Certain foods reduce weight and hot flashes in menopausal women by 88%

Summary: Switching to a diet low in animal products and fats, high in vegetables, and adding a serving of soybeans reduced hot flashes and increased weight loss in menopausal women by up to 88%.

Source: Medical Committee for Responsible Medicine

A new study published by the North American Menopause Society in the Journal menopausefound that diet intervention is about as effective (88%) as hormone replacement therapy (70%–90%) in reducing menopausal hot flashes without the associated health risks.

The WAVS study — the Women’s Vasomotor Symptom Relief Study — found that a plant-based diet high in soy reduced moderate-to-severe hot flashes by 88% and helped women lose an average of 8 pounds in 12 weeks.

“We don’t yet fully understand why this combination works, but it appears that these three elements are critical — avoiding animal products, reducing fat, and adding a serving of soybeans,” said lead researcher Neal Barnard, MD, President of the Medical Committee and Associate Professor in the George Washington University School of Medicine.

“Our results reflect the diets of places in the world, such as pre-western Japan and what is now the Yucatán Peninsula, where a low-fat, plant-based diet, including soybeans, is more common and where postmenopausal women have fewer symptoms.”

The study published today is the second phase of a two-part study, the first of which was also published in menopause in 2021. The fall timing of the first attempt raised the question of whether this symptomatic improvement might have been due to cooler temperatures. But women who started the study when the weather got warmer in the spring had the same benefit, since they excluded the influence of outside temperature.

“These new results suggest that diet modification should be considered as a first-line treatment for troublesome vasomotor symptoms, including night sweats and hot flashes,” said Dr. barnard

The study involved 84 postmenopausal women who reported having two or more hot flashes per day. They were randomly assigned to either an intervention group — consisting of a low-fat, vegan diet including half a cup of cooked soybeans daily — or a control group that made no dietary changes for 12 weeks.

“This study demonstrates the effectiveness of dietary intervention for menopausal symptoms,” said Dr. barnard “Furthermore, it is precisely the diet that is expected to reduce the health concerns of many women going through menopause: an increased risk of heart disease, breast cancer and memory problems.”

About this news from nutrition and menopause research

Author: Noah Kaufman
Source: Medical Committee for Responsible Medicine
Contact: Noah Kauffman – Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
Picture: The image is in the public domain

Original research: Open access.
“A nutritional intervention for vasomotor symptoms of menopause: a randomized controlled trial” by Neal Barnard et al. menopause

See also

abstract

A dietary intervention for vasomotor symptoms of menopause: a randomized controlled trial

objective

Postmenopausal vasomotor symptoms impair quality of life. In this study, the effects of dietary intervention on vasomotor symptoms and menopausal-related quality of life were tested.

methods

Postmenopausal women (n=84) who reported at least two moderate to severe hot flashes daily were randomly assigned in two consecutive cohorts to an intervention that included a low-fat vegan diet and cooked soybeans (½ cup [86 g] daily) or to a control group that does not make any dietary changes. Over a period of 12 weeks, hot flashes (frequency and severity) were recorded using a mobile application, and vasomotor, psychosocial, physical and sexual symptoms were recorded using the menopause-specific quality of life questionnaire. Between-group differences were assessed for continuous (t tests) and binary (χ²/McNemar tests) results. In a subsample of the study, urine equol was measured after consuming ½ cup (86 g) of cooked whole soybeans twice daily for 3 days.

Results

In the intervention group, moderate to severe hot flashes decreased by 88% (P < 0.001) compared to 34% in the control group (P <0.001; intermediate group P < 0.001). After 12 weeks, 50% of participants in the intervention group reported no moderate to severe hot flashes at all. In the controls, there was no change in these variables from baseline (χ² Test, P < 0.001). Neither seasonality nor equal production status were associated with the level of improvement. The intervention group reported greater reductions in the vasomotor questionnaire on menopause-specific quality of life (P = 0.004), physical (P = 0.01) and sexual (P = 0.03) domains.

Conclusions

A dietary intervention consisting of a plant-based diet, minimizing oils, and daily soybeans significantly reduced the frequency and severity of postmenopausal hot flashes and associated symptoms.