the Mix: a publication of Twin Cities Natural Food Co-ops
Issue Month: January/February 2007
Review by: Nancy Crotti
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So many horror stories surround menopause that many women fear its onset. Because every woman is different, there is no way to predict when menopause will begin or how it will affect each woman.
Now Gabriele Kushi, a longtime natural foods educator and macrobiotics expert, has written a book to guide women through “the change of life.” Embracing Menopause Naturally: Stories, Portraits and Recipes, explores the physical, emotional and spiritual changes that can occur with menopause, which is defined as a full calendar year without menstruation. Fluctuating estrogen levels can cause hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings, insomnia, migraines, loss of libido, weight gain and other discomforts.
Kushi, 56, of St. Louis Park, draws on more than 30 years of study and living a macrobiotic lifestyle and her own experience with menopause to teach and reassure women that they can weather this passage and thrive. A photographer and artist, she also took all the photographs in the book.
The book also includes personal stories of 21 of women who’ve experienced menopause, and simple recipes that Kushi said can help women maintain balance in their bodies and their lives during this time.
Writing the book was a calling. “My artwork, my passion, my caring was always for women and the growth of women’s spiritual development and nourishment,” Kushi said. “I wanted (to show) that menopause is a sacred place for the women, a place where, when women read about it, they will feel, ‘Ah, I’m not alone.’”
Kushi was careful to select women who were already eating healthfully, including some Native American, African American and Asian women. Each approached menopause in her own way: Some with traditions and ceremonies that spring from their cultural heritage; others with little knowledge and a lot of fear. Some said menopause was much less difficult than they were led to believe. Others grieved the passing of their childbearing years, while some marveled at the changes in their bodies and were willing to learn from them.
Lynn Marie Cross of St. Paul has incorporated macrobiotics into her life since the 1970s, when she and Kushi studied together in Boston with Michio and Aveline Kushi, leaders in the macrobiotic movement. (Gabriele Kushi later married the Kushis’ son, Haruo.)
Eating a macrobiotic diet, which stresses whole grains, greens and phytoestrogen-rich soy foods, including tofu, tempeh and miso, definitely helped, according to Cross. “My symptoms were never outrageous,” she said. “I think that the soy has a more long-term overall balancing effect and helps keep your estrogen levels up.”
Cross also found that keeping a balanced diet in general—getting all her vitamins while minimizing sugar and alcohol—helped her stay on an even keel.
Although it came as a surprise when she was 48, Cross said she learned a lot from menopause. “It’s almost like you sign a contract with life to be a reproducer and then once you’re released from that, you can focus on who you really are, how you see the world,” she said.
Kushi writes that menopause can leave women feeling isolated and depressed for what they cannot recapture. Women who have done their emotional and spiritual “homework,” figuring out who they are before menopause arrives, will have an easier time. “If you haven’t worked on yourself and your transitions, it just jumps in your face,” she said. She believes that face-lifts and hormone-replacement therapy cannot do the spiritual and emotional work that a middle-aged woman needs to do.
Laurie Savran of Minneapolis, also profiled in the book, said she weathered menopause well but is relieved it’s over. Savran said she’s now wiser, more spiritual, and takes better care of herself through yoga, meditation and religious studies. “Forgiving the past is becoming easier, but it’s still an ongoing process,” she adds.
With the book, Kushi wants to make sure readers know that macrobiotics is not just a diet, but a way of life, of living in harmony with nature and with other people.
“We are here on this Earth to learn and grow, to reinvent and re-imagine, re-create ourselves and make it better for our fellow human beings; and that’s work. Menopause is work, so better eat good,” Kushi added with a laugh. “It means something different for each woman.”
Nancy Crotti has been writing for newspapers and magazines for 24 years. She lives in St. Paul.
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