The proof you really CAN eat to beat hot flushes and hormonal anxiety

A stronger sex drive, reduced anxiety and fewer hot flushes all go to show that a healthier diet can improve potentially debilitating symptoms of the menopause, according to nutrition guru Professor Tim Spector.

As reported in today’s Mail on Sunday, Prof Spector’s popular diet app ZOE will next week begin offering specialist menopause features.

The launch comes after a major trial found that its tailored diet cut the severity of uncomfortable menopause problems by a third.

The features will be included as part of the existing £60-a-month ZOE diet subscription. It will help women to access medically-backed advice on how changes to the diet that can tackle both the perimenopause and menopause.

As with the main ZOE programme, users who sign up are sent a blood sugar monitor which is worn for up to two weeks to see how their bodies react to carbohydrates in their diet.

Professor Tim Spector says his diet helps menopausal women to get their lives back

There’s also a DIY finger-prick blood test and stool-sample kit which users send to a lab for analysis. The results are used to measure their gut health and metabolism.

Based on these results, ZOE scientists then provide a personalised nutrition guide that might include cutting down on meat and eating more oily fish or consuming more pulses, vegetables and nuts.

But ZOE is also rolling out a first-of-its kind symptom tracker, called the MenoScore. Women can use it to log the severity of their menopause issues over time and see how these improve as they follow their new diet.

They will also receive a menopause nutrition guide which explains the types of food which are beneficial for those experiencing severe symptoms – and those which are not.

Before the diet app, Prof Spector, an epidemiologist at King’s College London, gained nationwide fame after developing the ZOE Covid-tracking app, on which Britons could submit their coronavirus symptoms.

More than five million people used the app during the pandemic, and health officials even came to rely on it as an accurate indicator of the number of Covid infections in Britain and how severely people were being affected.

However, the menopause nutrition guide and MenoScore tracker, may prove to be Prof Spector’s most controversial creation.

Some experts reject the theory that women can ‘eat to beat’ the menopause. They argue that pharmaceutical interventions in the form of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) are the only effective treatment for symptoms.

Butthose involved in the latest ZOE venture say it could be life-changing for some women. ‘There is no way to completely eat your way out of the menopause, but our research does show that a healthier diet has a considerable impact for all women,’ says Professor Sarah Berry, chief scientist at ZOE and, like Prof Spector, also a researcher at King’s College London.

‘This could have a huge impact on their quality of life.’

So, what’s the truth about the relationship between menopause and diet? And could the ZOE programme help combat your uncomfortable symptoms?

The majority of women will begin the menopause between the ages of 45 and 55. Periods stop and the levels of the female sex hormones oestrogen and progesterone fall.

It is this drop in hormone levels that is linked to hot flushes, difficulty sleeping, reduced sex drive, and mood swings. For this reason, two million women are prescribed HRT, which contains identical hormones to those produced by their bodies, on the NHS. Usually given via patches or as a gel, spray, or tablets, HRT has been shown to be safe and effective. But the NHS also recommends other non-pharmaceutical approaches including regular exercise and a healthy diet.

It specifically advises eating calcium-rich food such as milk, yoghurt and kale to keep bones healthy. This is because the menopause increases the risk of the brittle-bone disease osteoporosis.

However, growing research suggests that a healthy, varied diet can combat common menopause symptoms, too.

One Australian study, published in 2013, found that a healthy diet rich in fruits, vegetables, wholegrains, pulses and legumes, and having a higher proportion of healthier fats from foods such as oily fish, nuts and seeds, could help to manage hot flushes and night sweats.

Julie Kilby says her symptoms have disappeared

A diet that includes these food groups is often referred to as the Mediterranean diet – which is regularly promoted by Prof Spector as one of the healthiest diets around.

Experts broadly agree that diet is an important factor for women struggling with menopause symptoms to consider – but argue that a tailored diet is not the right approach for everyone.

‘Healthier lifestyle helps manage the menopause in the short term and improves quality of life in the long term, so it’s something I’d always recommend to my patients,’ says Professor Joyce Harper, an expert in reproductive science at the Institute of Women’s Health, University College London.

‘But I do worry about people getting fanatical about certain diets. Nutrition is just one factor in managing menopause symptoms.

‘Research shows that sleep, exercise, and spending time with friends and family all help, too. Fixating on diet alone isn’t the most sensible choice, and you don’t need to pay for an expensive diet club to get tips on healthier eating. It’s also important to remember that not every woman who goes through the menopause needs treatment – it’s a natural part of ageing and many women do not get severe symptoms.’

However, ZOE argues that its research, which tracked the symptoms of 4,000 women who followed the ZOE diet for 200 days, speaks for itself.

The data, which has not been published in a medical journal, reported a significant reduction in the most challenging and prevalent menopause symptoms, including a reduction in depression and anxiety.

The biggest impact was on mood swings, with a 44 per cent reduction amongst postmenopausal women – which refers to anyone who has begun the menopause – compared to the period prior to beginning the diet.

For perimenopausal women – those in the early stages of the menopause – there was a 35 per cent cut in mood swings.

The severity of fatigue and disrupted sleep symptoms that postmenopausal participants experienced fell by around 38 per cent. Meanwhile, perimenopasual women saw the intensity of these symptoms fall by 32 per cent. Postmenopausal women who followed the ZOE diet plan also claimed the number of nights sweats, hot flashes and chills they experienced reduced by more than a third.

Women taking HRT also benefitted from the diet plan. One woman who is convinced of the ZOE diet is Helen Ladd, 55, from Llanelli, south-west Wales, who was on HRT for four years but still suffered with menopause symptoms, including bloating, poor sleep and night sweats.

The mother of two, who runs a small business with her husband Adrian, says she believed she had a good diet before she began using ZOE.

‘I had five fruit and veg a day, as well as healthy options like hummus, olives and salmon,’ she adds. ‘Supper was usually fish risotto, tray bakes with chicken, or beef casserole, all with vegetables.’

However, she also ate ham sandwiches and sometimes had a fish and chips takeaway.

‘When I started ZOE that changed,’ she says.

‘I stopped buying cooked ham, had red meat only once every two months and we ate vegetarian food at least twice a week, with a minimum of ten vegetables.

‘I started eating nuts every day, which I used to avoid because I thought I’d gain weight if I had them. I still enjoy a glass of wine and the occasional fish and chips.’

Helen says she was surprised at the turnaround in her symptoms.

‘I used to often feel bloated, but that’s stopped,’ she says. ‘I have lost a stone, my night sweats have decreased and I’m sleeping better. I’ve even seen a reduction in my joint and muscle pain, along with experiencing less brain fog.

‘I feel like I’m managing my menopause much better now. I even gained a place in next year’s London Marathon!’

Fellow ZOE user Julie Kilby, 60, from St Neots, Cambridgeshire, described how following the diet plan meant her symptoms ‘disappeared’ – including some she didn’t even realise had been connected to the menopause, such as arthritis joint pain and tinnitus.

The mother of four says she often ate fast food from McDonald’s and KFC, and regularly snacked on crisps, chocolate and fizzy drinks.

‘My diet since ZOE has been the polar opposite,’ she says. ‘Breakfast normally consists of some combination of berries, grapefruit, chia and flax seed, barley flakes, kefir and yoghurt.

‘On the weekend, instead of a fry-up, I’ll have mushrooms, avocado, asparagus, spinach and egg.

‘These changes were drastic, but were surprisingly easy to do.

‘My hot flushes have disappeared and I feel much less anxious. I’ve even seen an improvement in the arthritis and tinnitus issues I’ve struggled with for a while.’

Prof Berry says the company plans to continue fine-tuning its menopause features to help further combat the symptoms that affect millions of women.

‘This is just the beginning,’ she adds. ‘We plan to focus even more on menopause research at ZOE in the future.

‘We believe this is going to be so useful for so many women.’