Perimenopause and Nutrition
Feed the Transition, Don't Fight It
There's so much noise out there about what to eat in perimenopause. Cut this, add that, eliminate the other thing. Most of it treats every woman's body as if it's driven by the exact same thing. It isn't.
But underneath all the noise, there are a handful of nutrition foundations that genuinely support your body through this transition. Not by fighting it, but by working with what's actually happening hormonally.
Your gut and liver are part of your hormone story
This one surprises people. Your liver processes hormones, and your gut helps clear them out. When your gut is sluggish, hormones can end up getting "recycled" instead of properly cleared — which can secretly work against you, no matter how well everything else is dialled in.
Fibre is one of the simplest, most underrated levers here. Fibre-rich foods and cruciferous vegetables (think broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, cabbage) genuinely support hormone clearance and balance. Fibre helps with regular bowel motions (taking out the trash) and cruciferous veg interact with the gut and liver's clean-up process by supporting hormone clearance.
The foundations, in practice
Protein at every meal. This supports blood sugar stability, muscle maintenance, and satiety — three things that get noticeably harder to manage once oestrogen and progesterone start shifting.
Smart carbs and healthy fats. These give you steady energy and provide the building blocks your body needs for hormone production — this isn't a low-carb, high-restriction conversation.
Fibre-rich foods and cruciferous veg. As above — supporting the clearance side of the hormone equation, not just the production side.
Spearmint tea. A small, gentle, evidence-informed addition, particularly for androgen-driven symptoms (things like oily skin, mid section weight gain and hair changes) that tend to fly under the radar in perimenopause conversations. 2 cups of spearmint tea per day may help reduce androgens.
Why "just eat clean" isn't the answer
Two women can walk in with the exact same symptom — fatigue, brain fog, stubborn weight — and have completely different drivers underneath it. For one woman it might be genuinely hormonal. For another, it might be gut and liver load. For someone else, it's nervous system and sleep debt compounding everything else. Nutrition foundations support all of these, but the specific plan that gets you real, lasting results comes from actually knowing which driver (or drivers) apply to you.
That's the difference between generic advice that fizzles out after a few weeks, and a plan you can actually stick to - because it's built around you, not a one-size-fits-all template.
The honest bit: this takes time
Rebalancing hormones, metabolism, and your nervous system isn't a paracetamol situation — there's no single dose that fixes it overnight. Most women need at least a few months of consistent care to feel a real, lasting shift. That's not meant to be discouraging. You're not doing it wrong if change hasn't happened in two weeks. It was never going to.
If you'd like help figuring out your specific drivers — rather than guessing your way through another round of generic advice — I'd love to work with you.