Low-insulinemic, planetary health diets good for weight management during menopause

For menopausal women, adopting low-insulinemic and planetary health diets—rich in nuts, legumes, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and low in red or processed meats, sodium, and French fries—helps optimize weight and long-term cardiometabolic health, as shown in a study.

The population-based cohort study included 38,283 women (mean age 45.6 years) who were followed over a 12-year period surrounding menopause in the Nurses’ Health Study II (1989-2019).

Diet was assessed every 4 years using validated food frequency questionnaires. Dietary patterns included the plant-based diet index (PDI), healthy PDI, unhealthy PDI, Mediterranean diet, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, Planetary Health Diet Index (PHDI), low-carbohydrate diet (LCD), healthy LCD, unhealthy LCD, empirical dietary inflammatory pattern, empirical dietary index for hyperinsulinemia (EDIH), and ultraprocessed food intake.

Outcomes of interest were annual changes in self-reported body weight and incident obesity.

Over 340,122 person-years of follow-up, obesity occurred in 5,214 women. In multivariable analysis, the reverse EDIH was associated with the largest reduction in weight gain (quintile 5 vs 1: mean change, −0.28 kg/year).

The lowest risk of incident obesity was observed for PHDI (hazard ratio [HR], 0.46, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.42–0.51) and reverse EDIH (HR, 0.51, 95 percent CI, 0.46–0.56).

EDIH positively correlated with red or processed meats, sodium, and French fries. Meanwhile, PHDI positively correlated with nuts, unsaturated fats, whole grain carbohydrates, and vegetable protein.