Foods that Fight Hot Flashes
As I am growing older, learning about foods that help with hot flashes and aging gracefully are topics near and dear to my heart!
Table of Contents
If you are wondering how to stop hot flashes fast naturally, I have lots of information on reducing hot flashes. I will also share ways how to maintain our youthful glow and reduce inflammation to fight chronic disease at upcoming sessions!
In addition, I am sharing my new Apple Blueberry Tofu and Kale Salad recipe, I have some links to other recipes on my blog included also.
First of all, let’s start with some of the leading health and aging concerns that women over 50 (and younger women) have:
Health Concerns for Women:
- Having a healthy heart
- Maintaining healthy, youthful skin
- Balancing a stable hormone balance
- Preventing cancer
- Keeping bones strong and preventing bone loss
- Retaining a healthy memory and brain health
- Nurturing a healthy relationship with food and our bodies
- Learning foods to help with hot flashes
10 Healthy Foods for Women Over 50 to Fight Hot Flashes
As a dietitian, I have provided nutrition counseling to women of all ages over and each person wanted to know what to eat to feel their best and stay healthy. When moms, wives, and partners are healthier, the entire family benefits. And that includes daughters, granddaughters, and grandmothers also!
After learning more about women’s health concerns, I have learned more about hot flashes and diet. And I’ve compiled a list of 10 foods that help fight hot flashes!
From my personal experience, I have not had an issue with hot flashes. I know some women do and some don’t. But my mother had terrible hot flashes, so I thought I might also. I now realize that maybe I was eating more foods that decreased the risk of hot flashes.
Here is my list of the best foods for hot flashes! I hope that you give some of them a try!
10 Foods to Help Hot Flashes
Here are top superfoods for menopausal women! Take a look to see how you are doing getting them!
1.Purple Foods:
Berries are high in plant estrogens, and hot flashes are less severe when plant estrogens (phytoestrogens) attach to estrogen receptor sites.
Bright purple berries, including blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and even strawberries, promote brain health and help reduce inflammation, preventing chronic diseases like heart disease and cancer.
2. Green Foods
Daily greens, such as kale, collards, arugula, spinach, and green leafy lettuce, can help reduce hot flashes. These have health benefits, including being high in lutein and zeaxanthin, which are important for eye health. They are also rich in calcium, beta carotene, a powerful antioxidant, and iron.
3. Fermented Foods
Fermented foods with natural probiotics are good for us, but their benefits for relieving hot flashes remain controversial. Here is a good article on fermented foods and hot flashes.
However, fermented dairy with healthy probiotics, including yogurt, kefir, and live-cultured buttermilk, is suitable for gut health. These foods are a great source of protein, calcium, riboflavin, and B vitamins needed for good health.
Some people do not tolerate dairy, but there are a couple of good lactose-free yogurts. If you do not eat dairy, there are some delicious fermented plant milks with healthy probiotics.
4. Legumes like Beans and Lentils
Beans have significant anti-inflammatory benefits that help prevent and manage chronic diseases and autoimmune conditions and promote digestive wellness. Bring chickpeas, lentils, black beans, pinto beans, navy/Great Northern beans, and soybeans! It is an important food to get an adequate amount to build and repair muscle mass and organs.
All beans have some phytoestrogen, but soybeans have the most (more on that below).
5. Healthy Fats:
Healthy fats like almonds and avocados contain vitamin E, which may reduce hot flashes
In addition, healthy fats like nuts, seeds, olive oil, omega-3-rich foods, and fatty fish like salmon and trout help fight inflammation. Limit fats that can increase inflammation, like saturated and trans fats.
6. Cruciferous Vegetables
Broccoli and other vegetables have a plant estrogen effect in our bodies, so they can help reduce hot flashes.
In addition, cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and kale provide cancer-fighting benefits, reduce inflammation, and contain many beneficial antioxidants.
Dietary constituents of broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables: implications for prevention and therapy of cancer – PubMed (nih.gov)
7. Whole Grains
The Cleveland Clinic article found that high-fiber foods like whole grains in the Mediterranean Diet can help reduce hot flashes.
Whole grains like oats, millet, and brown rice provide fiber, B vitamins, and selenium, which provides protein, fiber, and beneficial B vitamins.
What To Eat When You Have Hot Flashes (clevelandclinic.org)
8. Apples
There is a reason why an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Apples contain beneficial flavonoids, antioxidants, and a phytochemical called quercetin, which helps prevent chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. For more about apples, check out this research article, which contains great information.
Phytoestrogens: food or drug? – PMC (nih.gov)
9. Beta-Carotene:
The women’s health initiative found that women with a higher vegetable intake had fewer vasomotor symptoms (night sweats and hot flashes). Their research found that 25 % of all women in their 60s and 70s had these.
They found that increased weight may increase vasomotor symptoms, but their symptoms decreased as these women ate more vegetables.
Vasomotor symptoms are linked to sleep disturbance and increased anxiety and depression. As a nutritionist who studied for almost ten years, I love that I may have helped women’s quality of life then and in years to come!
Bright orange and yellow foods rich in antioxidants like beta carotene, including sweet potatoes, carrots, winter squash, and other root vegetables, help the body build collagen and promote mouth and gum health. They also help boost immunity.
Effects of a dietary intervention and weight change on vasomotor symptoms in the Women’s Health Initiative – PMC (nih.gov)
10. Soy Foods:
Here is information on soy foods for hot flashes.
Soy and other foods can provide beneficial plant estrogens that can help our bodies with possible menopausal relief. Soy product intake and hot flashes in Japanese women: results from a community-based prospective study – PubMed (nih.gov)
Hope that you found my list of foods to avoid hot flashes helpful! Here is some additional information on foods to prevent hot flashes!
Additional Resources on Food to Reduce Hot Flashes
Here are some additional resources on food and hot flashes:
10 Foods That Can Help Balance Your Hormones Naturally (bustle.com)
Foods That Help Ease Menopausal Symptoms (everydayhealth.com)
How can food influence the severity of menopausal hot flashes? (news-medical.net)
What To Eat When You Have Hot Flashes (clevelandclinic.org)
A while back, my cousin Cat asked me to write about the benefits of tempeh and its benefits to women’s health. Thanks for asking, Cat! Below are some recipes from some of my previous blog posts for using tempeh that use foods to relieve hot flashes!
These recipes include tempeh or hempeh (read more about this product made by Smiling Hara right here in the Appalachian Mountains below) and tofu. You can use these whole soy foods interchangeably in recipes!
Recipes with Foods to Help with Hot Flashes
Barbecue Tempeh Open-Faced Sandwich with Slaw
Raspberry Habanero Hempeh Tacos
Lots of Breakfast Recipes Using Soy
It can also be used for lunch and supper!
Colorful Tempeh Breakfast Scramble
Savory Tofu Cherry Pecan Green Salad
https://vineripenutrition.com/savory-tofu-cherry-pecan-green-salad
Apple Cider Glazed Tempeh
Wild Blueberry Veggie Bowl
Two Protein Bowls
One containing tempeh and one with tofu.
Mushroom and Tempeh Lo Mein
(This post also includes another recipe that does not include soy with polenta and roasted vegetables!)
Stir-Fries with Tempeh or Tofu
Here are Additional Soy Foods to Fight Hot Flashes
Some women that I work with ask, can soy help with hot flashes? And my answer is yes. Drinking soy milk for hot flashes can help as well as eating edamame for menopause night sweats. I also love tofu and tempeh as foods to eat to help with hot flashes. I love them as a high-protein meat substitute.
You can prepare them in a lot of different ways and season them differently depending on what I am making. My family and I have been using these for over 30 years!
Grilled Tofu Fajitas
Curried Tofu Salad with Pecans and Cherries
Blueberry Hempeh Kale Salad
Caribbean Low Fodmap Tacos
However, regarding soy foods, the benefits and controversies pop up, and many people are concerned.
Soy Controversies About Safety and Answers
Some of the questions include:
Can soy foods help with hot flashes?
Do soy foods increase the risk of cancer?
How can soy benefit women with perimenopause, menopause, and post-menopause?
What are the concerns about men and soy?
Does soy interfere with fertility?
How does soy affect thyroid health?
Here is a great podcast discussing the topic of soy and health on fellow registered dietitian Mary Purdy’s podcast as she talks with registered dietitian Whitney English.
I hope this interview helps clear up questions you may have had!
Check out Whitney’s Soy series on YouTube, mentioned in Mary’s post.
Here are a few additional Links on Soy’s Safety
Soy and Cancer Risk: Our Expert’s Advice | American Cancer Society
Is Soy Safe for Cancer Patients? – Cancer Nutrition Consortium
Soy and Cancer, Studies Indicate No Increased Risk – AICR
Additional Foods to Relieve Hot Flashes
As a result of researching for this post, I found a great article on even more foods that help reduce menopausal symptoms by providing plant hormones and preventing chronic disease. I hope that you find it as helpful as I did! It gives me even more reasons to eat avocados, flax, broccoli, pomegranates, salmon, leafy greens, nuts, soy, turmeric, and quinoa—foods that help balance our hormones.
Here is my new salad recipe. I hope that you enjoy making it and eating it. You can add frozen blueberries instead of fresh if you prefer.
Delicious Salad Recipe for Fighting Hot Flashes and Boosting Women’s Health
Apple Blueberry Tofu & Kale Salad
If you are looking for foods to help with hot flashes, this salad contains many foods I shared that benefit women’s health. It includes apples, blueberries, soy, a cruciferous vegetable, walnuts, and a yogurt dressing. That is six out of the ten that make women feel amazing!
Makes two servings (but double it to make four or have for the next day easily)
One apple chopped in large pieces (I like a tart apple like a Granny Smith or Pink Lady. Use a smaller serving if apples are one of your trigger foods with IBS)
1 cup blueberries
1/4 cup toasted walnuts
3-4 cups of baby kale, or you can massage and remove large stems of large kale leaves
One package of firm tofu (use half of the box to make the two salads)
Lime Cilantro Yogurt Salad Dressing
Bake tofu according to the Farfalle recipe above (but use lime juice and chili powder for the seasonings.
Lime Cilantro Yogurt Salad Dressing
1/2 cup yogurt (use lactose-free if you are sensitive to lactose)
One lime squeezed
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Place ingredients in a blender and blend until well mixed.
To construct the salad, fill bowls with baby kale and add the blueberries and apples. Sprinkle with walnuts and arrange baked tofu on top. Drizzle with salad dressing.
Spicy Foods and Their Role in Increased Hot Flashes
Spicy foods like hot peppers can increase the risk of hot flashes, and that may be because they make you warm. This may trigger a hot flash. Some people may feel a hot flash when they are eating.
In addition, highly processed foods like white bread and pasta and sugary foods may also increase the risk of hot flashes because, in people with diabetes or prediabetes, these foods may lead to a rapid rise in blood sugar.
Hot Flashes: Triggers, How Long They Last & Treatments (clevelandclinic.org)
In addition, caffeine may also be a culprit for some women.
Women’s Nutrition Plan with Foods to Help with Hot Flashes
I have enjoyed sharing a little knowledge about hot flash nutrition with some foods to reduce hot flashes. I love how food, when used to fuel and sustain us, has almost all benefits with few side effects. Food can become one of our secret weapons to good health!
As a registered dietitian and a woman in midlife, taking care of myself as I age has become extremely important. If you want more ways to help you feel your best, sign up for my free 5-day class on reducing inflammation, and check out some of my additional blog posts on women’s health!
If you are looking for ways to stop hot flashes fast, stay tuned for the Midlife Glow, a course that will transform your life! This course will be coming soon so stay tuned!
