The Dr Louise Newson Podcast - 240 - Creating long-lasting food habits for better health

Episode Date: January 23, 2024

On this week’s podcast Dr Louise is joined by Dr Rupy Aujla, founder of The Doctor’s Kitchen, which aims to inspire and educate about the joy of food and the medicinal effects of eating well. Dr Rupy shares his thoughts on how to best enjoy a healthy and fulfilling diet and looks at some of the challenges food can bring during the perimenopause and menopause, but also how it can be a time to rethink and set new nutrition habits. While the new year is often a time to set goals or resolutions, Dr Rupy believes that consistency is the key to success and it can come through small steps, such as simply adding on vegetable to every single meal. Finally, Dr Rupy shares his three top tips for healthy eating: Master one meal that you’re proud of and make it a solid base to then adapt, add twists with different vegetables, flavour bases, herbs, etc. If you have a child who doesn't like a particular ingredient, don't force it because that will introduce animosity towards that ingredient. When they're older, they may have developed different taste buds that allow them to appreciate it better. Aim for 90/10 because you probably will get to 80/20. And if you do have a cheeky take out, indulge, allow yourself to indulge without any guilt, particularly as it pertains to food, and then make yourself a pact to get back on it the following day. Follow Dr Rupy on socials @doctors_kitchen Click here for more on Newson Health

Hello, I'm Dr Louise Newsom. I'm a GP and menopause specialist and I'm also the founder of the Newsom Health Menopause and Wellbeing Centre here in Stratford-Pon-Avon. I'm also the founder of the free balance app. Each week on my podcast, join me and my special guests where we discuss all things perimenopause and menopause. We talk about the latest research,

bust myths on menopause symptoms and treatments, and often share moving and always inspirational personal stories. This podcast is brought to you by the News and Health Group, which has clinics across the UK dedicated to providing individualised perimenopause and menopause care for all women. So here we are in your very smart studio. Thank you. I feel very honoured that I'm actually here doing my podcast in your space

with your amazing team. Oh, I love it. It's really grown up. Yeah. So I'm not going to really introduce you because people know who you are. You've been on my podcast before and I think when I last did you on the podcast, I said really wants to have you back and now you're here. I don't think, I hope this isn't going to be the last time.

No, no, I'm sure it won't be. And we've known each other for a little while now and it's really inspirational all the work you're doing. And I just love seeing what you do and how you do and you're still so happy, which is wonderful. I appreciate that. I'm here in London and you've given me. Like just lovely lunch.

No one ever cooks me lunch. No one understands. No one cooks you lunch. You've been at home. No, my husband doesn't cook. Well, like I said to you on my part, any time you're in London, you come down here. We've always got some grub. It always tastes nicer when other people do it.

It really does. So, yeah. But the power of food has been underestimated for far too long. And people are now talking about it, but with so much confusion. And there's all this sort of competitiveness over there that you have to have this diet or that diet and read this book or that book. And what I really like about your laid-back approach is just enjoy it and be happy. But it's not just the eating of the food. And actually, one of the reasons I quite like cooking is it's part of my phone-free time. Does that make sense?

100%. So many people have said to me, Louise, you're so busy. You should get somebody to cook for you. And it's like there are two reasons that I enjoy cooking. Firstly, I can often talk to my children because they're often milling around the kitchen and I'm there. And secondly, it's a bit of a meditation for me. I quite enjoy it. Yeah. So it's not just the eating, is it? Absolutely. I'm so glad we're talking about this because I think there's a bit of a sort of productivity hustle culture these days of trying to

optimize every element of our life. And one of those things that a lot of people have an issue with is the need or the chore of having to cook for themselves. And I see it through a completely different lens. And granted, I'm privileged in that my mom taught me how to cook before I went to medical school and I'm an explorative cook and I love food and, you know, I'm true, true foodie. But I also use it as part of my sort of well-being lifestyle medicine package. Because just like you said, phone free time, music on, spices at the ready, you know, just sort of getting into my flow, not really thinking

about the day. I don't think about my to-do list when I'm cooking. And if I really think about like the reason why I cook, yes, it's to nourish and yes, there are functional benefits. But it's that sort of emotional connection that I have with the ingredients that I'm using and the sort of historical and their sort of cultural basis for the food that not just is something that's passed down for my family, but it's something that I can actually have an influence on with my own family going forward as well. Like I love the act of cooking for other people. I'm like a typical, like, you know, we just did lunch for you guys, did lunch for the crew. I love that. I love it. I Yeah, it's so strange.

I'm not very sociable because I work a lot. But I often invite people to my house because I like the privacy of being able to say anything. Obviously, that's really good and nice. But also I like to be able to share different foods. But actually, cooking isn't that difficult. I don't mean to be. No, no, no, it's not. But a lot of people seem really scared and often really basic things,

but you just add a bit of colour or some herbs. Oh, my goodness, but you've been working all day. Yeah, but I prepared it last night. It just sort of cooks itself. It's not, sometimes it's not difficult, is it? But it's so easy now to, on an app, just deliver something or to order something. But it tastes different when you've prepared it somehow. Totally, totally.

So I think there's so much about eating is really important. We'll talk about things to eat. But I do think we shouldn't, I mean, I'm really up for life hacks. I'm really up for maximising my productivity. You know, I'm really happy for someone else to do my washing. I'm really happy for someone else to do the arning. Someone else can clean the toilet. So that's fine.

That's not going to make me a better person. But actually some people do like that whole ritual of cleaning. So that's fine if they do. But I actually personally would prefer to write some papers and do something else. But actually cooking is really important because actually I want to know what's in my food. I really want to know because I don't want to have any additives. I don't want to have anything that's going to trigger migraines. So I have that as my...

as I've said to you before, I'm lucky, but I'm not lucky having migraines because they control my life, but I love not having a headache. So I'll do anything, including eat really healthy to not have a headache. Totally. So it's not just because I want to feel good or look good or whatever. It's because I really don't want to be flawed with migraines. Yeah, yeah. So I'm obsessed because I don't want to have chemicals that I don't need.

But actually, it's really joyful to be able to cook. And we have a veggie box delivered because, again, one of my hacks is I don't like. going shopping because I don't have much time. But I want to eat really healthily. And I know veggie blocks are expensive, but I don't have any waste. But I also like the mystery. I never look and see what's going. And so it came on Wednesday.

My husband was at home and I came back on Wednesday night, a bit excited because like what am I going to cook? And he said, oh, I didn't come this morning. That's what do you mean? It hasn't come. Anyway, he put it all away, which he doesn't often. So I was like open the fridge and it's like opening a sweetie cupboard. Yeah.

And I thought, oh, this is really exciting, actually, because it's all in season. Totally. And that makes a real different. And it's really sad. Like, if I'd make you 10 years ago, I could not talk with excitement about a veggie box. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually, eating in season is cheaper as well, isn't it?

And it just makes it easier. Totally, yeah. And it's so funny that you're saying that because I think part of the excitement that I have around cooking is actually what am I going to cook. I'm not one of these people, even though I've got, like, you know, recipe books and people love recipes and following the instructions. and all the rest of it. I get that. I'm a really sort of intuitive cook. So kind of like you, open up the store cupboard

or go into the pantry or look into my fridge and figure out what to make. So what I made you earlier today, I didn't know that I was going to make that. So literally I was using odd bits of what we'd made and recipes earlier this week. So there's a bit of grated courier. There was a leftover white bean.

Everything was in date. Don't worry. Thanks. I was much. Glad you were bigger for your guests. We had some, a big mix of herbs. I use some frozen peas and frozen spinach, which are my two life hacks, I think. Really, really good items that always have in your freezer.

And then some veg stock and a whole bunch of spices that, you know, won't go off. As long as, you know, you haven't got them in your pantry for like years and you smell them and they smell aromatic or they smell fresh. They've got that sort of odor, the pungency that they should have. Then you can still use them and they confer lots of benefits. That's sort of like how I make. that meal. So I put everything into one pan. I blended up the spinach and the peas with a little bit of hot water and bedstock to create that like green, glorious looking silky sauce. Added that to the ingredients. Added the protein. So we added a bit of hulumi, but it could be pan-fried

tofu instead as your plant-based protein, some beans. You could add lentils. You get up leftover chicken if you like. And that is a meal in one pan. And so there's minimal washing up. You can serve people and it tastes delicious. So when you need, you know, you know, know the sort of basics of flavour and it doesn't need to be, you don't need to be a Jamie Oliver to be able to do this. Just learn some basics and you'd be surprised at, A, how enjoyable it is and how flavourable it can be and the functional benefits as well. Yeah. And also like, you're the same as me. You cook more because then you can open your fridge when you're hungry and there's something there for you to eat. And that's really important. And you spend less.

You absolutely spend less. We did this exercise actually with BBC food that people can look at right now. just type of BBC food, budget meals, doctors, kitchen. And we did this project where we looked at, it was at the height of the cost of living crisis at the November last year, something like that. And we looked at all the different supermarkets. And this is like a big spreadsheet of all the different common ingredients that you find, things like mushrooms, they're quite expensive, actually, beans,

whatever veggies were in season. I was tasked to get a one pound per serving meal that was healthy and delicious and flavorful and easy to cook. And we managed to do it one pound per serving and there's three portions of vegetables, three proper portions of vegetables in every serving of these meals. And we got it down to a meal plan as well

that again you can get on the BBC website or the Dr's Kitchen website where we spend about 20 pounds per week. And the hacks, the reasons where you're able to achieve that is if you have 12 key spices and very simple things, cumin, paprika, chili flakes, I think it was some Mediterranean herbs and spices

is in there like oregano. If you've got those 12 and you've got some olive oil, chef's knife, chopping board, a decent pan, you're on your way. You're on your way. And I think those kind of exercises challenge me to really think about, okay, if I am in diastrate, if I do only have 20 pounds per week to feed myself and another person, can I do it? Yes, yes, it is possible.

But it does require that sort of culinary creativity, the ingenuity and the effort. and the effort needed to bruise those kinds of years. Yeah, I mean, my oldest two children are at university and I batch cooked a whole Bolognese for them. Yeah. I spit it up and gave it to them recently when I just met them and they were so excited. But I had put loads of vegetables and lentils in it.

Yeah. But if I gave my, first of my middle daughter, a bowl of lentils, there's no way on earth she should eat it. But she was sharing with her friends, she goes, oh, there's something like, was it peas in there? I said, no, it's lentils, Sophie. But it makes it cheaper.

It spreads the meat, you know. And it's really, healthy still as well. So I think modifying things is really important, knowing that it's cheaper, but also like I don't drink alcohol because of migraines. My daughter doesn't because of migraine. She's a student. So sometimes she will go and buy a nicer piece of meat or something that's slightly more expensive because it's cheaper than going buying a pint of beer. And so I think we have to sort of rethink about our budgets. Yeah. It's like, do I get more pleasure from a glass of wine or do I get it from a really, and when you eat really good food, it will make you happy.

It does improve your serotonin levels, isn't it? Absolutely, yeah. When you're eating better food, you're getting more diversity of ingredients. We know that that's going to be supporting your microbes. And it's simple things like spices that have a higher antioxidant score. You have simple diversity of different types of fibers as well. It could be some simple things like celery or radichia or radishes or endive, whatever you can find. And I've just said some bougie ingredients.

But, you know, kale, stems. I mean, celery is not that bad, is it? And actually, like, people think, what's the point? It's just water. But it is really good, isn't it? You know, it's interesting. So we did, I used to think the same thing about celery. That's just mainly water.

There's nothing in it. So we do know it's got some prebiotic fibers in there, which is really good. So just explain what prebiotic? Because lots of people get confused. Totally. Yeah. And that's really important. So you've got different types of fibers in your diet.

You know, we get them from a variety of different sources. Largely, you find them in plants. And the different types of fibres are prebiotic and you've got other sort of just regular fibers as well and different types of starches. Prebiotic fibres are unique in that they can improve how your microbes and your gut thrive and essentially uniquely improves that gut flora that you find mainly in the large intestine. So the types of fibres that we think of with regards to whole food ingredients that have these unique fibers, asparagus, chickory, things like garlic as well.

brassica vegetables. These are really, really interesting sorts of fibers. But within the sort of category of prebiotic fibers are hundreds of different subtypes as well, many of which have long names like oligoccharides, for example. And it is a fascinating world when you go into it. And the best thing about it is that they are a lot cheaper than some of the gut health supplements that you find on the supermarket shelves. And prebiotics is actually where we need to put a lot more of our attention rather than

just probiotics. Pro-biotics are fantastic. I love fermenting. I love, like, adding, you know, sourcats and kimchi, all those, like, wonderful live microbes to your food. But pre-biotics is probably where we're lacking a bit more. Yeah, so it's important to know the difference, isn't it? Because they're both really important for us.

And I think for many years, we haven't, we still don't understand enough about the gut microbes, but we are realising more and more how important they are. So that whole thing of eating the rainbow. Yeah, yeah. It's actually really important, isn't it? Yeah. Variety is the spice of life, isn't it? Yeah, yeah.

I sort of think back about my meat and two veg existence. In the 70s, actually, it was going to the butcher's for the meat. It was actually eating in season. So it was a lot better than meat and two veg now because food's changed over the years, hasn't it? Massive. So, you know, my mom sometimes says, oh, but it didn't harm you having that. Why are you getting so doing this for the children? Because food is different.

And the soil that the vegetables are grown in is quite different as well, isn't it? There's a lot of differences. And we did a deep dive into this actually on the podcast with regards to organic versus conventional food. And I don't want to worry anyone, but the two senses, like if you can go organic, great. Does it mean that you're going to be protecting yourself from all pesticides? No. No. Does it mean that there is a potential benefit to longevity, the quality of the polyphenols,

the increase in the amount of these different plant chemicals that conferred. benefits, potentially yes, actually. So if you can, great, but am I going to lose sleep over it if I go out and I'm eating conventional virtualals? No, I'm not. And the variety piece I think is really important as well because I think there's a difference between surviving and thriving. And I think when you get that rainbow, you are thriving. You are really pushing the bow out in terms of improving your health, improving your well-being, improving your mental well-being, improving the function of those gut microbes. So that sort of element, I think, is really important. when we discuss food.

Going back to celery. So it's prebiotic fibres. Yes, it's like largely water if you want to think about it in that way. But it also has a surprising high amount of nitrates. So nitrates are really interesting because they are constituents in plants that we absorb from the soil.

So if you remember back to your sort of school chemistry days, you've got the nitrogen cycle. It's absorbed into plants and then it's converted into nitrates, which is NO3 minus, I think. And that is early absorbable from the plants that we consume. It's added as an additive to things like process meats,

which is where nitrites get a bad rep. But when it's nitrate in plants, can bind, yeah, with those polyphenols, vitamin C, vitamin E, that's where it can be better converted into nitric oxide. And that nitric oxide is what vasodolates our blood vessels, so it brings the blood pressure down, improves blood flow through the brain as well,

cardiovascular benefits, as I mentioned with blood pressure. and also metabolic effects as well, strangely enough. So celery is actually one of those things that we should be getting, as well as kale and other crucifish vegetables, that are quite high nitrous and beetroots, which is the classic nitrate rich food. Yeah, it's not interesting. And you know what else also affects nitric oxide.

Production, of course, is estrogen. Yeah. And when you think about cardiovascular health, anything that we can do that keep the lining of the vessels open, reduce atheroma, is really important, isn't it? So thinking about food as medicine, but not medicine to treat disease, but prevent disease, it's really important. And I'm going to put this podcast out in January.

Yeah. So it's New Year, New Year. We're all thinking about New Year's resolutions, and it's always about what am I going to stop. I'm going to, you know, reduce our changes. But actually, I'd like some tips about what can I add? Yeah. What will I add to my foods? Yeah, yeah.

That even if I don't change my diet, what would you say would be? really important to think of over the year to just add to improve health. Yeah, definitely. So I think the first thing, just taking one step back is new year, new you is that always that sort of difficult time of year where people are jumping onto a particular trend or, you know, with the purest and righteousness of intentions, it's like this is the year I'm going to do better. And I get it. I completely get it. But I think if I could welcome people to just take a step back and just think of the key metric that will enable you to live and thrive for life. It's consistency.

It is pure consistency. So if you can think about food through the lens of, can I add just one more fruit, vegetable, nut or seed at every meal time, that's a really good way of introducing a tiny habit that has vast implications. So just like a handful of seeds. Handful of seeds. It doesn't matter what nuts. Doesn't really matter.

I mean, I have a personal favourite, which is. hazel nuts. I think they're like really easy. You can use them in savory. You can use them in sweet. They're beautiful toasted, blanche, whatever. Like I just think it's... And they're quite cheap actually.

They are. Yeah. Because nuts are really expensive. It can be. You get the macadayas. By a small bag, it's like, oh my goodness. Yeah, yeah. Actually, hazelnuts and I was cooking your um, aubergine.

There's an obogeen and you said, oh, you can use hazelnuts. Gosh, hazel nuts with an obogeen. That's a bit weird. But it's great. Yeah. And actually, it's a really quick way, isn't it? Yeah. transforming, like you say, sweet or savory.

So, yeah, so seeds, nuts, spices, herbs, but they don't all have to be fresh. They don't always have to be fresh. Actually, I think dried herbs are particularly interesting because they're dehydrated. You're getting a lot more bang for your buck and they actually preserve quite a lot of the nutrients as well. Okay, so that's good. You get a different flavour profile. So like with fresh tarragon that's finely chopped over, I don't know, some eggs or scramble, tofu or whatever, it's going to taste completely different to dried tarragon. which has a more intense sort of pungent flavor.

But you are introducing like a quarter plant point. You're introducing more antioxidants. And you're having a higher diversity of those antioxidants as well in your food, which is really, really important. So wherever possible, I always say experiment with spices, experiment with herbs. It's really, really interesting, particularly when you look at it through the lens of what the diversity of those different ingredients are adding to your microbes.

I always like to tell people to think of their microbes. as like bored children on a summer holiday. You need to feed them interesting bits of information in the medium of food to keep them activated to keep them thriving. Yeah, that's very good things. So, yeah, yeah, bored kids and summer holiday. Give them loads of interesting things to entertain them. But that's why I think it's really important when I said about adding

because I've seen so many patients who said, yeah, I'm really not eating much at all. And then you hear what they're eating. You're like, oh my goodness, that's not only really dull, but you'll just start. carving yourself, actually. Yeah. And they're counting the calories, and the calories, yeah, might add up to whatever. Yeah. But it's not really about calories.

No, no. It's about the enjoyment. And actually, these people often feel hungry all day. So all they're doing is thinking about food. Yeah. It's like once you say you're on a diet, the only thing you think about is food. So I think we should be looking at food in a different way, isn't it? Yeah.

I think, like, the calorie side of things is really interesting because we know that. energy balance, yes, is important. We know, yes, that if you were to maintain a calorie deficit, you will lose weight. But what I'm thinking of is the consistency. And this isn't just a plan for January to March. It's a plan for life. And is calorie counting a good exercise for most people? I would say, no, it doesn't. Is it effective for weight loss? Is it great for bodybuilders? Is it great for people who have the need to do it, athletes, etc.? Yeah, great. It's very different, isn't it? Very different for a real world sort of scenario for people who are just looking to feel better in themselves, improve their mental clarity, improve sort of other aspects of their life.

It's not all about calories. So that's sort of like my two cents on calories. And I think I'm glad we're talking about what you can add to food because I have this sort of idea of like, okay, what are 60 second hacks that everyone can do to improve the nutrient density of their food. So one is, yes, adding nuts and seeds to each meal. chopping up some sort of dark, leafy green and adding that to either your breakfast lunch with dinner. Yeah. Good from the nitrate point of view, great from the anti-inflammatory point of view as well. Adding any sort of spice in addition to your spice.

If you're using fennel, use cumin. If you're adding cinnamon, add chili. There's a really interesting sort of spice wheel that you can just get a PDF or just type in spice wheel. And it will give you pairings of different spices that you can use. So if you've got a recipe and it calls for oregano, look at the spice wheel and see, okay, what else can I add to that? Can I add a fennel seed? Can I add a cumin to that?

Can I add a sumac? You know, does that give me sort of like a reason to pick another spice bottle up from the supermarket? You're always going to be adding some antioxidant to it. And it's a really, really nice little. I like that. Yeah. And the other thing, I would say, in terms of additions, is even if you've got a spag ball, like you were saying your daughters, you know, can you add lentils to it? Can you add pre-cooked chickpeas?

Can you add some sort of legume to your diet? That's going to be increasing fibre. Because where there appears to be some sort of marketing hype around protein and ensuring that we are protein replete, which most of us are, I would say, we're really fiber deficient. Yes. Because a lot of our diet is refined. And a lot of the husks around our rice, the wholeness nature of our grains has been

polished down. And so actually we need to be thinking about where we can add fibre. So legumes, lentils, pulses is a great way to add. Not necessarily removing the meat if you don't want to, but certainly adding it to it. Again, adding to your diversity score and adding to your plant points as well. I think that's really important, isn't it? I think it's so easy just to strip things back and punish ourselves, which we really shouldn't. But obviously, we've got to talk about perimenopause and menopause.

You can't come onto a menopause book, and. and not talk about that. But people find that their diets do change in the peri menopause and menopause, but some of it, I think, is a age-related rather than a hormone-related. So I'm a menopausal woman, obviously, and I take hormones, but actually I can't eat the same as I ate when I was 20. That's not because I'm menopausal.

That's just because my metabolism is different. And sometimes it's really easy to sort of almost blame the menopause, or there's so many people that try and eat their way out of the menopause. And then I feel sorry for these people because how can you eat to replace the missing hormone? You can't. But of course you can eat to feel better. Yeah. And I think we have to be really clear that it's a different thing, isn't it?

Yeah. So I think there have been studies showing that if you reduce spicy food, you can have less hot flushes. Now, is hot flushes more important than spicy food? Do you know what I mean? That's where it comes back to choice. Yes. I might say, do you know what? I want to have a flush because I want to eat this food.

But actually, more importantly, why am I having a flash? What can I do about that? But even more importantly than that, as a menopausal woman, regardless of my hormonal status, how am I going to try and eat the best for my metabolism? And is my metabolism different because I'm menopausal? Or is it different because of my age? Or is it different because I exercise differently? How do we know when you're deciding what's?

Totally, yeah, and it's interesting because we were talking about this, because I asked you the question around weight and stuff, and we were talking about how, you know, when you are menopause, not to get too depressed about it, it's your fat cells are going to be bloated and they're going to increase them because of the eastern content of those, which is that low dose sort of eastern analogue, which is why you get that middle-air spread. The testosterone level is going to be low, so you're going to potentially be at worst risk of psychopinia, which is that breakdown of the muscle and a higher amount of fat, both visceral. or in subcutaneous.

And then you're going to have cognitive issues, which means you're going to be less motivated to go to the gym. So that could also lead to wet. So there's all these other things. So like we were talking about, it's taking a step back and just appreciating that your body is in a state of flux. And it's a different ballgame.

That being said, last time we were on the pod together, I told you about the app and the health goals that we had. And you were like, do you have a menopausal health goal? And I was like, no, we don't. But we've been working on it. We were working a lot. So we did a deep dive into the dietary patterns that are associated with better menopausal health outcomes from a symptom point of view. And we also looked at particular ingredients as well, which I think are interesting, but not necessarily universal for everyone.

Because there's a study regarding prunes and it apparently improved vasomata symptoms in 80 women and an RCT that was done in Iran. And, you know, that's just prunes. Yeah, it's just, it's prunes and it, you know, it's got a lot of sugar, they're usually dried. It's not going to be for everyone. There's only so much you can take from that. So when we look at this studies, we blend sort of the bigger ones. The biggest one, I think, is the most important is the DII. So it's the dietary inflammatory index, which again is another health goal, inflammation reducing. And the things that move the needle on the DII, which is this validated food score, are things that we've just been talking about. So spices, which have the highest antioxidant score as measured by something called the orac, lentils.

and pulses and those colorful vegetables as well. So if you're packing your dietful of those, you're reducing your inflammation index, and that potentially is going to reflect better on typical symptoms of them as menopause, whether it's vasamator, whether it's also osteoporosis as well. There are some really interesting studies looking at that.

Generally, like I said, right at the start, it comes down to consistency. Because a lot of people, we were talking about this earlier, won't we, about how, you know, for you, it's kind of like a blessing and a curse that you have migraines and it's related to processed food. It means that on a Friday, you know.

I can't slip up. You can't just order that takeaway pizza. You can't just have a mackey dees or whatever. Like you've got to be strict because there's a stick. Yeah, absolutely. A lot of people don't have that. And, you know, I think it's a good thing that people can indulge in junk food, but it really comes down to the consistency.

Can you consistently, can you go for that 80-20? or like I say 90-10 because if you aim for 90-10 then it slid for 80-20 yeah so that's super important what do all these diets really mean it's basically having a lot more fibre-in-a-d diets mainly from things like

legumes pulses and those dark green leafy vegetables having lots of different herbs and spices again lowering those inflammation the inflammation index and having a predominantly plant-based diet as well doesn't mean that you need to be vegan or vegetarian but the more plants in your diet the better there was also an interesting study looking at protein. We talked a bit about protein before.

So there appears to be somewhat of a protective effect of plant-based proteins on menopausal symptoms, not so much animal-based proteins. There doesn't appear to be any effect at all. And does that mean that we all need to start eating tofu or tempe? Not necessarily because not everyone likes tofu or tempe, and it doesn't necessarily meet because nutrition, as we were saying, is very, very complicated. did this. There's so many issues with the quality of the research. But certainly having more hemp seeds in your diet as a very good source of plant-based protein, having a lot more nuts and

seeds. Again, very good sources of plant-based protein. Rour cacao, actually, is one of my favorites, really high in plant-based protein. And it's one of those that has all nine essential amino acids, which is quite rare for a plumbus protein. And I was going to say temper again. It's actually one of my favorites. I think having temper in your diet is actually quite a good plant-based protein. Interesting because you say about all of these will help reduce inflammation. So that is also showing it's not just about symptoms. Because I think when we're looking at menopause is long term, because it is, it's associated with inflammation.

So whether we take hormones or not, we want to reduce inflammation because we want to reduce disease. Yes. So it's interesting that these foods that you're talking about, so whether someone's listening and they have one symptom or 21 symptoms or 51 or none, it's irrelevant actually because it's thinking about inflammation as well. It's a really good point. Yeah. And I'm glad you're doing a deep dive into inflammation, because I think that should become a lot more sort of widely known because it is something that will affect everyone, you know, as you grow older. And psychopinia being a big issue and very much related to that. And you know, just getting some sort of practical

tips into people's head, what does this look like? What does a D.I. Friendly diet look like? What is a Mediterranean-friendly diet look like? It could be as simple as like a sweet potato, lentil, Fetter and pomegranate diversity bowl. It can be a plant-based sort of take on a chicken masala with like air-fright. I know I'm a big fan of air-frying. I know I'm going to convince you because I know you've got an auger. But like air-fried tempo or air-fried tofu and adding that into the base of a rich sort of tomato sauce that's got loads of those different spices in and adding spinach to that.

It's like the lunch that I made you earlier, the spinach and pea, green sort of silky sauce that you can throw anything into it. We threw beans in it, lentils in it, and we added some hulumi that we just lightly fried. So getting really exploitative about your food and actually enjoying this phase of where you're experimenting with all these different elements that we know reduce inflammation,

improve your gut well-being, and improve your likelihood of thriving into old age. Which is so important. So before we finish, there's always three take-home tips. Okay. So new year, you, reduce inflammation, increase fibre. What are the three things?

Not just for people who are menopausal, but for whole families, because I strongly feel we shouldn't be eating different things to others because we're hormonal or menopausal or whatever. We should be converting everybody around us. So family, friends, whoever steps in our houses, should be looking at our cupboards and fridges and learning. So what are the three things that you think we should all be proud of that we've changed this year for food?

I think it's not always food related in my mind, but I think everyone should master like one meal that they can sort of add on different sort of journeys to, you know, choose your own adventure sort of meals. So having a really solid base, it might be like your favorite meal, like a spag bowl, and then adding twists to it with different vegetables, different types of legumes, different sort of other sort of flavor bases, different types of, you know, the actual pasta itself. there's loads of really good sort of edamami-based pastors, for example, that I think are great. So I think mastering one meal and being proud of that and actually getting everyone involved in that, I think particularly if you have kids, I get asked this a lot, if a child, particularly in their formative years, doesn't like a particular ingredient, don't force it. Because that will introduce animosity towards that ingredient. And actually, there's a lot of evidence to show that kids will be averse to certain bitter flavors as a,

a sort of evolutionary protective measure. So when you come back to it, when they're older, they may have developed different taste buds that allow them to appreciate it better. I always hated mushrooms until I was a teenager and I'd start having mushrooms again. It was delicious. And luckily, my parents enforced mushrooms on me. So like when you've got kids, I'd always like just be a lot more gentle about it. And I would say if you can go for that 90-10, go for 90-10 because you probably will get to 80-20. And I think that's worth just harboring again because a lot of people feel that you have to be 100% strict. And if you do have a cheeky takeout or you do have that sort of can't be arse feeling, you know, at the end of the week, indulge, allow yourself to indulge without any guilt, particularly as it pertains to food.

And then make yourself a contract, make yourself a pack to get back on it the following day. and it could be whatever meal you like as long as it's packing it with those high-fiber ingredients, lots of variety and hopefully getting some spice and herbs in there. Great advice. Thank you ever so much and thanks ever so much for your time and the loan of your studio. My pleasure. I can't wait to the next time. Me too, thanks.

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