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Entering menopause can cause a significant shift in our health. The decrease in reproductive hormones estrogen and progesterone brings on a range of symptoms such as night sweats, hot flashes, increased appetite, and fatigue.
When this happens, it can be easy to reach for poor, calorie-dense foods for comfort. However, as we all know, this can have negative effects on our weight, and overall health, which will now be exacerbated by menopause.
So what can we do? Maybe it’s time for a detox?
Now, before we jump ahead, we want to clarify — this isn’t an unhealthy juice cleanse, or removal of foods detox, as there is little evidence to support these claims.
This detox is an overhaul of your nutrition, to ensure that you get the vitamins, and nutrients it need to combat the menopause symptoms and enhance your health.
Today, we discuss the healthy menopause detox & cleanse diet. We cover our health alternative to balancing hormone levels, without the gimmicks.
The Importance of Detox & Cleanse During Menopause
When we enter menopause, our body undergoes considerable changes. When our reproductive hormones decline, muscle and bone mineral density decrease, while appetite and inflammation increase.
These factors cause significant changes to the body, impairing mood, sleep, function, and mental processing.
For example, a bad night's sleep can lead to fatigue and negatively impact mood and cognitive function. Moreover, it increases the hunger hormone ghrelin while decreasing the satiety hormone leptin.
One of the ways we remedy this situation is to reach for unhealthy, fatty, and sugary foods. However, these only offer a short-term solution, increased calorie intake, sluggishness, and energy crashes.
The results — another poor night's sleep to compound the ill effects of menopause.
So what do we need in this situation? A circuit breaker. This can be achieved with a detox and cleanse diet, to balance your energy levels, and improve sleep.
During this process, we will remove the sugary and fatty food, and replenish your body with nutrient-rich food sources to balance your hormones.
Why Detoxing Helps Balance Hormones
Balancing hormonal changes can done in several ways. Two of the most common are hormone replacement therapy and nutrition. Hormone replacement therapy restores estrogen levels, which can alleviate many menopause symptoms. Nutrition, on the other hand, addresses both nutrient and hormonal deficiencies and imbalances.
The purpose of detoxing is to remove foods that negatively affect our hormones and replace them with foods that help us balance them.
For example, processed fatty and sugar foods can spike insulin levels, altering hunger and satiety hormones. Detoxing removes these foods, which allows our appetite hormones to stabilize.
Once these poor calorie-dense foods are removed we can add foods containing phytoestrogens, an estrogen-like compound derived from plants. Found in fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and soy, these foods naturally boost estrogen levels, balance hormones, and reduce menopause symptoms.
By removing unhealthy foods which have a negative impact, and adding nutrient-dense foods, we restore balance to our hormone levels.
4 Key Benefits of a Cleanse & Detox Diet for Menopause Symptoms
When detoxes are done correctly, they can have a major positive impact on our health. Below is a list of benefits of detox and cleanse diet for menopause, and reasons you should consider using them.
1. Improve Overall Health
A healthy detox and cleanse is excellent for improving your overall health and well-being. Quality nutrition has always been associated with improvements in health, and when we enter menopause, it becomes more important than ever.
Detoxing not only allows us to balance our hormone levels, it helps us prioritize essential vitamins and nutrients, such as protein for muscle mass, calcium for bone health, and fiber for satiety. Furthermore, it helps to reduce fatigue, brain fog, and the risk of chronic illness, enhancing our quality of life.
2. Sustainable
Traditionally, cleanse diets focused on liquids often result in regaining weight, as severe restrictions don’t teach us about correct nutrition.
Fortunately, this healthy detox and cleanse focuses on overhauling our nutrition. It improves satiety by removing low-quality, calorie-dense foods and replacing them with nutrient-dense, whole foods. This will enhance sustainability, and help you balance your hormones long-term.
3. Education
Undergoes in a detox and cleanse diet is more than just about what we eat, it changes the way we think about nutrition. While many detoxes are based on removing foods, a healthy menopause detox aims to teach you about different nutrients and how they can be used to improve your health.
For beginners, this seems like a difficult and wild concept. However, after some time you will begin to notice which foods keep you full, which kill cravings, and which ones boost your energy levels. Getting to know your body during and after menopause can feel like a difficult task. But rest assured that once those lines of communication are open, you will be feeling better than ever!
4. Natural Approach
One of the best things about undertaking a cleanse diet for menopause is it can help you balance your hormones and alleviate menopause symptoms the natural way.
While hormone replacement therapy is safe, the idea of taking tablets, pills, and implants isn’t for everyone. Detoxing and resetting our nutrition is a safe and natural way to realign our hormone levels, and boost our nutrient intake.
Essential Components of a Menopause Detox & Cleanse Diet
Now that we have discussed how detoxes and cleansing help us balance our hormones and manage menopause, it's time to discuss food selection.
Below we listed various foods suitable for your detox diet and which ones to eliminate. The detox inclusion table contains our recommended foods, their nutrients, and their purpose during our menopause detox.
The food exclusion table contains food we recommend removing and the negative impacts they have on the body.
Detoxifying Foods to Include
Foods to Eliminate During a Detox
Sample 7-Day Menopause Detox & Cleanse Diet Plan
This is a 7-day sample menopause detox and cleanse diet plan to help you kickstart your nutrition overhaul. Below, we split the week into three stages. Each stage contains objectives and detailed instructions to give you the exact steps to perform the detox diet.
As mentioned, ta typical detox will have you severely restricting food intake during the early stages. However, instead of starving ourselves, we want to provide the nutrients and calories it needs to improve our health.
Day 1-2: Preparing Your Body for the Cleanse
The first day of your detox and cleanse is focused on consuming light meals, and correct hydration. We recommend eating a lean protein source such as chicken or fish, with leafy greens.
Hydration is vital for many of our body’s functions, including digestion, cognitive function, and satiety. This will be light on your stomach, while still increasing satiety, and alleviating your menopause symptoms.
These first two days can be tough, however, there is enough protein, greens, and water to keep you full.
Foods
Example Meals
- Green Smoothies — Banana, Spinach, Watermelon, Cucumber, Celery, Orange, Mint, Ginger, Water
- Fresh Salads — Salad with Tomatoes, Lettuce, Cucumber, Celery, Corn
- Lean Protein Meal — Grilled Chicken, Air-Fried Salmon
Day 3-5: Deep Cleansing and Detoxification
For days three to five, we will begin to add high-fiber and detox foods for variety. High-fiber foods such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds will improve your energy levels and satiety. Additionally, these foods may improve fullness after two days of lighter eating.
Continue to build on your existing diet with a lean protein source and juices. These practices not only help us detox, it enables us to lay the foundation for clean eating, balancing menopause symptoms, and improving our health long-term
Foods
Example Meals
- Steamed Vegetable — Carrot, Peas, Kale, Pumpkin, Sweet Potato, Broccoli
- Cleansing Soups — Carrot, Beans, Peas, Kale, Spinach, Celery, Pumpkin, Broccoli
- Fresh Juice — Spinach, Watermelon, Cucumber, Celery, Orange, Mint, Ginger, Water
- Lean Protein — Oven Baked Salmon with Steamed Vegetables
Day 6-7: Gradual Reintroduction of Nourishing Foods
Days six and seven is when we expand our diet, adding more nutrient-dense foods. Like days three to five, you may not increase fullness as foods such as quinoa and brown rice will be filling after five days of lighter eating.
Whole-grain foods such as brown rice, and quinoa will increase the volume of your meals. They are also excellent sources of fiber and omega-3. This will improve satiety, reducing inflammation.
These foods complete your 7-day detox and cleanse diet. They are great sources of protein, fiber, omega-3, vitamin B, and phytoestrogen.
Foods
Example Meals
- Lentil Stew — Lentils, Spinach, Celery, Peas, Zucchini, Broccoli, Garlic, Canned Tomatoes, Carrot
- Salad — Spinach, Kale, Celery, Tomato, Cucumber, Red Onion, Walnuts, Pumpkin Seeds
- Lean Protein Meal — Air-Fried Chicken Breast with Quinoa, Steamed Vegetables
Tips for Success with a Menopause Detox & Cleanse Diet
Detox and cleanse diets can be challenging as they immediately cut our diet down to the essentials, which can be a shock to the system. To soften the blow, here are some helpful tips to help make things run smoother.
Listen to Your Body’s Signals: Don’t Starve Yourself
First, let’s address the most important thing. You must listen to your body. When you decide to do a clean those first few days can be tough. When you eliminate unhealthy food options, you will reduce your calorie intake. This can be a major shock to the system.
As we enter those first two days and our food and calorie intake is a little lower, we must pay close attention to our energy levels, and how we are feeling. When we reduce food intake, it is okay to be hungry, however, reducing our calories by too much can lead to fatigue, dizziness, headaches, and low energy.
When this happens we recommend restoring your energy levels with protein and carbohydrates. This combined with plenty of fluid will help reduce the feeling of fatigue.
Remember, this isn’t a starvation diet, it's a shift and gradual reintroducing of nutrient-dense foods. If you are feeling the effects of restriction, increase your food intake.
Beat Your Cravings By Planning Ahead
When it comes to any diet or nutrition plan, planning is a vital component for long-term success. As mentioned, this detox and cleanse diet is designed to reintroduce of nutrient-dense foods. This requires planning!
Before you begin we recommend planning your meals and doing a big weekly shop. This will ensure you have everything on hand to prepare your meals and a range of backup meals if those energy levels decline and feelings of fatigue kick in.
Planning during your detox and cleanse diet is also a great way to establish a healthy meal preparation routine, allowing you to continue your healthy eating once your detox and cleanse is complete.
Stay Hydrated
One of the most powerful tools we have during a healthy eating transition is hydration. During the initial phases of a new diet, detox, or cleanse, the decrease in calorie-dense foods and calorie intake can leave us feeling hungry. We want to assure you that feeling hungry is completely normal.
Drinking water will help reduce hunger, enabling us to get to the next meal without breaking our detox or cleanse diet. We recommend keeping a bottle of water on hand to reduce hunger and cravings.
Conclusion: Enhance Your Menopause Journey with a Detox & Cleanse Diet
There is little evidence to suggest that your average detoxing and cleansing diet works. However, stripping back our nutrition and gradually rebuilding it with essential vitamins and nutrients can help us address menopause symptoms, and help us build a strong foundation for a new healthy lifestyle.
If you are considering this menopause detox & cleanse diet, we recommend planning your meals, staying hydrated, and most importantly, don’t starving yourself. This will kick-start your nutrition changes for long-term success.
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