GLOW SERIES 101
Nutrition for Women's Health
Nutrition for Women’s Health Balance
Taking care of our health as women starts with how we nourish ourselves. 💖 Let’s kick today off with the basics of nutrition tailored for us.
🥗 Nutrition 101 for Women of all Life Stages
Focus on the balanced basics. Keep it simple by filling your plate with whole foods, including fruits, veggies, whole grains, healthy fats, and lean proteins. These foods give you nutrients that are essential to your health.
Most women don’t eat the recommended 5 servings a day of fruits and veggies––which are packed with nutrients, fiber, and antioxidants.
Optimize with superfoods for women. There are good reasons we have berries, cruciferous veggies, beans, whole grains, and omega-3-rich foods on our Trackers. Watch for our next post, where we’ll explore these foods and more!
Limit the ultra-processed stuff. Limiting sugar supports healthy hormone levels by helping to support healthy blood sugar levels. Highly processed foods are problematic because they’re typically low in fiber and nutrients and high in fat, added sugar, or salt.
Fill any nutrient gaps with a high-quality multivitamin supplement. Make sure you have your nutrient bases covered. We love Shaklee Vita-Lea®, Vitalizer™, or Meology® supplements for this.
🍽️ Women’s Special Nutrition Needs by Life Stage
Young Adult through Perimenopause
At this stage, you are losing iron with each menstrual cycle, so getting enough iron is key. . Aim for the RDA of 18 mg of iron a day. FBuilding and maintaining healthy bones is crucial during young adulthood to prevent osteoporosis later in life. A balanced diet rich in calcium and vitamin D helps support bone health.
Prenatal + Pregnancy + Breastfeeding
Nutrition plays a vital role throughout pregnancy and breastfeeding, providing critical nutrients for both you and your baby. These needs are so specific that we’ve created the pregnancy nutrition infographic below.
Postpartum
With a new baby at home, your body is working overtime to recover from pregnancy and produce breast milk. You have several important nutritional needs, which we outlined in the postpartum infographic below.
Menopause + Post-Menopause
After menopause, lower estrogen levels make you less able to retain calcium and more vulnerable to losing bone mass. Calcium, magnesium, and vitamin D become extra important to help prevent osteoporosis and your calcium RDA increases to 1300 mg. To limit age-related muscle loss, you also want to support your muscles with a protein-rich diet. Heart-healthy choices like berries and fiber-rich foods are essential at this time as well. Stay tuned for more on bone and heart health in a later post!
➡️ What nutritional supplements are you taking these days? Are you thinking about adding any?
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Day 2 Post 2: Foods to Support Women’s Health
Ok friends, it’s time for one of my favorite topics: superfoods for women! Any time we can celebrate food, I’m in. And there is a lot to celebrate about these foods. 😊
6 SUPERFOODS for WOMEN
Berries 🍓: Eating berries regularly, especially blueberries and strawberries, has been shown to help lower the risk of type 2 diabetes in women. Berries are also associated with a lower risk of heart attack in women – the number 1 killer in women. Not only that, but these juicy little packets of antioxidants may benefit your brain health and cognitive function, too.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22535616/
https://www.cdc.gov/healthequity/features/heartdisease/index.html
Cruciferous veggies 🥦: Bioactive compounds in these veggies may have beneficial effects on hormone metabolism.. Cruciferous vegetables are rich in fiber and healthy nutrients like carotenoids, folate, minerals, and vitamins C, E, and K.
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2021.767975/full
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2021.748433/full
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2737735/
Beans: Beans are an excellent source of plant-based protein, fiber, folate, and other key nutrients that are important for women's health. Consuming beans regularly has been linked to a lower risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers in women. Plus, they are packed with fiber, which can help support a healthy waistline.
https://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/120914p36.shtml
https://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/060113p16.shtml
Whole grains: We love whole grains because they include the bran and germ, keeping the iron, fiber, and other nutrients intact. Observational studies have found that a higher intake of whole grains is associated with a reduced risk of chronic diseases like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers in women.
https://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/120914p36.shtml
Omega-3 (EPA + DHA) foods or supplement 🐟: You may already know that EPA + DHA omega-3s are important for breastfed infants and a baby’s development in the womb. But did you know they may also support heart health, postpartum and menopausal mood symptoms, postmenopausal osteoporosis, and some cancers including breast cancer?
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15385858/ https://www.womenshealth.gov/healthy-eating/healthy-eating-and-women
Dairy: Dairy is calcium-rich, so it helps keep your bones and muscles strong. Calcium absorption decreases as we age, but it’s vital to women. Women lose approximately 1% of their bone mineral density EACH YEAR after menopause, which can lead to fragile bones and fractures. Also, several professional organizations emphasize the importance of calcium during pregnancy to reduce the risk of preeclampsia.
https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Calcium-HealthProfessional/#en1
Soy protein: Soy contains a plant estrogen that may be protective for women. Several studies have shown that the consumption of modest amounts of soy foods—1 to 1½ servings per day—is associated with a 25-50% reduction in breast cancer risk. There have also been studies of breast cancer survivors that showed that the women who consumed the most soy had the lowest recurrence of their cancer over the 5 years of the study.
https://www.aicr.org/cancer-prevention/food-facts/soy/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27161216/
thies recipes below. YUM! (Or download PDF versions from the Files tab.)
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➡️ What’s your favourite way to enjoy one of these superfoods?
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