Can changing my diet help with hot flashes?

On Ep. 207, Hatty McCafferty, a certified menopause consultant, says the real problem is a day of sharp peaks and troughs in blood sugar. Her example: toast with jam for breakfast, a cookie at 11 when you're tired, a decent lunch, chocolate in the afternoon. That pattern sets you up for intense insulin spikes and drops, and she says that is when night sweats and hot flashes become much more likely. What you want instead is gentle ups and downs. Her practical starting point is protein first thing, whether that's eggs, chicken, fish or tofu, alongside foods she enjoys like toast, sweet potato or avocado.

You don't have to give up carbs to do this. In a WarriorBabe client story, Cheryl, 57, says she once believed carbs gave her night sweats during menopause. She now eats about 435 grams of carbs a day, with at least 75 of them at dinner, and says she sleeps like a baby. Her take is that it was the carbs she was eating and when she ate them that caused trouble, not carbs themselves. She also spreads her carbs evenly across meals instead of loading up on one, because she knows a huge serving at lunch leaves her exhausted.

Diet is one piece of a bigger picture. Hatty puts eating well alongside strength training, stress management and sleep, and says they all affect each other. She agrees that eating right through perimenopause can lessen the load on hot flashes, sleep disturbances and mood swings. She also notes that many women under-eat.

This is what the guests and clients on the show describe from their own experience, not a medical treatment. If hot flashes are disrupting your life, talk them through with your doctor while you work on steadier, well-fueled eating.