Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
EP:10 Eating Well for Menopause with Dr Laura Wyness
59 Plays1 year ago
To mark Menopause Awareness Month, we're delighted to have Laura Wyness join our podcast. Laura is a Registered Nutritionist known for her expertise in evidence-based nutrition writing, workplace wellness, and effective nutrition communication. Autor of ‘'Eating Well for Menopause: Advice and recipes to improve your health and well-being', Laura shines a light on her insights and practical advice on navigating the challenges of menopause. Laura explains the pivotal role that diet plays in managing various menopausal symptoms, such as hot flashes, mood swings, and the health concerns associated with this life stage.
During this podcast we use the term ‘women’ throughout this talk with no intention of exclusion. It is important to highlight that it is not only those who identify as women who may experience menopausal symptoms.
For example, some transgender men, non-binary people, and intersex people or people with variations in sex characteristics may experience menopause.
Make sure to subscribe to our channel to receive new episode alerts.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Dr. Laura Wyness and Menopause
00:00:03
Speaker
Hello and welcome to FYI the backstory podcast. I'm Sam Wacom and host for our special interview with guest Dr. Laura Wyness. Laura is a registered nutritionist known for her expertise in evidence-based nutrition writing, workplace wellness and effective nutrition communication. In honor of Menopause Awareness Month, we're delighted to have Laura join our podcast.
00:00:22
Speaker
Author of Eating Well for Menopause, Advice and Recipes to Improve Your Health and Wellbeing, she'll be enlightening us with her insights and practical advice on navigating the challenges of menopause.
Menopause Beyond Women
00:00:32
Speaker
During this podcast, we use the term women throughout this talk with no intention of exclusion. It is important to highlight that it is not only those who identify as a woman who may experience menopause or symptoms. For example, some transgender men, non-binary people, and intersex people with variations in sex characteristics may also experience menopause.
Laura's Nutritionist Journey
00:00:51
Speaker
Hi Laura, thank you so much for joining our podcast. First up, can you introduce yourself and your nutritional journey? Sure. So yeah, thanks for having me on the podcast. So I'm a registered nutritionist based in Edinburgh and have been freelance nutritionist now for almost eight years and specialised in helping perimenopausal women with making dietary changes to help them through that kind of stage in life. So
00:01:16
Speaker
I do one-to-one online calls and also work with some companies and workplace wellness talks and things like that. So it's quite a varied work that I do, but I really do enjoy helping women with eating better, basically. And with the menopause as well, that's kind of where I've specialised in offering advice. So I found I was getting a lot of
00:01:41
Speaker
questions from a lot of my one-to-one clients who were women, perimenopausal women wanted to know, is there anything diet-wise that can help with symptoms that they were going through or help them maintain their health as they go through menopause and beyond? And what should they be more of or less of to help with symptoms?
00:02:02
Speaker
I find that they were asking a lot of questions, so that's kind of how I came to write in the Eating Well for Menopause book, along with another registered nutritionist, Lynne Burns. We started off writing a little pamphlet initially for a few of our clients who were asking about menopause, and we put together a little bit of information and a few tailored recipes.
00:02:22
Speaker
that got really good feedback and we thought hang on a minute this is really interesting looking at this area and there's not a lot of useful credible you know science-based information out there for women this is going back kind of four or five years ago now so we did a lot more research and put together an actual proper book which was just published a few months ago eating well for menopause and that contains a lot more information science information which covers
00:02:48
Speaker
most of the kind of common questions that women were asking about different aspects and also some tailored recipes as well with the key nutrients that are useful for menopausal women.
Key Topics in 'Eating Well for Menopause'
00:02:58
Speaker
So hopefully it's a useful resource for menopausal women. Absolutely. What other advice and tips can you find in your book? Yeah, well, it covers a range of the topics. So it covers the science behind
00:03:16
Speaker
you know, what's happening in the body and the symptoms and effects of menopause on a woman's body, their heart health, their bone health, weight, sleep and mental health as well. And also how important diet is or some nutrients are in helping alleviate some of the menopausal symptoms. There's well over 30 different menopausal symptoms that now recognized and
00:03:44
Speaker
having a healthy diet can help with many of these symptoms. And also some of the maybe lesser known or lesser talked about impacts of menopause. So things like hydration and bladder health and how that impacts women. And also how menopause can affect body image and changes to your body shape or changes to hair and skin can be a huge issue and kind of
00:04:09
Speaker
influence confidence as well, not a lot of women, just all these changes going on. And also the myths as well. Thankfully, there's a lot more information now becoming available on menopause. But with that, I think there's a lot of now more misinformation along with that. So women are having to sift through a lot more information to actually find the
00:04:30
Speaker
the credible science based information and work out, okay, what is actually best for me with all the information now becoming available. So hopefully we help clarify a lot of messages and questions that women have.
Debunking Soy Myths
00:04:45
Speaker
Can you tell me a myth that you've seen? That's not true. Well, there's a few, hang on, going through my brain at the moment. One of the big ones, I think, is soya foods, which a lot of women are not very
Cultural Dietary Influences
00:04:59
Speaker
keen on, including in the diet, because I've heard a lot of myths or messages about breast cancer. Yes, there's a link between soya and hormonal cancers like breast cancer, but having soya foods in the diet
00:05:12
Speaker
there's no risk. Even the World Cancer Research and the leading cancer charities all agree that having soy foods in the diet are perfectly safe for women who are at risk of breast cancer or who have gone through treatment for breast cancer. Slightly different kind of issue with the supplements of isoflavones or these phytoestrogens. That's a different story because you're getting quite a high dose of
00:05:39
Speaker
the Idoflavins in one go, but certainly dietary soya foods, including soya in the diet is perfectly safe and can actually help women potentially with their hot flushes. It can help alleviate some hot flushes in terms of the severity and frequency
00:05:56
Speaker
Certainly in Asia, the women in Asia have about 20 to 10 or 20% of Asian women suffer from hot flushes compared with about 80% of women in the UK who experience hot flushes to some degree. So it can actually have a really positive effect.
00:06:16
Speaker
And is that to do with the climate that they're living in, the hot flashes severity, sorry, to jump about? Yeah, it might be, but I think the thinking is that it's more that they have had soya foods in their diet quite regularly from a young age. They're used to having soya or tofu in their diets all through their life. And maybe that has somehow still quite a lack of understanding of how it actually works, but they seem to experience
00:06:46
Speaker
fewer pot flushes when they go through menopause. Whereas in a more typical diet in the UK, soya is still a new food for a lot of people and it's not really that commonly eaten, although I think it is becoming more common now.
00:07:07
Speaker
So yeah, possibly it's more to do with how accustomed it is in the diet. That's really interesting. So it is very bespoke to an individual. Going back to your book, how did you, it sounds like it's been a long journey. Were you trialing out the recipes? How did that work? Yeah, well, writing a book is a lot of work I find out. So yeah, it started off with
00:07:35
Speaker
As I say, I think it was the questions that women were asking us really that formed the structure of the book. And we've taken the common questions that we've been asked about in terms of their hot flushes, how diet can impact hot flushes, how best can I manage my weight during menopause? What about heart disease? Should I be thinking about my heart as I go through menopause and how to keep my bones strong?
00:08:03
Speaker
So there's kind of common questions that were being asked from this topic or the areas of each. And then we did a lot of research, obviously, and looked into the science and translated that science into key messages and practical suggestions of, okay, how does the science translate into what foods should be eaten more of and how to incorporate these foods into snacks and meals and
00:08:28
Speaker
And then the recipes, yeah, the recipe developments, again, takes a lot of time, I've since found out, but it was quite good. We tested out quite a few of the recipes on family and friends, and we've got our Facebook group that we share recipes on, and we got a lot of feedback from some of our testers who were testing out the recipes for us. And then once we were happy with them, we nutritionally analyzed all the recipes to make sure that, yes, they were
00:08:58
Speaker
given the right nutrients and the right balance of nutrients. And yeah, and then everyone kind of cooks slightly differently. So some people like following recipes, I think to the letter and some are more flexible. So we wanted to make the recipes quite flexible and give suggestions so that if you are following the recipe but don't have a particular ingredient, then we give suggestions on, you know, if you don't have this, try using this instead.
00:09:25
Speaker
or we've got little quick recipes to make your own pesto. We've got a salmon pesto recipe. And yes, you can use bot pre-made pesto, but it's quite straightforward to make homemade pesto quite easily. So if you've got time to do that, then we've got a little mini recipe. Yeah, hopefully it's very practical and usable. That's certainly the feedback we're getting from the woman that we're talking to. That's what's most useful. What's your favourite recipe in the book?
00:09:55
Speaker
to be honest, I think it would be the edamame and green pea hummus, which for me, I'm someone who never really had much soya foods, I must admit, up until quite recently. And I think edamame is a nice way to introduce soya foods into the diets and
00:10:14
Speaker
Certainly if you're used to classic hummus using chickpeas, it's a nice alternative to just use edamame beans. So frozen edamame beans, boil them up with some green peas and then drain them, cool them down and add some lemon juice and tahini and some flavours like maybe a bit of chilli powder or chilli flakes if you like that flavour or just some extra lemon I think is really nice and tangy.
00:10:45
Speaker
So yeah, it's really nice to dip the veg sticks in or use as a spread and high protein and high fiber. So really fine. Oh, it sounds delicious. And you don't have to be going for the menopause to be making these recipes even. No, absolutely not. So that was one of our aims is to make recipes that the whole family can enjoy because the worst thing is trying to make stuff for individuals in a family, you know, just make the same meal for everyone. And yeah, it's healthy for the whole family, basically.
00:11:15
Speaker
Yeah, it sounds really yummy. You earlier touched on hot flashes and there are lots of symptoms to menopause from dry skin, mood swings, but hot flashes, 85% of women experience these.
Managing Hot Flashes with Diet
00:11:28
Speaker
Can you tell us about other foods that are good or can support people going through hot flashes and are there foods that people should be avoiding as well? So yeah, a lot of women, 80-85% of women experience hot flashes to some degree,
00:11:44
Speaker
And it's basically because the oestrogen affects the hypothalamus in the brains. It's a little part in the middle of your brain that acts as the body's thermostat. So with the drop in oestrogen, your body's thermostat gets a bit glitchy in other words. And yeah, there's quite a few foods. Again, everyone's different. So sometimes it's useful to keep a bit of a hot flush food diary for a couple of days to try and figure out if there's any trigger foods for you as an individual. But
00:12:14
Speaker
Common trigger foods that might bring on a hot flush are things like caffeine because it is a stimulant and also spicy foods and alcohol because they tend to dilate blood vessels and interestingly cheese as well so some people get kind of a hot flush
00:12:35
Speaker
or cheese sweats, they're sometimes called after eating a lot of cheese and that's because a lot of cheese in one go sometimes. And it's because cheese contains some adrenaline like compounds in them. So sometimes men and women can experience these cheese sweats, but in menopause sometimes that reaction is amplified during menopause. So there are some of the common food triggers that
00:13:04
Speaker
there are foods as well that can help potentially alleviate hot flushes. So, soya foods, which we talked about a little bit already, that it's a phytoestre present in soya foods that can kind of mimic the human estrogen. So, they don't affect the level of estrogen in the body, but they can have a weak estrogen-like effect. So, they can potentially help alleviate
00:13:27
Speaker
hot flashes if you include soya foods once or twice a day. And if you haven't included soya foods before, I would say add them gradually because soya is a bean and some women do have bloating if they have too many beans and pulses in one go. So introduce them gradually. But two servings of soya a day may help with hot flashes. So having soya yogurt or milk alternative with your breakfast or
00:13:56
Speaker
having a edamame bean hummus for lunch or something or a tofu dinner might help. The only other thing to note is
00:14:06
Speaker
it might take a while to notice any difference. So don't give up too soon because it might take several weeks to notice any difference in hot flashes after you start including soya foods. And the other thing to bear in mind, which I think is sometimes forgotten about is keeping well hydrated, which sounds so simple, but it's often something that's not done that well. So making sure that you are well hydrated because that helps the body regulate temperature. So
00:14:35
Speaker
I often say to women to try to front load your water consumption so you drink most of your daily water intake earlier on in the day, which can help with energy levels throughout the day and brain function as well, so that you're not drinking water and then all of a sudden in the evening you're getting really thirsty and drink lots and then have to get up during the night to go to the toilet because you've just drank a whole lot in the evening.
00:15:02
Speaker
hydration strategy and keeping well hydrated throughout the day can be possible. Yeah, hopefully that's useful, but it's trial and error. And I'd say keeping a hot flush diary for a while to investigate what works for you. How long do hot flashes usually last? Oh, it varies so much. I've heard, you know, some women have just a handful and some women have, you know, 30 plus a day type thing. Generally they come on
00:15:32
Speaker
at any time of day or night, you can get night sweats as well. Usually, they last just a couple of minutes, but depending on the severity of them, they can just be a warm feeling or they can be really severe and very uncomfortable. Obviously,
00:15:51
Speaker
can have a huge impact on daily life. And especially if you're at work, you know, if you're doing a presentation or if you're in a meeting, it can be a really debilitating thing to go through. So, yeah, they're all different intensities and frequencies. And yeah, they can last a short time or, you know, over a couple of months or yeah, you can have them over several years or 10 years or longer. And sometimes you help them and then they disappear for a few years and then
00:16:21
Speaker
You can experience them again. So, yeah, it really varies. I've heard so many different experiences. Moving on from hot flushes, around 20 to 40% of women experience depressive symptoms during pregnant menopause and menopause.
Mediterranean Diet for Mood
00:16:38
Speaker
Do you have any suggestions to supporting women's mental health during these stages? Yeah, it's quite a common
00:16:46
Speaker
impact of menopause. Definitely, diet can play a role in helping with mental health. There's really good evidence from the Smiles trial that was done quite a few years ago now about the first randomised controlled trial looking at the Mediterranean diet or a high-fibre version of the Mediterranean diet, which showed that
00:17:09
Speaker
If you follow that type of diet, then it can have a really positive impact on mood and reduce the risk of depression. Meditrain instead of diet, having a diet that's got lots of plant foods in it and quite high in fiber to nourish all your gut microbes, which kind of makes sense because your gut microbes are linked with producing a lot of neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine
00:17:38
Speaker
And these are involved in our mental health and our mood. So if you eat well to nourish your gut microbes, then yeah, there's this good evidence to show that it's beneficial for mood and mental health. So including a rainbow of fruits and veg, but all different plant foods actually, including at least 30 different plant foods in a week is a good target to aim for, to get that diversity of
00:18:06
Speaker
plant foods. So that includes all different types of nuts and seeds and grains and beans and pulses and lentils and even herbs and spices would count towards that variety. So yeah, which, which helps give a variety of gut microbes in your gut, which then functions a lot better. So yeah, diet can play part of the support for your mental health, but I think also activity and helping reduce stress levels. So doing things that you enjoy and
00:18:36
Speaker
If it is something that is impacting you or you feel like you're struggling with, then definitely seek help and get the support and advice that you need. But certainly looking at your diet is one aspect of the story, I would say. Yeah, absolutely. And so just for anyone listening who is experiencing menopausal symptoms, the Mediterranean diet is your number one go-to. Cutting out carbs, am I right in saying? Or reducing carbs as well?
00:19:07
Speaker
Yeah, well, carbs is quite, is often questioned. So carbs can be really useful. It's the right type of carbs that are, you know, to focus in on. So quality carbs, so like the high fiber, whole meal, whole grain carbohydrates, the more starchy, complex carbohydrates that give you a slower sustained kind of release of energy rather than not having too many of the simple carbohydrates, the sugars, the added sugars.
00:19:37
Speaker
because that will tend to spike your blood sugar levels. So you'll have, you know, you'll feel quite energized for a short time, but what goes up quick comes down quick as well. So then your blood sugar will plummet. So you'll start craving another quick fix. So you'll maybe start craving another sweet or biscuit. So it's all about finding that balance and focusing more on the quality carbohydrates, the oats or having an oaty biscuit or a whole meal.
00:20:06
Speaker
something and with that balance as well. So protein foods can help dampen down any spike in blood sugar. So having an oat cakes and cheese is kind of my one of my go to snacks, which is a good combination of good quality carbohydrate with a bit of protein from the cheese or yogurt and berries, which
00:20:27
Speaker
or nuts, so you get the carbohydrate and the protein combination. So, yeah, so carbs are good for mental health, but the good quality ones because provide a lot of B vitamins as well, which is really useful for brain and brain function and mood. So, yeah, don't cut out the carbs completely. It's all about balance.
00:20:51
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I think that's the word, isn't it balanced? Just making sure we keep that. It's great that we have recipes, but you know, the day to day, if you want to have chocolate at the end of the day, what is your realistic approach to someone who has those sugar cravings and those cravings in the evening or throughout the day? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, they can come on at any time and we all experience them, to be honest. So I'd say mindful eating can be a really useful
00:21:20
Speaker
technique or a practice to include. So we all experience different types of hunger and we all experience time to time when we just have a craving for something or when we've maybe had a rubbish day and just want some comfort food. So there's different types of hunger, often refer to them as head hunger if it's something out of
00:21:40
Speaker
you know you have a cup of tea and a biscuit automatically along with it because it's habits or you see an advert on TV and you suddenly want what you've just seen or your friend sitting next to you is having a chocolate cake and you want it because you've just seen it. So that's more of a head hunger, it's more often it comes on quite quickly, quite suddenly these feelings as opposed to a heart hunger which is more comfort eaten where you just want that you know comfort food because you want to feel good and
00:22:11
Speaker
then there's a physical hunger, which is your body saying, I need food, I need nourishment and energy. And that's the one to respond to with food or a snack or something to nourish your body. So it's being aware of what type of hunger it is and coming up with solutions for the different types of hunger. So if it's a head hunger, a heart hunger, what can you do that's non-food related to help you
00:22:39
Speaker
deal with that. And if it is a stomach hunger, then often it's thinking about your hunger and fullness on a scale of one to 10 and trying to keep it in the middle of that hunger scale. So if you do start to feel hungry, physically hungry, then definitely have a snack or something to eat. So it prevents your blood sugar getting too low and prevents you overeating once you do finally sit down to eat. So yeah, mindful eating techniques can be really useful to help find the right
00:23:09
Speaker
balance and the right portion size for you. And certainly, yeah, with cravings, yeah, we all get chocolate cravings then again. But sometimes, yeah, going for maybe a dark chocolate is actually a really quite healthy food to include. Dark chocolate has lots of antioxidants and nutrients like iron and a little bit of fiber, actually. So, yeah, again, it's just about balance and being mindful of
00:23:39
Speaker
why you're eating and are you enjoying it? Yeah. So mindful eating can be a useful strategy. Do you ever recommend an alternative to your heart and your head hunger? Yeah. So head hunger, as I say, it generally comes on quite suddenly. And sometimes it's your brain is just wanting stimulation. Your brain's bored. So often it's just changing your environment for a few minutes. So going out of the room or
00:24:07
Speaker
just go and walk up and down the stairs, you know, just to change your environment or kind of, yeah, stimulate your brain or have an exercise snack often talk to clients about, you know, just exercising for literally one or two minutes to break up long periods of sitting down. So that can just get your blood flow going and circulation going and yeah, keep your brain a bit more active. So
00:24:33
Speaker
Yeah, so that's one solution for a head hunger and heart hunger. It's about your body's seeking comfort. So what non-food solutions are there that you find nice or comforting? So whether it's phoning a friend or, you know, listening to some nice music or playing some music or dancing or
00:24:55
Speaker
making a mini list for yourself of things that you can do that will provide you that comfort that's non-food related so you can have a glance at it and think, right, okay, I could go and do this instead.
00:25:09
Speaker
Yeah, sometimes work, not always, but yeah, it's worth thinking through what can you do as an alternative. I suppose, like you said, it's about having that awareness. Is it a head or heart hunger? And then you can try and address it that way. Does hunger vary for people going through pre-menopause and menopause? Would you say you're more hungry or is it the same? That's a good question, actually. I think, yeah, so it maybe depends on the individual.
00:25:39
Speaker
And I think that there is evidence to show that some, the drop in estrogen or the changes in hormones during menopause can impact the body in many different ways. And often our appetite hormones are changed or can change or taste buds can actually change. Yeah. So some women find that they used to like certain foods and now they don't or, you know, foods taste different.
00:26:09
Speaker
So there's maybe different things going on. So yeah, possibly it's not an area I know too much about off the top of my head to be honest, but yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if that is the case. I suppose eating habits do change. Like you said, you might want to comfort yourself more so you can try and manage that.
00:26:30
Speaker
Absolutely. I didn't realise your taste buds changed. That's a really interesting fact. Thank you.
Post-Menopause Health Concerns
00:26:36
Speaker
We've touched on very lightly on long-term health concerns that increase after the menopause, for example, bone health and heart health. Can you just talk in more depth about women's health post-menopause? Yeah. So risk of some conditions goes up after menopause for women due to the drop in estrogen. So bone health
00:26:58
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's something a lot of women are aware of and bone health or bone strength can decrease during menopause. So one of the statistics I find quite surprising is that 50% of women over the age of 50 will break a bone due to poor bone health. And the same figure in men is 20%. So women are much more
00:27:23
Speaker
at risk of their bones becoming less dense, less strong. And that's because, as I say, the drop in oestrogen, oestrogen slows the loss of bone and is involved in bone turnover. So there's quite a sharp or a speedier decline in bone strength as women go through the menopause. And then it kind of levels off again or slows down
00:27:45
Speaker
a similar rate to what men experience post-menopause, but that initial quite steep decline as women go through the menopause means that risk of osteoporosis is higher in women. So it's something to consider or be aware of for women and definitely diet can play a huge role in preventing or supporting your bone health in the longer term. So
00:28:11
Speaker
nutrients like calcium and vitamin D really important to make sure you get enough calcium in the diet, so dairy foods or tofu, calcium set tofu is a useful source. Vitamin D, which a lot of people generally have low levels of, so supplementing with vitamin D is really important because vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium and helps calcium get into the bone structure to mineralise the bones and keep them strong.
00:28:41
Speaker
making sure you supplement with vitamin D, especially during winter months when there's no sunshine around, or even if there is sunshine around, it's not the right wavelength for us to make vitamin D. And also protein, which I think often you think of protein or muscles, but protein is really useful for bone health as well, because it's the proteins that form the mesh or the scaffolding inside the bones, which then the minerals come and fill in.
00:29:10
Speaker
protein is really important for bone health, for strengthening bones. And we generally get enough protein in the diet, but what we're not so good at is spacing out our protein across the day. So making sure you have some protein at every meal can be really useful for making sure you get enough protein and also the body uses it more effectively. So yeah, so there's a couple of dietary
00:29:36
Speaker
factors to consider. And also for bone health, like the weight bearing exercises, bones respond to the weight that they carry. So we know that if you've got a lighter build or lighter frame or lighter weight, then you tend to be more at risk of osteoporosis.
00:29:54
Speaker
So making sure you include some weight-bearing exercises like walking or carrying shopping bags or going up and down stairs, that type of thing can be really useful or strength exercises are really useful as you get older. But there's a royal osteoporosis.
00:30:13
Speaker
society website is a osteoporosis risk calculator, which you can add and answer a few questions. And it comes up with your kind of risk score for osteoporosis, which can be quite useful just to know where you are in that risk scale. And definitely, you know, there are things that can be done diet wise and preventative things that can be done to help support your bones.
00:30:41
Speaker
So yeah, so there's bone health and the other health risk to think about is heart health, which I think is not so much talked about. I think heart health is often thought of as a man's disease and something that men have. But actually the world menopause day this year, the theme is cardiovascular health, which I'm really pleased to see because
00:31:04
Speaker
The Lancet published a paper a few years ago saying that heart disease in women was so understudied, so under-treated and under-recognised, and it's a huge area that needs more focus on. And certainly after menopause, your risk of heart disease goes up.
00:31:28
Speaker
And one of the reasons is because of cholesterol levels, which is cholesterol levels. Generally, they're one of the main risk factors for heart disease. And up until about the age of 45, more men than women have raised cholesterol. But then there's quite a sharp increase in cholesterol around menopause or just the one or two years after you hit that menopause stage. And actually, about two and three women aged 55 to 65 have high cholesterol levels.
00:31:58
Speaker
So 66% of women have just passed that menopause age of high cholesterol. And there's no kind of notable symptoms of high cholesterol. So unless you've had a test, you probably don't know if you've got high cholesterol. So it's a simple blood test, which you can get from your GP or you should be able to get from your GP. Or if not, there's tests that are available, like little
00:32:26
Speaker
to know what your cholesterol levels are. And certainly if it is high, then there's lots of small dietary changes that can be really effective in bringing it down. Definitely something I think that should be thought of or considered. If you are perimenopausal, think about your cholesterol and blood pressure as well as something to know your numbers and see what it is. Do you have any tips for reducing cholesterol? Yeah. Well, the main thing is to
00:32:56
Speaker
think about this saturated fat content of your diet. So are you including a lot of the fats that are hard at room temperature? So the butter, the lard, ghee, those types of fats and all the products that they're used in. So cakes and biscuits and pastries. So trying to reduce those types of foods as much as possible and have plenty plant foods in the diet. So more fiber, more whole grains,
00:33:25
Speaker
Plant proteins like soya, actually the soya protein has a
00:33:30
Speaker
a modest effect in reducing cholesterol. So including edamame or soya would be really useful, not just for hot flushes, but also for heart health and lots of fiber, the variety of plant foods, healthy fats from oily fish, including oily fish once or twice a week and healthy fats from nuts and seeds. So having a portion of nuts a day, I think a really useful
00:33:57
Speaker
dietary habit to have for heart health. So a portion being like a closed handful of nuts, whether you sprinkle that on your overnight oats or on yogurt or on a salad. And oats themselves actually are useful for reducing cholesterol. Oats and barley in particular have a particular type of fiber called beta-glucan, which helps reduce cholesterol levels. So yeah, including kind of soya foods, oats and barley, nuts.
00:34:27
Speaker
they're all really useful foods to include to help keep cholesterol levels at a healthy level and beneficial for heart health. There's lots of information actually in the UCLP website, which is the ultimate cholesterol lowering plan website, which is based on good science. That type of diet has been shown to reduce or help reduce cholesterol levels. And they've got lots of recipes and advice and fact sheets on the
00:34:56
Speaker
the Heart UK UCLP website. So it's a good resource to look at. Thank you so much for sharing that. I know you spoke about bone health and you said more dairy to increase calcium. Is there any other foods that you can get calcium from that's not dairy? Yeah, there is. So one of the best sources actually is the fish with little soft bones that you eat. So like sardines or anchovies, that type of fish.
00:35:26
Speaker
having the soft bones, they're really high in calcium. So if you have the sardines on toast or that type of thing a couple of times a week, then that's really useful. There's other sources as well like sesame seeds, a couple of other nuts and seeds and
00:35:45
Speaker
green leafy vegetables like pak choi. Sometimes the absorption of the calcium from these types of foods are a bit harder for the body to absorb the calcium from these sources. Dairy is one of the best sources of calcium and the little fish with the soft bones, but also looking for the
00:36:08
Speaker
alternatives, making sure they're fortified with calcium, which most of them are now, and the tofu as well. If it's firm tofu, if it's set with calcium, you'll see on the back of the pack the ingredients list should have calcium something or other listed in the ingredients if it's calcium set tofu. So that can be useful.
00:36:29
Speaker
Oh, great. Thank you. That's really helpful because I'm sure that well-run vegans and vegetarians can't come down. That's really useful tonight. So to finish off, what would your three nutrition takeaways or tips be for eating well for anyone going through pre-menopause and menopause?
Top Nutrition Tips for Menopause
00:36:47
Speaker
Yeah so there's so many to choose from. So my first one which probably comes as no surprise is to include more plants which I've talked about a lot but include a wide variety of plants as possible for supporting your gut microbes because I think
00:37:03
Speaker
If you have a healthy gut that's linked with so many different things from like the neurotransmitters I talked about which is involved in brain function and mood and sleep and stress levels and so that can link in with a lot of potential menopausal symptoms. So if you look after your gut microbes by giving them lots of variety of plant foods and fibrous foods then
00:37:26
Speaker
I think that would be a really good thing to do. That would be the first one. The second one, I would say, consider heart health. It's an area that I think is, as I say, understudied and underrecognized, under talked about. But consider the heart healthy foods, like I just mentioned, the oats, the nuts, the soy foods, plenty plant foods again.
00:37:50
Speaker
and also get your cholesterol checked. If you've not had it checked for a while, like in the last couple of years, get a cholesterol check. Because if it is high, then there's lots you can do diet wise, as I say, to help manage that. So yeah, know your numbers. And then the third one I'd say is hydration. So make sure you hydrate well. I know it's something that sounds really simple, but a lot of women, I think,
00:38:18
Speaker
Often one of the symptoms which I've not really talked about steaks, there's so much to talk about, but bladder issues can be really common in menopausal women because the drop in estrogen can impact your pelvic floor muscles. So you might find that you get a
00:38:34
Speaker
of ladder issues like urgency of going to the toilet or more frequency going to the toilet, which can have a huge impact if you're at work or traveling for a long time. So maybe you actually consciously cut down on the water because you think, well, I'm not going to drink anything because I've got this long meeting coming up. I don't want to be nipping out to the toilet every five minutes. Or if you're car sharing or a train journey that there's
00:39:00
Speaker
really want to use the toilets, you know, you might say, right, I'm not drinking water because I don't want to have to go to the toilet all the time. So sometimes women consciously don't drink enough. And then that can actually start leading to more problems because they can have an impact on mood and mental health and anxiety and stop you from doing things as well, like, you know, exercising, which can then have an impact on, again, mood and
00:39:30
Speaker
heart health and all sorts. So it can kind of have a knock on impact. So make sure you hydrate well and, you know, ask yourself, are you consciously not drinking enough and why is that? And if it is bladder issues, then again, it's something that's not really talked about a lot at all, but definitely get support and get help with it because there's lots that can be done medically. So, you know, speak to your GP about it. Don't let it linger and
00:39:59
Speaker
you know, lead to worse issues in the future. You don't have to suffer in silence type things. So making sure that you're well hydrated basically is I would say the third thing to think about. That's a really good one. Is there anything, so someone who is approaching pre-menopause and menopause, is there anything someone could do beforehand? So pelvic floor exercises, does that help or is it not? Is that not really enough?
00:40:25
Speaker
Yeah, I would think so. It's a little bit outside my scope of practice, but I would think, yeah, definitely doing some pelvic floor exercises and things like yoga can be really useful because that can help strengthen your core muscles and help reduce stress levels and help with digestion. So including some dental stretches or core exercises like yoga or Pilates daily, because often the
00:40:52
Speaker
core exercises work better little and often rather than it's great to have an hour's yoga once a week but it's much more impactful if you do you know 50 minutes a day of yoga or stretch.
00:41:08
Speaker
That's good to know. So yeah, definitely things like that I think could help. And the 30 plants, sorry to keep more questions on your final thoughts, but do you have any websites or recommendations on how you can keep on top of your 30 plants or how you can know what they are? Because we talk about those plants a lot in business and I just wanted your thoughts on where you can find out this information.
00:41:30
Speaker
Normally with my clients, I just have got a fact sheet or a handout that I give them with just a list of 30. But I do give some suggestions on some easy ways to get more variety. So for example, if you're going for frozen veg, buy a pack of mixed frozen veg or go for mixed berries, mixed frozen berries rather than just one type of berry or again, a packet of mixed seeds sprinkled instead of just focusing on one.
00:42:00
Speaker
and trying to look at what's in season as well for maybe some new ideas or trying foods that you've maybe not had for a long time. I think, gosh, I haven't looked at it for a while, but what's in season at the moment? I think chestnuts are coming into season at some point. Try something new or next time you go to the supermarket, pick up something you've not had for a while and just try and include variety.
00:42:24
Speaker
as in when and herbs and spices, which I think are often stuck at the back of the cupboards and not used that often, but do use them as well because they all add variety and improves or can improve the taste of the food as well and can help you reduce salt. So you might not need so much salt if you add lots of different herbs and spices and there's some weird and wacky spices and combinations. What was it? I've had mango and what to call it?
00:42:53
Speaker
herb that often people don't like. Oh, coriander. Yeah, that goes really well together. Mango coriander. What did you put it on? Or just on its own? It was just like a mango salad that had along with some fish, like baked cod that had, which went quite well. So yeah, trying new recipes is always quite good for getting more variety and
00:43:17
Speaker
extra plant foods and different grains and different pulses as well because we often don't eat enough pulses and lentils and there's different colours of lentils and grains to use.
00:43:31
Speaker
Lots of variety out there to enjoy and do mindful eating as you're eating it to see, do you like the taste and the texture and the flavour and enjoy it more? Because food is much more than just about the nutrients. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Laura. Do you have any final thoughts that you want to share? I think you've not said. There's lots of not said.
Importance of Open Menopause Discussions
00:43:52
Speaker
It's great just to encourage women to talk more about menopause and for men to get a better understanding as well of what women are supposed to do.
00:44:00
Speaker
how to support women going through the menopause. But yeah, just talking more about menopause and experiences. So it's understanding grows and women are well informed and feel more confident in doing the right things for their own body because everyone's different. So it can be a tough time, but it's a natural process for women to go through. I think talking about it more and being well informed can really help
00:44:29
Speaker
Thank you so much for joining FYI. I think so many of our listeners will take real value from what we've spoken about, especially those going through menopause and those who know someone that's going through menopause, I think will get real value from this conversation. To our listeners, if you'd like more information and nutritional advice on the menopause, please look into Laura's book, Eat and Well for Menopause, Advice and Recipes to Improve Your Health and Wellbeing. You can find this on Laura's website or on Amazon.