Crucial need for nutrition and diet support
While gut health, pre-natal and fertility needs are vitally important areas of women’s health (and will be revisited), one theme which has seen an increasing focus over recent years is menopause. Here, demographics and the age distribution profile across the population has lent even more urgency to the search for options when it comes to nutritional support.
Society has evolved in other significant ways, according to Sophie Medlin, director of City Dietitians, London. “One of the first changes women may notice, with the onset of menopause, is a change in their cognitive function,” she says. “It may affect anxiety levels or short-term memory, but it can be quite worrying. It’s important to acknowledge that, only a few years ago, women of this age were generally less likely to be in responsible positions at work, less likely to still have younger children and elderly parents. The fact that today they may be juggling all of this means it becomes a challenging time to be going through these—and other—changes.”
Nutritional therapist Claire Foss underlines some broader shifts in attitude towards this period in a woman’s life. “For many women, menopause can be a very traumatic experience and have a huge impact on health, wellness and happiness,” she says.
Foss adds: “I still think there’s a slight disconnect when it comes to nutrition and menopause.” In other words, despite the greater all-round awareness, this does not necessarily feed through into an understanding of the implications for diet and nutrition. For many, the link between diet and weight loss, for example, is likely to be much clearer.
At the same time, Foss emphasises the way in which supplementation requirements can vary between individuals. “Some women present with obvious nutritional deficiencies and may require a multivitamin to boost levels,” she reports. “Other women have problems regulating their blood sugar, and chromium has been shown to be effective for this. Some women lack energy, and B vitamins can help to boost this, whereas others have aches, pains and trouble sleeping, and on these occasions magnesium may be beneficial.”
She is wary of fads for particular ingredients, plant-derived or not, which purport to offer the same benefits to all women. Maca is a case in point, says Foss: “There is science to suggest it is beneficial to help support hormone balance, but even natural supplements do not come without risks. If someone is sensitive to hormone-driven conditions, then maca would not be right for them.”
Ensuring women are consuming sufficient fish oils, B-vitamins and iodine becomes more important, Medlin says. “This is especially true as more women move away from eating animal products,” she adds. “There’s also this narrative that you should go veggie to get through menopause; but actually, if you’re not careful, you can develop deficiencies in certain areas.”
Medlin, who is also chair of the British Dietetic Association for London, points to sleep as another area “massively influenced” by menopause. Even with a mineral as apparently straightforward as magnesium, she says, it is not simply a matter of ticking an ingredient box. “Providing a good complex of magnesium is important,” she underlines, “and can help some women with sleep.”
“Peri-menopause is really poorly researched,” states Medlin. Individual women may see little continuity from month to month, and menstrual cycle patterns will differ from one woman to another. “That makes researching it difficult, too – and finding ingredients that work well for everyone.”
Those eyeing Chinese nutritional supplement markets need to be aware of cultural and dietary differences, and none more so than in the area of the menopause.
At QIVA Global, an operations partner to international consumer health brands in China, managing director Ellie Adams is the first to agree that the attitudes of European women to menopause have, by and large, changed over the last few years. “A recent Swedish study found that 51% of women viewed menopause in a positive light, associating it with a strengthened sense of identity and self-awareness,” she reports.
Of course, many are still happy to take supplements if they will relieve the worst physical and mental impacts of the menopause. But in China, the emphasis falls very differently.
“There remains a deep-rooted belief in Chinese society that a woman’s purpose is child-bearing and fulfilling wifely duties,” Adams says. “So, the most popular menopausal products in China focus on prolonging fertility, in order to delay the onset of what is seen as a negative affliction.”
According to QIVA, some 75% of Chinese supplements for menopause aim to pre-emptively delay its onset. Soy isoflavones are the most common active plant-based ingredient, and the most important one in around 45% of supplements in this area. Others, such as deer placenta and powdered deer’s blood, would be less familiar to European consumers.
Despite significant Chinese media coverage of menopause, there is a stubborn negative stigma around the topic, with around 70% of Chinese thinking that their mother’s behaviour at this time in her life should be labelled ‘abnormal.’ “But, as the emerging middle class of highly-educated and wealthy Chinese continues to expand, more women are attempting to shun these labels,” says Adams.
