Latest / Empower Your Menopause / Episode 80: Gut Instincts — Why Your Belly Bloats and Your Brain Wants Sugar After 40

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Episode 80: Gut Instincts — Why Your Belly Bloats and Your Brain Wants Sugar After 40 · Empower Your Menopause

• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome back to Empower Your Menopause podcast all about health, happiness, and hormones for women 40 and beyond.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: We've been away for a few weeks, largely because we finished our summit in mid-February and afterwards felt as though we needed to take a break from talking into cameras and talking to people.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: So you had a couple of weeks off from us.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: But here we are, we're back again.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm Coach James Ellis.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm Coach Julie Medacy.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: And we're glad to have you back with us.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: So today we're going to talk about something that we see constantly with our clients, and that is bloating and cravings.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to look at how that all relates to gut health and what's going on in the menopause transition, right, Julie?
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: So if you've hit your 40s and all of a sudden your genes might feel a little bit tighter, even though you haven't really changed the way you eat, uh, maybe your brain is starting to whisper sweet nothings about biscuits and cookies or something sweet in the mid-afternoon.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: You're really not imagining it because bloatings and cravings are two of the most common things we see in women over 40, as James said.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: And interestingly, they usually show up together.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: But here's the piece that nobody explains to you.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: Cravings aren't always about your emotions or a lack of willpower, which is something that we often blame ourselves for.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: Oftentimes they're signals from your gut or your blood sugar balance or imbalance.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: So today we're going to talk about a couple of really simple tools that can influence both of those things because gut health is really important, but having the right tools to use can make that an easier thing to manage.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: So we're going to talk today about fiber and fermented foods, how to use them without making your bloating worse if you've ever experienced that when you've tried them, right?
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: So, James, you want to start with, let's just start talking about why bloating and cravings often show up together.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, some people seem to be under the impression that they're two separate issues, and really they tend to be, physiologically at least, mostly connected.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: So when a woman hits menopause, here are just a few other things that are going on when it comes to things like gut and digestion and blood sugar management, all those kind of things.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, digestion tends to slow down, and the gut can become more reactive.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: The gut becomes more reactive for a couple of reasons.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: One is you get a disruption of what is called the microbiome, that's a collection of bugs and yeast and all that kind of stuff that's in your gut.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the other one is potentially, you know, some damage to the gut wall, and that can cause issues as well.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: So that those two reasons plow into gut becoming more reactive.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then the estrogen's protective effect on blood sugar balance goes, and and the that estrogen, insulin, glucagon relationship when it comes to hormones, feeling feelings of full, feelings of blood sugar balance, etc.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: So there that that's another challenge as well.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then you've got stress and sleep disruption as well.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, as ever, stick your hand up in the air as you listen to this if you aren't stressed out, and then sleep disruption often follows on from that as well, or often sleep disruption can be the challenge, and then the stress and the blood sugar balance and everything else goes out of whack as well.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: So the bottom line of all this is that the cravings particularly tend to come from those blood sugar swings when it's going up and down all the time.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: The brain ends up looking for quick energy, and that's when a lot of our cravings for like sugary, refined foods and things like that show up.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then at the same time, if your digestion has slowed down, if it is sluggish or if it's challenged, or you've got what's called dysbiosis, which is an imbalance of the bacteria in the gut, so it's not necessarily a tragic condition, but it just means that the bacteria aren't nicely balanced between the ones that are beneficial and the ones that aren't, then you can experience things like bloating and discomfort.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: So the key thing here is that you know your gut's not just doesn't just digest food, but it regulates all kinds of other things, like hunger signals, cravings, how stable your energy feels during the day, right?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is kind of like where one of our first action points comes in.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let's talk about fibre as a first thing.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: What one of the things that we see a lot with our clients is that fibre levels tend to be quite low.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um in the UK at least, we recommend sort of like around 30 grams a day.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think it might be a bit lower than that, Julie, in the US.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Is that right?
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think it's 25 in the US.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, fibre is really important.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's important that we get enough in our diet.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, from a cravings point of view, it helps slow digestion down without making it sluggish.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: So it just helps with that transit of food through the gut, it can help stabilize blood sugar and it can also increase any feelings of sort of like fullness, satisfaction after meals.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then when it comes to bloating in the long term, it's good for gut motility.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: So while it might sludge your uh digestion down, it does make you more regular, so it's reducing constipation, it feeds your gut bacteria, so you're getting kind of like a double whammy there, in that it's helping those good bugs chow down on some food that they love, they love doing.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: And many people tend to think that fibre actually causes bloating, and the real challenge there is not that it's fibre that causes bloating per se, it's more that people tend to dive into fibre too quickly.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: So you listen to a podcast like this, somebody says to you, Oh, you should be having 30 grams of fibre a day.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Suddenly you start measuring out.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you started on five or ten grams, you've tripled your amount of fibre.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Is it any one then that causes some digestive problems by diving in too quickly?
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, what you could try doing is something called a fibre ladder, where days one to three you add a small portion of something with some fibre in it, add a second portion a bit later in the week, and then week two trying to go for a couple of more portions of fibrous foods.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, if that does make you a little bit more bloated, it's not a signal to quit, it's just a signal to slow down and try and adapt it because your gut just needs time to adapt, right?
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are prone to bloating, there are a couple of easy starting points to go for.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: So introducing fibre via the way of cooked vegetables that are easy to digest instead of sort of like really big, large raw food salads where you know the gut uh bacteria are going to really chow down on those and maybe cause some gas that causes causes the bloody.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, oats are really good, cheer seeds are great, berries are great.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you might want to try some small portions of things like lentils or beans, and ground flaxseed is one of our favourites.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's golden linseed, which has been ground down into a powder.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: You can buy it as flaxseed in the shop, you know.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to be super healthful and get the best out of it, buy the golden linseeds and ground, grind them down each day because then you're getting it.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's the freshest grind you can get.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: But who's got time for that kind of stuff?
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: So you might need to buy the powder if you can, and all those kind of things will help.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, stuff that can cause a jump in bloating when you're adding fibre in tend to be things like real large amounts of legumes, lots of raw cruciferous veg, and if you take a fibre supplement, you do all those three things at once, then you're likely to get some gut challenges just because the gut does take a little bit of time to get used to this kind of thing.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it's worth remembering that as powerful as fibre is when it comes to managing the blood and managing your cravings, it's not competition to jump in and see how much of the stuff you can get down your neck from one day because that is guaranteed to cause you some issues, and we don't want that to happen, obviously.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's fibre kind of done.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: We've got the other F as well.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about fermented foods, Julie.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna hand this one back to you because I know it's helpful but misunderstood.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: So why don't you take us through fermented foods and how they can help?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: And it's interesting because most people hear the phrase fermented foods and they immediately think of sauerkraut.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: And if you've ever had a bad experience with sauerkraut, I know I did as a child.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: You'll just be making a weird funny face and assuming that fermented foods aren't really something you're interested in.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: But fermented fermentation itself is actually a huge category.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: So it includes a lot of different things like yogurt, kefir, kimchi, miso, tempeh, kombucha, sourdough, and even fermented pickles.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: There are a lot of different things that are made with this natural process.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: So fermented foods are basically just foods that have been transformed in some way by beneficial microbes.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: So the microbes basically eat parts of the food, usually sugars and starches, and in the process they produce new compounds that help your body.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: So a really common one would be lactic acid, which is why fermented foods can sometimes have that tangy flavor to them.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: They sometimes also produce carbon dioxide, which is why you get things like kombucha in fizzy form, and why some fermented forms or fermented foods will be a bit bubbly.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: But here's here's the thing.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we change the the um the change we change food by chopping it, right?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: But fermentation isn't just that, isn't just a physical thing.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's a chemical change within within the food.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: So those microbes are are transforming some of the original molecules of the food in into different ones.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: And the sugars get broken down, they get turned into acids or alcohols, and that changes the smell, the flavor, the acidity, and sometimes how it actually feels in your mouth, which is why sometimes fermented foods can taste really good to some people or maybe not so good to other people.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: But here's here's some things about why they're so helpful and when they might cause bloating for you.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: Because, you know, we we've talked about the microbiome.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: We want lots of different kinds of helpful microbes in our intestinal tract.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: So fermented foods are going to really help with microbial diversity in your gut, and that's a good thing.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, for some people, they're actually helpful for digestion.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: I know I like I said, as a child, I turned up my nose at sauerkraut, but now I love it, and I know whenever I travel, if I'm having some difficulty with whatever foods I'm eating where I am, uh sauerkraut really helps.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and they can make meals more satisfying.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of times when you have that kind of tangy or sour taste of the fermented food, it cuts down your appetite a little bit.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: It cuts down your cravings for sweeter foods.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but again, just like the just like the fiber, the biggest mistake people make is going too big too fast.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: I know I did that once with kimchi.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I love kimchi.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I had to stay home for a day after eating a giant bowl of it after never having had it before.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: So start slow.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: Choose one fermented food to try.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: And there are variations in the quantity and quality of fermented foods that you're gonna find available to you.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so if you try a kimchi, for example, that's one brand and you don't quite like it, you're not sure, maybe try a different brand.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: But start with one or two spoonsful, right?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: Have it with a meal, do that a few times a week and see how your gut adjusts.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: So if you get bloated from it, maybe reduce the amount and try again later.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: They're not something you have to force in here.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: You you just can use them as a tool, like like fiber.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we need fiber, hands down, no question.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, but they are a tool that we can use and it's something that can be really helpful.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I will say not all ferments are created equal because they need to be unprocessed, they need to be not pasteurized, and they need to have live bacteria.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of the time we buy sauerkraut from the shell, for example, the bacteria are no longer live in there.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's not that it isn't going to benefit you, but you want the live bacteria.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: So, ideally, you're going to find the quality fermented foods in the refrigerator, in the refrigerated section.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: And there are quite a few specialty shops that that sell them.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so look around for those refrigerated kinds and check the label.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure it does talk about not being pasteurized and then it talks about having live bacteria.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: I know, James, you said you looked for some kombucha and it had uh kombucha powder or something in it.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so it was apple cider vinegar, water, sugar, and 3% kombucha powder, whatever that is.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it tastes okay, but it tastes it's it's like a bottle of yeah, any other pop, like having a glass of cola or a glass of frizzy orange or something like that.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: It ain't kombucha, whatever, whatever you might call it.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: It might say kombucha on the label, but it's not, it's not it's not the stuff that's got the good bacteria in this uh and the various enzymes that are helping with your digestion.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: So just something to watch out for, really, I guess.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: So so one of the things we hear often, and one of the symptoms of going through starting in paramenopause and going through the whole menopause transition is that we become we can become sensitive to foods that we never were sensitive to before.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: You want to talk about that a little bit?
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so we hear this a lot from from clients.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I used to be able to eat X or Y or Z, and now I can't.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, there's some things that are happening in the body, obviously, hormones are changing.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: Once you hit 40 and beyond, the internal environment starts to change as well.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: And your hormones, we're talking about this on another podcast yesterday for uh around sleep and and the menopause transition.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, your hormones don't just work in silo, it's not a case of estrogen and progesterone are off, and because your sex hormones are off, everything else is okay.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: Everything tends to be interrelated, that's why it's called the endocrine system, right?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's a complex system of checks and balances that the body produces via various hormones to help various things happen.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so one of the things that happens is your hormones really influence your digestion, your gut movement, the gut lining, particularly that fall in oestrogen.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it helps uh regulate things like serotonin, which is your um one of the feel-good hormones that make you feel better, and it helps uh regulate blood sugar balance.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: So lots and lots of challenges can come in from the gut issue.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, if you're stressed out, you sleep disrupted, you're drinking too much alcohol, you're having too many um processed foods, um, generally you're not treating yourself very kindly, then your gut tends to not react kindly as well.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then layer on top of that, there's also something called the estrobilome.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: So the estroblome is something that not many people talk about.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: We tend to like talking about it because it's a part of the gut microbiome that actually helps your body process estrogen, and you want your body to process estrogen efficiently.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: So you want your estrobilome to be working well and helping with that process of being able to detoxify any estrogen that's spent or used.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I suppose the bottom line, without turning this into a science or a biology lecture, is that your guts and your hormones are constantly talking to each other, constantly influencing each other.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: So it doesn't mean you necessarily need to cut out lots of things.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Most people just need, instead of extreme restriction, a bit of a strategy to rebuild some of the gut resilience, whether that is actually the integrity of the gut lining itself, or whether it's that balance of microbes that's in the microbiome, the microbes and the yeasts and all those other microorganisms that may make up that.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, Julie, why don't you just do a quick recap then and tell people, I suppose, in just two or three words, things that we've been talking about, things they can do moving forward.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: So, first the bloating issue.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, remember if you're going to add in fiber, you're going to add in fermented foods, increase that slowly.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: If on the fiber side, it really helps to cook your vegetables instead of eating lots of raw vegetables, especially if you're not used to that.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um chewing properly, a lot of that digestion starts in the mouth with the enzymes in your saliva, especially when it comes to things that are carbohydrate dense.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: So chewing your food properly, sitting down to eat so you're feeling more relaxed, you're signaling your body that it's time to digest your food, trying to eat slowly and mindfully, and then moving your body every day.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: That will really help your gut motility, it helps with your gut lining, it helps you increase your naturally produced GLP1s in there.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a big topic right now.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: So even 10 or 15 minutes a day is helpful.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: And when you find that you're starting to have a lot of cravings, making sure that you include protein in your meals earlier in the day is a big, big factor.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: That with all without exception, the clients we've worked with who've increased their protein intake, they've noticed a significant drop or almost elimination of their sugar cravings.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: So adding fiber, healthy fats to meals, please don't let yourself get extremely hungry.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: I know a lot of women skip meals thinking, oh, this is good.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm taking in fewer calories.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: All it really does is make you want to eat more later.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then supporting sleep and stress where possible.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: That totally affects your digestion and uh your ability to digest food.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: So getting restful sleep, managing your stress really well.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: If you're not sure how to do that, get in touch with us.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's what we're here for.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: But just remember cravings are information and communication from your body.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's telling you that it needs something from you.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a good thing to learn to listen and interpret what it is that it's saying.
• 18:57
  unknown: Yeah.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: So if this episode made you think that what we've been talking about explains a lot, why don't you share it with a friend, another woman over 40, you might need to hear it?
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you follow the podcast so you don't miss out on future episodes.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because every week we break down the science of women's health over 40 and turn it into some practical strategies that work in real life.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that we've come up with recently is a from a practical strategy point of view, is our new gut health reset course.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, two levels level one, four weeks, level two, another four weeks.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: If you've got my minor grumbles, you might want to do level one.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: If you feel as though you need more support with your digestion, you might want to do level two.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's a really simple course and give you a really guided way of looking at this.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's a course that is a general health course for everyone, but we do supply some uh condition-specific guidelines for women in menopause, people who want to lose weight, people who are concerned about aging uh more actively.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: So each one of those levels is£49 each, or if you buy them together, you can get that for just£85.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: And we will put the link to that in the show notes below.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: So that's all we've got for this week, then.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: We've been coaches James and Julie from Fabulous Beyond 40.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: Remind you to stay strong, stay fabulous, and we'll see you next time.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Take care.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: Bye, everybody.