The Co-op Food Stores of New Hampshire and Vermont

added 08/27/08

by Mary Saucier Choate, M.S., R.D., L.D.
Food and Nutrition Educator

Menopause is part of a gradual, natural process in which the ovaries produce less of the female hormones, estrogen and progesterone, and menstruation slowly comes to an end. Each woman’s menopause experience is unique, but all women can benefit from the opportunity to modify lifestyle choices to enhance strength and vitality and to lower changing disease risks.

Changing for the Better for the Post-Menopausal Years

Changes occurring in women’s bodies during and after menopause can result in higher risks for weight gain, bone loss, and heart disease. You can reduce these risks with wise choices. The following food and activity strategies can help.

Avoiding Weight Gain

Participants in the Women’s Healthy Lifestyle Project lowered their calorie, total fat intake, saturated fat, and dietary cholesterol intake until a five- to ten-pound weight loss goal was achieved. They also were asked to increase physical activity to facilitate weight control. The results demonstrated that a low-fat, low-calorie diet plus regular exercise could prevent the so-called “inevitable” post-menopausal weight gain.

Stemming Bone Loss

Every day, your body breaks down old bone and replaces it with new healthy bone. Estrogen helps control bone loss, so losing estrogen around the time of menopause causes women to begin to lose more bone than is replaced.

According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, weight-bearing and muscle-strengthening exercise plus a diet high in calcium and vitamin D can help.

Weight-bearing and muscle-strengthening exercises preserve bone mass. Weight-bearing exercise (in which bones and muscles work against gravity as the feet and legs bear the body’s weight) include walking, jogging, Tai Chi, stair climbing, dancing, and tennis. Muscle strengthening exercise (using gradually increasing weight or resistance to build muscle strength) includes weight training with weights, machines, exercise bands, or calisthenics using body weight for resistance.

The NOF recommends a daily calcium intake of at least 1,200 milligrams, including supplements, if necessary. Many women age 50 and older typically consume only about 600 to 700 mg per day of calcium from their diets.

Good, high-calcium food choices include low fat milk and cheese; calcium-fortified soy, juices, or alternative beverages; calcium-fortified cereals; canned salmon, including the calcium-rich edible bones; and kale or turnip greens. Note: When using calcium-fortified beverages, be sure to shake the container well before serving to be sure the calcium ends up in you and not stuck at the bottom of the beverage container.

For vitamin D, the NOF recommends an intake of 800 to 1,000 international units (IU) per day for adults over age 50. Dietary sources include vitamin D-fortified milk (100 IU per cup) and fortified cold cereals (40 to 50 IU per serving), egg yolk (18 IU), salmon (360 IU per 3.5 ounces), mackerel (345 IU per 3.5 ounces), canned sardines in oil (250 IU per 1.75 ounces), and canned tuna in oil (200 IU per 3 ounces).

Some calcium supplements and multivitamin tablets also contain vitamin D, but most contain levels too low to be effective. Sunlight is a source of vitamin D, but older individuals have a reduced ability to synthesize vitamin D from sun exposure. An 800 to 1,000 IU vitamin D supplement may be the easiest away to get the recommended amount.

Preventing Heart disease

Before menopause, women seem to be partly protected from coronary heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. As women age, their risk of heart disease and stroke begins to rise and keeps rising. After menopause, women are more likely to have heart disease. In fact, in the US, each year more women than men die of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

The latest American Heart Association Guidelines for Prevention of CVD in Women recommend that women:

• consume a diet rich in fruits and vegetables; choose whole-grain, high-fiber foods; consume fish, especially oily fish, at least twice a week.

• limit intake of saturated fat to less than 10 percent of energy, and if possible to less than 7 percent, cholesterol to less than 300 milligrams/day. For an average 2,000-calorie a day diet, this means a daily saturated fat goal of 16 to 22 grams or less.

• limit alcohol intake to no more than one drink per day. One drink is equal to a 12-oz. bottle of beer, a 5-oz glass of wine, or a 1.5-oz. shot of 80-proof spirit.

• limit sodium intake to less than 2.3 grams/day (approximately one teaspoon salt).

• consume as little trans-fatty acids as possible (less than 1 percent of energy). This would mean a goal of less than two grams a day of harmful trans fats.

• accumulate a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity (such as brisk walking) on most, and preferably all, days of the week. Women who need to lose weight or sustain weight loss should accumulate a minimum of 60 to 90 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on most, and preferably all, days of the week.

Putting Together Your Menopause Power Eating Plan

The MyPyramid online tool is a good starting place to find an eating plan that is suited to your menopause power eating goals. By entering your height, weight, age, and activity level into the MyPyramid Plan, you will receive a personalized printout that details the food groups and portions you need from each, at a calorie level to maintain your weight or gradually help you to attain a healthy weight.

You can print out a tracking sheet to help get started on your new plan, and you can delve deeper into the food groups to learn about better choices and alternatives in each.

Quick Start Meno-Power Menu

Can’t wait to get started? Check off each box below when you’ve met your daily/weekly goal.

• Veggies— 2 1/2 cups
• Fruit— 2 cups
• Dairy or high calcium alternatives—3 cups of low fat milk or yogurt or a combination of those and low fat cheese (See below to learn how to calculate calcium content from the nutrition label.)
• Calcium supplement to bring daily intake to 1200 milligrams
• Whole-grain foods like cereals and bread products— at least 3 servings
• Vitamin D-rich foods and supplements to bring daily intake to 800 to 1,000 IU
• Oily fish, like salmon, albacore tuna, or canned mackerel or sardines— at least two servings a week
• Thirty minutes of physical activity daily (walking, jogging, dancing, tennis)
• At least two days a week of muscle-strengthening exercise (using gradually increasing weight or resistance to build muscle strength)

E-Z Trick for Figuring the Calcium Milligrams on the Nutrition Facts Label

• 1. Look for the calcium percentage listed at the bottom of the Nutrition Facts panel.
• 2. Replace the percentage symbol with a zero.

For example, if a product label lists “Calcium 12 percent,” it means one serving contains 120 milligrams of calcium. This trick works because the nutrition label provides calcium information as a percentage of 1,000 milligrams, the Daily Value for calcium.

What Do You Think?

Have some thoughts about this article? We’d love to hear from you! Please email us your suggestion or question. If you want to check out other ways to communicate with the Co-op online, visit our discussion board.