You are comfortable one minute and opening a window the next. At night, a sudden wave of heat can wake you up and leave you struggling to settle back to sleep. When hot flashes are interrupting your day, it is understandable to wonder whether something in your daily routine could make a difference.
At Nutritional Weight & Wellness, we help women explore the food side of that question. Our practitioners have observed improvements in hot flashes for some clients after changes to their eating habits. Responses vary, so we look at the person’s usual meals, drinks, hunger, and sleep rather than assuming one food explains everything.
The most useful starting point is understanding what we mean by eating in balance, why we recommend it, and how to put it into practice. The recipes below are examples of that eating approach. They give you meals to work with as you explore your own food connections.
What Is Menopause?
We talk about this all the time, but as a quick refresher, a woman has officially hit menopause when it’s been a full year since the last bleed of the menstrual cycle. All the time leading up to that moment, when the cycle might be off-kilter and the dreaded symptoms begin, is considered perimenopause. This is part of the challenge! You won’t know you are officially in menopause until you’ve hit that twelve-month marker. This period of perimenopause, as the body begins that transition of hormones, is when symptoms can be the worst. This is a great time to get support to help you navigate the chaos you might feel in your body.
What To Do About Hot Flashes
Hot flashes (or as some folks like to call them hot “flushes”) are one of the most spoken and joked about symptoms. According to Dr Jen Gunter, an OB/GYN and author of The Menopause Manifesto, 75% of women experience hot flashes and night sweats, also known as vasomotor symptoms. Some people get them early on and they go away. Some women don’t get them until later into perimenopause, while some don’t get them until they are officially in menopause. And then there are some who experience hot flashes the whole time!
The cause of hot flashes is a bit of a mystery because temperature regulation happens in the brain, but naturopathic doctor and author of The Hormone Repair Manual Lara Briden, ND explains it as having a very touchy thermostat, where even the slightest change in body temperature can cause the hypothalamus in the brain to overcorrect, causing shivering or sweating. Estrogen plays a role in this temperature regulation, especially when the body is used to a higher level of estrogen and then suddenly experiences low levels of estrogen.
Estrogen dominance can also contribute to hot flashes. Estrogen dominance is too much estrogen in comparison to your progesterone. Yes, your estrogen reduces during perimenopause, but your progesterone production drastically reduces during perimenopause as you stop ovulating. If you suspect estrogen dominance is an issue for you, check out this thorough article called Signs of Estrogen Dominance: What That Means & How To Fix It.
What does blood sugar have to do with hot flashes?
You may already have noticed a hot flash after a sweet treat. Sugar is one of the first things we discuss with clients because we’ve seen a connection between sugary foods and more frequent or intense hot flashes for some women. It can also be easy to consume more sugar than you realize when it’s tucked into a flavored yogurt, a coffee drink, or something you grab for breakfast.
But looking at sugar is only part of the conversation. We also want to know whether you’re eating enough food and whether your meals have the staying power to keep you feeling satisfied. Those details matter when you’re trying to understand the connection between what you eat and how you feel.
Picture a busy morning. You have a few bites of bagel while getting ready, pick up a sweet coffee drink on the way to work, and head into your first meeting. By midmorning, you’re hungry again. You might feel foggy or irritable, and another coffee or something sweet sounds especially appealing. Sound familiar?
That breakfast gave you quickly available carbohydrate, but very little protein, fat, or fiber. A meal like that can give you a brief boost followed by a dip in energy and renewed hunger. If you keep reaching for another quick source of energy, you can spend much of the day repeating the same pattern.
This is why we spend so much time talking about blood sugar balance. We want your food to help you feel satisfied and energized for more than a short burst. As you make changes, pay attention to your hunger and energy along with your hot flashes. These clues can help you and your dietitian decide what to work on next.
Nutrition for Hot Flashes
When women are experiencing hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms, food is typically not the first thing that comes to mind as a way to improve their symptoms. The food you put in your mouth makes a huge impact on your hormones. Clinically, we have seen many women significantly reduce or eliminate their hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms by eating in balance and sometimes adding supplements.
What does eating in balance actually mean?
If you listen to Dishing Up Nutrition, you’ve probably heard us talk about combining protein, healthy fat, and real-food carbohydrates. Sometimes we call it PFC: protein, fat, and carbohydrate. That might sound technical, but on your plate it can be as simple as eggs, sautéed vegetables, and avocado.
Why do we want all three? Carbohydrates give you energy, while including protein and fat helps make that energy more sustaining. If breakfast or lunch is mostly bread, crackers, or a sweet drink, there may be very little protein in the meal. Adding eggs, chicken, fish, cottage cheese, or another protein you enjoy gives you more to work with than another handful of carbohydrates.
Vegetables and fruit also bring fiber to the meal. Fiber slows digestion, so sugar from the food you eat enters your bloodstream more gradually. It helps you feel satisfied longer, too. That’s one reason we encourage you to add spinach to your eggs or include vegetables with lunch. Those foods do more than add color to your plate.
Then include some healthy fat: avocado, olive oil, nuts, seeds, or nut butter are a few options. Fat provides sustained fuel and is another part of the combination we use to support steadier blood sugar. Think about an apple on its own compared with an apple, some nut butter, and a hard-boiled egg. The second option gives you a more complete snack to carry you through a busy afternoon.
Since food and lifestyle habits are our scope of practice, what can you do nutritionally to support yourself through the hot flash phase? Reducing insulin resistance and avoiding trigger foods are two ways to help your body navigate the hormonal changes. Rather than just telling you what to “cut out”, let’s look at some swaps instead, so you have options rather than feeling deprived.
Start with a breakfast that lasts
If your mornings tend to run on coffee and whatever you can find, breakfast is a useful place to begin. You don’t need an elaborate meal, but you do want enough food, including protein, to get you through the first part of your day. Feeling hungry again shortly after breakfast is a reason to look at what you ate and what might have been missing.
- Breakfast Burrito: with eggs and cottage cheese as your protein and a selection of veggies for your plants (plus some avocado and sour cream for your healthy fat) these are easy to make a bunch in advance, freeze, and then reheat for a quick breakfast
- Sheet Pan Frittata with Ham, Spinach, & Feta: omit the cheese if dairy sensitive and swap out any veggies you have on hand for variety, this recipe is another great one for leftovers for the week
- Turkey Breakfast Sausage with a side of sauteed veggies: toss some chopped veggies like zucchini, green beans, snap peas, and sweet potato into a pan with avocado oil as a pairing with these sausage patties (again, easy to make a double or triple batch for reheating in the morning!)
- Protein Shake: easy to sip when you are on-the-go and a variety of options for flavors, protein shakes combine your favorite high quality protein powder with a fat like coconut milk or avocado with your produce like spinach or berries or cauliflower rice. We have lots of recipes on our website, but here’s a fun Summer Strawberry Smoothie classic.
Don’t let lunch leave you looking for a pick-me-up
What happens a few hours after lunch? Are you comfortably getting on with your afternoon, or counting the minutes until you can get another coffee? If you’re dragging, craving sweets, or arriving home ravenous, it’s worth looking back at lunch before assuming you just need more willpower.
Maybe lunch was too small. Maybe it included very little protein. Or perhaps you were so busy that you pushed it aside altogether. A balanced meal gives you a better foundation for the rest of the day. Include protein, vegetables, and fat, with a starchy vegetable or another real-food carbohydrate as it fits your meal.
- Egg Roll in a Bowl. Ground pork, coleslaw vegetables, onion, almonds, and sesame oil come together in one skillet. The pork provides protein, the vegetables contribute fiber, and the almonds and oil bring fat. It makes six servings, so you can plan for leftovers while you’re already cooking.
- Wild Rice Meatballs are another option. They combine beef, egg, onion, and wild rice. Serve them with roasted vegetables and a little olive oil to round out the meal. Having the meatballs ready makes dinner easier, and you can change the vegetables the next time you serve them.
- If you’d rather let an appliance do the work, our Slow Cooker Pulled Beef cooks with onion, garlic, broth, and seasoning until it’s ready to shred. Add vegetables and a source of fat, such as olive oil in a dressing or on your vegetables. Once the protein is cooked, you’re already partway to your next meal.
That little bit of planning matters. When you’re tired or short on time, assembling a meal from food that’s ready is much easier than starting with an empty pan. You don’t have to prepare a whole week’s menu. Choose one breakfast or dinner, make extra, and give yourself something useful to reach for.
What if you're hungry between meals?
Snacks often have the reputation of being chips, crackers, candy, or granola bars that have the same nutrition facts as candy bars. We love snacks, but we like the ones that contain animal protein, a healthy fat, and a veggie and/or fruit carbohydrate for energy, just how we like our meals! In fact, you could even think about your snacks as mini-meals if that helps you plan better. With this combination (what we sometimes call the PFC – protein, fat, carb), it will stabilize your blood sugar and reduce the triggers for hot flashes. Here are some of our favorite snack options:
- Meat stick (P) and an apple (C) with nut butter (F)
- Hard boiled eggs (P), guacamole (F), raw veggies like carrots, snap peas, celery, jicama (C)
- ½ cup cottage cheese (P), 2 Tbsp sliced almonds (F), ½ cup of berries (C)
Could your drink be turning up the heat?
Water is the best fluid for our bodies because so many of our functions and organs need it for the work they do. Filtered water especially is hydrating and healing.
But we get it! Water can get boring sometimes, so swapping it out for some herbal unsweetened iced tea, sparkling water, or filtered water infused with cucumber, lemon, or lime can give you a little variety.
Having a happy hour or a social gathering or looking to replace your evening adult beverage? Alcohol can be one of those drinks that triggers hot flashes and many of our clients have been able to pinpoint their glass of wine (particularly red wine) to the frequency of their hot flashes. Check out this article on Fun Cocktail Alternatives for some festive and flavorful ideas for swaps. You can still make merry without the alcohol (and without the hot flashes)!
Night Sweats & Bedtime Snacks
When you’re waking up sweaty, it’s natural to focus on what happens at bedtime. But before adding a nighttime snack, take a look at your whole day. Did you eat breakfast? Was lunch enough? Did you get protein at your meals? Too little food earlier can leave you trying to catch up with hunger and cravings in the evening.
There’s another connection here: poor sleep can make cravings stronger and blood sugar balance harder the next day. After a rough night, sugar or caffeine may feel like the easiest way to get going.
For some clients, we suggest trying a small bedtime snack of fruit with fat, such as apple with nut butter or berries with cream. We use this combination to support overnight blood sugar balance and sleep. A few bites may be enough; some people find a little carbohydrate and fat more comfortable at bedtime than a heavier snack with protein.
This is something to personalize. Notice whether you’re hungry at bedtime and whether the snack helps you feel settled or sleep better. It won’t address every cause of night sweats, but it can be one part of the food conversation with your dietitian.
- If you like that savory, crispy sort of vibe that you get from popcorn or chips, try some crunchy veggies with a Green Veggie Dip.
- Homemade Crunchy Kale Chips are simple to make and great for a salty, crispy snack.
- DIY trail mix with some Crispy Nuts, coconut flakes, and Bare baked apple chips.
You don’t have to figure it all out on your own
Start with a change that fits your life. Make the egg bake for breakfast, pack a lunch with enough protein, or try a different evening drink. Pay attention to your hunger, energy, sleep, and hot flashes as you go. Those details can help you make the connection between what you eat and how you feel.
Perimenopause marks the end of the reproductive years, often beginning in your 40s when kids have grown or are starting to leave the nest, you’ve hit your stride in your career, you feel more confident in who you are, or you’re looking ahead to some big goals and dreams. If menopause symptoms are crimping your style or challenging your quality of life, we can help!
With nutrition and key supplements, the registered and licensed dietitians and nutritionists can help you with a plan specific to you and your lifestyle. Reclaim these years for yourself as the best yet and we’ll support you along the way.
For more information on menopause, check out these resources:
- Read: The Ultimate Guide to Menopause
- Read: Am I Too Young To Have Menopause Symptoms?
- Listen: Avoid The Menopause Weight Gain
Sources:
- Impact of Menopause Symptoms on Women in the Workplace (mayoclinicproceedings.org)
- Perimenopause - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic
- Gunter, Dr Jen. The Menopause Manifesto. New York, Kensington Publishing Corp, 2021.
- Briden ND, Lara. Hormone Repair Manual: Every Women’s Guide To Healthy Hormones After 40. Greenpeak Publishing, 2021.
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