Every year I feel traumatized by the number of women conditioned to feel excited about enjoying the 35g of sugar that comes in a Starbucks Pumpkin Spiced Latte in the form of a favoured high fructose corn syrup. Pumpkin Spiced is not a season…It’s more like a pumpkin spice cult!
If there is one sure fire way to tear down your health for the day, it is by kicking yourself into fight or flight using caffeine and doubling down on that assault to your body by severely spiking your blood sugar levels.
Whenever you increase the stress on your body you spike the level of cortisol, our stress hormone, in your body because stress causes your adrenal glands to default to building cortisol in preference to building the drip feed of estrogen and progesterone your body needs as a buffer in peri-menopause and to feel like your old self again in full menopause.
Stress turns off your natural hormonal supply and leaves you with weight gain around the middle and anxiety, low libido and a dry vagina. I said what I said!
But, even I get that the cozy spice vibes are delicious, so every year I lean into the flavour to create recipes that will support your midlife hormonal health and you can feel calm, confident and menopausal symptom free.
In fact warming spices are anti-inflammatory for our bodies helping to reduce your symptoms of menopause and support our thyroid health as they take the stress off this important gland to fire up our metabolism and warm us up from the inside out.
Here is my recipe for a Chai Spice that you can add to my recipe for a health promoting Pumpkin Spiced Latte and my Pumpkin Chai Overnight Oats. It also makes a great Chai tea.
Ingredients
2 tsp ground Cardamon
2 tsp ground Allspice
2 tsp ground Nutmeg
2 tsp ground Cloves
6 tsp ground Ginger
4 tsp ground Cinnamon
freshly ground Black Pepper to taste
Instructions
Mix all of the spices together in a jam jar and use liberally in tea and baking.