Food for your Mood

lynsey635
Jul 3, 2025
4 min read

Updated: Aug 9, 2025

How to nourish your body and mind through menopause without the guilt or guesswork

Let’s Talk About Food

Peri/Menopause doesn’t just change your mood or sleep; it can also alter your relationship with food. Hormones can shift your metabolism, impact digestion, and stir up cravings. Add in decades of diet culture, and for many women, this stage of life brings shame, confusion, or frustration around eating.

I hear so many of my clients share their struggles with weight gain, bloating, changes in body composition, especially the appearance of a “spare tyre” and growing sensitivity to certain foods. These experiences often come hand in hand with self-blame and a painful lack of compassion for their amazing, resilient bodies.

Let’s be really clear: this conversation isn’t about dieting.

It’s about nourishment.

It’s about supporting your body with what it truly needs, not punishing it for how it’s changing.

To help you feel supported and ready to go, Kate has created a simple 7-day meal plan below packed with nutritious, hormone-friendly ideas to make eating well feel doable, not overwhelming.

What we eat can genuinely change how we feel. The gut is rarely wrong and may know more about our wellbeing than any other organ. In constant conversation with the brain via the gut-brain axis, it’s often called our “abdominal brain” by neuroscientists. From gut health and inflammation to brain fog and fatigue, nutrition is a powerful force. It's a cornerstone of mental and physical wellbeing during peri/menopause and beyond.

3 Practical Shifts to Support Your Menopausal Body

Prioritise gut-loving foods over ultra-processed ones

Your gut is your second brain. When you feed it real food, fibre, fermented foods, colourful veg, it feeds back with better mood, digestion, and hormone balance. Think: oats, lentils, kimchi, berries, greens.

Make protein your friend, not an afterthought

As hormones shift alongside natural ageing, our muscle mass naturally declines. Protein helps protect your bones, metabolism, and brain health. Try to include a source with every meal; fish, beans, eggs, tofu, Greek yoghurt, whatever works for you.

Ditch the shame, not the snacks

You are not a bad person because you ate a biscuit.

You are not “off track,” undisciplined, or failing.

You are human.

Guilt has no nutritional value.It doesn’t support your health, and it certainly doesn’t nourish your nervous system.

Food is more than just fuel, it’s comfort, culture, celebration, and connection. It’s tied to memory, emotion, and belonging. Reducing it to rules and shame only disconnects us from our bodies and from joy.

So instead of judging yourself, try this:

Pause.
Breathe.
Ask gently, “How did that make me feel?”
Then move on.

Awareness helps you make choices from a place of care, not criticism. And that’s where real, lasting change begins, not with willpower, but with kindness.

Glow Science

A little science to make sense of your symptoms.

What you eat doesn’t just fuel your body — it also feeds your brain chemistry, which means it can have a powerful effect on your mood, focus, and emotional balance.

During menopause, falling oestrogen levels change how our brain uses key neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine — the very chemicals that influence how calm, motivated, and happy we feel.

Lower oestrogen can make it harder for the brain to make serotonin, leaving us more prone to low mood, anxiety, and irritability.

The good news? Food can help. Certain nutrients act as building blocks for these “feel-good” brain chemicals, while others help balance blood sugar and reduce inflammation two big players in mood stability.

Case Study: My Own Story

In my own life, I’ve felt the shift, digestion changing, energy crashes & cravings. What’s helped? Tuning in instead of shutting down, I swapped the guilt for curiosity. And reminded myself daily: this body is doing a hell of a job, it deserves my support, not my criticism. I love cookbooks and so built a bank of recipes that were going to be easy, nutritious and take no thought to choose when I wasn’t feeling it. See Kindling Corner for suggestions.

Foods should be FLAG

I like to remember FLAG when it comes to nutrition during transitions

Flexibility – Your needs can shift day to day, and that’s completely okay. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach.

Listen – Listen to your body’s cues: hunger, fullness, satisfaction. Trusting yourself is part of healing your relationship with food.

Awareness – .Notice how food makes you feel, physically and emotionally. Rather than how it “scores” on someone else’s scale.

Grace – You deserve kindness. That includes after the extra biscuits, the skipped meals, or the “I just couldn’t be bothered” days

One Small Spark - Nourishing your body with mindful habits

Can have a big impact on how you feel during your MT. This month, try one small spark from here to support your wellbeing. Small steps like these support digestion, mood, and hormone balance over time.

Remember: consistency beats intensity. One small spark, done daily, can create real change. This month, choose from one of these simple practices:

Prep one nourishing meal a day ahead of time - choose breakfast, lunch or dinner - see our meal planner for ideas.
Go for a 10-minute walk after eating - This simple habit can help balance blood sugar, boost digestion, and lift your mood.
Eat lunch without your phone - just you, your food, and a moment of peace. Helps you tune into your body’s hunger and fullness cues, supports better digestion, and gives your mind a chance to reset.

Start small, stay steady and watch your glow return.

Reignite with Reflection: Coaching questions to spark insight and clarity

If you viewed food as medicine, changing your symptoms & wellbeing, how would that change your next meal?

If you looked back one week or one year from now and had made small, nourishing changes to your diet, what would you be proud of?

Kindling Corner: A spark to help fuel your understanding,

self-care, or healing.

Looking for more guidance? These expert resources are ones we love & will help you navigate menopause with science-backed insights and real-life strategies.