Knowledge is power, and knowing ALL the facts when making decisions about our health is empowering.
We can do hard things! Give me the facts Louise!
What I know to be true is this: We are the women doing menopause in a toxic food environment, with chemically polluted foods, water, air and homes. We have increased stress from a pandemic, the impending climate crisis, global and societal violence and from ‘good girl’ perfectionism that keeps us keeping all the plates spinning and thinking of others before ourselves.
All of these factors above come together to make it hard for us to experience energy, vibrancy and our best health in menopause. We are suffering with our symptoms and whilst it is great we are talking about menopause now, there is very little information out there to give us concrete action steps and help us to help ourselves out!
Let’s look at the facts and reality of our health in our modern society and understand the symptoms we feel in our bodies.
Heads up! The stress you feel day to day and the state of your health will worsen your symptoms of menopause.
So let’s take an inventory of the nutrition and health of humans living in 2024
95% of Americans and (7% of Canadians are deficient in fibre.) All age groups in the UK do not eat enough fibre.
Why is this important to menopause?
Fibre helps our body to clear excess hormones from the peaks and toughs of hormonal change out of the body and so reduces our symptoms. It helps to prevent colon and breast cancer.
It is estimated that 50% of us are vitamin D deficient.
Why is this important?
The symptoms of vitamin D deficiency include muscle pain, joint pain, pins and needles, fatigue, depression, and loss of bone density.
At a time of life when we are losing the bone protective properties of estrogen and are prone to depression and muscle and joint pain, 50% of us are worsening these symptoms due to poor nutrition.
90% of us are lacking in vitamin E.
Vitamin E is important to prevent vaginal dryness and protect our heart health.
Cardiovascular disease is the #1 cause of death for midlife women and vitamin E along with fibre, healthy fats and magnesium protects our heart health. It also reduces hot flashes and hot flashes are, in fact, an indicator of poor cardiovascular health in middle aged women. We need more fibre, magnesium and vitamin E in our daily diet.
According to the World Health Organization, 75% of us are deficient in magnesium. Found in all leafy greens, nuts and seeds, Magnesium is our relaxation mineral which helps us to sleep, reduces anxiety, relaxes muscle tension and stops restless legs and eye twitches. Look at the foods rich in magnesium. They are missing from our diet because we do not get enough fibre! Catch 22!
One out of eight women suffer with thyroid issues in midlife. Think symptoms of thinning hair, dry skin, and uncontrollable weight gain.
A great many more women are slogging through life with undiagnosed thyroid issues, feeling sluggish, cold, and exhausted every morning.
Your thyroid needs dense nutrition packed with minerals from your food, and if you have Hashimotos, a chronic auto-immune disease, foods to improve gut health and heal and seal the digestive tract.
This ones a doozy! It is hard to talk about, carries shame, but is important.
Over the past three decades to 2010, obesity prevalence has doubled in 73 countries and increased in most others. It increased again by 1/3rd in the last ten years.
Metabolic diseases affect most of us and midlife women are the most sedentary cohort in society. We feel self-conscious of our aging bodies, feel helpless about weight gain as ‘eat less and exercise more’ does not work when our hormones start changing and don’t like to move when we are exhausted and aching.
Weight gain and metabolic issues cause increased hot flashes, anxiety as our blood sugar spikes and crashes along with our hormones, brain fog, an increase cortisol, our stress hormone.
HEADS UP!
In midlife, high cortisol STEALS your juicy hormones which will push you off a hormonal cliff.
As estrogen and progesterone deplete, your very own body will steal the building blocks for these hormones to build cortisol!
This damages your heart and bone health, drives hot flashes and sugar cravings, causes weight gain around the middle, brain fog, muscle wasting, anxiety and exhaustion. It shortens your telomeres.
It is more than likely MANY of your uncomfortable symptoms of menopause aren't caused by natural hormonal changes, but rather by nutritional depletion and metabolic challenges.
That’s why women feel so much better in their bodies when they take actions like giving up caffeine or alcohol, feel their aches and pains vanish when they eat collagen or more leafy greens and watch weight release and energy rise when they eat MORE densely nutritious foods.
Addressing our crappy diet and deeply nourishing our bodies with a whole foods diet is the first step to regaining energy, sleep, and vibrant health during hormonal changes. You will feel your body sigh with relief!
This step can be hard because we have been conditioned to control our bodies, value our weight above our health and to fit a standard cookie cutter size or look to be pretty. We need to unhook from this thinking with mindset work and support is helpful.
I am not anti-HRT. I just don’t agree with putting the cart before the horse and medicating with hormones for what are nutritional issues.
In the event that we are still experiencing symptoms AFTER we have given our beautiful bodies the nutritional support it needs to calmly pass through this chapter in life, we should consider talking to our doctor about HRT.
If we choose, to view our bodies and menopause as a machine needing a simple fix; a lift the hood and top the old girl up situation, rather than an opportunity to learn, make positive health changes and nourish our bodies, we abandon our responsibility for our personal health and lose our power to naturally increase our energy, reduce our symptoms and BUILD health in our bodies ready for an exciting next chapter.
If you recognize the uncomfortable symptoms described in this post, you can start to eat more of the foods your body needs to feel supported TODAY, by clicking the button below and down loading my recipe book.
Patriarchal Beauty Standards and How to Smash them for Your Health!
I am going live daily in my Facebook Group - The Nourished Midlife Woman (come on over and join us!) and on my Instagram account - @louise.carr.nutrition (this is where I post the food pics!) on a daily basis.
I am trying to share as much information a I can about the ALL the simple action steps we can take with nutrition and lifestyle to support our bodies at midlife.
(If you are reading this in the future, I saved all this useful info into and Instagram highlight and in Guides in the Facebook Group…head on over and start your educational journey into midlife women’s health!)
It is easy to slide into the trap of berating and hating your body at midlife but in reality we have so much power in our hands!
Use self-care and your mindset to shut that disempowering self-talk down.
Patriarchal beauty standards that we use as a stick to beat ourselves, trap you in venting and inaction and you need to be planning your first, easy-to-implement baby-step that will start your journey back to vibrant health and reduced daily symptoms.
When we make even small changes to our diet, our movement and our day, we slash our menopausal symptoms and feel calmer, stronger and more confident in our bodies daily, as we move through hormonal change.
I'm talking about making the mindset shift to get back 'on-the-same-side' as your body! To get out of the war you have waged with your body for YEARS! tune into the language of symptoms your body is speaking and shower yourself with MORE of what your body needs:
REST, NUTRITION AND MOVEMENT.
Once more for the people at the back! This is not your average "eat less, move more" regime, but about deeply nourishing and resting your body so it can heal and feel good.
Your most vibrant health lies on the other side of you 'flipping the patriarchal script' at midlife!
I know this! I have seen the power of dense nutrition and de-stressing on women's health.....AND STILL I get caught up in the language of the patriarchy and conventional beauty standards for women.
Immediately, as I started my live about collagen, I am spouting off bullshit about beautiful wrinkle free skin!!! Feeling so angry with myself internally as I hear myself speaking and trying to keep my cool on a LIVE!
When I start to talk about metabolic health, I am immediately tuning in to every womans goal of weight loss and being smaller and slimmer.
It's official, I am a work in progress.
But, 'when we know better, do better' Maya Angelou
We all need to start standing in our power to shift the imprisoning and health damaging beauty narrative at midlife.
Let's start right here!......
There is nothing more beautiful than a sharp, wise, female mind.
There is nothing more alluring than a witty sense of humour in a woman who laughs and smiles easily.
I am in awe of confident and strong matriarchs as they support and enjoy their families.
There is nothing more gorgeous than a woman who is well-rested and grounded in her body.
There is a gravitational pull to a woman who confidently becomes her authentic self in midlife, treasures her body as the precious vessel carrying her through life and loves on herself with all the tools and pleasures she has in her power.
I'm watching my language in real time and I will do my best to keep shifting further into a more empowered lens when talking about nutrition and caring for our bodies in hormonal change.
What are your thoughts and what can you do to shun patriarchal measurements of beauty and love yourself harder as you navigate the turbulent waters of menopause? Let me know in the comments below.
Mango Chia Pudding
‘Fibre is a midlife woman best friend,’ is one of my mantras whenever I am talking about womens health and menopause.
Hormone molecules such as estrogen are built with a cholesterol tail and fibre from our diet hooks onto that tail, to drag excess hormone out of our body. This leads to a reduction in our hormonal symptoms during peri-menopause and menopause
New research links increased fibre in the diet to a decrease in depression in peri-menopausal women as fibre also supports the health of our microbiome. Just as in ecosystems and communities, the diversity and health of our microbiome is directly linked to our mood and mental health.
Understand, we are not just alone as ‘us’ ladies, we have an ecosystem inside our gut and the health of this ecosystem directly impacts how happy we feel daily. Feeding our internal garden, improves our mental health as we pass through hormonal change.
Fibre in our diet can also help us to manage our blood sugar levels and keeps us off the sugar roller coaster by delaying the speed at which glucose from our food is dumped into our blood stream. If you are a woman who experiences:
1. Mood swings
2. Weight gain around the middle
3. Energy crashes or exhaustion
4. Waking in the night
5. Increased urination
6. Pre-menstrual symptoms
You may be experiencing blood sugar dysregulation and it is not your hormones at all!
The problem we have is when we arrive at peri-menopause, up to 50% of us will be deficient of fibre in our diet.
No wonder we are being ravaged by hormonal symptoms and feeling deeply uncomfortable on a daily basis! Our body is trying to tell us that it needs help and our support to pass easily through this challenging time.
So, we can go to the store and buy psyllium husks and senna, or we can make it delicious, fun and easy by making simple high fibre recipes, that help to build health in our bodies at midlife.
I was cruising my local grocery store when I saw these two stunning Atauflo mangos, with their price reduced, because they were at peak perfection of ripeness.
Isn’t that crazy! Food is reduced in price because it is perfect for eating?
In the soup we are living in, our food systems are primed for food transportation and mass production, not for food flavour or our health.
I could not pass up these beauties and I knew I had all the ingredients at home to immediately transform them into a delicious breakfast/snack/dessert dish.
Chia seeds are packed with soluble and insoluble fibre, magnesium, our relaxation mineral and anti-inflammatory omega 3 fatty acids. If you do not like the texture of chia seeds, you can blend the ingredients of this recipe to make a ‘pudding’ textured chia pudding.
Coconut milk provides medium chan fatty acids to support our brain health, prevents the sugar in the mangos from flooding quickly into the blood stream and helps to keep us satiated for longer.
A question I always ask myself when I am cooking is… ‘How can I add MORE!’
I added anti-inflammatory and blood sugar balancing spices to add delicious flavour and boost the health building properties of this dish.
This recipe is super easy. It just takes chopping, measuring and stirring to make a delicious, fibre rich, blood sugar balancing treat in your refrigerator.
My tip: When you see a perfectly ripe mango, buy the mango. Even if you sit and eat it in the bath with the juice dripping down your boobies, you are still a winner!
Ingredients
2 perfectly ripe small mangos or 1 perfectly ripe large mango
1/4 cup Chia seeds
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp raw pumpkin seeds
1 tbsp shredded coconut.
Instructions
Turn on a podcast you love and start by chopping your mango
Put the chopped mango in a large bowl with all of the other ingredients except the pumpkin seeds and shredded coconut.
Stir all the ingredients together until they are fully combined
Put the pudding mix into a single glass container or portion into smaller containers depending on how you want to eat it.
decorate the top of the pudding with the pumpkin seeds and shredded coconut to add more flavour and fibre
Store in the refrigerator overnight and the Mango Chia Pudding is ready to eat the next morning.