It is an undeniably truth that what you eat can eventually influence your body, whether it is going to make you healthier or otherwise. If you want to keep in a good shape, you definitely need to feed yourself with soy-based products since they offer a great number of beneficial nutrients for your body. Similar to edamame as you can read in Health Benefits of Edamame, tofu is one of healthy foods containing soy. In addition, tofu is well-documented as high in protein. It remains important to highlight that tofu has been known for its numerous benefits for over a thousand years.
Not only does tofu benefit you in maintaining a good well-being, but also a right choice for women during their menopause. As you know, menopause is a stage of which a woman is no longer has menstrual cycle. For your information, women are diagnosed with menopause by the time their menstrual period stopped for about 12 months. In average, women in United States reach menopause at the age of 51. Followed by several symptoms such as hot flashes, moodiness, hormonal imbalance and many others – menopause can be such a discomfort to their life.
The good news is, consuming tofu is able to ease all those inconveniences during menopause according to considerable scientific researches. Before revealing the benefits of tofu for menopause, it is good for you to know about nutrient value of tofu in the first place.
Nutrient Value of Tofu
Knowing that tofu contains high nutrient needed by your body, you should take into account consuming this soy-based food. Also, if you already reach your menopause or maybe the one who is going through with menopause is one of your family members, you ought to inform this nutrient value to others.
The list of nutrient value below is based on Men’s Health. Tofu in a half-cup size of serving offers:
- 94 of calories
- 10 g of protein
- 1 g of saturated fat
- 1 g monounsaturated fat
- 3 g polyunsaturated fat
- 2 g of carbohydrate
- 434 mg of calcium
- 6 mg of iron
- 120 mg of phosphorus
- 11 mcg of selenium
Since you already reckon that tofu is full of benefits for health, you also have to know that tofu is also beneficial for women who are no longer have menstrual period. There are five benefits of tofu for menopause:
- Stabilizes level of estrogen in body
During menopause, estrogen level in women body decrease depends on their condition and stage of menopause. Since tofu has been known for containing isoflavones, which is a compound found in soy – it can help stabilizing the level of estrogen in women who experience menopause.
Although it is not actually estrogen as in human’s body, isoflavones have similar function as estrogen itself because it has similarity on its action. Besides tofu, tempe is high in isofavones since it in a food containing soy as well – and Health Benefits of Tempe might also good to be added to diet during menopause. Try consuming tofu and any other soy-based foods such as tempe and edamame is not only safe, but also good for treating menopause symptoms.
- Reduces hot flashes during menopause
One of the inconveniences of low estrogen level during menopause is that women who reach menopause tend to experience hot flashes. Basically, hot flashes is a condition in which women feel heat all of a sudden and sometimes their face to turn into red color and cause them to sweat. Indeed, it might be an uncomfortable condition.Â
However, many studies have proven that a chemical compound isoflavones in soy can reduce hot flashes by approximately 50 percent. Therefore, those women who are familiar with hot flashes during menopause should really consume tofu to deal with this condition.
- Helps balancing hormone
As said before, menopause causes the decline of estrogen level thus soy-base food consumption like tofu can be a good remedy. Since isoflavones in tofu mimics the mechanism of estrogen, or in other words: has similar effect as estrogen, it results human’s hormone to be balanced. Therefore, woman who consumes tofu will less likely to experience hormonal fluctuations.
- Improves energy for the body
Since tofu is a good source of iron, it is able to improve energy for human’s body during menopause. Many women who reach menopausal stage are low in energy and more likely to feel exhausted easily. As well as sago rice in Health Benefits Sago Rice, tofu can improve energy for the body because it contains iron. With the consumption of tofu, they can gain the energy to be able to do regular exercise and physical activities. This way, they can be more healthy than before!
- Prevents health problems during menopause
When elderly people reach menopause, their body will be susceptible to any diseases. As humans get older, they may get into a serious condition such as osteoporosis. Adding tofu to your diet is a healthy choice since it contains calcium. This is similar to Health Benefits of Soy Milk. Besides, tofu can be a versatile food that is good for your breasts and able to prevent breasts health issue like breast cancer, as clarified in Benefits of Tofu for Breasts Health.
Recommendation
Consuming a product of soy such as tofu is one of the best choices for any women who experience menopause. Still, the best way to consume tofu is to eat in moderate amount. By moderate, it means the consumption should not be too much. According to some reliable sources, feeding yourself with two to four serving per week during menopause is already sufficient.
Moreover, to gain health benefits of tofu for menopause, you should consider choosing the organic or tofu products labeled with non-GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) if you are interested in buying it in market. A GMO-free tofu is a soy product in which the tofu was not being modified in laboratory and not using genetic engineering.
In short, tofu as a remedy of menopause is worthwhile by the time you eat this healthy food in a proper amount. In addition, you need to do your best to pick only non-GMO tofu product. Toss away all the inconvenience during menopause that may disrupt your good lifestyle and start living your life to the fullest!