If you hit menopause, you’ve felt them: the heat, suddenly flushed cheeks, the night sweats — the Hot Flashes.

But, it doesn’t have to be that way. Even if you have them right now, the right diet will help hot flashes vanish from your life, and you can breathe (and sweat) a little easier. It may even help menopause weight loss be a little smoother (or at least not gain weight).

Why Healthy Fats Help Stop Hot Flashes

Let's start here first. What is a hot flash? Hot flashes are sudden feelings of warmth that usually happen over the face, neck, and torso. The very common during menopause because many women have trouble regulating their body temperature their hormone levels fluctuate.

Those randomly changing hormones lead us to think about fats. Why? Because our body produces hormones from fats, particularly saturated fats. Most hot flash symptoms are a result of the body not being able to produce or balance healthy hormones. Part of this is because low-fat diets don’t have enough saturated fat to provide the correct amount of hormones.

Eating saturated fat has a positive effect on the natural production of estradiol. Estradiol is the hormone that best help regulate and reduce the mood swings, hot flashes, and other adverse effects of menopause.

But, we want to warn you not to eat just any fats. Your diet has to be balanced. If you choose random foods or supplements, you’ll most likely have a deficiency in vitamins and minerals. Talking to one of our program specialists can help you get a proper diet for healthy weight loss during menopause along with the supplements you need to be healthy and happy.

The Four Fats as Natural Remedies for Hot Flashes

Omega-3s

Omega-3 fatty acids help many different health conditions, as shown in various studies. That's because our bodies use omega-3 fatty acids for healthy hormones, cellular repair, and quick mental processes. It's incredibly versatile and extremely healthy for us.

You want to get your Omega 3s naturally. Choose nuts, seeds, fatty fish, flaxseeds, and high-fat fruits and vegetables, like avocados. You may need some supplements to get you back up to a healthy level quick. Oils such as olive, grapeseed, avocado, and other natural oils contain high amounts of omega-3 fatty acids.

Vitamin E

Although the studies on vitamin E supplementation alone showed little impact on hot flashes in menopausal women, numerous other studies show that high vitamin E foods like spinach, sunflower seeds, broccoli, wheat germ, and other nuts are beneficial to menopause health.

That may have to do with the link between vitamin E and magnesium. All of these foods are high in magnesium as well as vitamin E. In the body, they work synergistically to improve the antioxidant potential and functionality of antioxidants and hormones. In this case, we’d like to see you eat more green vegetables and nuts.

Saturated Fats

Saturated fats are a classification of fats that include over 30 different types of individual fat molecules. They mostly occur in dairy, red meat, and other animal products. What makes saturated fats so difficult to classify is that they work together as a unit and often occur mixed in individual foods.

Saturated fats are incredibly essential for proper hormonal balancing. The craze of low-fat dairy, lean meat, too much focus on light oils has limited intake of healthy saturated fats. Foods such as butter, chicken thighs, organic beef, and cheese are healthy and should be balanced within your diet. One of our consultants can help you determine the proper amount of healthy fats for your diet.

Take away: Don’t be afraid of beef, cheese, or butter, but don’t overdo it.

Fish oil

The oils from fatty fish contain a wide assortment of different healthy fats. There are some saturated fats, but most of the fats fall under the unsaturated category, especially omega-3, ALA, and the other long-chain fatty acids. Our bodies prefer long-chain fats.

Eating fatty fish does what supplements rarely can do - they offer a wide range of proteins and nutrients that help the absorption of fats and increase the utilization of those fats. A respectable, organic fish oil supplements, like what we have here, can be highly beneficial if fish isn’t your thing.

Try salmon, sardines, swordfish, and mahi-mahi to get some healthy fats.

Wrapping it up

You don't need to be afraid of fats. When you learn how to stop the hot flashes using a proper menopausal diet, you’ll not only feel healthier, but you’ll most likely lose weight, look better, and feel younger than your years. We recommend calling one of our consultants for a free consultation to discuss how this can help you.

February 10, 2021 — Dr. Jason Olafsson