Menopause: fuel for life and finding balance - plus a feelgood chicken-salad recipe

“I never heard my mum talking about this. It was just ‘The Change’, we’ll get on with it. There was a lot of suffering in silence. But it’s a natural part of the life cycle, like puberty and pregnancy. It shouldn’t be taboo.”

Graham traces the new openness about menopause in Ireland to the Liveline radio show in May 2021. “That definitely opened the conversation,” she says. “One woman started talking, it gave other women confidence and Joe Duffy had a tsunami of phone calls.”

That one woman was Sallyanne Brady, co-founder of The Irish Menopause support group, and her initial call led to Duffy and his team programming five seismic days of women sharing their stories.

The areas of women’s health and menopause were something that Dundalk-based Graham was already focused on. As a nutritionist with years of experience in the food industry, she worked with clients to help them eat better and feel better during this important time of their lives.

“My interest in healthy food has spanned all my career,” she says. “I opened a small bistro café (Eno Café) in Dundalk with my then-boyfriend, now-husband, Victor, in 2008. The focus was on healthy Mediterranean food and it was very popular, growing into a restaurant [in 2011]. During that time, I was also doing wellness events in the restaurant.”

In 2015, Graham embarked on a three-year course to train as a nutritional therapist at the British-based College of Naturopathic Medicine which has a campus in Griffith College. “I was working, studying and had two kids. Ironically, this coincided with my mid-life menopause journey.”

With food already at the centre of her work life, she decided to specialise in menopause. She completed training from the Menopause Charity in Britain, which was set up by GP and menopause specialist Dr Louise Newson, qualifying Graham “to support women on all areas regarding menopause treatment options, including HRT (hormone replacement therapy), alternatives to HRT and nutrition for menopause”.

For Graham, a good diet is a vital part of managing menopause symptoms. As a practising nutritional therapist with first-hand experience working with women presenting with symptoms similar to her own, Graham had been putting together her own resources and recipes. Frustrated that there wasn’t an evidence-based menopause cookbook available in Ireland, she initially decided to self-publish. That book, which came out last September, successfully sold 400 copies on two print runs: “Women were buying them in multiples for their friends and their sisters.”

Gill Books came knocking and The Menopause Kitchen is the result, a reworking of her earlier book with extra content. “I wanted to provide a resource that was more than just a cookbook, to let women reduce symptoms, rebalance their health, give them more energy and motivation to exercise,” she says. “And I wanted to create really tasty recipes for really enjoyable food.”

She is keenly aware of the squeeze on budgets. “I understand that there’s a cost aspect of going to see a nutritionist,” says Graham, “and not everyone can afford it. This book contains all of what I go through with my clients at a very affordable price point.”

The Menopause Kitchen is laid out in four parts: Understanding menopause, future-proofing your health (which explains how to avoid chronic health conditions, including menopause-related weight gain, and includes Graham’s meno food pyramid, prioritising vegetables), a third section focuses on what Graham calls her Meno 8 key nutrient categories (omega-3, protein, antioxidants, etc) with useful tips and tables on nutrient content. The book’s final part contains recipes split into these Meno 8 categories. Fibre, for instance, runs from porridge bread to carrot cake squares, including beetroot ketchup and savoury granola along the way. The probiotics section features sauerkraut with fennel and apple, four-seed rye sourdough bread and frozen yoghurt bark.

With plenty of recipes, beautifully photographed by Jo Murphy, that are family-friendly, these are options that can be incorporated into the weekly meal routine without too much fuss. Dishes like spiced chicken tagine, salmon kedgeree, mushroom and lentil shepherd’s pie are good for family dinners. Then there’s a pear tart with date and ginger caramel, chocolate tahini bliss balls and hazelnut butter brownies for those of us who like to have something sweet — but not too sweet — on hand.

“At the bottom of each recipe, there’s a bar chart tracking 16 nutrients,” says Graham, and this “at-a-glance information” is designed to make decisions easier.

“For example, women are at greater risk of osteoporosis at this life stage so they want to optimise for calcium. With recipes categorised for nutrients, you can see all the recipes in that section and that they will benefit your bone health,” she says.

While — as noted at the start of the book — The Menopause Kitchen is not intended to be a substitute for medical advice, Graham focuses on evidence-based information to develop recipes with flavour. It’s much easier to eat nutritious food if it tastes good. “Menopause can be a really positive time in your life,” says Graham.

“It’s a time for reassessing and reevaluating, a time of incredible opportunity, reinvention and self-discovery.”

Eating well is a positive step in the right direction.

Rachel Graham's 'Lit from Within' Chicken Salad

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Servings

1

Time Preparation

 35 mins

Time Cooking

 44 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 19 mins

Course

 Main

ingredients

• And 75g Squash, Butternut Cubed Peeled

• Oil Tbsp Olive 2

• ½ Garlic Powder Tsp

• Tsp Pink Himalayan Salt ½

• Noodles (gluten 1 Free Wholemeal Nest Buckwheat Noodles Option) Or Of

• Half Tender Broccoli, Stem Lengthways 60g In Cut

• Cashews 3–4

• Tsp Sesame 1 Seeds

• 1 Poached Breast, Roasted Or Chicken

• Of Handful Big Spinach Fresh 1 Leaves Baby

• Strips Mangetout, Into Thin Cut Of Handful

• ¼ Strips Into Pepper, Cut Thin Red

• 1 Sliced Onion, Finely Spring

• Or Orange, Peeled And Peeled Orange, ½ Segmented, 1 Mandarin

• dressing:

• Or 100ml Walnut Oil Olive Oil

• 2 Tbsp Vinegar Rice

• Fresh 1 Juice Lime Tbsp

• 1 Paste Miso Tbsp

• Ginger Grated Tsp 1

• Tsp Clove) Grated Garlic (1 Small 1

• Finely Chopped Red Chilli ¼

• Organic 1 Syrup Tbsp Maple

method

1. Oven To Preheat The 180°c

2. With Little Until Sprinkle Tender Cubed Squash A Butternut 25–30 The And Olive Then Roast Powder Garlic Salt, Minutes With Drizzle Oil, For

3. Noodles And Drain The Cook Aside Set According Instructions, Pack The To

4. Stem On, And A Your Couple Boiling Position Of With For Broccoli A Over It, Colander Lid Aside A The Minutes Of Water Tender Place Into Set Pot

5. Container The Extra Ingredients Glass Servings Together Make Dressing Will Airtight So Dressing, This Store An Four The Whisk The In Of Fridge In Approximately

6. The Take Cashews As Are And, Brown Browning, Seeds A To The Will These The Only Dry Add Toast To Minute Pan They Sesame

7. Breast Or Chicken With Fork A Lastly, Hands The Your Shred

8. Bowls Noodles Mix Salad, Mixing Divide Between With And Well Dressing Two And Leaves Put Half Along Salad In Bowl, The To The Spinach The Assemble A

9. Top, Add The Of The Rest With The Finishing Other All On Toasted Dressing Ingredients Nuts The And

The Menopause Kitchen: Transform Your Menopause With Great Nutrition by Rachel Graham is published by Gill Books, €29.99.