SPEAKER_01 0:13

Hello and welcome back to Empower Your Meni Pause, a podcast where we ditch out this advice and give you real tools to help you thrive through midlife and beyond. It's Coach James here, and with me I've got my co-host, Coach Julie. Today we're tacking one of those confusing and misunderstood nutrition topics for women of 40. Can you guess what it is yet? It's not fats. We're going to talk about carbohydrates. If you've been told to cook carbs to lose weight or feel better in midlife, just hold that advice for a little bit because your body deserves better than advice that might not serve you and a side order of guilt as well. So we're going to try and break down what carbs actually are, what ones work at this time of life, what ones don't, and why eating the right ones might just change everything. Your energy, your mood, your cravings, even potentially your sleep. And the good news is that yes, you can eat carbohydrates. Let's talk about how to do that in a way that actually empowers your menopause one smart bite at a time. So, Julie, you prompted this discussion today. Let's talk about why we're actually talking about this. Why is it important, do you think?

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Well, it's it is one of those things I hear all the time. I know you do as well from our clients. And women say, Oh no, I have to cut carbs. Carbs are bad. Carbs make me gain weight. I, you know, I just look at a plate of pasta and I blow up a five pound, right? I feel bloated every time I eat bread. And I let's first of all, I want to be really clear. If you have effects after eating a food, if it makes you feel bad, if it makes you feel gassy or bloated, it's important to listen to your body. Um, because you know, especially like if if you eat something in two or three two hours later, maybe you just have indigestion, you feel really tired and sleepy. It might be signs a sign that your body just isn't responding to it very well. And in our society, we've become really, really good at ignoring these things. And that's great for antacid manufacturers and all of these pill makers, but it's not so good for our health and and for our bodies. So, you know, I I this is near and dear to my heart because there was a time in my life when I was on the carb cutting bandwagon thinking that every carb was bad, and and um I avoided anything with any remote hint of starch in it. And I I ended up having some really bad health symptoms, I guess. I I won't say health issues necessarily, but I was lethargic, I had a lot of brain fog, I was constantly craving sugar, and I ended up on this restriction and binge cycle because I'd get to a point where my body was just saying, I must have good food now, you know. So then you get to the point where you eat just about anything. And it it always comes back to blaming willpower, right? I'm just not if I could just, I'm just not strong enough, I need more willpower. And and it's such a common theme, especially these days with our clients, there's so much talk about food and what to eat and what not to eat in menopause because our bodies have different needs. And and I just thought this would be a really good thing to address because women at this at this stage of life need the right kind of carbohydrates. So, you know, we want to educate you on what that means, what carbs actually are and look like, because there's a lot of misinformation. I don't like that word, but a lot of myths and misunderstandings about what carbs are and and what they do for your body. So I have you got some extra thoughts on that, James?

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Well, I suppose the the key thing is that your food trends tend to be cyclical, right? We go through phases of you know, the next big diet idea. One minute we're all supposed to cut out carbs and that's supposed to help, then the next minute we're all supposed to cut out fats, then the next minute we're all supposed to go vegan, and then the next minute we're all expected to be carnivores, or you know, eggs are bad because they contain cholesterol, and you know, the truth is that all that does is start imposing these really mad food rules upon us. I was thinking about this today, yeah, it's stretching away from the subject a little bit, but you know, I've got clients in the past who've come to me and said I'd like to go vegan because I've heard that that helps, but then they go vegan and they don't have a wide range of fruit and vegetables, they just eat really crappy meat substitutes from a supermarket instead of actually eating fruits and vegetables, and so they're just eating as much processed food, so they're not cleaning up their diet in any way, whatever cleaning might mean in inverted commas. And so I think the thing, same thing goes with carbs as well. You know, every so often you will get you know recycling of things like Atkins, where suddenly we all eat loads of protein or lots of fat, or keto, where we cook carbs really, really to like super low levels. And I'm not saying that there aren't times when some of those diets might work, they tend to be when you're younger and earlier in in life, and really when you get to 40 plus, the best approach is to have an informed approach as to what all the different macro and micronutrients do for you, and to work out how that serves you on a personal level rather than trying to go by some kind of strict, straight-jacketed thing. Women over 40 have had, and women in general have had these sort of like ideas thrust on them for years and years and years about what health is supposed to look like, and often the eating that is meant to produce that health is anything but healthy because not only does it restrict their body from all kinds of different nutrients that they need, um, but it also starts to bring in this idea of food rules. When we don't follow food rules, you've touched on this before, you start to feel food shame, and particularly if you're eating what you think is meant to be clean and it's not working for you, then your head's all over the place, right? So I feel it just creates a lot of confusion when we try and cut whole food groups out without being properly informed by it. So that's kind of what I where I come from today is just trying to clarify exactly what are carbs. I mean, one of the things that I always find funny is that when people come to see us for the first time, quite often they don't realise that things like fruit and vegetables are carbs, they just automatically assume it's bread, potatoes, pasta, and and and rice. And so I think clearing up some of those things is really really important, and as we go through this, we'll talk about that, but I think we'll also talk as well about what carbs are important for because when you start cutting them, you're cutting a whole lot of things out of your diet that you you actually need, right? Yeah, not least vitamins and minerals. Yeah, so it's a real for sure, it's a real challenge. So I I suppose a good place to start then is to talk about defining carbs because it is a word that gets demonized, it's completely misunderstood. So effectively, we're talking about one of the three big macronutrients, right? So you've got carbohydrates, you've got protein, you've got fats. Carbohydrates are just a macronutrient that's made up of three elements carbon hydrogen and oxygen, that's where the name comes from. As I said before, it does include fruit, it includes vegetables, it includes legumes, grains, even some dairy. So it's not just bread, biscuits, pasta, um that kind of stuff. I think it's important to talk about the different types of carbohydrates, so we're all on the same page there. So they're kind of two big groups. You've got your simple or your refined carbohydrates, and you've got your complex, more fibre-rich ones. So simple carbs are tend to be sugars or forms of sugar, they're broken down, they're used by the body very, very quickly, and that results in a really quick spike of energy, followed by a crash because they spike your blood sugar, and then your blood sugar falls quite quickly because that energy is readily available to the body. Now, at a time when blood sugar balance is challenged by the falling estrogen that comes with the menopause transition, you've already got a struggle with blood sugar balance there. So, throwing in simple carbohydrates, like all those sugars and things like that, can be an additional challenge. So, what kind of things are we talking about? Well, typically, simple carbohydrates can be added to food. So, think about things like roast roast sugar, uh HFTS, high fructose corn syrup that you find in things like soft drinks and things like that, or concentrated fruit juices. So they can be hidden in a lot of foods, particularly processed foods. And then foods that contain lots of simple sugars are things like those, you know, and this is I suppose what gets me is that when people talk about not eating carbs, really, maybe simple sugars should be the thing that people are trying to restrict or cut. So you've got things like baked goods, soda, or if you're in the US, or pop if you're over here in the UK, really highly processed fruit juices, cereals, cookies, those kind of things. And um so that's a that's a real that is a challenge there because we're trying not to increase blood sugar spikes at this time of life. So that is simple carbs. Then you've got your complex carbs, these tend to break down into two other groups, which are starches and fibre, they take longer to break down. The starchy ones they tend to provide steady energy. If um you're like me, you run a long way or you do a lot of long distance cardio, you know, steady energy from starches is absolutely uh imperative for for your for your performance. Um, and then the the other flip side is fibre that improves digestion. We absolutely need fibre in our diets for our digestive system to work, and again, bioelimination, the processing of foods and the elimination of bits of things in our body, whether it be the remnants of foods or spent hormones or whatever, the way that they're actually detoxified from the body and removed from the body by trans biotransformation is really really key at this time in life, and so having a good digestive system is absolutely important, not to mention all the stuff that we've touched on in other episodes in the past that you can go back and look at. But things like your gut health and things like that, your your microbiotes are all influenced by fibre. I think it's key to talk about the fact that you know cutting carbohydrates and then needing to spend a lot of money on multivitamins kind of seems like of a false economy to me when you can go and you can buy you know like lots of healthy fruit and vegetables, lots and lots of different colours that will fulfill many of your vitamin and and mineral needs, and so and and not all of them, but you know, there are things like intensive farming that has reduced magnesium in food and that kind of stuff, but that's getting down into the nitty-gritty here. You know, let's just talk about the fact that fruits, vegetables, grains, all those kind of things have a purpose, and one of those purposes is that they have vitamins and minerals in them as well. And like I said before, you know, a lot of our clients actually don't realise that fruit and veggies are carbs too. So, you know, within the whole complex carb thing, we've also got two breakdowns as well. I suppose one of them is the starchier carbs, so they'd be things like um potatoes, grains, things like that, and then you've got your non-starchy carbs, low in calories, low in um carbohydrates, and low in sugar, things like your classic, more salady vegetables, things like lettuce, cucumber, celery, tomatoes, peppers, all those kind of things are lower in starch. So they're high in water, high in fibre, high in nutrients, and really low calories. So if you're really, really hungry, eating more non-starchy carbs via veggies are really, really, really good way to go. So, take homes, then I suppose two types of carbs, you've got simple and complex, then complex carbs kind of break down into starches and fibre. Those simple carbs digest really quickly and can spite your blood sugar balance. Uh, complex carbs digest more slowly, and in this case, you know, slow is better. So now we've talked a little bit, or I've rambled on rather, about the different types of carbohydrates. Julie, why don't you just take us through why this is important at this time of life? You know, what role do carbohydrates play in the body? How do they how do they help? Why are they needed and why is cutting them probably not the way to go?

SPEAKER_00 13:45

Sure. And this this is important. I I think they're again, these are things that are just completely misunderstood because we need carbs to help regulate our hormones. When you look at the dropping levels of estrogen as we go through menopause and even in perimenopause, when it's spiking and dropping and spiking, it's on that roller coaster. Um, our endocrine system likes to stay in harmony, shall I say? So when our pancreas is having to produce a ton of insulin and we're extra stressed, and we've got all this cortisol flowing through from our adrenal glands, that creates a lot of havoc because insulin and cortisol basically have opposite effects. So when we're super stressed, we have higher levels of cortisol, our insulin, we become more insulin resistant. We can't absorb that, and we can't, it it affects our blood sugar balance, as you were saying, and it can make menopause symptoms a lot worse. And we we start losing all of the protective effects of estrogen on our digestive tract, and that sends signals in all kinds of different directions. We do need carbs because they fuel our brain. Our blood's our brain's main source of of energy is glucose, and that is part of the digestive process of of certain carbohydrates. So we need that, and it they support our our nervous system, and you know, anxia higher anxiety and depression are our depressive symptoms, are things that women often experience during menopause. So we want to support our nervous system to help um what I want to say, bring that likelihood down a few notches, um because between stress and fluctuating hormone levels, our nervous system is in a bit of flux. So the other thing that's really important because again, we have estrogen receptors all through our bodies and especially in our digestive tract, most of the serotonin in our body, I think it's like 70%, is produced in our um in our guts, in our digestive tract. So when we're not getting the fiber and the minerals and the things that we need from the carbohydrate foods, those non-starchy carbs or those complex carbs, it affects our it affects our serotonin levels, which affects our moods, which affects it affects our brain function, which affects our mental clarity. And brain fog, again, is a really common menopause symptom. And because most of our immune system resides in our gut, we're affecting our the function of our immune system. So we were when especially when we have more stress, that that lowered immune system or less optimally functioning immune system can mean we get sicker more often or we just don't feel well. The other thing is carbs can help with exercise recovery, especially if you're doing something intense, you need to replenish the the um your your um muscular fuel, you need to have that recovery, and so carbohydrates are important with it. The other thing is when we when we time the intake of carbohydrates well, um it also can help align, because we're talking about cortisol levels and um insulin levels, it can help regulate our cortisol levels better and keep us more in align with our circadian rhythm. Our cortisol levels are meant to be higher in the morning and lower at night. So when we're stressed all the time, um, and I know a lot of women when they get really stressed, they crave carbohydrates and they crave the starchy foods. So if we allow ourselves some of those um starchy carbohydrates, but the high fiber, low process, close to nature kind of carbohydrates in the evening, it can actually help lower our cortisol levels a little bit and help us prepare for a more restful night of sleep. Um portion size, well, you know, we'll talk a little bit more about this again later, but portion size is key. And I think this is where most people trip up because we're used to seeing baskets of bread and platters of pasta, and portion sizes are so blown out of out of control that we don't really understand because a portion of carbohydrates is much smaller than you may think, of starchy carbohydrates. Let me specify that. So if you hold your hand in front of you with the palm facing up and then cup your hand, what fits inside of your cupped hand is a portion of carbohydrate starchy carbohydrates. So that's one certain Yeah, for those on YouTube. I'm I'm trying to be descriptive for the audio, but um but yeah, so your cupped your cupped hand is a poor a serving of of starchy carbohydrates. So when you're thinking about bloating or losing trying to lose weight, it isn't always the carbs themselves that are contributing to your struggles, it's the portion sizes that we eat, and then we just become completely desensitized to what our bodies actually need. And when you're talking about non-starchy carbohydrates, one portion size would be the size of your fist. And we like using hand portions instead of talking about counting macros or count counting calories because it's pretty much just as accurate as the counters that you'll find anywhere online, and it's sized for your body and it's always with you, and it's really easy to use. So that fist size um serving of non-starchy carbohydrates and the cupped hand serving of starchy carbohydrates is a great place to start. And it doesn't mean you can't have more than one serving at a meal, it just means it just helps you give a little more thought to what you're actually putting into your body. So carbohydrates are are actually good for you in the right forms at the right times and in the right way. So we're not saying, you know, eat all the carbs, but we're also saying just eat the carbs that that fuel your body well and and make you make you feel good. Because when you cut them, when you completely cut them out, you have you can you can experience some really unpleasant things. Do you want to talk about that, James?

SPEAKER_01 20:33

Yeah, and I think it's important here to say that before anybody who's into keto diets and things like that starts phoning us up and threatening us or cancelling us, but you know, keto diets, as I said, do have their place. So for those people who don't know, keto diet is when you go sort of like super, super, super low carb, reduce them as much as possible. Well, actually created in the 1920s to help epileptics reduce seizures, not as a weight loss protocol or a way of life for the general population. You know, one of the side effects of those early experiments was that they did see some weight loss, and that's kind of like why they were why they were shifted over. But one of the things that can happen to some people, um, and it won't be to everybody, that the body can really when you reduce carbs that much, it it's a stressor on the body, and when the body is stressed, that hormone that we love to hate, cortisol, um, often spikes, um, you know, and that is a challenge because when cortisol increases at the wrong times of the day, well, what happens? Your sleep gets worse, your stress levels go up, your cravings get worse. So it can be a real challenge at this time of life if you start to move into a diet that is is that just has all carbs removed from it altogether. And then I mentioned this skirted around it a little bit earlier. Earlier on in the episode, but there's an emotional side to all this as well. You know, as soon as you start, so let's say you cut out all the carbs, and cut cut all levels increase, stress increases, your cravings increase, suddenly you're heading to the snack draw and you are reaching for something, then you've got this battle going on that you know your willpower is you're telling yourself that your willpower is at fault here rather than the fact that your body's actually just craving for something that it wants to deal with the stress that you're putting it under. And so then we beat ourselves up about it, and we know how negative self-talk affects people in general. Our experience as well is that women at this stage of life tend to move into negative self-talk a lot of the time when they feel as though they're not getting things right, and so we kind of want to avoid all that obviously as much as much as possible. So I think it's just working out that perimenopausal menopausal bodies are kind of sensitive to a lot of things anyway, by that lack or that fall in estrogen, or the spikes and the drops in estrogen that happened early on in perimenopause. So restricting yourself from things is not the answer. And as Julie said before, that doesn't mean this is carte blanche to go out and start consuming loads of simple carbohydrates and tucking into the uh the bag of potato chips or the crisps or the or the chocolate bars or whatever. It's just remembering that carbohydrates aren't the enemy, and there are some types of carbohydrates, name those complex ones, the starchy ones and the and the fibrous ones, that are really really important for you, the correct functioning of your of your body. And last thing that I would just say on this little section to cap it off is that this is a fuel challenge, not a willpower one. Okay, so when your body is not fuelled properly, it's that that's driving a lot of the eating that you might be doing that doesn't really serve you. So just remember that it's not the fact that your willpower's at fault, it's the fact that you're not fueling appropriately for this this time of life. Um, so Julia, why don't you just talk us through a little bit on practical tips of I think we've hammered home the fact that people should have some carbohydrates on their diet. What does that actually look like from a practical point of view though? I wonder if you could just sort of like start wrapping up the episode by by talking about some practical strategies for working with carbs.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

Yeah, absolutely. Um ideally, we want to focus on when we're talking about the starchy carbohydrates, with the non-starchy ones we know, we want lots of those. Um, but when we're talking about the starchy carbohydrates, we want to focus on them in their state as close to nature as possible. So whole grains, and I don't mean a packet of bread or crackers that says it has contains whole grains on the label. I mean properly whole grains, ideally cooked from scratch. Um, squashes, lentils, berries, uh, whole oats, again, not the kind in the instant pack, uh, quinoa, things like that. Um, buckwheat is another good one. You know, we have lots and lots of options there. And balancing them when you eat them in their in their whole form as close to nature as possible, then we can balance them with proteins and fats, and you will be surprisingly satisfied when you have those things in in the right proportions. And again, the portion of starchy carbs will fit into your cupped hand. If you want to have more than one portion at a meal, that's fine. But just again, bear in mind what that what that looks like. And one of the things that I found super helpful, and again, everybody that we coach also finds surprisingly helpful, even though it's very simple, is eating slowly and mindfully. When you do that, and you take your time with your meal, put your utensil down between bites, you know, take a breath in between bites, whatever it takes to slow you down. Try eating with your opposite hand, that's always really fun. Um, but when you can eat mindfully and slowly, you become much more satisfied with less. And it allows you to pay closer attention to those cues of hunger and fullness. So your body will tell you when it's had enough. And we don't need to eat until we feel absolutely stuffed. We can eat until we feel like, yeah, I could probably eat a little bit more, but I think I'm okay for now. Because allowing ourselves to get hungry in between meals is actually a really good thing. Um, so you know, we're the other thing to bear in mind is you're also going to have different needs as far as how much of the carbohydrates your your body needs based on different things like your activity levels, um, where you are in your menopause journey, are you still having menstrual cycles? Um, you know, how is your energy throughout the day? How is your energy day today? How are you sleeping? These are the kinds of things we actually put give some really personalized guidance on in our membership, but these are the things you can pay attention to that will tell you how is your food serving you? Um, and it it's okay to experiment with this. Give yourself a week or two to try one specific approach and see how you feel after a couple of weeks, because that gives your body time to adjust, it gives you time to get used to it and see how that feels. There's no one right answer here, there's no specific rule. And I know we all like neat, tidy little put things in a box kind of rules, but there isn't one here because you every woman is experiencing menopause differently. So we you have to decide what works for you. And experimenting and being curious is is a great way to do that. And even if a certain approach may have worked for you in your 20s and 30s, it may not work after you pass into this phase of life and you're after in your forties and and things are fluctuating and changing because your body is making some very big changes. And that's okay too. It may be frustrating, it's okay. You're allowed to have a moment of frustration and throw your tantrum for having to do things differently than you used to, but be curious, experiment, and see how you feel. I think that's really the bottom line.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

Yeah. I think equally I'd just add to that last bit that also not only what worked for you when you were 25 might not work for you at 40 plus, um, but also what works for your best friend might not work for you as well. It's one of the things that um I find a lot so-and-so's tried this and it's worked for her. Why is it not working for me? Is a question that we get get asked a lot. And that's because, as Julie just said, every woman experiences menopause in a very, very, very different way. The good news is that it's a really you know, I I find it quite eye-opening and sort of like almost freeing to for women to be able to don a hypothetical lab coat at this time of life and try out some things and sort of like have a play around with things and have some fun with it and see what approach works best for them. Because ultimately, the work approach that works best for you, that leaves you feeling more energized, that leaves you uh what you feel is a healthy body weight that helps you with your mindset, is gonna be one that you're gonna stick with for for longer moving forward. So, just to wrap up, then let's just remember please, carbs are not the villain, it's about the quality of carbs that you have, the type of carbs you have, the balance, and then what we were just talking about, those unique needs. If you've been convinced that carbs are the enemy, please just try and rethink that a little bit and be a bit kinder to carbohydrates. They are your friend if you're having the right types and you've got the balance there. If you do want to dive deeper into nutrition, exercise, and mindset, we have an amazing membership, Club Fabulous Beyond 40. Um, the monthly cost of that starts at just £23 for our group membership, so £23 or £29 a month. It's less than a pound a day or less than a dollar a day. Um, we think there's nothing else like it that's out there that offers the same amount of comprehensive support, both from online learning and from a group session where there's group live learning on online, uh, group QA sessions and our regular guest experts lots as well. So if you want to check that out, it's club.fabulousbeyond40.com. Obviously, if you're feeling stuck and you just want to talk to us and check out what your options might be, either with us or with somebody else, or you want to run something just up the flagpole with us, we do offer a free call service. It's a 45-minute call with myself or Julie. You'll if you give us 45 minutes of your time, you will leave with some semblance of a plan to take you forward moving forward. That's not a sales pitch, it's support. So we'll put both of those links down in the show notes for you to join. But in the meantime, then until next time, it's been James and Julie from Fabulous Beyond 40, hoping you stay strong and stay fabulous, and we will see you next time. Take care of it.