What diets can help avoid weight gain during menopause?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-05-21 01:00

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Diets that involve reducing salt, red and processed meats and potatoes in favour of fruits, vegetables, nuts and whole grains are more likely to help you avoid gaining weight during menopause, according to international research. The team followed 38,000 women over 12 years surrounding menopause, assessing their diet every four years using various diet quality scoring systems. They say women whose diets promoted low insulin levels - generally by avoiding red and processed meats, salt and chips - gained the least amount of weight during the study. This type of diet was also linked to a lower risk of developing obesity during the study period, the researchers say, alongside diets similar to the fruit, veg and wholegrain-heavy Planetary Health Diet.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Harvard Medical School, USA, National University of Singapore

Funder: The Nurses’ Health Study II is supported by NIH grants U01 CA176726 and U01 HL145386. Dr Haslam is supported by NIH grant K01 DK136968. This work was also supported by the T32 CA 009001 (TX) and Julie WilcoxWomen’s Health and Nutrition Novel Research Fund.

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