Roasted Cauliflower, Pistachio and Pomegranate Salad.

It is hard to emphasize the importance of cruciferous vegetables to women going through hormonal change.

Let’s take a step back and reacquaint ourselves with what is happening inside our bodies…

As we move through peri-menopause, our chill and juicy hormones of progesterone and estrogen begin to deplete. This is not a smooth curve down to our ovaries retirement, but is full of spikes and crashes of hormone. We are living animals and the organs of our body do their utmost to function to the best of their ability. As they splutter to a halt our ovaries can gather the building blocks for manufacturing estrogen only to spurt an excessive amount into the bloodstream. We can go from zero to 60 from one week to the next and our health needs to be good enough to handle these changes so we experience the least amount of symptoms and can roll with them with grace.

The organ helping us out here is the liver. Our liver grabs excess hormone from the bloodstream and deconjugates, or breaks it down into compounds that can be easily removed from the body via our poop. The magical daily detox!

If you have constipation, you are going to have issues with feeling excessive symptoms of hormonal change.

If you do not like vegetables or fibre in your diet…think standard American diet where 95% of people are deficient in fibre, then you are going to experience excessive symptoms of hormonal change.

The food we eat changes our experience of menopause.

Cruciferous vegetables support us by offering the body fibre and a healthy serving of a compound called 3,3-Diindolylmethane. This is the compound that gives cruciferous vegetables their cabbagey smell. It also helps the liver in its process of breaking down hormone. You have the fibre for the poop and the fuel for grabbing and smashing up the hormones that are driving you crazy with symptoms.

Eating cruciferous veg regularly in your diet, throughout menopause means you have constant liver support, reduced constipation and a reduction in your hot flashes, mood swings, breast pain and bloat.

Cruciferous vegetables are all those in the cabbage family.

Think red and green cabbages, kale, cauliflower, collard greens, broccoli and Brussels sprouts.

We wouldn’t want to just eat boiled cabbage…that would be punishing! But this Cauliflower Salad with its burst of Middle Eastern flavour is something you are going to want to ladle onto our plate.

For this dish I roasted a stunningly beautiful, lime green, romanesco cauliflower but a regular white cauliflower or broccoli would be great too.

The roasted veg is paired with nuts, pomegranate seeds and the warming spice blend Baharat from Turkey. Think black pepper, cardamon, cloves, paprika and nutmeg.

The beauty of using nutrition as your first line of defence against menopausal symptoms is that as you nourish your body with these gorgeous crucifers, you are also protecting your heart health, preventing colon cancer and introducing an easily absorbed plant based source of calcium into your diet…as well as delighting your taste buds.

Ingredients

1 medium cauliflower or 1lb of broccoli
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
5 tbsp raw pistachios or hazelnuts
1/3rd cup pomegranate seeds fresh or frozen ( approx 1/2 a pomegranate)
2 sticks celery sliced on the diagonal
1/3rd cup roughly chopped parsley
1 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
1 tsp Baharat spice mix.
1/2 tsp sea salt

Instructions

Toss the cauliflower or broccoli in 2 tbsp of olive oil
Roast in the over a 400F /200C for 20 minutes.
Add the pistachios or hazelnuts for the last 5 minutes of roasting the cauliflower to toast them and bring out the flavour.
Meanwhile chop the celery and parsley and prepare the pomegranate seeds
In the bottom of a bowl whisk the remaining 2 tbsp of olive oil, 1 tbsp of Balsamic vinegar, the Baharat spice mix and the salt.
Add all of the ingredients to the bowl and toss in the dressing.
Serve with roasted chicken or salmon.

Turkey Herb Breakfast Patties

When our hormones start to fluctuate at midlife, there are long term health implications for us as women, outside of our midlife experience of menopause and it’s sometimes uncomfortable symptoms.

Hormonal change is not a cause, but a risk factor for poor cardiovascular health, dementia and Alzheimers disease.

Estrogen holds a protective effect over both our metabolic health and the neurons of our brain. As estrogen depletes we are pushed, incrementally, towards insulin resistance; which has implications for our brain and cardiovascular health and experience a pruning of our neurons; which has implications for our brain health and would explain our brain futzes and short temper at midlife.

This can feel horrifying to learn and can cause us to feel overwhelmed and helpless. Many women DREAD menopause and our perception of the process of hormonal change impacts our symptoms with negativity resulting in stronger and more uncomfortable symptoms.

It’s good to take a deep breathe, step out of fear and get some perspective as, in reality, the gold standard for protecting both our brain health and our cardiovascular health as we age is still nutrition, reducing stress and exercise.

Regardless of being women and experiencing hormonal change at midlife, we have all the tools we need to protect ourselves from future health complications.

One of the most impactful ways we can support our health for the future is to take great care with our diet to balance our blood sugar levels on a daily basis. No more sugar roller-coaster with its energy buzzes and crashes, mood swings and exhaustion. Just calm, consistent energy throughout the day.

Believe it or not, this can be challenging.

1. We live in a terrain that is OVERLOADED with sugar in every product we buy. It takes effort and stepping outside of the Standard American Diet to break-up with sugar.

2. If we are addicted to cortisol, our stress hormone, we REALLY enjoy the sugar roller-coaster and it is hard to let it go. Scan your life for clues and notice where you are drawing stress in…overeating for a sugar-high, an argument for no reason or a coffee to get amped up.

3. Our microbiome can become unhealthily overgrown with yeasts due to years of excess sugar in our diet (hello those with a sweet tooth!) and when we suddenly cut back on sugar, we experience nasty flu-like symptoms and off-the-chain sugar cravings as Candida yeasts demand sugar from our brain.

One of the ways we can release the grip of sugar from our bodies is by eating a healthy, sugar-free breakfast, packed with protein, healthy fats and fibre on a daily basis. These make-ahead Turkey and Herb Patties will help you to follow through on your health goals at breakfast.

The protein found in turkey is rich in the amino acid, tryptophan. Tryptophan is a building block for both serotonin and melatonin in the body. When we eat turkey we are helping ourselves to keep our mood balanced and our sleep consistent.

By adding herbs and garlic to this recipe, not only do we pack in deliciousness and flavour, but we are supporting a healthy microbiome and a reduction in our sugar cravings. Garlic and sage are toxic to Candida, the unhealthy yeast that can take hold of our microbiome. As Candida dies off, you may feel headachy and low in energy but, balance is being created in your microbiome for healthy microbes, that help you to metabolize excess estrogen from the body and will bring a reduction in menopausal symptoms.

By eating these patties with eggs and vegetables in the morning, you are increasing the amount of protein you ingest at the beginning of the day. Breakfast is the most important meal for balancing blood sugar levels and climbing off that roller-coaster.

When you ditch the unhealthy, but well advertised, box cereal breakfast, the muffins and the doughnuts, you give your brain and your body the steady energy it needs to get through your morning

Additional protein with your meals at midlife is also supportive of tissue health and with exercise, such as lifting weights, prevents muscle wasting as we age. When we maintain muscle in our glutes, thighs and hips, we are protecting our mobility and also our continence!

Make and cook these patties ahead and store them in a sealed container in the refrigerator for a week to make protein at breakfast a breeze!

Ingredients

1lb ground organic turkey thigh
2 tbsp chopped fresh sage or 1 tbsp dried sage (use fresh sage if you can, it’s delicious!)
3 green onions finely chopped
1 bunch parsley finely chopped
1 clove garlic minced
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper

Instructions

Put all of the ingredients in a large bowl and combine using your hands
Go lightly and try not to overwork
Preheat the oven to 350F 175C
Line a large baking tray with parchment
Take a table spoon of the mix at a time and form a patty in your hands
Place the patties on the baking tray and bake for 30 minutes until cooked through
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator to reheat at breakfast
Patties will keep for a week in the refrigerator and can be frozen for up to 3 months

Tiramisu Chia Pudding

This recipe is dedicated to those midlife women who are in a committed relationship with coffee!

I work with many women who come into my practice swearing that they cannot give up the daily caffeine hit that is keeping them going.

I get it! I used to be a caffeine addict myself and at one point in my burn-out, I felt like my daily trip to Starbucks was the only thing keeping me going!

It is tough when we get the energy crutch kicked out from underneath us, when we learn how caffeine triggers the fight-or-flight response in our brains, causing our adrenal glands to flood the bloodstream with cortisol and glucose. Cortisol is our stress hormone and is detrimental to our cardiovascular and brain health. It makes us feel jittery in the day and steals our sleep at night. We feel that caffeine buzz and are all prepared to fight a bear or run from a lion, but in reality we are probably sat in traffic, sat at our desk or driving the kids to a swim meet!

Remember: It is the role of our adrenal glands to drip feed our midlife bodies with estrogen once our ovaries have reached their well deserved rest. When we are strung out on caffeine and spiking our bloodstream with cortisol and glucose daily, our adrenal glands do not have the capacity to take on this additional task. They are over-extended and burnt-out. Sounds familiar right?!?

What this looks like in your body, is going off a cliff into menopausal symptoms in peri-menopause with no back-up or relief from your adrenal glands. Think crashed libido, exhaustion, uncontrollable hot flashes and weight gain around the middle.

When we draw down our ‘stress-load’, that is, ALL of the foods and lifestyle choices that trigger us into a stressful state, we are going to have an easier experience of menopause because our adrenal glands will be available to support us through this transition.

All of this being said, wouldn’t it be nice to have a little taste of coffee now and again.

This recipe is designed to give you that caffeine hug you love, but with other deeply nutritious ingredients that help you body manage stress and cope with the cortisol and glucose hit that caffeine brings.

If adding goodness and nutrition to your coffee fix appeals to you, you might like my recipe for Pumpkin Spiced Latte!

I used my Homemade Hemp milk to make this recipe and you can find the recipe here.

By making a 1/2 cup of coffee using an adaptogenic coffee mix from Four Sigmatic containing the adaptogen Ashwagandha, you are able to support your adrenal health as you enjoy caffeine.

Adaptogens are safe plants and mushrooms with thousands of years of use in Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine. They help the body to manage stress and bring the body back to homeostasis or balance. They support and boost the bodies natural processes for handling stress and they aid in recovery from exercise and mental stress. There are thousands of years of use and a comprehensive body of research carried out on adaptogens, much recent research in the field of elite athletics. As this research has been carried out overseas, in countries such as Russia, India and China, it has not been recognized by organizations such as the FDA, but the solid clinical trials are extensive.

Chia seeds are packed with our relaxation mineral, magnesium which is depleted when we drink coffee, and also provides anti-inflammatory nutrition for our brain in the form of omega 3 fatty acids, which help to reduce anxiety. The fibre in chia seeds also helps us to manage the excess hormone spikes of peri-menopause, by clearing excess estrogen from the body, which in turn reduces the severity of our symptoms. I cannot stress how important it is for women in hormonal change to keep our basic daily detox pathway open (I’m talking a daily poop here ladies!) because it is so effective in reducing our symptoms of menopause. Chia seeds will help you to poop everyday.

Raw cacao has been shown in clinical trials to boost serotonin, our happy neurotransmitter, in the brain. This helps to combat the anxious, jittery buzz of caffeine with a boost to our happiness. Cacao is also packed with our relaxation mineral, magnesium, as well as energizing iron and the B group of vitamins which protect our nervous system.

I used dates as a natural sugar for this pudding as they too, provide the body with iron and the B group of vitamins.

My goal with this recipe was to create an indulgent breakfast recipe that gives you the coffee flavour you love in the morning coupled with all of the nutrition the body needs to feel supported through the fight or flight response that gets triggered by this molecule.

A have your pudding and eat it situation!

Ingredients

1 sachet of Four Sigmatic Ashwagandha Coffee mix in 1/2 cup boiling filtered water
1/2 cup raw cacao
4 dates pitted
1/3 cup chia seeds
3 cups Homemade Hemp Milk or other plant based milk
A pinch of salt to taste if you desire

Instructions

Take the coffee mix and make into a coffee shot with 1/2 cup boiling filtered water.
Add to a blender with the raw cacao, hemp milk, dates and a pinch of salt if desired.
Blend to form a rich and sweet mocha milk
Add to the chia seeds in a bowl and stir
Put into a glass container, seal and leave overnight in the refrigerator to set
By morning the mix should be a solid pudding and ready to serve.
Add nuts and seeds for more protein and healthy fats and frozen fruit for anti-oxidants and more fibre.


N.B. If you would like a smooth pudding texture, add the seeds to the blender with the other ingredients and allow to set in the refrigerator overnight as above.