So we

weren't really making that differentiation where it's all about quality and quantity, how much of that carbohydrate you're going to eat and the quality of it, which then leads you on to what you've just said about, we were talking about the macronutrients and we forget about the micronutrients.

I often say it's like a train that arrives at your station with all your nutrients.

And first of all, you've got the big macronutrients, but the micronutrients are so important.

All the vitamins and minerals, I describe them a bit like stardust in the body.

So they drive every single biochemical reaction that happens in our body that makes us feel well, from our brain chemistry to our liver detoxification to our energy metabolism.

So the quality of our food is so important.

And it's the colour as well, because it is that whole, the more that we eat of the rainbow, the more colour, that gives

With those going through the menopause, why is protein and fiber, obviously, but why is protein so important for menopause? Hmm.

So I think as we get older, there's like this sort of invisible memo that goes out in Invisible Ink when we're about 40 and we all miss it.

And it's like, what worked in your 20s and 30s? It's not going to work quite the same anymore.

It's not that we have this dial, like Mother Nature just turns the dial down on our metabolism.

and you know we all start gaining weight and everything starts becoming a little bit more difficult but we've got it's very sort of indirect so we start to um we might find that our we become more sensitive to the glucose in our diet we're not as sensitive to the insulin so what can happen is we start to sort of gain weight around the middle more easily and um We have issues with losing bone density, losing muscle mass.

There's all these different things that start to happen that can have an indirect effect on our metabolism.

What I see in clinic is a lot of women are trying to eat less and exercise more to try and combat that, but that's not working for them either.

and

"Will this assist with di- digestion? Will it, um, boost my mood?" Uh, what would you like to say? 'Cause I mean, we've, we've, we've got decades, unfortunately, of, of, you know, media messaging that has made it all about weight for so many people.

Mm.

And I think most of my clients are midlife, um, clients as well, so they're often thinking about weight as well.

I was very clear.

The first book that I wanted to bring out wanted to be for strong, nourished individuals.

Mostly women, just because that's the type of people that follow me, but I've got a lot of men who follow me as well.

And I think it's about we've become very, um, obsessed about calories, about thinness, but actually it's all about nourishment.

Um, Dominique, do you want to elaborate a bit?

know, just be hungry.

If it's more complicated, I think sometimes we're eating sufficient calories, but not balanced so maybe we're eating a lot more carbohydrates that we need at that meal but we're forgetting to eat what i call the obstacle course the obstacle course is the protein and the fiber the foods that slow down your digestion that all the carbohydrates get tangled up in so that we release them slowly from one meal to the next so if we're eating our if we're eating enough calories but the meal's not balanced with protein and fiber and other nutrients we're The body is likely to start sending out more hunger hormones or we start to dysregulate our blood sugars, which again makes us feel like we're hungry again when actually we just didn't get the meal quite right.

And I think that leads on to this whole sort of blood sugar rollercoaster thing.

So we have maybe We've had a sugary breakfast.

We had it with a coffee and an orange juice.

We've had a blood sugar spike.

And then we get this drop because the body is trying to clear the sugar out of the system.

What's happening in those gaps? Why do we want to have our body have that gap time?

Is that a thing? Can we be eating too much protein? Do we need to be reaching for the protein breads and the protein yogurts, or can we just get enough by eating natural whole foods?

I think it's a really good question, and it's one that often gets misinterpreted.

I think when you start over-emphasizing one macronutrient over another, you start pushing another one off your plate.

So when you get influencers maybe on Instagram who are f- hyper-fixating on the protein, they might have a double burger with cheese but in a lettuce wrap.

Chances are they're having more protein than their body needs at that meal, but they're also then not having enough fiber.

And if you're just focusing on fiber, you may not be having enough protein.

So for me, it's the marriage of protein and fiber together.

It's okay.