*Trumpet fanfare* Yes, I’m pleased (and ridiculously excited) to say that ‘Natural Nutrition for Perimenopause: What to eat to feel good and stay sane’ is available to buy now!
Packed with practical nutrition and lifestyle tips, it’s an easy to use guidebook full of suggestions for navigating the ups and downs of perimenopause and menopause.
Topics covered include: – What is perimenopause? – Signs and symptoms – How perimenopause affects your brain, heart, and bones – Blood sugar balance for energy, weight balance, and managing stress – Key nutrients to include and where to find them – Phytoestrogens: what are they and where to find them – Supplements – Movement & exercise – Sleep tips – Emotional wellbeing Plus, there’s a whole section on references and resources for further help. It’s a cracking read (I know, I’m biased!).
It’s ideal for women in their mid-late 30s/early 40s and heading into perimenopause; for those in the throes of it, or those coming out the other side. And, it’s a helpful book for partners and loved ones to read to help them understand what perimenopause and menopause is like.
Here’s a sneek peek at part of the first chapter…
How are you doing?
How are you really doing?
Did you sleep well or wake every hour with hot flushes?
Are you getting anxious and forgetful?
Do your jeans feel tighter and tighter?
You are not alone. This is what happens as we head towards menopause – as we become ‘menopausers’ (new word, hope you like it).
This messy bit (the bit before the actual menopause which is simply the point in time when we haven’t had a period for a year) is known as perimenopause and can feel like an endurance trial of confusing and random symptoms. From hot flushes, palpitations and anxiety, to weight gain and levels of forgetfulness that cause some menopausers to fear they’re developing dementia: perimenopause doesn’t mess around.
One minute we’re being rational humans, making sensible decisions and knowing what’s what. Next minute we’re bathed in sweat, gripped with anxiety, and biting back tears – usually at the most inappropriate moment.
As hormonal rollercoasters go, perimenopause is as transformational as puberty, only this time around we’ve got a heck of a lot more to juggle compared to those heady teenage years of worrying about what to wear on Friday night and whether we’ll get served in the pub.
This guidebook is a response to the experiences of hundreds of amazing perimenopausal and menopausal clients with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working in my nutrition & lifestyle medicine clinic. Many of these clients were already struggling with long-term health conditions (fatigue, fibromyalgia, underactive thyroid, autoimmunity, digestive problems – sometimes all these combined) before finding themselves in the grip of perimenopause and desperate for help.
Their doctors were suggesting HRT (hormone replacement therapy) and/or an attitude of “it’s your age, just get on with it”. Quite how they were meant ot get on with ‘it’ while facing daily, life-altering symptoms is beyond anyones guess, but there we go. I must add that there are many medical professionals recommending more than just replacement hormones for perimenopause support: counselling for example, or CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) – and an increasing number recognise the value of nutritional changes and herbal medicine too.
The wonderful thing about nutrition and lifestyle medicine is that it’s open to all regardless of whether you’re taking HRT or not. We all need to eat, drink, breathe, move, and sleep every day, which means we have endless opportunities to positively influence our hormones via food and lifestyle choices. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
To continue reading, order the book from Amazon (paperback or Kindle version) or directly from York Publishing Services online store.
Resilience is our ability to bounce back and keep going even during the most challenging times. Building resilience doesn’t mean never stopping to rest or take time out; quite the opposite. It means being aware of your capacity to cope, and taking steps to support this.
We can build our resilience by establishing and nuturing some simple nutrition and lifestyle habits.
Positive habits include:
– Making good food choices; limiting refined sugary foods, including good quality protein and healthy fats, getting those 5 colourful veggies + 2 fruits per day, reducing caffeine and drinking plenty of water…you know the drill!
Use this plate diagram to create balanced meals.
Not every meal will fit the template, but as a general rule aim to cover half your plate with colourful veggies and leafy greens, and divide the other half equally between wholegrains/root veg, and good quality sources of protein.
– Being protective about rest & relaxation time and scheduling in downtime every day. It’s so easy to end up staring at the TV or scrolling Facebook at the end of a busy day. But this isn’t relaxation time; your brain is busy processing all the information coming at it through the TV or internet. To give your mind a break try: – relaxing in a warm Epsom salt bath – listening to your favourite tunes – following a guided meditation – or immersing yourself in a good book instead.
– Getting outdoors in the fresh air and natural daylight every day. This may be for a gentle walk / jog / run / outdoor Yoga / Qi Gong – whatever type of movement you enjoy. When possible, get outdoors for at least 30mins before midday. Enjoying natural daylight in the morning helps the brain to register the change in light at dusk and start winding down for sleep.
Nutrition-wise, two key nutrients that support our resilience are vitamin B5 and vitamin C. These two vitamins are used in energy production and manufacture of stress hormones in the adrenal glands. When we’re under a lot of ongoing stress we need to ensure plentiful supplies of these nutrients to support the adrenals.
If you’re feeling the strain of ongoing stress think about which of these tips you can start to implement in your daily routine. Pick one that resonates with you the most, then after a few days of practising it add in another. And do let me know how you get on.
For real bread lovers, giving up the loaf is one of the hardest changes to make when going gluten free. The smell, texture, crust, and crumb are impossible to replicate in gluten free versions, and the results can be disappointing.
So what to eat instead?
Here are 6 interesting and tasty naturally gluten free alternatives to bread…
Sweet potato toast – simple and ever so easy to make. Slice a sweet potato lengthways into 5mm thick slices. Pop them in a toaster or under the grill, and toast until golden and slightly crispy. Top with nut butter, butter, tuna mayonnaise, mashed sardines, poached egg…
Nori sheets bring some sushi flavours to your meal with nori wraps. Nori, like all sea vegetables, is rich in iodine, zinc, calcium, and magnesium, plus several different B-vitamins. It also contains fucans, a type of carbohydrate unique to sea vegetables that has anti-inflammatory and immune-supporting benefits. To use the nori sheets, lay them out flat and top with shredded vegetables, meat or fish, houmous, salad leaves, and maybe some pickles or sauerkraut. Or go full on sushi and make your own sushi rolls!
Socca – also called farinata, this is a simple flatbread made from chickpea (garbanzo) flour, oil, water, and a dash of salt. Add herbs and spices as you wish for extra flavour. There’s recipes available here and here.
Crackers – there’s so many to choose from now; rice ,corn, oat (make sure they are certified gluten free), buckwheat – we need never get bored with crackers again.
Flaxseed muffins – packed with fibre, protein, essential fats, and phytoestrogens, ground flax is your hormone-balancing friend. These muffins are ideal for breakfast or a light, balanced, snack. This recipe is from There Is Life After Wheat
Gluten free scones can be savoury or sweet, as these recipes from Jody Vassallo on the Jamie Oliver blog show. For the savoury version, if pumpkin isn’t in season try using mashed sweet potato or butternut squash instead.
Do you have a favourite gluten free alternative to bread? Let me know in the comments below or over on FB or Twitter!
Pesto is quick and easy to make with lots of different possibilities for ingredients and flavours.
No basil? No problem. Swap to kale, rocket, watercress – even carrot tops!
No pine nuts? Use cashews, walnuts, hazels, or pumpkin seeds.
The leafy green tops of these carrots were in good shape, so I whizzed them up with nuts, oil and garlic into a delicious pesto packed with fibre, magnesium, zinc, B-vitamins and beta carotene.
There’s no parmesan in this recipe simply because I didn’t have any to hand; include it if you want to, or not, the choice is yours. The recipe works absolutely fine without it.
INGREDIENTS
Carrot tops – washed and roughly chopped. I used all the greens on this bunch.
Generous handful of cashew nuts
1-2 cloves of garlic (depending how garlic-breathy you want to be afterwards)
3 tablespoons olive oil
Place all the ingredients in a mini-chopper or blender and whizz until smooth.
Store any leftovers in a glass jar in the fridge for 3-4 days.
My favourite way to eat pesto is as a topping on goats cheese on toast. The sharp saltiness of the melted cheese sits well with the pesto flavours.
April is the ideal month for gathering fresh new nettles. It’s early May as I write this, but I still managed to find some tender young plants to gather the top few leaves from.
The combination of nettles + leeks + baby spinach delivers a light creamy flavoured soup, packed with magnesium, calcium, potassium, vitamin C, beta carotene, vitamin K, folate, quercetin and more. All Good Things for energy, levels, mental wellbeing, and coping with stress.
These ingredients made 4 servings of soup:
25g butter (or a dessertspoon of coconut oil if avoidng dairy)
1 medium leek, sliced
1 white onion, chopped
1 teaspoon of minced garlic / 1-2 cloves chopped
2 medium white potatoes cut into cubes
Roughly 80g baby spinach
A bowlful of thoroughly washed nettle tops (the first 4-6 leaves from the top of the stem) – this was about a cereal bowl sized bowl-full
1- 1.5 litre vegetable stock (depending on if you like your soup thick or runny)
Melt the butter in a large pan. Add the onion, leek and garlic and sweat them over a low heat for 5-6mins. Add the spinach, nettles, potato, and stock and simmer for 10mins until the potatoes are soft. Blend, and serve topped with toasted pumpkin seeds or pine nuts.
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