Proof that you CAN REALLY eat to beat hot flashes and hormonal anxiety… as outspoken diet guru Tim Spector launches his ZOE menopause diet. Here’s how to do it

A stronger sex drive, lower anxiety and fewer hot flashes all show that a healthier diet can ease the potentially debilitating symptoms of menopause, says nutrition guru Professor Tim Spector.

As reported in the Mail on Sunday today, Professor Spector’s popular diet app ZOE will offer special menopause features from next week.

The launch follows a large-scale study which found the tailor-made diet reduced the severity of annoying menopausal symptoms by a third.

The features will be included as part of the existing £60-a-month ZOE diet subscription, and will help women get medically-based advice on how dietary changes can manage both perimenopause and menopause.

As with the main ZOE program, users who sign up are sent a blood glucose monitor, which they wear for up to two weeks to see how their body responds to carbohydrates in their diet.

There is also a DIY fingerstick blood test and stool sample kit that users send to a lab for analysis. The results are used to measure their gut health and metabolism.

Based on these results, ZOE scientists will create a personalized nutritional guide. This could involve, for example, eating less meat and more oily fish or more legumes, vegetables and nuts.

But ZOE is also rolling out a unique symptom tracker called the MenoScore, which women can use to track the severity of their menopause symptoms over time and see how they improve as they follow their new diet.

They also receive a menopause nutrition guide, which outlines which foods are beneficial for people with severe symptoms, and which are not.

Before the diet app, Prof Spector, an epidemiologist at King’s College London, rose to national prominence developing the ZOE Covid tracking app, which allowed Britons to report their coronavirus symptoms.

More than five million people used the app during the pandemic, and health officials relied on it as an accurate indicator of the number of Covid infections in Britain and how badly people were being affected.

However, the Menopause Nutrition Guide and the MenoScore tracker are probably Professor Spector’s most controversial creations.

Some experts reject the theory that women can “eat to beat menopause,” arguing that pharmaceutical interventions in the form of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) are the only effective treatment for symptoms.

But those involved in ZOE’s latest venture say it could be life-changing for some women. “There’s no way to eat your way out of the menopause, but our research shows that a healthier diet can have a significant impact for all women,” says Professor Sarah Berry, ZOE’s chief scientist and, like Professor Spector, a researcher at King’s College London.

“This can have a huge impact on their quality of life.”

So, what’s the truth about the relationship between menopause and diet? And could the ZOE program help combat your unpleasant symptoms?

For most women, menopause occurs between the ages of 45 and 55. Menstruation stops and levels of the female sex hormones estrogen and progesterone drop.

It is this drop in hormone levels that has been linked to hot flushes, sleep problems, a decreased sex drive and mood swings. For this reason, two million women are prescribed HRT by the NHS, which contains identical hormones to those their own bodies produce. HRT is usually given as a patch, gel, spray or tablet and has been shown to be safe and effective. However, the NHS also recommends other non-pharmaceutical approaches, including regular exercise and a healthy diet.

It specifically recommends eating calcium-rich foods, such as milk, yogurt, and kale, to keep bones healthy. This is because menopause increases the risk of the brittle bone disease osteoporosis.

However, increasing research suggests that a healthy, varied diet can also combat common menopausal symptoms.

A 2013 Australian study found that a healthy diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and a higher percentage of healthy fats from sources such as oily fish, nuts and seeds can help manage hot flashes and night sweats.

A diet that includes these food groups is often called the Mediterranean diet. Professor Spector regularly promotes this diet as one of the healthiest diets available.

Experts generally agree that nutrition is an important factor that women struggling with menopausal symptoms should consider. However, they argue that a one-size-fits-all diet is not the right approach for everyone.

‘A healthier lifestyle helps manage menopause in the short term and improves quality of life in the long term, which is why I always recommend it to my patients,’ said Professor Joyce Harper, an expert in reproductive sciences at the Institute of Women’s Health at University College London.

“But I do worry that people are becoming fanatical about certain diets. Diet is only one factor in managing menopausal symptoms.

‘Research shows that sleep, exercise and spending time with friends and family all help too. Focusing solely on diet is not the wisest choice and you don’t have to pay for an expensive diet club to get tips on eating healthier. It’s also important to remember that not every woman who goes through menopause needs treatment – ​​it’s a natural part of getting older and many women don’t experience serious symptoms.’

However, ZOE says the study, which tracked the symptoms of 4,000 women who followed the ZOE diet for 200 days, speaks for itself.

The data, which have not been published in a medical journal, report significant reductions in the most challenging and common symptoms of menopause, including reductions in depression and anxiety.

The greatest impact was on mood swings, with a 44 percent reduction in postmenopausal women (that is, anyone who has gone through menopause) compared to the period before starting the diet.

In perimenopausal women – women in the early stages of menopause – there was a 35 percent reduction in mood swings.

The severity of fatigue and disturbed sleep symptoms experienced by postmenopausal participants decreased by about 38 percent. Meanwhile, perimenopausal women saw the intensity of these symptoms decrease by 32 percent. Postmenopausal women who followed the ZOE diet plan also claimed that the number of night sweats, hot flashes, and chills they experienced decreased by more than a third.

Women taking HRT also benefited from the diet plan. One woman who is a firm believer in the ZOE diet is Helen Ladd, 55, from Llanelli, South West Wales, who took HRT for four years but still suffered from menopausal symptoms including bloating, poor sleep and night sweats.

The mother of two, who runs a small business with her husband Adrian, says she thought she had a good diet before she started using ZOE.

“I ate five pieces of fruit and vegetables a day, as well as healthy options like hummus, olives and salmon,” she adds. “Dinner was usually fish risotto, chicken casseroles or beef stew, all with vegetables.”

However, she also ate ham sandwiches and occasionally ordered take-out fish and chips.

“When I started ZOE, that changed,” she says.

‘I stopped buying cooked ham, ate red meat only once every two months and ate vegetarian at least twice a week, with at least ten types of vegetables.

‘I started eating nuts every day, which I previously avoided because I thought I would gain weight if I ate them. I still enjoy a glass of wine and the occasional fish and chips.’

Helen says she was surprised by the improvement in her symptoms.

‘I used to feel bloated a lot, but that’s gone now,’ she says. ‘I’ve lost a stone, my night sweats have reduced, and I’m sleeping better. I’ve even seen a reduction in my joint and muscle pain, and less brain fog.

‘I feel like I’ve got my menopause much better under control now. I’ve even secured a place in next year’s London Marathon!’

Another ZOE user, Julie Kilby, 60, from St Neots, Cambridgeshire, described how following the diet plan made her symptoms ‘disappear’ – including some she didn’t even know were linked to the menopause, such as arthritis, joint pain and tinnitus.

The mother of four says she often ate fast food from McDonald’s and KFC and regularly snacked on chips, chocolate and soft drinks.

“My diet since ZOE has been the opposite,” she says. “Breakfast is usually a combination of berries, grapefruit, chia and flax seeds, barley flakes, kefir and yoghurt.

‘On weekends, instead of a fried dish, I eat mushrooms, avocado, asparagus, spinach and egg.

These changes were drastic, but surprisingly easy to implement.

“My hot flashes are gone and I feel much less anxious. I have even seen an improvement in the arthritis and tinnitus issues that I have been struggling with for a while.”

According to Professor Berry, the company wants to further refine the properties of the menopause product to further combat the symptoms that millions of women suffer from.

“This is just the beginning,” she adds. “We plan to focus even more on menopause research at ZOE in the future.

“We believe this will be very useful for many women.”