load my plate up with more protein, more protein, more protein. I'm not getting enough protein and there's some misconception of that, and that it all has to be around animal product protein. You know, but the animal product protein also has hormones in it that can adjust. So I know that I'm going, you know, going here in a rat hole here, but you know I think that some even yeah, so some of the meat that has the hormones in it also, you know have been used to grow quicker, and all that impacts our body. So I would love to learn more about how much do we really need, what are our macronutrients and I know everybody's a little different Daphne, but what are some of the things that we can do or some type of guidelines that we can follow as we get older to ensure that we're getting enough macronutrients?
Speaker 1So I'm pausing pensively because this is a.
Speaker 1This is a loaded conversation, um, and partly because the um. If you read some of the data from the longevity experts and got Dr Greger's book on the shelf behind me, dr Atiyah's book on the shelf behind me, I I won't say that there is a consensus on that. There is one answer. So I'm going to I'm going to respond to your question with what is my understanding of the literature and the data that we know today, what is my interpretation of how I recommend people apply this information to optimizing their health, and also with the caveat that what you eat, you need to understand where your food comes from, to your point about hormones and health, and you know whether it's hormones or antibiotics or other things that are in our food supply.
Speaker 1Understanding where our food comes from is something that I really didn't do until I started on my vegan journey. So the recommended daily allowance for protein for adult women is about 0.8 grams per kilo, which is probably, if you're thinking maybe, 50 grams of protein a day, which is, to me, is not a lot. You should be able to get 50 grams of protein in two meals, 25 grams or 30 grams of protein per meal and that protein source does not have to be animal-based. You can meet. I routinely eat over a hundred grams of protein a day and it's all plant-based and it's not. And I say that I don't eat a lot of protein powders or protein bars. If you are intentional about how you plan your nutrition, you can meet your daily protein requirements, whether it's the 0.8 or more around 1.6 grams per kilo per day, by following whole food plant-based and you have to eat a little bit more. So you can't be eating a thousand calories a day and expect to be getting all meeting those protein requirements.
Speaker 2So um, do you think a lot of us are under eating?
Speaker 1I think a lot of women are under eating. I think that we have fallen prey to the eat less, move more. That has been part of diet culture and that has resulted in us being on this yo-yo in terms of our weight and our nutrition for years. That probably that in many cases may also have negatively impacted our metabolism. I eat more now than I've ever eaten in my life. I eat more now than I've ever eaten in my life, and eating alone won't grow muscle.
Speaker 1So caveat to that. You you know just eating protein doesn't mean you're gonna you're gonna gain muscle. You still have to do the work. You still have to move your body. You still need resistance training and I definitely want to talk about that on another episode. But your body, you need to fuel your body and protein is one of the primary macronutrients I like to prioritize. I also have learned over time that if you prioritize your protein, it tends to also be satiating, meaning that you feel full, you feel comfortable. You don't eat a meal and then 30 minutes later you know it's not like eating the donut and then 30 minutes later you're like well, I'm still hungry, I need something else. So, having that protein as the center of your meal and then sculpting the rest of your carbs and your fat around. It has been a approach that I have found helpful in my personal life and also an approach that I've used with the clients that I coach.
Speaker 2And I know you and I have had this conversation. In the great debate around carbohydrates there was a period of time where everybody was shunning carbohydrates and I know you and I are talking that they are not the enemy, and one iFit trainer that I've used on my treadmill she's like they are not your enemy, they are your energy. Carbohydrates are so important to the body. I think that everybody needs to understand that they should not be eliminating the carbohydrates. They should be eating healthy option carbohydrates. So I'm not saying you should get those fries with that veggie burger. I'm not saying that. But we're saying that carbohydrates essentially are not your enemy. Just eat the proper kinds. What?
Speaker 1are your thoughts, stephanie? Amen to that. So one thing you don't get fiber from protein, from animal protein. There is zero fiber in animal protein.
Speaker 1Now, most of the foods where you'll be getting carbohydrate and carbohydrate can be, whether it's in fruits or vegetables. Those are carbohydrates. Many of them are tied with fiber, which is really healthy for your gut, and that carbohydrate fiber mix is something that I think we benefit from. In terms of eating plant-based, if you're thinking about, yes, you can be plant-based and you can be eating Oreos that is not a healthy nutrition. So if you're talking about carbs, in terms of highly processed carbs or a lot of the stuff that you get out of packages, I think that's where people mistakenly confuse healthy carbs versus less healthy carbs. But if you're talking about your chickpeas, your you know quinoa is more carb than protein, so quinoa is a healthy carb. Most of the plants that we're eating have carbs in them, but they're not naked carbs and they're not refined carbs, so carbs are not the enemy and carbs are a source of energy and fuel for your body.
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean specifically for me. I know sweet potatoes are a favorite in our house. Sweet potatoes, regular baked potatoes too. It doesn't have to be regular, you know. Sweet potatoes, brown rice, wild rice those are all great sources.
Speaker 2I think it's just when you start to layer in some of the unhealthy things, that's when you just want to be very mindful of that.
Gut Microbiome
Speaker 2So let's talk a little bit more about our overall gut health, because these macronutrients really are what the foods that we consume and our overall gut health, or our health of our microbiome we've talked a lot of, we've heard a lot about it will not only help our overall health, but it's also, you know, an unhealthy gut is like unhealthy skin, or unhealthy gut is your lack of energy. So you don't want to do the live a healthy lifestyle, like going for a walk or a hike or doing some type of physical activity to continue your energy, doing some type of physical activity to continue your energy, keeping your energy high. So I would love to talk a little bit more about that. I remember a shift in my diet. You know, my skin suddenly cleared up when I changed some key things in my diet. So I would love to hear more about your thoughts on the microbiome, specifically gut health, and is it just these macronutrients and maybe it's going to be the next episode, daphne but is it really the macronutrients impacting our overall gut health?
Speaker 1Oh, so I am not a gut health expert but I do love talking about the microbiome so I will share. I'll share my thoughts and it probably could be a whole and it probably will be a whole nother episode. But first of all, I just want to make sure that I'm clear, to that I articulate that there are many human microbiomes. So we talk a lot about the gut microbiome, but you have a microbiome in your mouth, you have a microbiome on your skin, you have a urogenital microbiome, you have a respiratory microbiome. So we live with lots of other organisms that are part of our total being and the health of those microorganisms contributes to our health. When you're talking about the gut microbiome, there are probably trillions of microorganisms and it's probably over a thousand species of bacteria alone, and the microbiome. Microbiome is fed by the organisms, by the foods that we eat. So when you're thinking about prebiotics and probiotics, think of the and we should probably talk about postbiotics at some point too but think of the.
Speaker 1Prebiotics are the non-digestible food components. So the probiotics are the microorganisms. They're the healthy bacteria that live in our gut. The prebiotics are the food for them. So the organisms need to eat and a lot of the things that they want to eat are the fiber that we're eating in our asparagus or our beans, or our nuts and our seeds. So when you're thinking about prebiotics and probiotics, you want to be making sure that you're incorporating lots of those healthy foods as part of your balanced nutrition.
Speaker 1Your gut does not act in isolation and your gut communicates with all other parts of your body, so we can talk about the gut brain axis, which is the communication system between your gut and your brain, and that is through the vagus nerve, and so a lot of the, a lot of the hormones that we think of as being mood related are actually synthesized in the gut and not necessarily in the brain. So when you're, when we're feeding our gut healthy foods, we're actually feeding our entire body in terms of how that hormonal health and that organismal milieu is impacting multiple other parts of our body, and that includes a part of the gut microbiome that's called the astrobalone, which is a subset of bacteria that is involved in the total process for how estrogen is metabolized throughout the body. That was a lot Sorry.
Skin Health
Speaker 2That is no, it's all good. We'll unpack that maybe in a little bit. Sorry, that is no, it's all good. We'll unpack that maybe in a little bit, Because it's a lot to understand. I do want to go back to how the microbiome impacts the skin, but also as we continue to live our lives. There's a fair amount of chatter around collagen now and the loss of collagen. How does this relate to menopause and maybe it's specific to estrogen that we want to dive into today?
Speaker 1It is. So first remember that your skin has a microbiome of its own and you also want a healthy skin microbiome. So be cautious about the types of things you put on your skin because they can impact. Whether you're thinking perfume, soaps, your deodorant all of those can impact your skin microbiome.
Speaker 1From the perspective of estrogen, when you're estrogen, you know, there's multiple layers of our skin. We have the epidermis, which is the outer layer. We have the dermis, which is where a lot of those collagen fibers live, and then we have what's called the subcutis. When we're ripe with estrogen, all of those layers are thick and plump. And as our estrogen declines, you'll notice that the epidermis, that outer layer, gets thinner. The dermis which is underneath the epidermis also tends to contract and the collagen becomes less prominent. And then you also see some changes in the subcuticular layer and those are definitely related to our hormonal balance, primarily our estrogen balance. So that decline in estrogen may reduce our skin barrier function. It may, you know, the decrease in collagen may lead to increased wrinkles. It may lead to a loss of skin firmness, which is why I'm always, you know, I like my puppy cheeks, because to me it reminds me that, even though I'm coming, to the end of my studies, I still got support and structure there.
Speaker 1Now the question around collagen yes, so one more thing about the the skin changes in estrogen is that it's not just the internal skin. So if you think about that the manifestation of estrogen's impact on a skin lining and you can definitely treat some of those vaginal changes with topical estrogen cream. So if you are suffering from painful sex, if you're getting multiple urinary tract infections, you may want to talk to your healthcare provider, your gynecologist, about sharing that, because topical estrogen cream may be very beneficial for you. When it comes to, there's a huge market for oh, take this collagen supplement and take this collagen supplement. It's not like you can tell that supplement that you're taking. You're just going to go to the skin because lots of different tissues in your body use have collagen as part of them. So collagen is the most abundant protein found in your body and it it forms like this web or this mesh in your dermis that helps make it strong and plump and resilient. But collagen supplements won't necessarily restore all of the changes that occur during midlife, but simply taking an external source.
Speaker 1Yeah, no Good to know. I wish that was the case.
Summary
Speaker 2I know right, Everybody wants that magic pill of anti-aging Well, Daphne. This is such amazing information, as always. Thank you for guiding us in another discussion about menopause. We have covered quite a bit of ground. What are three takeaways that are key for what you want our listeners to leave with?
Speaker 1Eat whole foods, mostly plants, not too much, if I could say it from Michael Pollan. No, I think Vesame. I go back to the pillars for perfectly planted, and they are definitely. Eat more plants and fuel your body with whole foods. You know the, if you're picking up a package off the store shelf and you don't know what, if you can't read the food label and understand what it is, it probably is something that maybe you want to think about putting in your body. Probably is something that maybe you want to think about putting in your body. So, eat more plants.
Speaker 1I'm not crowd out your plate with plants. You definitely want to move. You want to move. Movement can be walking. It can be standing in the middle of the day, it can be taking a walk with your family after your meal. But movement is definitely something that you need to prioritize because it has multiple effects and we'll talk about that in another episode. Stay hydrated. I think we tend to under hydrate. I've got my you know my second thermos for the day, especially in these summer months when we are losing a little bit more through evaporation. If you're outside and you're sweating, you definitely want to replace your fluids. And I can't talk enough about sleep. Sleep is definitely something that is impacted during menopause and another episode. We can talk about sleep and stress. I tend to talk about those two together because the stress cycle can impact sleep, and so understanding the importance of sleep and how some mindfulness strategies may help reduce stress and improve sleep are why those two tend to go together. I'll stop there.
Speaker 2I learn something new every day. Daphne, you're such a wealth of knowledge and a joy to be with. Thank you all. To our listeners and viewers, please continue to share our podcast with your friends, family and loved ones. If you're enjoying this podcast, please subscribe or save to your favorites, and also be sure to hit the like button so we can continue to build more content for you. We so appreciate each of you, and until next time, please be well.