The study included 84 postmenopausal women who had at least two moderate-to-severe hot flashes daily. The women were randomly assigned to a group that ate a low-fat, vegan diet and cooked soybeans (½ cup [86 g] daily) or to a control group that kept eating their same diet. Over a 12-week period of the study, the women used a mobile application to record the frequency and severity of their hot flashes. They also used a Quality of Life questionnaire (MENQOL) to assess their psychosocial, physical, and sexual symptoms.

Results

The women who changed their diets had an 88% reduction in their moderate-to-severe hot flashes (P < 0.001) compared with 34% for the control group. The more dietary fiber and the less saturated fats the women ate, the more it lowered their hot flashes. By the end of the 12 weeks of the study,  the women who changed their diets lost weight, and 59% of them totally stopped having moderate-to-severe hot flashes. The women who didn’t change their diets had no change in their moderate-to-severe hot flashes or weight. The group who changed their diets also reported improvements in their quality of life both physically and sexually.

Conclusions

This study speaks to the power of diet in improving the lives of menopausal women and their menopause symptoms. Changing your diet to be more plant-based, minimizing fats, and eating 1/2 cup of soybeans daily significantly reduced the frequency and severity of hot flashes and associated symptoms. It also resulted in weight loss and improved quality of life.