If you get your information about menopause online, you would think your levels of estrogen and progesterone were the only hormones creating menopausal symptoms in your body.
In reality brain fog, weight gain around the middle, low libido, mood swings and dry ageing skin are also caused by raised levels of insulin and cortisol our stress hormone. Both of these hormones are raised when we are not balancing our blood sugar levels and eating a diets high in carbs and over processed foods. Raised insulin and cortisol also drive inflammation in our bodies which also makes our menopausal symptoms feel worse.
Cortisol, our stress hormone is also a hormone stealer as our bodies will use the building blocks for our juicy hormones to build our stress hormone in a survival mechanism called pregnenolone steal.
The mechanism for a woman’s menopause has been the same for thousands of years. Our ovaries pass the baton for producing estrogen, progesterone and testosterone on to our adrenal glands which drip feed us protective low levels of these hormones when we are post menopausal.
In our modern world, our adrenals are overworked from managing stress, exhaustion and poor metabolic health and they simply do not have the capacity to drip feed us the low levels of our juicy hormones we need to reduce and eliminate our uncomfortable symptoms. We crash into symptoms of menopause and lose the protection these hormones offer our brain, bone and heart health.
It feels like we are falling off a hormonal cliff at midlife, contributes to poor thyroid health, deteriorating metabolic health, anxiety and depression.
When we manage our diet to prevent our blood sugar form spiking and crashing everyday, it takes stress off our body and our adrenal glands can catch a break to start producing estrogen and progesterone.
A diet rich in protein, fibre and healthy fats will help us to balance our blood sugar levels, reduce our insulin and cortisol levels and in turn reduce our symptoms of menopause. Hormonal change is very much a metabolic event for women and we need to adjust our sails and be proactive with improving our diet and lifestyle so we can take care of our health.
I took a recipe for Morning Glory Muffins, often considered a healthy choice, but when you buy it in Starbucks it is packed with sugar and dialled up the protein and fibre to make a moist and flavourful muffin, delivering dense nutrition that is easy on your blood sugar level in the morning.
The first step was to replace grain flour with almond flour to add more protein, fibre, healthy fat and heart-healthy vitamin E. Eggs, Greek yoghurt and pumpkin seeds boost the protein content in the muffin.
Blackstrap molasses is used as the sweetener and is rich in iron for energy and to support thyroid function as well as calcium, and other trace minerals. It is an unrefined sweetener, packed with nutrition and gives the muffin a delicious malty flavour.
When our hormones start fluctuating, our body needs dense nutritional support and this muffin offers our bodies the fibre, protein and minerals we crave.
Ingredients
4 large eggs
1/2 cup greek or Icelandic Yoghurt
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup coconut sugar
1 tbsp Black Strap molasses
2 cups almond flour
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup grated apple (about 1 medium apple cored, keep peel)
1 cup grated carrot (about 2 medium carrots)
1/2 cup raisins or unsweetened cranberries
1/2 cup walnuts
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F 180 C
2. Line a 12 hole muffin pan with muffin papers
3. Whisk the first five ingredients together in a bowl
4. In a separate larger bowl stir together the next 6 ingredients, through to the ground cinnamon.
5. Add the grated apple, carrots, walnuts, pumpkin seeds and raisins or cranberries to the dry ingredients and stir through so the fruit and nuts are coated with the almond flour mix. This stops the heavy fruits and nuts falling to the bottom of your muffin.
6. Add the bowl of wet ingredients into the dry and stir together to combine to make a batter.
7. Portion the batter into the 12 muffin cases and bake in the over for 40 minutes or until a chopstick poked into the muffin comes out clean.
8 Cool on a rack and enjoy.
9 Because these muffins are so full moist and of fresh ingredients, they are best refrigerated or frozen individually to stay fresh.