Phytoestrogens and Edamame

A quick post today. A friend has recommended edamame as a source of phytoestrogens - plant compounds that provide us with naturally-occurring, non-steroidal dietary estrogen that's great for everyone, but especially beneficial for women as we age. Menopause will arrive one day if I live long enough, and, like my mother, I absolutely won't be taking synthetic estrogen for menopausal symptoms.

I'm not sure where in the timeline of human history menopause became an illness requiring medical intervention. It baffles me that menopause is regarded as a nuisance, a sickness, a hardship that calls for relief through pharmaceutical intervention. Menopause is a time of  relief, an end to an exhausting cycle of bleeding that a woman endures for decades of her life. If it comes with discomfort, so what? Must every ache and pain be numbed by a pill?

My mom set the example for me. In her fifties, when her cycle started changing and it was obvious that her reproductive power was drawing down, she decided to go for the ride as something other than a patient. If she felt tired, she rested. If a hot flash popped up, she took it easy until it passed. Within a couple of years, she told me, it was over and done with. Now in her nineties, she has never had any of the complications - including breast cancer - that are reported with the use of stupid synthetic estrogen.

I picked up two bags of frozen organic edamame this weekend, and am searching raw recipes. Drop me a line if you have any.

Barbie xo