During menopause, your health and eating habits can help ease the impact of perimenopause and menopausal symptoms. As a 50yr old mum of five who is in the thick of it, I can confidently say that taking care of yourself is key. That's why I've shared my famous Warm Sweet Potato & Kale Salad recipe and explaining why its a healthy choice. I know one meal won't solve everything, but the foods you eat do make the journey a little less bumpy. Ready? Let's start cooking..
Today, I'm cooking up a delicious, high-fibre recipe that is super loaded with essential nutrients that support good gut health, appetite control, and can help maintain body weight balance. If you're just interested in the recipe, jump down to details, click here. But if you are going through "the change", read on to learn how the food you eat every day can help ease your perimenopause or menopause symptoms.
The Menopause Diet
During menopause, your body undergoes a lot of biological changes. This means that your dietary requirements need to change to compensate for these new and different demands. Avoiding processed carbs, sugar, alcohol, caffeine, spicy foods, and foods high in salt is a great start, and can help ease many symptoms of both perimenopause and menopause. But aside from ditching the sugary stuff and processed foods, now is a time to fully embrace wholefoods and what a high fibre, wholefoods-based diet can do for you.
Try My Mini Wholefood Recipe Collection
Get this FREE recipe collection with healthy and delicious breakfast, lunch, and dinner recipes that nourish from the inside out. Each recipe is jam-packed with goodness and created by a qualified Nutritionist, for nutrition you can trust is good for you. Stop eating boring food to be healthy, come see how good healthy tastes – download your free recipes today!
What Foods Are Good For Menopause?
One common symptom of menopause is weight gain, especially around the belly. That spare trye just seems to show up overnight, and is super stubborn to shake. Can you relate?
Cleaning up your diet and simply focusing on more wholefood recipes to round out your menu is a sensible approach to natural weight balance. Now is not the time to diet. Skip the restrictions and buckle down with nourishing foods by consciously consuming more plantbased and animal protein, high fibre foods, and cooking with ingredients that provide essential B vitamins, vitamin D, vitamin K, and minerals such as calcium and magnesium. These vital nutrients are especially important during menopause and work to support the body's own ability to produce, use and maintain its own nutrient stores.
Foods Rich In Dietary Fibre
Consider also including beans, berries, celery, chia seeds, leafy greens, lentils, raw oats, and psyllium husk in your meals to help bulk up the fibre content of your favourite recipes. The kale and sweet potato in my warm salad recipe are an excellent sources of fibre, and sweet potatoes also contain beta-carotene and other nutrients that support overall hormone health.
I recommend consuming at least 40-80g of wholefood, high fibre foods per day. Pair this with a serving of lean protein from plantbased and animal sources at every main meal. And, remember whenever you increase your fibre intake, be sure to also up your water intake to avoid constipation.
Foods Rich In B Vitamins
B vitamin-rich foods, in particular, are important at this time in Life, as they aid the creation and activation of estrogen in the body. Consuming rich sources such as fish, poultry, red meat, eggs, and dairy products, as well as dark, leafy green, beans, and peas can be very beneficial during menopause. Kale contains vitamin B6, as well as magnesium, and iron. In addition, its also a source of vitamin K along with other cruciferous vegetable like spinach, broccoli, kale, lettuce. These foods are beneficial to calm hot flushes and other menopause symptoms.
Calcium & Magnesium-rich Foods
Foods like sweet potatoes and kale are a naturally rich source of calcium that can help prevent bone loss during your menopausal years. You can also find it in calcium-fortified foods, baked beans, dairy products, tinned salmon and sardines, tofu and collard greens.
Magnesium is another mineral like calcium, that is especially helpful at this time. You can get it from your food in dairy products, plantbased sources like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, collards, kale, mustard greens, or you can supplement your intake to help reduce common symptoms of menopause like difficulty sleeping, anxiety, and depression. Try boosting your meals and recipes with wholefoods sources of magnesium found in raw almonds (peel on), cashews, dark leafy greens like kale, lentils, organic raw cacao, pumpkin seeds, and non-GMO soy tofu and products.
Adding more menopause-friendly meals like my Sweet Potato & Kale Warm Salad recipe to your weekly menu can really start to make a difference if you are consistent. Healthy eating habits really do make menopause a lot more manageable.
You Might Like:
Warm Sweet Potato & Kale Salad Recipe
This dish can be made as a side or a main course simply by adding a lean protein source such as organic chicken breast (pictured). Personally, I love preparing this recipe plantbased without meat, and have prepared it that way for this recipe post, but if you wanted to include chicken, add it to the roasting step of the recipe card below.
Warm Sweet Potato & Kale Salad Recipe
INGREDIENTS
2 large sweet potatoes, scrubbed clean
1 cup kale, de-stemmed, rinsed well
2-3 gloves of garlic, fresh bulbs
3 tbsp avocado oil, organic
1 tbsp turmeric, ground root
1/2 vegetable or rock salt
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
1 pinch of cracked pepper
OPTIONAL: add 2 chicken breast, dice and add to the marinade step.
Method
Preheat the oven to 200c. Rinse and prepare the vegetables for cooking. Then finely chop the garlic (or use crushed), and cover with the avocado oil; add the seasonings, and set aside to marinade. Meanwhile, chop the sweet potatoes into chunks. I like to leave the skin on for the added nutrients, but it is just as good without, so prepare as you enjoy it. Then, tear the kale leaves into smaller sections. If you are using chicken or another protein such as tofu, prepare it into chunks or diced pieces ready for the next step.
In a roasting pan, add all the ingredients. Pour in the avocado oil mixture and toss the veggies to coat well with the oil. Bake for 30 minutes in 180c or until the potato (and chicken) is tender and cooked through. Be sure to turn often to keep the veggies moist and coated in the oil.
Serve straight from the roasting pan as a main meal, or portion a large spoonful as a side dish. If you made this recipe without adding chicken, but eat dairy products, a 1/4 cup of crumbled feta makes a divine topping for this dish.
You Might Also Like
If I can leave you with one last thought, with the right diet and nutrition, you can feel confident and optimistic about managing your hormonal and bodily changes during menopause. Focus on the foods (not diets) that deeply nourish and will provide your body with the complex cocktail of nutrients it needs every day to pass through this phase of Life with a wink and a smile!
One Last Thing, Before You Go...
If you really enjoy these recipes... stick around with a cup of peppermint tea and browse this blog for more clean eating recipes, nutrition and healthy eating guides, and be sure to grab my free Wholefood Recipe Collection, click here. You'll receive my Nutritionist-approved clean eating recipes to sample this week. Learn how to ease into healthy, wholefood eating that won't take you hours in the kitchen to eat clean and healthy. Come grab a copy, click here.
Emma Lisa, Nutritionist & Women's Practitioner
Emma Lisa is a Nutritionist & Women's Health Practitioner with over 12+ years experience in wholefood nutrition, meal planning and health coaching. She is a published cookbook author, passionate food recipe creator and lifestyle blogger, and an advocate for women's health and anti-diet culture. When she's not in clinic, Emma is mum to five kids, in her test kitchen and a wellness digital creator. She lives in Sydney, Australia.
Healthy + happiness,
Emma Lisa xx
HEALTH & NUTRITION PRACTITIONER
If you enjoyed this post, I have a favour to ask?
Please take moment to subscribe, or to write a recipe review. Doing this helps me know you found value here on the blog and from this specific content. I work hard to share lots of free advice and recipes, and I would be truly grateful. Thank you so much!
Emma most informative. I had no idea that food could help with my menopause symptoms. Will definitely try this recipe, thank you Gilly x