The What's For Dinner Show
Join me as I discover how this daily call for nourishment has shaped our attitudes to food and cooking. Each week my guest and I will explore how our food memories have shaped our lives as well as our waistlines and also share our favourite foods and how we each go about putting food on the table to answer the daily call: ‘What’s for Dinner’?
The What's For Dinner Show
Managing the menopause naturally with my guest Alison Bladh, Nutritional Therapist
Alison is a Nutritional Therapist who specialises in helping women mitigate, minimise and manage the effects of the menopause through diet and lifestyle changes. Her mother was a professional-chef, but Alison believes it was also her own teenage acne that kick-started her interest in how food and nutrition affects our bodies.
I talk to Alison about growing up on a farm and also her current life in Sweden where, much to her regret, Sunday roasts and stuffing are not fully appreciated! Of course, we also explore some of the steps women can take to help themselves thrive during the menopause and beyond.
Guest: Alison Bladh, Nutritional Therapist
Host: Lynne O'Halloran
Episode Links
www.alisonbladh.com
Free resources, recipes, meal plans www.alisonbladh.com/resources
Alison's blog
How to make hassleback potatoes
How to make Jansoons Frestelse (Swedish potato gratin)
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Hello, and welcome to The What's for Dinner Show. My name is Lynne and my aim along with my guests is to explore how our food experiences have influenced our lives as well as our waistlines. My guest this week is Alison Bladh, who is a nutritional therapist born and raised in the UK, but now living in Sweden. Alison is a specialist in helping women to minimize, manage and mitigate the often challenging symptoms of the menopause, through changes to diet and to lifestyle. I know that this is a topic of great interest to well, let's face it all women, as it seems that sometimes just saying the word menopause can cause a hot flush and a panic attack. Welcome to The What's for Dinner Show, Alison. Perhaps we should begin by explaining exactly what the menopause is.
Alison Bladh:We all assume, you know, people assume that everyone understands what the menopause is. But there's so many, I mean, I've seen with my clients that there's so many women that don't really understand could be because it isn't something that we talk about enough, really. And when we think of the menopause, it actually comes in three different stages. The first stage is what we call peri menopause. And peri menopause, on average, obviously can vary considerably depending on the woman ,but on average, it starts at the age of 45. And peri menopause really is where, it's a bit like a hormone roller coaster, you know, one month your estrogen can be up and your progesterone can be down, you know, it's all over the place. And that in itself, you know, that's when you can start feeling the classical menopausal symptoms, you know, like hot flushes, you can start gaining weight, irritability, you know, mood swings, all those really, tiredness, total lack of energy. And this goes on roughly, again, it's very varied, to the age of 51. And what happens then is you actually go into what we call menopause. And menopause is when you haven't ovulated, so when you haven't had a period for a year. And then you can actually say, now I'm in menopause. And what that means, basically, is that you're not ovulating anymore, you're not producing any more eggs, and you're not fertile anymore. And then all the time after menopause, you go into what we call post menopause. And post menopause is the state that you will be in for the rest of your life. And I mean, we're all living much longer than we used to. So that can be another 30 years of your life. But in post menopause, you're not ovulating, you're not producing any eggs. So you know, your estrogen levels and hormone levels are very low. Your body does produce estrogen from other areas of the body. But you know, the levels are low. And that's when you know you have to start looking at other areas of health to support yourself because estrogen is so important for all aspects of bodily health. So you know that there's different things that you need to do really through the different what we call menopause transition.
Lynne O'Halloran:So are you finding then that women who sort of come to you for advice that they do lack a clear understanding of how the menopause or perimenopause is affecting their bodies?
Alison Bladh:The majority of people that come to me are stressed, overwhelmed, feeling terrible, you know, they've started with the menopausal symptoms, the tiredness, the aching, the irritability, but they don't always understand it's menopause. Because, you know, life in general can be very stressful, a lot of midlife women, you know, they've got a career, they've got children at home, they're looking after the family. They are quite stressed and overwhelmed and they put you know, the symptoms down to their life rather than that it's peri menopause. They don't think about that. And when you say to them, you know, have you thought that this actually could be peri menopause, you know, they the majority people said, no, no, it can't be that, it can't be because I think it's associated with age, isn't it? And, oh, no, no menopause, perimenopause. I'm not that can't be me. But I mean, it can start as a as early as the age of 40. So in answer to your question, yes, I do. I think a lot of women don't truly understand what it what it actually is and what happens to the body.
Lynne O'Halloran:I don't think I've even heard the phrase perimenopause until a friend of mine mentioned it. And I was like, Well, what's that then and thinking that it was something that was more into your late 50s sort of 60s really. It was quite a big shock as well, that it has such a wide range of impacts on your physical and and mental.
Alison Bladh:Yeah, it really does, estrogen is, you know, it's a master hormone, we have estrogen receptors all over our body. So you know, it's needed for virtually every bodily system to work as it should. So, you know, when the level starts to decline, and eventually, you know, you stop producing estrogen from from your ovaries, effects, so many things, I think people don't really understand or realize how important estrogen is for our overall health.
Lynne O'Halloran:Does it stem from a sort of a more general lack of understanding about how what we eat affects our bodies? I think we just get so bound up with thinking about what we eat in relation to our weight, rather than the more general sense of well being and that it relies also on on our diet.
Alison Bladh:Yeah, great point, then, I mean, it's that's so important, you know, it doesn't have to be complicated, you know, we should eat nourishing foods, you know, choose not to eat all the highly refined processed foods, and eat foods that nourish your body. It's not that complicated, you know, we weren't made to eat processed foods, and things like that, that have no nutritional value, the food environment is become very toxic, you know, that it's difficult. I understand when people are busy and stressed that, you know, it's easier just to grab the pre pack foods. But it doesn't nourish your body.
Lynne O'Halloran:Yeah, it doesn't have the range of vitamins and minerals and nutrients that we need. And I think we're just so focused on volume of what we eat. And I'd like to say the ease and the speed with which we can create something to eat, we kind of are forgetting really, that everything that goes in affects how we feel, how we look at how our bodies function, you know, ultimately, how we weather the sort of storms of the cycle of life really. Do you yourself come from a family of healthy eaters? Well,
Alison Bladh:I was lucky enough to be brought up on a farm in the south of England. And I remember, you know, even from a very young age, I remember, you know, being out in the side in nature, and my mother was a professional chef, as well. And she used to grow all our own vegetables and fruits, we had a lovely fruit trees. So from a very young age, I was in the kitchen, you know, watching her cook and helping her cook. And so I think, you know, I was very privileged to grow up in that sort of environment because it really made it and taught me how to cook for one and gave me that real love of food. So now that I've never really been subjected so much to refined foods, because I just cook from whole base foods. But I think that that was to do with my mother as well, because she she always used, you know, raw ingredients to make things. And it's so interesting as well in research they, because there's so much research coming out now about the gut microbiome, the gut bacteria, and you know how wonderful it is for children that that grow up in that sort of environment. Because you know, I was out running around with the pigs and the donkeys and you know, in mud and everything, but that gives you such a diverse microbiome, all the different bacterias that you get in and also from the homegrown foods and everything. But I think people and children in general now don't have that diversity of gut bacteria, because they, well we're super clean, aren't we now?
Lynne O'Halloran:Yeah, yeah, it's more sterile kind of environment, isn't it? Especially over the recent years with all the anti COVID spraying and hand washing, and everything, you know, which obviously has been very important, but at the same time, you know, mitigates against sort of involvement with the bugs and the germs that we need to keep our bodies resistant, I suppose, isn't it?
Alison Bladh:Yeah, so important that gut bacteria, I mean, talking about menopause and perimenopause that, you know, when estrogen levels decline, it starts to infect the integrity of the gut. So you know, it's even more important that you start thinking about eating, you know, what we call probiotic foods, which are the fermented foods that have the wonderful gut bugs in the bacteria, like sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, fermented vegetables so so beneficial for health.
Lynne O'Halloran:It's Tim Spector, isn't it and I think is sort of One of the guts advocates and I love the way that he talks about French food and how gooier and the stickier their brie is, the more microbes there are in it and you ought to eat plenty of it, you know and that the French know a thing or two about how to keep the gut healthy.
Alison Bladh:It really is. I mean, it all starts in the gut and I see that so much with you know, my clients that if you work on gut health, it affects everything from you mood to your skin health to you know, everything's so important that we look after our gut bacteria and our digestion.
Lynne O'Halloran:So when you were you know, growing up on the farm, then what would a typical mealtime have been like for you when you were growing up?
Alison Bladh:Yeah, one thing that I think now living in Sweden as well one thing that I really remember that my mother was just so good at was it was a roast dinner and even now and I think sometimes I really crave a nice roast because they don't really roast dinners in Sweden. It's not such a big thing over here, but she was just so good at it, it was everything was so wholesome and tasty. You know, you'd have a nice roast chicken and then you'd have like roast potatoes and then brussel sprouts I remember we ate a lot of, and carrots and you know, with a lovely gravy. Delicious and maybe Oh, what do they call that what you have with thats made from batter?
Lynne O'Halloran:Oh, Yorkshire pudding.
Alison Bladh:Yorkshire puddings! Yes.
Lynne O'Halloran:Well, I mean, that's about the only sort of upside of the time of year that we're about to embark on. It becomes roast dinner season in my mind
Alison Bladh:There is nothing nicer than a proper roast dinner, I really missed that actually. But I think I remember that most from from growing up with my mom.
Lynne O'Halloran:Yeah. And so would you have had a fancy sort of dessert on a Sunday with your roast dinner?
Alison Bladh:Well, another thing that my mother was amazing at she used to make this chocolate pavlova. So I remember always saying to her, Oh, can't you make that? It was, I don't know what she did to it, but it's just perfect. Yeah, roast dinner with chocolate pavlova. What more can you ask for?
Lynne O'Halloran:So going to school then, did you go to a small sort of rural school
Alison Bladh:I actually went to boarding school from the age of seven you know seven years old, is quite young really isn't it to go to boarding school. It was very, very stric. Food was fine, but it was you know your normal fish fingers and mashed potato. Maybe on the weekend you get bacon and lots of toast. I remember Marmite. The one thing that I really remember about that, which I find quite fascinating now, especially now I work is a nutritional therapist, that sugar was totally not allowed. They were really strict about how many sweets you could eat. And they had in the pantry. I remember they had a cupboard quite high up that was always locked in that they had you know the big jars that used to get like in sweet shops with like bon bons. And then at the weekends the matron who was quite scary, used to get this big jar of strawberry bonbons out and hand them out to all, you know we'd be sat at the table we'd get one of these strawberry bonbons on a Saturday and a Sunday.
Lynne O'Halloran:Just one?
Alison Bladh:Just one. Yeah, well that was it. It's such a drastic change if you think how it is now for seven year old children that the amount of sugar that's in our diet and everything. But the thing is because I didn't really eat any sugar I didn't miss it. It wasn't a big deal.
Lynne O'Halloran:No, I guess your palate just wouldn't have craved it. I mean, I think that's sort of what we understand now how it kind of works, the more you have, the more your body sort of switches on to to wanting more.
Alison Bladh:Yeah, I mean, sugar is addictive and sugar has no nutritional value. We don't need to you know to eat sweets and there's no nutrition at all in sugar. And it is addictive. It's been shown in studies you know, that they've done on rats that they prefer it. There was one study in particular where the rats prefer to eat the sugar. They had cocaine and they had sugar and wow, yeah, sugar was more addictive.
Lynne O'Halloran:So tell me, what was your most hated boarding school meal that you can remember?
Alison Bladh:They used to do tapioca. I remember they did tapioca that was not great. They hadn't really made it properly, it was lumpy and cold and then it had that like a bit of a skin over the top, bit like semolina as well it was. I do actually like semolina, but it was the way they made it, it was not pleasant. But apart from that I don't really have any foods that I actually don't like. I mean, there's some maybe that I wouldn't choose to eat, that aren't my favorite, but there isn't really anything that I absolutely detest.
Lynne O'Halloran:So what do you think prompted you to go into nutritional therapy career? Was it something that you were always sort of settled on? So how do you think the medical profession's
Alison Bladh:I think it was actually my destiny because I've always had a huge love of food. I mean, I'm extremely passionate about cooking. And you know, as I was saying my mother was a professional chef. So, you know, I was in the kitchen as soon as I could just making things and experimenting. then that went, you know, into another level when I got older. In my teenage years, I actually developed acne, I had quite bad skin when I was a teenager. And it started to get me thinking about, you know, is this to do with something I'm eating? You know, why is this happening to my skin, and that led me into, you know, the interest in hormones, puberty. I actually initially worked as an esthetician. So as a beauty therapist, specifically working with ladies that had perimenopause or menopausal skin problems, because that's all hormonal based because of the lack of estrogen. And I very soon started to realize that, you know, you have to look at what's going on in the inside. It's not just the outside. And that's when I went back and studied to be a nutritional therapist, studying nutritional science really. So I think it was destined, because I've always loved food, I loved cooking, and always been very interested even from a young ageyou know, if I eat that, what's in that, other nutrients, which minerals, how is that going to benefit me? I think it's a combination of growing up and suffering from acne and wanting to know how food could help me which I did do and it did really help with my lifestyle and food really helped my skin and and also, you know, my mother, her love of food and cooking. So I think it was a combination really. attitude to diet and the impact of diet on our health has that changed over the sort of course of your your career?
Lynne O'Halloran:Yeah, so there's like a commercially
Alison Bladh:Yeah, I mean, nutritional science and the nutritional world that you know, changes all the time, because of the research that's coming out. I mean, it's fantastic that there is research, but there needs to be more research done in certain areas, but there is always research coming out about food, and you know, what we should eat. And it changes all the time. So you know, yeah, I've seen, when I started, it was fat that was a no, no. We shouldn't eat fat, fat is terrible, you know, everything was low fat, you know, high carbohydrate. And now we're seeing that that actually wasn't a very good advice, because there's an obesity epidemic worldwide. And fat isn't bad for you, okay, the sort of fat you eat is very important. But we need fat that's really, really crucial. So I think that all the, there's many, many changes that I've seen, I think, you know, we're living in a society where there's so much temptation out there with all these highly processed foods. They have people that basically just work in laboratories and research that perfect like they call like, the sweet spot of fat sugar. So we become addicted to all these processed foods because they obviously want us to buy them, but it is being very detrimental to our health. So I really do feel that there's a lot more that that could be driven imperative for us to not eat healthier. done to improve the health of society. And a lot of the big food giants aren't really helping, you know, to improve the nation's health but they're more worried they're more concentrated on how much money they can make. Yeah, yeah. Because it really is. When you go into a supermarket you should just go round the outside because round the outside you know, you've got the vegetables the fruits, the meats as soon as you go into like the middle aisles that's when you're like just bombarded with all the crisps biscuits chocolate.
Lynne O'Halloran:Yeah. Yeah, so I'm visualizing my local supermarket now and I'm thinking you're right because you go in there's the fruit and the veg and the fish and the meat, around the back down the other side for some toiletries and then out the door!
Alison Bladh:I remember my grandmother, she grew up in the Second World War and and she didn't you know, she didn't really eat anything that was sugary because she didn't grow up with with sugar. one thing she did, this always fascinates me, and I wish that I'd asked her more about this. So she always used to have for breakfast and avocado. She used to call it an avocado pear, and she'd have in it some olive oil. And then she'd have some sort of brown cereal on it. And then it was just like, the most healthiest breakfast. And when I was a kid I didn't realize, I just thought oh, how weird is
Lynne O'Halloran:It's a very strange thing to do, but it's that? full of a lot of nutrients and fats that you need get through the day.
Alison Bladh:I mean, she lived so she was 97. So she was obviously doing something right!
Lynne O'Halloran:Living in Sweden now, you know, if you were to invite me around for Sunday lunch, what might be on the menu?
Alison Bladh:I mean, the typical thing, I mean that everyone always thinks of Sweden is the herring, the pickled herring it comes in many different marinades. And I can remember when I first moved over here, and I love fish and herring, but I thought, oh, I don't know about that. But now I love it. So a very classic Swedish meal would be you know, you'd have your herring, you have cheese on the crispbread, you'd maybe have some eggs, or creme fraich that you have like cream with the herring. But that tends to be more of a summertime meal. If you were to have come around in the autumn or the winter, they eat a lot of wild meat in Sweden, we are very spoiled that we can get hold of like elk. And you know, deer and reindeer, which is a lovely meat. And I very much like the fact that it's wild, you know, it hasn't been interfered with or factory farmed or pumped full of antibiotics or other things. So I think probably now if you came round to dinner now I probably serve ike maybe like venison. And they do something called hasselback potatoes where it's basically a potato that you
Lynne O'Halloran:It sounds delicious. I've never actually just slice, do lots of slices through the middle of it. Bit like so it looks like there's maybe 10 different slices and you bake them in the oven and you put salt and pepper you can put bread crumbs over them, and then some oil, they're delicious very crispy. So that and then vegetables I mean the beans or the nice green beans are in season here. So I've had some tomatoes growing out on the balcony this year. So I've got 10's if tomatoes, so I might bake you some tomatoes. eaten venison. So that would be a new one for me. Because obviously I think it's quite a luxury meat in this country.
Alison Bladh:Yeah, it is and I mean, venison is okay, price wise here. But if you're going to be eating like reindeer and elk, then it does get quite expensive. But that's something you know, I think it's for me, it's all about quality. I'd rather eat meat less, but when I do eat meat, I'd rather have a good, you know, quality piece of meat.
Lynne O'Halloran:Going back to Christmas then. So do you celebrate Christmas in a sort of traditional English way now that you're in Sweden, or are there other habits that have crept in?
Alison Bladh:In Sweden, hristmas is a really big thing. I've always try, I always have to have a turkey, but we tend to spread it out. So you know, in Sweden, Christmas is celebrated
Lynne O'Halloran:So the little sweets, are they like a sort of on Christmas Eve. And then they have their typical smorgasbord, you know, where you have like, it's a bit like a buffet, where you have a wild selection of everything. And it's very classical, you'd have all your fishes so you'd have salmon, you'd have the herring, you'd have that with the cheese on the crispbread. And then you'd have some like new potatoes or fresh potatoes. So you'd have that first as kind of a starter. And then you would have like the meat so meatballs are very typical Swedish. And then you might have some sausages, and they do, it's a bit like a potatoes done in the oven with anchovies. So you slice the potatoes bit like a potato graft gratin. What's that called? JANSSONS FRESTELSE, that's delicious. So they have that with all the meats. And then the sweet things, they love making their own like sweets. So if you have been out sometimes at Christmas to various different restaurants and it's amazing they make these beautiful, you know, little handmade sweets that you tend to eat afterwards for dessert, so that's quite typical. The meat, they definitely bake a big ham. Turkey isn't such a big thing here but they would have a ham. But I always insist on having a Turkey one of the days with have stuffing and the Swedes really don't understand stuffing they don't really like it. They're like, Oh, what? What's that, you know, suspicious of it. So but I make it anyway because I like it so. a chocolate item? Or a boiled sweet?
Alison Bladh:It's a real wide selection from chocolate to like toffee, all really beautifully made.
Lynne O'Halloran:I don't know if you've heard of the Great British Bake Off, have you? So there's a series on currently, and a couple of weeks ago they asked the contestants to bake a Swedish smogastorte,. I think that's how you might say it. Is that something that you've eaten?
Alison Bladh:I have. Nt very often, to be honest
Lynne O'Halloran:It seemed to be sort of slices of bread? I mean, because it was bread week. So they had to make the bread, slices of bread with different kinds of fillings, savory fillings in between. So, I guess, you know, aesthetically, it looks a bit like a layer cake, but it's actually savory.
Alison Bladh:It's like, it's like a huge big sandwich. Really, that's the best way to describe it, its like an almighty sandwich shaped as a cake!
Lynne O'Halloran:So, have you made one of those yourself? Or is that something that you might only have when you're out?
Alison Bladh:I actually have never made one of those myself. And it's notsomething that you see often when out in in restaurants. But yeah, this is Swedish thing Back to the menopause then. What sort of advice you know, would you like give people if they are approaching perimenopause and the sorts of steps that they can take to try and mitigate the more unpleasant sides of of that stage of life, There's many things that you can do. But I think one thing that you have to understand is that you're coming into a time of your life, where you have to take better care of yourself, you know, I always like to say, you've got the 80/20 rule that if you do 80% of your life, you know, healthily and thinking about what you eat and lifestyle choices, you know, have some wine or eat some chocolate or you know, but really, when it comes to menopause you know, it goes down to like 90/10. And there's a lot of research done on you know, if you look after yourself, and you manage your weight, and think about what you're eating, that, you know, hopefully your menopausal symptoms won't be as severe. There's a lot of correlation between the amount of weight that you're carrying and hot flushes, for example. So you know, really thinking about eating a balanced diet, the Mediterranean style diet is a diet that always comes up in in research as being so beneficial, you know, for everyone, but in particular, for menopausal women, because it's really giving you all the healthy fats, you know, you've got no refined processed foods. You've got you know, protein, like fish and white meat, they don't tend to eat so much red meat, vegetables, fruit, all sort of legumes, nuts and seeds, basing your meals on those sorts of foods, you need to think I'm going to choose those sorts of foods. I'm not going to choose the foods that aren't good for my body, and nourishing your body, nourishing and hydrating your body is so important. I mean, something as simple as drinking enough water can really make you feel better during perimenopause and menopause. So I think it's just being kind to yourself and, and choosing not to eat foods that make you feel terrible.
Lynne O'Halloran:And so do you think then that the menopause is experienced differently in different sort of cultures and different countries?
Alison Bladh:Yeah, totally. And this is, again, and we've been shown in research that in different cultures and societies, that in the Western world, we tend to have, you know, the majority of women do suffer from some sort of menopausal symptoms and can have a really difficult time during this period. But in different cultures, where they maybe don't eat all the refined foods, and just eat whole foods or foods they've grown, they don't, you know, their menopausal experience and symptoms is way less. And it's also another fascinating thing, I think, in different cultures where menopause is, is looked upon, as you know, the woman when she's older is looked up to and you know, is really respected and thought of as a transition in life where you know, you become an elder and you're leading the people, they don't really tend to get any menopausal symptoms. So it's fascinating, whereas in the western society menopause is, you know, a stigma a little bit of a stigma attached to it, we don't really talk about it. The majority of women in the western world do really suffer through menopause. So I think it's absolutely in answer your question it, it makes a difference where, where you come from in the world.
Lynne O'Halloran:And I guess it's sort of getting the menopause onto a sort of level footing with, you know, the other sort of significant stages of our lives, you know, whether it's puberty or you know, pregnancy, these are just things that happen to the body and should be completely normalized and we should understand more about how we manage that process.
Alison Bladh:So yes menopause is a total naturally process, you know, it will happen to every woman, you know. In a way
Lynne O'Halloran:How would you like the understanding of we celebrate puberty, don't we, it's a new beginning and it's menopause or the word menopause to be kind of, you know, all very exciting in the beginning of your life and reimagined?
Alison Bladh:I think it should be, you know, it's the, the next pregnancy, you know, all these big hormonal events in in a woman's life, but menopause is kind of brushed under the carpet and that's like, oh, no, we don't want to talk About that, that is age, isn't it? We're quite an ageist society. And it's, you know, as an older woman, you know, we're not fertile anymore. But I mean, that's just ridiculous. I mean, women that have come into post menopause, we're fantastic. It shouldn't be. stage in a woman's life, it should be celebrated for that we're wiser, we're older, and we're amazing. I absolutely do not think that it's time that we should think, Okay, well, you know, we're older now, let's just scuttle off and not be seen. Again, it should be celebrated and rejoiced.
Lynne O'Halloran:And I guess part of that celebration is taking that time and learning and understanding how to look after yourself. So that, you know, that postmenopausal period is as long as we can make it last! So it's a new beginning, essentially, a new
Alison Bladh:Yes in a way. So it's a kind of freedom. Because, you know, there are many things that are positive to do with menopause, you know, you've no more periods, you don't have to worry about getting pregnant anymore, you will have, hopefully more time to yourself when you know, if your children leaving home, you know, you may be retiring, it should be a time in your life, you think, wow, now I've got time to do what I want to do. Finally, and I'm going to go off and, you know, do these mad and crazy things that make you feel good. beginning beginning. Yes a new beginning. But when you look at perimenopause and menopause, you have this, it's like a puzzle, really, then you have to have all the things in that, you know, to really get the maximum from your health. And you can top your estrogen levels up with hormone replacement therapy, as estrogen declines. But also progesterone, this is another sex, female sex, hormone declines. And you know, eventually your body stops producing that from your ovaries. So it's really those two key hormones. And then obviously, you've got testosterone in the background there, which declines with age anyway, you know, in everybody. So you know, you've got those three key hormones, and you know, that they're crucial for overall health. You know, estrogen is so, so important. And we can't replace those with food. But what you can do, if you really look after yourself with good nutrition, with good lifestyle habits and a positive mindset, and then you know, if you feel that hormone replacement therapy is right for you, and that fits in with your health and everything, then, you know do it. I say to my clients get the whole picture, you get all the knowledge in front of you, and then it's up to you is your decision, you know, there is many benefits to taking hormone replacement therapy, if that suits you. But once you've got everything there, then you can decide, but you know, you can't just do one of those pieces. If you take hormone replacement therapy, but have a terrible diet and don't exercise and smoke and drink, you're still going to feel terrible. You've got to work on all the different pillars really to to get the maximum benefit.
Lynne O'Halloran:Is there anything else around the nutritional and lifestyle side of the menopause that you want to pass on?
Alison Bladh:There's two key, I mean, there's many, many things you can do, but the two key things really that will make you start feeling better. The first is stress management, and then balancing your blood sugar. Really thinking about your food choices and keeping the blood sugar balance. So because basically, when you eat refined carbohydrates that shoot your blood sugar up, you get into this kind of roller coaster effect of of having high blood sugar, your body then secretes a hormone called insulin, which really helps to take care of the blood sugar, it gets rid of the sugar, it opens up the cells and allows the cells to use that sugar. But once it does that the blood sugar crashes again. And that's when you start craving sweet things again, so then you eat a muffin or whatever it is, and then your blood sugar crashes. So you get into this roller coaster, you know, hot flushes, mood swings, weight gain, insulin is a key hormone, and as we go into menopause, we can become less sensitive to insulin. So that means your body doesn't take care of your blood sugar levels like it should. And that you know that just leads on to an array of other symptoms. So really thinking about what you eat. Eat protein its key. A palm size of protein with every meal is really important for women as well for women in general, especially as we get older, and then having a healthy fats, avocado, olive oil, nuts and seeds, and then having your carbohydrates but getting your carbohydrates from vegetables, you know, green vegetable carbohydrates, you don't actually need to have bread and lots of potatoes and everything with your meal, it's better to get your carbohydrates from from vegetables. And that really helps to keep your blood sugar on balance. And you know, if you're eating rice and things like that always buy whole grain because they're much better for your digestion and don't spike your blood sugar as much. So blood sugar is key. And then the second thing is stress management and stress is so detrimental for a menopausal woman. And it's because of all the things that happen that the hormones that are released when we're chronically stressed, it just cascades into this, you know, lack of sleep, weight gain, cravings, it's really, I think stress management is something that we all tend to think oh, well, I can't, I'm so busy, how am I ever going to be able to you know, manage my stress? But you really have to, you have to give yourself that time to manage your stress. Otherwise, you're going to get to a point where you're maybe not going to be able to work, but you're going to be feeling so terrible. Just little things that you can do just something as simple as deep breathing if you're feeling stressed or overwhelmed.
Lynne O'Halloran:Alongside the menopause, you've got a lot of other potential life changes happening as well with you know, if you're like, say, your children are growing up, and there's issues related to all of that, teenagers, and so on and so forth. And then they might leave home and then that can be quite challenging, I think and cause women to sort of reconsider what it is that they're doing and you know, with their life and you know, that can it can be just a very stressful period of life, regardless of the menopause, really.
Alison Bladh:Yeah, you just have to put yourself first and you always say you know, we've all got this never ending to do list. But your to do list is never going to be done. You can't say oh, I'll start doing stress management, I'll do that when I've done this to do list, but it's never going to be finished is it because there's always new things you're adding to it! So, take 5/10 minutes a day, if that's all the time you've got to just go and do something that you enjoy or just sitting peacefully by a window drinking a cup of tea go and sit outside go for a walk. So so important for our for our overall health really and it's okay to look after yourself. I think we tend to sometimes feel guilty. Don't wait.
Lynne O'Halloran:So my last question, so you can go and have a little bit of me time yourself.! Just tell me quickly what's on your dinner table tonight?
Alison Bladh:That's actually interesting you asked that because I made it early because I knew I wouldn't have time tonight. I made a meatloaf. I actually made it with lots of herbs. I love to grow herbs out in the garden. So like minced lamb all mixed up with with an egg in there and then thyme and rosemary, salt and pepper. Yeah, that was it. So I'm going to have that and then I'm going to have some broccoli. I'm a huge fan of all the broccoli so that's so another wonderful vegetable for women because it really helps your digestion and getting rid of all the hormones that you should excrete through your body. So all of those sorts of vegetables are wonderful for menopausal women. And what else am I having with that? Maybe some beans, some runner beans.
Lynne O'Halloran:That sounds good. My mom used to make meatloaf when we were growing up actually. Great. Well, that is wonderful. It's been really interesting talking to you.
Alison Bladh:Yeah, it's been lovely Lynn, really interesting conversation. Actually very nice to think back about what you ate when you were a child.
Lynne O'Halloran:Thank you so much for being on The What's for Dinner Show. I hope you've enjoyed it. T Thanks for listening. Before I go. Just a little reminder, if you enjoyed the show, please tell your friends. You can share an episode from your podcast player or from my website or you can easily share one of my social media posts on Instagram or Facebook. If you are kind enough to share an episode I'll give you a personal shout out on the show to say thank you. What more could you ask for? Thanks in advance for helping me spread the word about my podcast. Thank you to Rick Simmonds from The Content Podcast podcast for his help and advice and thank you to pixel Bay for the music