Straight answers about food, your gut and menopause

Is it gluten free? Will it make you bloat? Is the 3am waking the menopause or the wine? Plain English answers to the food questions people actually go looking for, plus the recipes worth cooking.

Pick a starting point

Our menopause and gut guides are written by Trish Tucker-May, Registered Nutritionist. The habit side comes from Rob Edmonds, Dip. Clinical Hypnosis, founder of MindShift Mentors.

232 answers Food answers Is it gluten free? How long does it actually keep? Can you eat the skin? The questions people type at nine at night with the fridge door open. Start here 33 guides Gut and digestion Which foods are behind the bloating and the gas, food by food, and what to check on the label before you blame the wrong thing. Start here 10 guides Menopause and food Caffeine, alcohol, spicy food, soy and dairy, plus bloating, sugar cravings and waking at 3am. How strong the evidence is, one food at a time. Start here

Menopause and food

Navigating perimenopause or menopause?

Most menopause food advice is a list of things to give up, with no way of telling which of them applies to you. These 10 guides go one food at a time, say how strong the evidence actually is, and show you how to test a trigger on yourself in a fortnight.

A starting point rather than medical advice. Menopause symptoms are worth raising with your doctor, particularly if they are affecting your sleep, your mood or your ability to get through a working day.

Caffeine Commonly a trigger
Alcohol Commonly a trigger
Spicy food Commonly a trigger
Soy Modest evidence it helps
Magnesium Modest evidence it helps
Dairy Not usually a trigger

Visit the menopause hub

Food questions, answered

The things people actually go looking for at nine at night with the fridge door open.

Can Peanuts Give You Gas or Bloating? Here's Why

24 December 2022

Is Pepperoni Gluten Free? [Brand Guide]

27 May 2023

Should You Put Bananas in the Fridge? Storage Guide

11 June 2023

Does Kimchi Give You Gas + Make You Fart? Here's Why

23 December 2022

What Is 3D Printed Meat and Is It Safe to Eat?

1 November 2024

Calories and Fat in Salmon Skin: What You Should Know

12 July 2022

Does Seaweed Make You Gassy or Fart More?

30 May 2022

Crispy or Chewy Bacon: Which is Better and How to Cook Both

11 June 2023

Is it gluten free? The food-by-food guide

You already know what to eat. That isn't the bit that stops you.

Most nights the recipe isn't the problem. You know what a decent meal looks like. The problem is the version of you at six o'clock who has had enough of the day and just wants it to be easy. That's why there are two people behind this site, and why they do completely different jobs.

The food side

Trish Tucker-May

Registered Nutritionist, member of the Federation of Nutritional Therapy Practitioners (UK)

Trish writes the recipes and the gut health answers here. Her approach isn't a rulebook. It's working out which foods keep your digestion and your energy on side, which ones quietly don't, and then building meals around that. If you've ever cut out half your diet and still felt flat, her stuff will make sense to you. Her book, Nourish Your Gut For A Positive Menopause, won its category at the 2024 Janey Lee Grace Health and Wellness Awards.

Trish's recipes and gut health answers

The pattern side

Rob Edmonds

Dip. Clinical Hypnosis, Dip. Strategic Psychotherapy, founder of MindShift Mentors

Rob's side is the bit food advice never touches. The nine o'clock reach for something when you're not hungry. The mind that won't switch off long enough to let you sleep, so tomorrow starts tired and the whole thing goes again. His audio programs are designed to help with those patterns rather than the willpower sitting on top of them. Fifteen to twenty minutes at bedtime through headphones. No journalling, no appointments, no reliving anything. He came to it the long way round: a few hypnotherapy sessions at 19 cleared a fear of public speaking he had been carrying for years, and how quickly that shifted stayed with him through a career in finance before he went back and studied it properly.