Vegan Diet With Soybeans Cuts Moderate-to-Severe Menopause Hot Flashes by 88%

A low-fat vegan diet with half a cup of cooked soybeans a day cut moderate-to-severe menopausal hot flashes by 88% in 12 weeks, the full results of a randomised trial show. Half of the women who completed the diet reported no moderate-to-severe hot flashes at all.

Researchers at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine randomly assigned 84 postmenopausal women with at least two moderate-to-severe hot flashes a day to the diet or to no changes, in two successive groups, one starting in autumn and one in spring. In the control group, moderate-to-severe hot flashes fell by 34%. The results are published in the journal Menopause.

The diet group also reported bigger improvements in vasomotor, physical and sexual symptoms, and lost 3.6 kg (about eight pounds) on average. The benefit did not depend on whether women's gut bacteria turn soy into equol, or on the season.

A dietary intervention consisting of a plant-based diet, minimizing oils, and daily soybeans significantly reduced the frequency and severity of postmenopausal hot flashes and associated symptoms.

That is how the authors conclude in the full paper.

The trial's first group was reported last year, when the same vegan diet with soybeans cut moderate-to-severe hot flashes by 84%. Adding the second group confirms the result.

Cooler nights and fewer flushes, with a side of soybeans.