Eating well is important at any age, but can play a big part in how we feel when we reach perimenopause and menopause in our 40s and 50s. But with so much information out there, it can be a challenge to find a way of eating that works. In this article, Ela Law, a nutritionist and Certified Intuitive Eating Counsellor is sharing her 5 tips to eat well in your 40s and 50s without food guilt and restriction with you.
Quit dieting
Ela uses a non-diet approach in her work. Stepping away from diets can be challenging, but there are some great reasons for why you may want to consider doing exactly that:
- Diets are the single best predictor of future weight gain – restricting energy intake (aka calories) can negatively affect the metabolism, making it more efficient and therefore more likely for the body to gain weight.
- Restricting foods can lead to cravings, disordered eating, mental health issues and generally feeling miserable – not ideal when perimenopause is playing havoc with our hormones and emotions anyway. Feeding yourself enough and regularly can help stabilise your blood sugar levels and mood.
- Obsession about what, when and how we eat can make us so preoccupied with food that we forget to be present in the moment. At this stage in life, many women start to re-evaluate their lives, have gained a bit more freedom after raising children, or feel like it’s time for a new direction. Giving yourself the brain-space to reflect and redirect is difficult when the focus is on dieting and weight-loss.
- Focusing on wellbeing is significantly more health promoting than focusing on weight; weight does not determine health and health behaviours such as moving/exercising regularly, eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, not smoking and keeping your alcohol intake to a minimum are all health promoting, regardless of body size.
Add rather than take away!
Adding more fruit and vegetables, fibre-rich foods, pulses, nuts and seeds into your diet can be a game changer, in particular when you reach your 40s and 50s. These foods aid our immune system, our skin health, our digestive system and provide us with vital nutrients to keep hormones in check. Whilst there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ perimenopause diet, adding these foods in can make a big difference to your wellbeing. And it doesn’t mean you have to shun the cake and ditch the chocolates, all foods have a place in intuitive eating.
Eat mindfully
How often do we eat on the go or whilst doing something else? Mindful eating doesn’t mean you have to take an hour for each meal every day. But eating without distraction can be very helpful if we want to eat intuitively. It helps us listen to our hunger and fullness cues, allows us to check in with whether we are enjoying our food or not, and lets us eat more slowly and chew more thoroughly. This, in turn, is good news if you suffer from indigestion and acid reflux, which is something many people start to experience more frequently during their 40s and 50s.
Stay hydrated
We are made up of about 75% water, so water is an element that is needed for most bodily processes. Drinking enough water is important for so many things:
- Regulating blood pressure and heart rate
- Flushing bacteria out of your body
- Nutrient transport
- Digestion
- Regulating body temperature
- Preventing constipation
- Concentration
- Preventing headaches
If you aim for 6-8 cups of water/fluids (other drinks apart from alcohol count towards your intake as well) a day, you are doing great.
Eat without guilt
So many women have spent decades dieting and worrying about their weight. Many feel immense sadness at having ‘wasted’ many years on obsessing about food rather than being present in the moment. Instead of giving food a moral value of ‘good’ or ‘bad’, seeing it as fuel, nourishment and enjoyment can be a game changer and help you relish all foods for their flavour, texture and how they make you feel.Nutrition is absolutely important, but so is eating with joy and without guilt.
