The Midlife Feast

#170: The One Thing Menopause Dietitians Want You to Know About Nutrition

• Jenn Salib Huber RD ND • Season 6 • Episode 170

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We all want to simplify nutrition (and life!) but are we going down the wrong path when it comes to finding "one thing" for nutrition in menopause? Laura Clark RD and I  talk about how real progress in midlife comes from flexibility, self-trust, and simple, satisfying meals. We break down the hype around protein, fiber, and even the microbiome so food feels calmer, kinder, and more doable. In this episode you'll hear:

• why chasing a single fix creates stress not change
• how Laura’s practice shifted from weight-centric targets to nuance
• protein without perfection and what steadies your morning
• fiber and microbiome benefits without counting or 30-plant pressure
• simple plate-building: protein, carbs you enjoy, and some crunch
• escaping on-it off-it thinking and perfectionism loops
• social comparison traps and giving yourself permission
• redefining progress as small choices that stack
• adding fun back into food and midlife

If you're ready to take the next step towards thriving in midlife, head to www.menopausenutritionist.ca to learn more about my one-to-one and group coaching programs, free resources, and where to get your copy of Eat to Thrive during menopause.
If you've loved today's conversation and found it helpful, please share it with a friend who needs to hear this and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts!

You can learn more about Laura at https://www.lecnutrition.co.uk/ and on Instagram at @menopause.dietitian.

What did you think of this episode? Click here and let me know!

Hey dietitians and nutrition professionals! I've got something exciting coming in 2026. Get on the waiting list here: https://www.menopausenutritionist.ca/fordietitians

📚 I wrote a book! Eat To Thrive During Menopause is out now! Order your copy today and start thriving in midlife.

Looking for more about midlife, menopause nutrition, and intuitive eating? Click here to grab one of my free guides and learn what I've got "on the menu" including my 1:1 and group programs. https://www.menopausenutritionist.ca/links

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to the Midlife Feast, the podcast that helps you make sense of your body, your health, and menopause in the messy middle of midlife. I'm Dr. Jen Salie Pieper, intuitive eating dietitian and naturopathic doctor, and author of Eat to Thrive During Menopause. Around here, we don't see midlife and menopause as problems to solve, but as invitations to live with more freedom, trust, and joy. Each week you'll hear real conversations and practical strategies to help you feel like yourself again, eat without guilt, and turn midlife from a season of survival into a season of thriving. I'm so glad you're here. Let's dig in. Okay, let's be honest. How many of you have Googled what is the one thing or the best thing that I should do for insert here? Whether it's hot flashes or sleep or menopause or body changes or whatever it is. As humans, I think we have a natural desire to want to simplify new information, especially. And that's why I wanted to invite my guest on this week's podcast, Laura Clark, who's a fellow dietitian from the UK, to talk about this one thing phenomenon that both of us have seen, and I'm sure that lots of dietitians listening will also kind of relate to this, because I think it doesn't serve us in the way that we want it to. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all about keeping things simple. I do think that we overcomplicate a lot of things, especially with nutrition. But sometimes that desire to simplify backfires. So, in a little bit of a cheeky turn, the one thing that Laura and I want you to know about when it comes to menopause nutrition is actually that there isn't one thing. But we do talk about some of the things that matter most and how you can get out of that mindset that might be keeping you stuck in just maybe some behaviors or choices that aren't working for you. As always, I hope you love this episode and I'd love to hear what you think. Hi, Laura. Welcome to the Midlife Feast. Thanks for having me, Jen. So, as anyone listening can tell you are from the UK with your lovely accent. Um and, you know, as I say in the intro, we met on Instagram, which is where I've met all of my all of my friends recently, and we've had so many great chats and voice notes back and forth that I thought, you know what, Laura's the person that I want to talk to about this, and what we're gonna get into in a second. But I'd love to just hear a little bit more about like how did you get interested in working in this area of menopause, or tell us a little bit about your story.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, well, I suppose the first thing to say is I am myself in my um mid to late 40s, so you have to be living under a rock, not to be affected by um perimenopause in some shape or form, and it felt a really natural coming together, really, of my professional work um with my sort of personal journey. But interestingly, the way in which I talk about nutrition has certainly evolved over the last decade, I would say. And I find it constantly surprising when I look back at where I've come from. And certainly as a very fresh-faced, newly qualified dietitian in my early 20s, I was just armed with my diet sheets and full of enthusiasm and a real desire to help people change. And of course, as you'll relate to, in those days, people came to us because they were needing advice and they didn't know what the answer was. And these days, of course, people have so much information, of course, none of it really makes sense because everything contradicts everything else, but they have lots of information, it's not like they are um lacking it. So there's been a real shift, of course, in in the landscape in which we're operating as qualified nutrition professionals, um, which has brought its own challenges, I suppose. But uh I just uh find it fascinating that in those early years of my work, and I've always worked within chronic disease management and and weight management, I was, you know, very much in that weight-centric model. And I can still remember clinic after clinic where in the olden days we would send people food diaries in the post before their appointment, and they would bring the food diary to the appointment, and you could tell pretty much that they've written it on the bus on the way in. And they would then throw the diary across the table at me, and I would sort of think, I'm just not sure where I'm gonna go with this, you know, and I'd be sort of poring through this diary, trying to find some sort of nugget of information that might hold the key to this person's um success moving forward. And I just I look back at that girl in that clinic room now and I just feel so sorry for her because she was trapped in a system that was never destined to work. And uh yeah, I just think, God, how far I have come in that in those 25 years, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

And I I love your story and I think it's really relatable. And I know that any dietitians listening will certainly relate to everything that you said because all of us as interns, especially, even if you didn't work in, you know, a clinical setting, like a hospital setting, after you qualified, like all of us had training in the various, you know, areas of care. And I have a very similar memory of being an intern in the cardiac rehab unit and having to go in and do cholesterol-lowering counseling with somebody who'd had a heart attack 24 hours before and feeling like I was so out of place because even just intuitively in that moment, I'm like, this is not what this person needs. You know, they're not going to retain anything. They might have had a partner or a spouse or a child there with them who might ask a few questions, but you know, just this idea of, you know, kind of giving people information and expecting it to just like absorb in and work for them in meaningful ways, you know. Um, I think a lot of us who've been in practice for a long time, it's kind of the long way of me getting around to saying that we all realize now that nutrition counseling and someone's relationship with food is about so much more than just what they're eating. Right. Yeah. Or what they're sleeping. Yeah. So we had a little bit of like a cheeky title um for this episode, which is you know, the one thing that we want you to know about nutrition or menopause nutrition. Um, and so this kind of came about because both you and I have experienced some frustration at this current culture around menopause and nutrition in particular, where it's like always chasing the one thing, the it factor. Um so what have you noticed? Like what are some of the more outrageous things, or what are some of the more frustrating it factor things that you get asked about?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, we know that this is a phase that so much doesn't feel within our control, don't we? Body weight, of course, being one of those things. And a lot of well-meaning I'm hesitating because I'm not sure what to call them. You know, perhaps they are um qualified healthcare professionals, perhaps they're they're not. We, you know, there's a whole array of different people online, isn't there giving information? I think it's the bite-sized format of the information as well, that is its downfall because there doesn't seem to be much room for nuance. And I certainly pause every time I do a post because I'm always like, oh my god, I want to I want to make sure that people know that there's nuance to this. But the way that we consume information now, we're looking for that bite-sized uh nugget of this is the thing I'm going to focus on, this is it. Uh I think I see increasingly uh targets put forward for menopausal women, whether it's grams of protein, grams of fibre, uh a certain number of fermented foods that they should try and eat in a day. Like it all seems quite mathematical, which uh just really surprises me because nothing really about our food relationship should feel like a maths equation. Um, and yet increasingly it does. Um, and that worries me because I think it then draws us into that world of tracking and numbers and macros and uh charts and ugh, just all of that stuff. And I think without really solid foundations, that is just going to drive more of a disconnect really between our mind and our body.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and it's uh so understandable to want the one thing, like the need, the desire to simplify information. I mean, that's human nature. Like we all want things to be simple. But it's like this oversimplification, you know, when we talk about protein. I at least, at least once a day, somebody somewhere will ask me, what's your take on protein? How much protein do you think I need? Is it one gram per kilo or is it one gram per pound? And what about this kind of protein? Like the amount of space that protein has, like living rent-free, as the saying goes, is wild in our collective consciousness. Um, you know, or like fiber, it's not just enough to talk about fiber. Now it's fiber maxing. Yes. It's like we had to up level this thing that already everyone kind of was already talking about. Like, why do we always have to rebrand things so that they're shiny and new to kind of get people's interest, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, but it's so relatable.

SPEAKER_01:

Like, I don't want anybody listening to think, like, oh gosh, that's me. I've jumped on these trends. Of course you have. Of course you have. You're seeing them everywhere.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. It's it's the PR department for fiber has suddenly had an influx of staff, isn't it? And now it's now it's like, let's, let's go for it. And and we've we've known about the lack of fibre in the UK diet. I'm sure it's the same in your audience as well. Uh we do know that there are targets as a population that we struggle to hit. And we do know, of course, that there are benefits to fibre within the menopausal diet, but I still don't think that the way that we're talking about it is particularly accessible for people. I think it uh generates a level of anxiety around missing targets or failing to do enough. And I think that's the conversation that we need to have. This this gap that comes from well-meaning dietary advice just not landing in the right way in that woman's head. And that's because of the fact that they haven't been asleep for a hundred years, like Sleeping Beauty, and just woken up in perimenopause and and have, you know, gone out in hunt of nutritional information. Like these women have their lived experiences, you know, etched up on their insides, right? So if we're not going to take in that into consideration, then we're gonna potentially do some damage in how these target-driven dietary recommendations are landing for people.

SPEAKER_01:

So well said. And because that is that is the concern, is that you know, I think when we talk about giving people targets, and not to say that there's anything wrong with goals or intentions or having a plan, but when we say this is the minimum, and that minimum is 85% higher than you have ever been able to achieve before, um, it is really starting at a point where people are gonna feel intimidated just thinking about it. Yes. You know? Um so I'd like to talk a little bit about some of the nuance or the kind of the hidden dangers of like this it conversation. Yes. And so when people are on it, meaning like they're on the wagon, they're on the plan, they're following through, versus when they're not, when life has gotten lifey, as I say, or something has gotten in the way. What are some of the kind of hidden anxieties or beliefs that someone might experience when they're on it or off it?

SPEAKER_00:

I think it is incredible how ingrained that on it, off it culture is within our everyday life. And it's not until we stop to think about it that we perhaps uh realize the impact of the, okay, yeah, I'm on it, I'm on it, I'm on it, I'm on it. I think it always goes hand in hand with this deeper rooted, oh God, okay, is this sustainable? Is this uh doable in the long term? What's gonna happen a week on Monday when I know I've got this, this, and this in the diary, or I'm probably gonna get it all wrong that day, that's a really the bad thing. It's this ongoing little sort of narrative, isn't it? And that voice that's kind of saying, You better keep going, you better keep on it, don't, you know, don't let the side down. Um and I think uh we hear it in our own heads, we hear it in our peer group because our friends are uh perhaps all on the same journey, but we might also hear it in the doctor's office, where we're given this praise and this uh external validation that we're doing so well, that we're that we are uh meeting all of the uh targets, or we're achieving, you know, externally what everyone thinks that we should be achieving, but inside we're sort of slightly weeping, going, but I'm just not sure that this level, I can hit this level for this long. Um, and so there's that fear and anxiety that that live in us all the time. And I think those that don't have that fear and anxiety are those that have just found that middle ground and they don't feel that they're either on it or off it. And as a result of that, they're not really talking about it, ironically, um, because it's not a thing to be talked about. I don't know if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, yeah, I mean, when you step out of that all or nothing space, right, where you're either being good or you're being bad, you're on the wagon or off the wagon, you've hit your goal or you haven't, like just that binary way of thinking about it, it does you do realize that there's a whole lot in between that still has value, maybe more value. Yeah. Um, I heard someone describe it like as, you know, who set the goal or who decided that 99% wasn't ever enough? You know, like why do we think that 1% doesn't matter? Or if you do something once a week, that still is something that you did once a week. Like it still counts no matter how little, right? So when we're talking, you know, especially when we're talking about midlife and menopause, there's a lot going on. Um, it is the classic sandwich generation where most of us have, you know, if you have families, your kids are probably possibly still at home or kind of in that transition stage. Um, if you have parents, there's a good chance that they're getting older. And so, and then you have, you know, your own life in addition to all the other people that are taking up space in it. Um, how do we start to shift the conversation so that when we're talking about food, it is not coming so much from a place of fear? Because that's what a lot of people come to us with. I'm scared of, I've been told I have to do this or else, you know, this bad thing is gonna happen, or they're given a timeline to implement diet and lifestyle, you know, before medication is discussed. So, how do you shift that conversation from fear to more curiosity and self-compassion and self-care?

SPEAKER_00:

I think the first step is always, as I hope this conversation will do, give people permission to realize that they're not failing. The only uh way that failure comes into it is if uh things are written in black and white as you should achieve this, this is what your day should look like. As soon as we take that away and say true healthy, happy food relationships are going to have flexibility to them, they're going to kind of roll with the punches a little bit, and that's actually the definition of uh of a healthy food relationship. The fact that it doesn't look the same every day. But those people who uh put forward this idea that we should uh uh eat these things or hit these targets every day, I'm just not sure they're living in the real world. I'm not sure which world they do live in. I I'm not uh I wish I was a fly on the wall in their world, but perhaps their worlds involve uh plenty of other people, or perhaps if we take fermented food, for example, there are people who are huge advocates of fermented food, it's a huge part of their life, but maybe that's because it's also a huge part of their research and their world generally. Me, uh that isn't a particularly significant part of my world and my life, and even though nutrition is my full-time job, I don't want nutrition to be uh the full-time it that I'm spending all my time thinking about. And because so many women have felt like they are the failing of their own health, which I know you've covered uh deeply in other podcasts, this weight versus health conversation. As soon as we can give women that way in to say, this is not a blame thing, this is not your fault, you have not created this scenario for yourself as a result of not trying hard enough, like that is just not a thing. Then I think we've got a bit of a pause and a bit of an opportunity for women to say, right, nobody is going to save me here from this barrage of lifestyle advice. I have to save myself. I have to really consider what I want, what matters to me, what I enjoy, what's feasible, what's my starting point, like literally where am I now? What would be one tiny little step forward? Like, what does that look like for me? And to recognize that that is in the long run hugely beneficial and and paths the way forward, doesn't it, for some element of progress?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and it's really redefining progress. Like I think so much of our nutrition landscape, professionally for us, but also just in the in the bigger picture world, nutrition is it's a target and an outcome. It's not the process of eating. You know, it's like eat more of this, get this many grams of this, do this at this time of day and not at this time of day. You know, it's very, I mean, it's very all or nothing, but it's also not focused on the process of enjoying your food, which has to be part of any prescription for eating, you know, because food is more than just nutrients. Like it's not this singular thing that only gives us fuel. It also is how we connect with people, it is how we celebrate, it's how we can experience pleasure. So I love everything that you said.

SPEAKER_00:

Can I give a practical example of that just to illustrate that point? Because I think if we look at protein as an example, there are some trains of thought around hitting a certain number of grams of protein at breakfast, right? And I look at my own diet, and I'm not going to talk about that because we're not here to talk about me, but I look at my own diet, and I think I am hugely hypocritical if I am telling women to hit a certain amount of grams of protein at breakfast, and I'm giving them them all these options of how they can do that, and I'm really looking at it from a sort of a calculated perspective. I am hugely hypocritical because I don't think I achieve that. That doesn't mean that having protein in the morning is not going to be of benefit. I think we can clearly see, certainly in the women that I work with, that those that have protein in the morning tend to feel a little bit more grounded, a little bit steadier, a little bit better fuelled when they have combined that protein with something that's got some carbohydrate in it and hopefully some fibre as well. That does seem to steady people through a morning and place them in a better place, in a more human version of themselves by the time they have a break for lunch or mid-morning or whatever, right? So we're not disagreeing that protein is is not of value. But I think most importantly, rather than being target driven, we need to encourage women to find that space to listen to their own body, because different amounts of protein will take in different bodies different amounts of time to work their way through. And for some women, actually on a much lower amount of protein, they might get themselves through till 11 o'clock and prefer to have a more substantial snack then that's also got a little bit of protein in it, and then that season through till lunch. For other women, they might prefer to have a far bigger breakfast and then they don't have a snack, and then that season through till lunch. So there has to be a combination here of yes, we can take that little bit of nutritional science, but we then also have to look at this individual and look at their day and look at what works and all of the other things that they're trying to do in the morning and find that find that middle ground, find what works for them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And I think that's so important when we're talking about protein. I think we should have the same conversation for fiber. Because with protein, unless you are an athlete or you have specific nutritional needs around protein, other than just, you know, taking care of yourself. Um, it's also what you get over 24 hours that matters the most. It really does not need to be this perfectly divided every two hours, every four hours at every meal. Because you're right, like some people are just not breakfast people. I'm one of those people that breakfast is probably the time when I'm the hungriest and probably is actually my largest of the three meals. And that, and I've always been that way. That is just, you know, how I feel best. But my husband, who has just in the last couple of years started having breakfast because he's just never been a breakfast person, if I told him to try and get 30 grams of protein at breakfast, he would, he just couldn't do it without feeling sick. You know, and there are so many people who feel guilty because they're like, oh, I just don't have much of an appetite in the morning. I don't know how I'm gonna eat that much. And so just giving them permission to be like, you know what, you don't have to. Yeah. There is no one right way to get your to meet your protein needs over the day. It really can be based on what works for you. So thank you for bringing that up too. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

So let's talk about fiber because another one proteins, proteins, body fiber. Let's do that one next.

SPEAKER_01:

So another one that I hear a lot of is people feel like they cannot meet the target of 30 different plants. You know, they've heard this 30 plant thing and they're trying, and it sounds like a good idea, but they just feel like, oh my gosh, I find this so hard to do. So you're already nodding your head.

SPEAKER_00:

So tell me your experience with that. The microbiome research is fascinating and ever evolving. And certainly when I studied at university uh a million years ago, we didn't have lectures on the microbiome. So I think you and I are excited about the potential that the microbiome has. Having said all of that, I find some of the narratives around get to know your microbiome. Um, your microbiome is is going to save the world. Or, you know, it like it's it doesn't feel um very contextualized really again to um that that busy midlife woman uh juggling all the things, right? Um and for many, I think can we not just bring this back to really simple basics of what are you able to plonk on the plate alongside that protein? If people are able to establish some element of balance when they're having a meal, then that will take them so far in terms of meeting their nutritional needs. And we know that 30 grams of fibre is our public health recommended daily amount. I have never totted up how much fibre I eat in a day. I'm not sure I particularly want to. I've got better things to do with my time. Um but I but I am conscious that if some of the carbohydrates that I choose are whole grain, if I am making sure I've got some element of crunch in my lunch and in my dinner, that that is going to bring fibre with it. I might at breakfast be able to incorporate things like nuts and seeds in various forms or maybe within my snacks. But if I come at it from a food-first approach and I think about foods that I enjoy, and I then think about, well, can I just get those three things plonked on the plate at the same time? I know I'm I'm pretty much gonna get there without any worry, if that makes sense. I'm just not sure.

SPEAKER_01:

It does. Yeah, I mean, it's a normal eating framework, right? Of including a variety of foods that you enjoy and kind of just having this idea of what can I add to my plant? You know, you don't have to be counting, measuring, and tracking and always reading labels and always choosing the high fiber option. You can just kind of have this framework of, do I have some crunch? Do I have a whole grain? Do I have some plants? Like I like suggesting just can I put another plant on my plate? Is there a plant that I have access to? Whether that's like three leaves of spinach or, you know, whatever else. So I really I appreciate you saying that you don't, you know, you don't know how much how many grams of fiber you get in a day. I don't either. Um, I left my tracking days behind me almost a decade ago now. Yes. Um, and I have no desire to kind of go back. Now, that's not to say that I don't sometimes read a label and be like, oh, this is a great source of fiber. And like if it's something that I want to try and I'm interested in, you know, putting into a recipe, but it doesn't mean that I'm only choosing it because it's high in fiber, which is where I kind of think the difference is.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, I agree. Chia seeds, for example, seem to be having their moment because they are such a good source of fiber. Um, and some of the recipe inspirar round chia seeds, I look at and I just think, ugh, I just I that's just not for me. Um and uh I yeah, I I couldn't agree more. I think surely we've got to come at a place of what do I actually like the taste of? Um and yeah, with with a bit more uh relaxation and a bit more of a ugly, come on, like what's what have I got? What can I get? You know, when we ease the pressure off, we're naturally going to have more energy and you know, more resource in the tank to, as you say, you know, chuck another plant on the plate, you know, but it's coming from a from a slightly different angle. It's coming from from a place of love and nourishment rather than a place of anxiety and fear. I think those things are very distinctly different.

SPEAKER_01:

And there's all, you know, and this isn't um this isn't to knock the idea of being more intentional about adding more fruits and vegetables to your to your diet. I think that um there's nothing wrong with that. But to put this number of 30 different plants as the goal, for a lot of people, that's not accessible for many reasons. Um, you know, depending on where you live, the cost of food is probably one big reason. Um, when you're cooking for families and if you have young kids, you know, I I tried everything to make my kids open to as many foods as possible. And I still don't think my kids would have been receptive to some of the plants I would need to have to get to 30 plants a week when they were younger. Or, you know, just some people don't have the skill or the inclination to cook in the that way. So I think we need to remember that it is just a it's a suggestion that somebody had. Like it's not um it's not coming from a public health recommendation. Like this isn't something that people are being told to do around the world. This was just one person's quirky fun way of trying to get people to eat more plants. Great. But I don't want anyone to feel like that's the goal.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, exactly. It's it's like it's a target that doesn't it doesn't come with this whole like wealth of evidence that's just absolutely categorically, oh my goodness, you absolutely have to do this or else that's not where these recommendations come from. Um, we won't get into the ins and outs of uh of of kind of you know critiquing research. But and I think the other thing to note as well is that I know it's such a cliche, and I know when people hear dietitians talking about balance that they kind of roll their eyes and go, oh, you guys, you know. But but genuinely, if you if you overdo protein, you are not gonna have enough room to get the fibre in. If you overdo the fibre, you're not gonna have enough room to put the protein in. Like everything does genuinely need to nestle around on that plate together. And one of the biggest things that I think we don't ever even acknowledge is that even having lunch, having a lunch is for some women seen as an absolute luxury. Food is grabbed on the go, we're not putting things on plates, and even if we can break down the barriers to making that feel doable, then that in itself is a behaviour. Even looking to have three meals a day will help you to get in the nutrition that you need. Um we've got to bring it back, haven't we, to kind of the the real basics of how you show up around food every day. And women don't give themselves permission to look at that basic stuff because they're just being made to feel that they're they're just failing so much that the answer must be more information. It must be another prescriptive meal plan that they just have to follow. They they they're not given permission to go scrap all of that and just come back to your life, your kitchen, your family. Like let's work out what works for you.

SPEAKER_01:

And that's such a down. I mean, there are many upsides of social media. You know, I get to meet lovely people like you. Um, but the downside is that it really exaggerates that social comparison. Yes. Of, you know, what is somebody else eating? What are they doing? Maybe I should be doing that, maybe what I have isn't enough. And um, and I see that all the time, you know, where people will just feel like, oh, when I compare my lunch to what, you know, I saw on TikTok or Instagram, like there's no way I'm eating enough protein. But then when we actually break it down in the context of that meal over the course of the day, over the course of their week, it's fine. 99% of the time, it's fine. Yeah. And they're surprised when they're like, oh, oh, so this is okay. Cause I actually really like this and I take this to work every day. And it's like, it fits my life. But because this comparison of like, well, if I don't have like the equivalent of three chicken breasts on my plate, I'm not hitting my protein goals, like it's just so yeah, it's just so unrealistic and it's so unhelpful to compare what we're having and what we need to what somebody else might have or need. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And so we want to go ahead. I was just gonna say quickly, also this idea that like if you don't like something, you should just keep persevering and just keep eating it until you decide that your brain decides it does like it. I mean, life is very short. I really why do that? You know, just really think about the foods that that bring you joy. And and I love it when clients, when you give permission, you know, you say to clients, just have what you truly want, you know, and they report back and they say, Oh my goodness, you know, thank you so much. I really enjoyed that sandwich, you know. And they haven't eaten a sandwich for for for 20 years because you know, bread's evil, definitely. Um, so yeah, sorry.

SPEAKER_01:

So to kind of like answer the cheeky question in the title, the one thing that we want you to know, what would you say?

SPEAKER_00:

Gosh. I think the one thing we want you to know is that there isn't this secret it that everybody else has got the memo of and and you're scrabbling around trying to trying to get an invite in. There is no it to chase.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, exactly. There's no one right way to eat, and there's no wrong way to eat. Um, you know, you can be interested in protein and fiber, and maybe even interested in eating a number of plants, but that doesn't mean that it's ever going to be the one thing that you do that changes everything, that solves all your problems. Very much like weight loss isn't the solution to all the problems that we think it's going to solve. Um yeah, and I would say that that is definitely kind of the take-home that I hope people get from listening to our conversation is that as people who are personally in this phase of life, but also between the two of us have almost 50 years of combined experience in, you know, talking to people about how to eat and what actually matters, um, that it's never going to be one thing. One thing is not coming to save you.

SPEAKER_00:

And absolutely how you feel about the decisions that you're making, if anything that you do or decide to do feels like it's coming from that place of shame or fear or anxiety, like that's a little warning bell. Like, listen to that feeling because it's telling you something. We have to give ourselves that opportunity for to think for things to come from from a different place. Um because that's part of health as well, isn't it? It's not just the what we're making, but it's the how all of those things are making us feel.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. Thank you so much for this conversation. I do want to ask you one last question, and that is what do you think is the missing ingredient in midlife, Laura?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh my goodness, I've heard you ask that question so many times, and I I really should have got a bet got a better answer for you. Um I think the missing ingredient in midlife is probably fun.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, I agree.

SPEAKER_00:

Like, can we just can we just make this a little bit more lighthearted, please, and and stop feeling so so drained by it all.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, menopause is hard enough, food shouldn't be. So I definitely agree that we need more fun.

SPEAKER_00:

And where can people learn more about you? So you can find me at uh the menopause dietitian. Um that's my online uh website, etc. And I am on Instagram at menopause.dietician, and that's dietitian with a T. Amazing Well thank you for having me. It's been it's been great to find a kindred spirit to talk this stuff through. So thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01:

It has been. And and I hope that people listening, um, you know, hearing things that I often say, but in a slightly different way, or, you know, just kind of giving a different perspective, I think that that also will hopefully help to reinforce how important our message is. Yes. Um, that, you know, food is not something that you need to be afraid of. Um, you know, food is something that you should be able to enjoy and put some thought into and not have it take over your life. Yeah. Hey, hey. Thank you so much, Laura. You're welcome. See you soon. Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Midlife Feast. If you're ready to take the next step towards thriving in midlife, head to menopause nutritionist.ca to learn more about my one-to-one and group coaching programs, free resources, and where to get your copy of Eat to Thrive during menopause. And if you've loved today's conversation and found it helpful, please share it with a friend who needs to hear this and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. It helps so many more people just like you find their way to food freedom and midlife confidence. Until next time, remember, midlife is not the end of the story, it's the feast. Let's savor it together.

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Dr. Jenn Salib Huber RD ND

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