Swapping meat & dairy with plant-based foods can reduce hot flashes in postmenopausal women by 92%, study finds
In the research participants who swapped to a plant-based diet reported weight loss and a reduction in severe hot flashes.
Switching meat and dairy products with plant-based foods can help reduce hot flashes in postmenopausal women, according to new scientific research.
The new findings were discovered as part of a secondary analysis of data from a study published in the journal Menopause.
In the study, 84 postmenopausal women who were experiencing two or more moderate-to-severe hot flashes daily were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The first, referred to as the intervention group, were asked to follow a low-fat vegan diet, which included a half cup of cooked soybeans a day. The other group - the control group - simply continued their usual diets for 12 weeks.
The results found that severe hot flashes were reduced by 92 percent in the vegan group, while the control group reported no significant changes.
Participants in the vegan group also lost an average of 3.6 kilograms (about 8 pounds), while the control group lost an average of 0.2 kilograms (about half a pound).
The latest analysis of these results also looked into the specific plant-based index scores of the foods involved in both the vegan and control groups.
The index is a nutritional system that has three separate categories. The first is the plant-based index (PDI) which measures how much of a diet is plant-based. Then, two others score on the intake of healthy or less healthy foods: the likes of fruits, vegetables, grains and beans are scored on the healthful plant-based index (hPDI), while more processed foods such as refined grains and fruit juices are placed on the unhealthful plant-based index (uPDI).
Those that took part in the vegan diet group had an increased score for all three indexes, while the control group had no change in index scores.
Interestingly, both the “healthy” and “unhealthy” plant-based indexes were associated with weight loss and a reduction in hot flashes.
The study’s authors say these results suggest that consuming even the so-called “unhealthy” plant-based foods may lead to weight loss when used as a replacement to animal products. This can be explained by examples like fruit juices, refined grains, and potatoes, which are all included on the “unhealthful” plant-based index, but are still higher in carbohydrates and lower in fat than meat, dairy products and eggs.
“The good news is that our new analysis helps clarify that even plant-based foods that are defined as “unhealthy” by the plant-based index are better than animal products in terms of weight loss and reduction in hot flashes,” says Dr. Hana Kahleova, a co-author of the paper and director of clinical research at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
“If you want to lose weight, fight hot flashes, or improve other diet-related conditions like type 2 diabetes and heart disease, it’s always best to choose the plant-based option over animal products”, Kahleova added.
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