Pumpkin Spiced Latte and Pumpkin Spiced Chia Pudding

I was today years old when I googled to find out how much sugar was in a Starbucks Pumpkin Spiced Latte and came up with this answer from The Centre for Science in the Public Interest…

How much sugar is in a pumpkin spice latte?

All told, the grande PSL has 50 grams of sugar. Some of that sugar occurs naturally in the latte's milk. But we estimate that roughly 7½ teaspoons (32 grams) are added sugar, from the PSL's sweet pumpkin sauce and whipped cream. That's more than half the 50-gram Daily Value for added sugar.

The Starbucks Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew isn't much better. A grande packs 250 calories and 31 grams of sugar—much of it added sugar. (There's not much milk...or protein.) Blame its sugary pumpkin cream cold foam plus vanilla syrup.

I was shocked! Why are we celebrating Pumpkin Spiced Latte season?!?!

Sugar and menopause do not mix and women who reduce their consumption of sugar at midlife find it easier to maintain their ideal weight, report reduced symptoms of menopause such as hot flashes, mood swings and foggy thinking and reduce their long term risk of diabetes, Alzheimers disease and cardiovascular disease.

Why is this?

As levels of the hormone estrogen fall in our bodies we are less able to handle sugar on a cellular level. Estrogen is involved in our insulin response (remember, everything in your beautiful body is interconnected) and we shift at midlife towards insulin resistance as estrogen naturally depletes. Insulin resistance is the measured precursor for diabetes.

The impact of sugar is a cyclical storm in midlife womens bodies.

Because excess sugar is felt by our bodies as a stressor and we respond with the production of cortisol, our stress hormone. Cortisol is a hormone stealer. Due to our survival mechanisms, the body will take the building blocks for hormones and build cortisol before it will build progesterone and estrogen and so stress depletes our juicy hormones faster and leaving us even more prone to insulin resistance.

Think muffin top, vaginal dryness and waking anxious at 3am each night.

Whilst this is not fun!!! It is a call to action to put on our big girl panties, create boundaries around foods that tear down our health and learn how to nourish ourselves responsibly.

I jumped into the kitchen to make my own Pumpkin Spice Latte and ended up with more nutrition for my gorgeous midlife body than I anticipated.

I broke open a can of pumpkin puree and was careful not to choose pumpkin pie mix which is packed with sugar. I know i am boosting my daily intake of vitamin A in the form of betacarotene when I make this Latte rather than buying a Latte with pumped in artificial flavour and flavoured, sweetened milk foam.
I picked out my spices with the knowledge that cinnamon is an awesome spice for supporting the body to manage blood sugar levels. It actually primes the receptors on cell walls to receive sugar so that it is not floating around the bloodstream dangerously.
I picked out a hazelnut milk, both for the Fall flavour and because its ingredient list is two items. Water and Hazelnuts. I am not adding gums, preservatives and other junk to my PSL.
Maple syrup is my sweetener of choice because it is rich in the B group of vitamins and chromium. Both of this nutrients are involved in the bodies healthy handling of sugar. I am supporting my body for the job I am asking it to undertake.
I broke my no caffeine rule and added a great locally roasted coffee.

You can find the recipe for this health building Latte below and notice, each Latte only needs 1 tbsp of pumpkin puree.

This left me with a problem as I opened a whole can of puree to make my Autumnal deliciousness!

I can’t stand food waste. One of my toxic traits is having to eat everything on my plate and my Mother grew up with rationing in the war. Now i am stressed and I KNOW that is not good for my juicy hormones!

I raided my refrigerator and decided to make Pumpkin Spiced Chia Pudding for breakfast and snacks.

Taking two more tablespoons of pumpkin puree out of the can, I refrigerated them in glass wear so i know i can make two more seasonal Lattes as the leaves turn in the next couple of weeks. This feels exciting!

I put the rest of the can in a large bowl and began to add nutrition.

Hemp seeds for protein, Chia seeds for fibre and magnesium, our relaxation mineral and the antidote to cortisol and ground flax, the queen of fibres for midlife women as it is packed with anti-inflammatory omega 3 fatty acids (keep it in the refrigerator to prevent these delicate oils from going rancid) and lignins, a plant fibre that mimics estrogen in the body and drip feeds you a gentle, plant based version of your juicy hormone!

I added more of my spices and 2 tbsps of maple syrup, deciding that I was fully embracing the Pumpkin Spiced lifestyle this Fall and topped up with enough hazelnut milk to cover the seeds and fibre.

I have fully run the gamut of emotions with these two recipes.

I was shocked…ladies, if you want to dry out your skin and vagina, tank your libido and push yourself towards insulin resistance, the PSL is your drink of choice.

FOMO (Fear of missing out) and self-pity! Why can’t I have an Autumnal treat too?!?!? whah!

Empowered…where is my can opener because i am putting pumpkin in something today!
Guilt…Am I really going to waste this whole can of gorgeous orange nutrition on a Latte

And…Smug and Abundant…. Look at me now with my delicious, healthy breakfasts stacked up in my refrigerator for next week. I am winning at life!

Scroll down to the recipes, treat yourself and join me on this journey!

Pumpkin Spiced Latte Ingredients

1 tbsp Pumpkin Puree (not pie mix)

1 cup Hazelnut milk or other milk alternative

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 pinch nutmeg

Good coffee to taste

1 tbsp Maple syrup
I would consider adding collagen powder for protein with the spices and stirring in coconut butter with the maple syrup to further boost the nutrition and flavour in this beverage.

Instructions

Make your coffee in the usual way
Heat 1 cup milk and pumpkin puree together in a large mug on the stove top or in a microwave
Add spices to the heated milk and whisk
Add coffee to taste
Sweeten with Maple syrup

Pumpkin Spiced Chia Pudding Ingredients

3/4 can of pumpkin puree
6 tbsp chia seeds
2 tbsp ground flax
2 tbsp hemp seeds
3 cups hazelnut milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 tbsp maple syrup

Instructions

Add the pumpkin puree, spices, seeds and ground flax to a large bowl.
stir in the milk so that all of the ingredients are evenly distributed
Add the maple syrup to sweeten
Store in portioned containers in the refrigerator to enjoy for breakfast and snacks.

Lemon Balm and Sage Lemonade

The conversation is real; in facebook groups for midlife women, in my one-on-one consulting calls with my clients and in online pleas for recommendations for cooling sheets, decent fans and sweat blocking procedures…it has been the summer of the HOT FLASH!

Peri-menopause in a climate crisis, as temperature reach new all time highs, is uncomfortable, sweaty and under boob rash inducing.

Hot nights make it hard to sleep. Heat waves result in day after day of top lip sweating and feeling like a gross hot mess as you shower for the third time in a day.

Hot flashes are one of the more uncomfortable and most widely recognized symptoms of peri-menopause and within this symptom there is A LOT to unpack.

New research into midlife womens health tells us that severe and frequent hot flashes, especially at an earlier age for menopause is a valuable predictor of a cardiac event later in life. This makes your hot flash a symptom of something far more serious than natural hormonal change and every woman should consider adjusting her diet to one that is more heart healthy at midlife. Think increased fibre, zero inflammatory trans fats and seed or vegetable oils and reduced sugar.

We know that hot flashes can be reduced when we reduce our intake of sugar caffeine and alcohol. All of these ‘foods’ spike our blood sugar level and evidence is mounting that the hot flashes are induced by the blood sugar crash that comes after the spike. There is also evidence that hot flashes are linked to insulin resistance, the precursor to diabetes. AGAIN, increased fibre and healthy fats coupled with protein with each meal will help us to balance our blood sugar levels.

When cortisol our stress hormone dominates our hormone profile we can feel an increase in both hot flashes and anxiety so reducing stress and remaining ‘chill’ is the antidote to these sweaty episodes.

There are also some foods that straight up reduce the incidence of hot flashes.

We have LOTS that we can work with to empower ourselves around our personal health and help ourselves out when it comes to uncomfortable hot flashes.

These steps of reducing sugar, reducing stress and eating more fibre and healthy fats, not only allow us to sail calmly with more comfort through hormonal change, but are also positively impacting our overall health reducing our incidence of diabetes and cardiac arrest.

Before over-riding the process our bodies in with HRT, these health-building diet and lifestyle changes are the steps our doctors should be recommending to us when we go in for an appointment.

What could be more delicious on a hot day than a cooling glass of chilled lemonade that supports our bodies in reducing this uncomfortable and embarrassing symptom.

Enter Lemon Balm and Sage Lemonade.

Lemon Balm is,a herb that has been used since medieval times to reduce anxiety and promote restful sleep. Like many herbs, it is a powerful medicine and can reduce cortisol levels in the blood stream. It is not for you however if you are taking hypothyroid medication or retroviral medication as it can interact in the body with this medicine. For this recipe i used dried Lemon Balm to make a tea but you can steep a handful of fresh lemon balm leaves if you grow a plant at home in your yard.

Sage is the herb you serve with your Thanks Giving turkey and can be found in most grocery stores or grown easily at home. Sage has been found to reduce the incidence of hot flashes by 50% in clinical trials carried out in midlife women. Read that again 50%.

Can you imagine if this was a drug??? We would all be recommended to take sage by our doctors and there would be publicity in womens magazines and on TV.

Because sage is just a herb you can grow at home in your yard for cents and because our medical providers are profit based, we do not get to hear about sage and its clinical trials or receive this information. We are extremely lucky to have clinical trials carried out at all on such a ubiquitous pantry staple but sage should be tucked into every womans shopping cart, to be steeped into a herbal tasting tea for the relief of one of the most ubiquitous symptoms of hormonal change.

For this recipe I steeped a flavourful tea made of dried lemon balm, fresh sage leaves and lemon rind before juicing the lemons and adding honey to make a delicious lemonade.

Ingredients

1 tbsp dried lemon balm

1 handful fresh sage leaves

1 litre/32 floz filtered water boiled

4 lemons

2 tbsp local raw honey

Instructions

Add the dried lemon balm, fresh sage and the peel from the lemons to a large jug or container.

Pour over the boiling water and leave the herbs and lemon to steep for 20 minutes to make a strong tea

Filter the herbs from the tea using a sieve or coffee filter

Add the juice of the four lemons and 2 tbsp of local raw honey stirring to combine

Chill the lemonade in the refrigerator and serve over ice adding sparkling water if it is to your taste.

Sip in the shade and feel the chill wash over your body

Tomato and Nectarine Salad

We may be rapidly moving into fall but it is still unseasonably warm where I live which offers the perfect opportunity to reach for the end of season produce. Local tomatoes are still abundant and the last of the seasons peaches and nectarines sit side by side in the store with ripe corn. It is an abundant time of year!

This recipe takes only ten minutes to prepare and is a perfect example of how easy it is to eat local, seasonal whole foods. Visually it is exciting for the eye and the high vitamin C and fresh flavour dances on the taste buds.

Just three seasonal ingredients are simply combined with good olive oil and sea salt so that their natural flavours can excite the palate.

This salad offers the opportunity to step out of the supermarket with its bland and well-travelled produce to visit the farmers market, grow basil and tomatoes in your own back yard or on a balcony and experiment with the fuller flavours of heritage varieties of common fruits and vegetables.

This recipe and seasonal eating in general is an opportunity to take one tiny step in healing the disconnect from our ecosystem we experience in our modern lives.

In the modern world we inhabit, many of us are separated from nature and the ecosystem in which we live. This divide from nature around us impacts our health in very real and measurable ways.
There are numerous studies that explain how intricately we are intertwined with our environment.

When we get outside into morning sunlight we sleep better at night as morning sunlight resets our brains for bedtime and increases the amount of melatonin, sleep hormone, we produce.

There is evidence to suggest that women who enjoy more green spaces in their environment experience reduced stress and better health outcomes including lower blood pressure and that the absence of green spaces around us increases the stress hormone cortisol in our bodies. The impact of green spaces around us is greater on womens bodies than on mens.

Research goes as far as to explicitly demonstrate that women who live near green spaces are less likely to suffer the symptoms of PMS including better sleep, less breast pain and bloating and reduced incidence of depression.

In a study of families who garden and eat their own produce at least once a week and families who don’t, gardening families were found to have significantly more diversity in their microbiome during gardening season and to consume greater amounts of fibre, vitamin C and the antioxidant selenium.
From the study:
’Changes in gut microbiota composition in urbanized regions have been linked to the rise of inflammatory and non-communicable diseases37. Evidence suggests that fibrous diets22 and environmental interactions38 can increase exposure to beneficial bacteria and potentially mediate this disease prevalence. Gardening remains the primary source of soil contact in the modern era and provides access to fibrous fruits and vegetables.’ It is clear that humans are primed to interact with the soil microbiome and our environment in order to create optimum health in the body.

Even just standing barefoot on the earth or ‘grounding’ has been shown to reduce pain, cortisol levels and inflammation in our bodies and can reduce the electronic pollution that comes from an office cubical environment and a wireless connected world. (Turns out the hippies were right!)

In a world where we are disconnected from nature, overworked, cubical based and stressed. This recipe is a plea to step away from the hand sanitizer, get your hands dirty and grow your own tomatoes, nurture a pot of basil on your window ledge and interact through seasonal foods with the ecosystem of which we are a part. Your health depends on it!

Ingredients

2 large hands full of ripe cherry tomatoes (about 2 cups) halved

1 very ripe nectarine

1 large pinch of sea salt

1/2 cup chopped basil
2 tbsp olive oil to drizzle

Sharp cheese, feta cheese or burrata

Instructions

Slice the ripe cherry tomatoes in half and pile into a bowl.
Cut the nectarine in half and then dice into cubes and add to the bowl.

Sprinkle the tomatoes and nectarine with sea salt to get the juices running

Drizzle with good quality olive oil

Chop or tear up the basil and sir into the fruits and oil

Serve at room temperature to let the flavours shine. Pair with with sharp cheese, combine with cubes of feta cheese or pile the salad around a fresh burrata cheese on a plate.