Chapter 24

Ten Powerhouse Foods for Menopausal Women

In This Chapter

Ten foods for a healthier lifestyle

Tips for buying, storing, and preparing them

There are thousands of healthy, delicious foods out there that are great for women at any age and have special nutritional benefits during your menopausal years (and beyond). These are some of the stars of this lineup.

Soy Joy

Soy is the queen of powerhouse foods. Researchers believe that soy offers benefits to perimenopausal women in the form of reduced menopausal symptoms (such as hot flashes). Soybeans and their derivatives contain proteins and isoflavones (plant estrogens) that may lower cholesterol. Some researchers, however, are concerned that plant estrogens may have some of the same effects as regular estrogens, and that too much soy may even promote the growth of estrogen-sensitive cancers.

Most doctors agree that a serving a day of soy products is probably safe. Tofu and other soy products are excellent sources of protein, iron, and calcium, making them a staple for vegans, vegetarians, and those who want to limit their consumption of animal fats.

In addition to the salt, sweet, bitter and sour tastes we all recognize, gastronomes have identified a fifth basic flavor called umami (sometimes spelled umame ). Umami is described as savory and meaty. Cheeses, mushrooms, seaweed, fish sauce, nuts, and soy products have this flavor.

Soy crumbles, a kind of textured vegetable protein, can stand in for ground meats in soups, chili, or pizza. Soymilk doesn’t taste much like cow’s milk, but can be a reasonable substitute if you’re a vegan or lactose intolerant. You can eat edamame (green soy beans) as a snack, or sprinkle them into salads or pasta dishes. Tempeh, a solid form of soy with a chicken-like texture, can be grilled or roasted. Tofu in its different forms can be blended, stir-fried, grilled, or drained and crumbled. Miso, a smooth, salty, savory soy paste, adds that delicious umami hit to many foods — stir a spoonful into salad dressing or soup.

Nuts to You

It’s true, nuts are a fatty food, but their fats are largely unsaturated. Besides, we’re not suggesting you eat ounces and ounces of them every day. Nuts such as walnuts and almonds contain linoleic and alpha-linoleic fatty acids (good-for-you fats), antioxidants, magnesium, vitamin E, selenium, and other nutrients. They’ve been touted for their beneficial effects fighting blood clots and osteoporosis.

Think of nuts as accessory foods — the gold belt on your little black dress. Chop and add to salads, pasta, stir-fries, fruit dishes, and desserts, or just grab a few whenever you’re struck by the urge to munch something crunchy.

Catch of the Day

One: fish is really good for your heart and cardiovascular system. Two: fish can be a source of unhealthy toxins. Which is true? Both. But because fish really is a very heart-healthy food, adding 1 or 2 servings a week to your diet is a great way to take care of yourself and treat yourself. At the same time, doing what you can to minimize your risk of exposure to the mercury fish around the world have picked up through exposure to environmental pollution is important.

Fish is delicious and versatile, and the tastiest ways to prepare it tends to be quick and simple. But we also love fish because it’s high in protein and contains heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids, the kind that lower bad LDL cholesterol and raise healthy HDL cholesterol. A diet rich in fish may also help to protect you from blood clots, inflammation, osteoporosis (especially fish canned with the bones), arthritis, and certain cancers.

Keep your mercury exposure low while you enjoy the benefits of fish. The Environmental Working Group’s online calculator (http://www.ewg.org/issues/mercury/20031209/calculator.php ) uses your weight to determine how much tuna you can safely eat every week. Some fish markets now buy their fish from merchants who test and certify their products as being mercury-free — ask your fishmonger for more information.

The sky (or the sea) is the limit when it comes to cooking fish. Grill it, broil it, bake it, steam it, just don’t slather it with mayonnaise or bread it and fry it.

I Yam What I Yam

Are those yams or sweet potatoes at the grocery store? Both are terrific for you and easy to prepare, but yams have an edge over sweet potatoes when it comes to nutrition. Yams are yummy, inexpensive, and a great source of antioxidants, vitamin C, potassium, magnesium, vitamin B6, and fiber. Eating them regularly has been linked to a decrease in hot flashes.

Select yams that are firm, without cracks or blemishes. Bake, mash, or steam them, or cut into small pieces and add them to vegetable stir-fries. Store yams in a cool spot (not the fridge, and never in plastic bags) out of direct sunlight, and use within 10 days of purchase.

The Berry Blues

Okay, we admit it, we’re partial to blueberries, but we can sneak in lots of other berries under the same heading and still stay within our “Ten Powerhouse Foods” limit. When your mom said to eat your fruits and vegetables, she might as well have said, “eat your colors,” because deeply colored fruits and veggies tend to have the most nutrients.

Berries are delicious and fun to pick. Blueberries are high in vitamin C and fiber, and they pack a whopping 38 percent more antioxidants than other berries. But cranberries also offer up a healthy helping of vitamin C, and are well-known fighters of urinary-tract infections. Raspberries have similar benefits, and a serving of strawberries has even more vitamin C than your recommended daily allowance. Eat them by the handful, toss them onto cereal or oatmeal, fold them into muffins, or mix them together for an all-berry fruit salad.

Flax Flying

Flaxseeds, like soy products, are a great source of phytoestrogens. Flax packs a lot of nutrition into its tiny, teardrop-shaped seeds. The oil hidden within the seed contains essential fatty acids that have been associated with lowered cholesterol. Flaxseed may also be valuable for its cancer-fighting properties.

A very small percentage of people are allergic to flaxseed. Start with only 1/4 teaspoonful a day, and call your doctor immediately if you experience allergy symptoms such as a rash or shortness of breath.

Flaxseed must be ground (in a mill rather like a pepper mill) in order for your body to absorb its nutrients. Because the oils spoil rapidly, only grind what you’re going to use within a few days and refrigerate what you don’t use immediately. Sprinkle over cereals, salads, and soups, or mix into breads and muffins. Bottled flax oil can also be used, but heating destroys its benefit, so don’t cook with it.

Orange You Glad . . .

. . . we didn’t say bananas? Yeah, bananas are great for you, too (the fiber! the potassium!), but oranges have their own appeal (ouch).

With only about 60 calories in a medium orange and a boatload of vitamin C, fiber, antioxidants, and other beneficial nutrients, oranges are associated with a decreased risk of stomach and other cancers, and have anti-inflammatory properties that promote healing. Eaten (or drunk the form of orange juice) when you take your iron supplement, oranges promote absorption of iron. Eat them plain, drink their juice, or slice them and add to salads, stir-fries, and Asian dishes. Even orange zest (the bright orange part of the orange peel) contains nutrients — add it to salads, drinks, and savory stews.

If you and milk are no longer friends, look for calcium-enriched orange juice. Sadly, there is still no rhyme for “orange.”

Tea for You

Tea’s just so darned civilized that if we were stranded on a desert island we’d probably be okay as long as we’d brought some along. Besides being delicious and somehow both calming and stimulating, both green and black teas are terrific for you. Tea contains the most powerful antioxidant polyphenols of any food, making it effective at fighting the cell damage associated with inflammation and heart disease. Tea also has cancer-fighting properties. Drinking tea — hot or iced — is still the most common way to take it. Some Asian recipes also incorporate tea leaves into stir-fries and marinades. Tea ice cream is increasingly widely available.

Green tea is made from tea leaves that haven’t been fermented like black tea. Herb teas, while sometimes delicious and nutritious, are not true teas at all. Only leaves from the Camellia Sinensis plant are true tea leaves.

It’s Easy Eating Greens

It was too hard to select just one leafy green — here’s the whole group. We may not have loved them when we were little kids, but we do now. Leafy, green vegetables such as kale, spinach, bok choy, Swiss chard, mustard greens, turnip greens, collard greens, and all their friends and relations have earned a place at our tables. Leafy greens all differ a little from each other, but in general they’re marvelous sources of iron, fiber, vitamin C, manganese, calcium, copper, B vitamins, and antioxidants.

With greens, the less cooking the better. Some are best gently steamed or stir-fried, some are happy to be eaten raw in salads. Store greens, unwashed and wrapped gently in paper towels and placed in a plastic bag, in the refrigerator. Before using, rinse well, drain or pat dry, and chop or tear into the right-sized pieces for your recipe.

Yo! Yogurt!

Even if you’re not a huge fan of dairy foods, or if you’re lactose intolerant and have trouble digesting lactose (the sugar in milk and milk-based foods), you can still be friends with yogurt. Periodically there are reports of people in various parts of the world who claim that yogurt helps members of their culture (no pun intended) to live to be 120 years old or more. Although we can’t vouch for that, we can confirm that yogurt’s a fabulous source of calcium, perfect for helping you to stave off osteoporosis.

If your doctor prescribes antibiotics, eating yogurt every day while you’re taking the medicine can help to prevent the stomach upsets that can accompany antibiotics. It can also help to ward off another unfortunate consequence of antibiotic use: vaginal yeast infections. Be sure to look for yogurt that contains live Lactobacillus acidophilus cultures.

Is frozen yogurt better for you than ice cream? There’s no easy answer to this one. On average, frozen yogurt has less fat than ice cream, but depending on the brand and the flavor, frozen yogurt may have plenty of sugar and almost as many calories as ice cream. To be safe, treat frozen yogurt as an occasional treat, and read the label to be sure of what you’re getting.

Yogurt’s great straight from the carton, but it’s also wonderful spooned over granola or other cereals, or mixed with fruit salad. Try to avoid heavily sweetened varieties, and choose low-fat or fat-free over whole milk yogurt. If you’d rather not eat it plain, mix in a little fresh fruit or a spoonful of fruit spread. Yogurt can also take the place of some or all of the mayonnaise or sour cream in salad dressings to lighten them up. When buying yogurt, look for the words “active yogurt cultures” or “Contains Lactobacillus acidophilus cultures” on the label.