Why Is Fasting Bad for Menopause?

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Why Is Fasting Bad for Menopause?

This is JJ Virgin, four time New York Times best selling author, celebrity nutrition expert and Fitness hall of Famer. I've been on a lifelong quest for answers to the toughest health questions and now I'm sharing what I found with you. Welcome to Ask the Health Expert.

Awesome Health from Instagram asks why is fasting bad for menopause? Hey, it's J.J. and I've got Intermittent Fasting expert Cynthia Thurlow with me now. Her TEDx talk on intermittent fasting. It's been viewed over a 8 million times. So yes, she's a bit of an expert on this subject. In fact, she's my go to expert on this subject. She loves to travel and she's a voracious reader. She reads four to five books at once. Plus, like me, she's a total boy mom. She's got two human ones, although she's got two canine ones too. I've got Daisy Girl, you know, she'll be right back to answer this question, so stay with us.

Hey JJ Virgin here. Okay, real talk.

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Well, I don't think fasting is bad for menopause. In fact, I would argue that menopausal women have this incredible advantage because they're not dealing with having monthly cycles. They're not having significant fluctuations like they did when they were still cycling between estrogen and progesterone each month. Their bodies are not in a place where they're going to procreate. They're not going to have to maintain and sustain a pregnancy. And so therefore biologically I think that they're an advantage. I think it's a time when we have to mitigate stress. We have to be really proactive. I remind everyone that middle age is the time when our bodies will remind us if we are not being conscientious enough about self care strategies. So that includes high quality sleep, that includes stress management, that includes removing inflammatory foods from our diet, that includes not over exercising, which is the typical tendency we think we have to work out harder to lose weight than we did when we were younger. And really it's all the other things I've just kind of mentioned, you have to work out smarter, not harder. And so I don't think fasting is bad for menopause. In fact, I think most women, as they transition into their early 40s with the loss of estradiol, which is the active form of estrogen, is that's kind of petering off. People's appetites shift and change and so it's much easier for people to eat less often it is the, you know, the desire to eat may be decreased. And so getting up in the morning and getting a workout in and getting your kids off to school or getting yourself to work, you're not focused on having to get that first meal in. So I really do believe that utilized with the other strategies that I've already kind of alluded to, stress management, making sure that you've removed inflammatory foods. And the big ones are, you know, gluten and dairy. And everyone goes bananas when I suggest that you shouldn't drink a lot of alcohol. But we know that alcohol, especially as we're getting older, we know that it dysregulates melatonin, which is that key sleep hormone. And women in middle age really oftentimes struggle with sleep as they're getting fluctuations in hormones. And so, you know, it dysregulates melatonin, which is going to make it harder to stay asleep or fall asleep. It increases cortisol, which is going to keep us awake. It oftentimes dysregulates our blood sugar in very negative ways. And so this would be one of those opportunities that I would say, as we're transitioning to menopause, if we are going to utilize intermittent fasting as a strategy, really dialing in on the nutrition piece and using really active forms of exercise, like I like to use the word movement, because we forget that we as individuals are designed to be moving our bodies throughout the day. We're not designed to do a CrossFit workout and then go sit on our butts all day long. Really, we're designed to be active throughout our day. So parking a little farther out, if you go to the grocery store, taking a walk outside with your spouse or your significant other or your kids or a dog, or just by yourself in the morning, getting exposure to sunlight that, in conjunction with eating less often, is a strategy that I think can be hugely beneficial for menopausal women. So I think menopause is the best time to do intermittent fasting when you don't have to worry about that menstrual cycle and the net impact on your fertility.

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