10 - Feel Good for Menopause - Nutrition, Hormones and the Brain with Amanda Ryder

In this special 10th episode, we’re joined by Amanda Ryder, nutritional therapist, menopause advocate, and author of Feel Good for Menopause. Drawing from her personal journey and years of clinical experience, Amanda shares a holistic approach to navigating the challenges of perimenopause and beyond.

We explore:

• Why nutrition plays a vital role in hormone balance and brain health
• Amanda’s "Feel Good Four" method for building nourishing meals
• The links between blood sugar, inflammation, mood, and sleep
• How qEEG insights support our understanding of menopause in the brain
• Real talk on HRT, supplements, and working with your GP

This is an honest, empowering conversation for anyone experiencing midlife changes or supporting someone who is. It’s also packed with practical tips you can begin using straight away.

Useful links :

Feel Good for Menopause: www.amazon.co.uk/Feel-Good-Menopause-Essential-nutrition/dp/1399954253 

Podcast:  https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/how-to-feel-like-a-midlife-goddess/id1742445934

Website: https://www.amandaryder.co.uk/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amandarydernutrition/?hl=en

🔗 Find Amanda at AmandaRyderNutrition.com
 📘 Get her book Feel Good for Menopause
🎧 Listen to Amanda’s podcast How to Feel Like a Midlife Goddess

For more on our brain-based work, visit TheBrainCollective.co.uk

Find out more information at our website

Edited with finesse by Mike at Making Digital Real

Transcript

Welcome to the 10th podcast here at The Brain Collective.

Today on the show we have the privilege of talking to Amanda Ryder, the author of Feel Good for Menopause and the leading light in nutrition and lifestyle support. And anybody who knows about our work, you'll be aware that nutrition is a key component to the success of a healthy and happy brain. Amanda holds a BSc in nutritional therapy and runs a very successful practice in Cambridge specialising in midlife transition.

Based on her own challenges around the menopause experience, she's developed a holistic strategy to help other women regain their energy, confidence and well-being and last year published her very own first book, Feel Good for Menopause. So I'm going to embarrass you Amanda now by telling you what one of your Australia readers said about it. Well, thank you for the lovely introduction.

This lady said, life-changing, so well-written, informative, humorous, well-researched and will inspire you in more ways than you can possibly imagine. So that's lovely, what a lady. So welcome to the show Amanda, we're absolutely bolder we can come today and after reading your book, it feels like a very personal journey for you. 

Yeah, well you know I've been a nutritionist since 2009 when I first qualified. I've always had a sort of informal interest in nutrition and we moved to Spain when I was about 27, I had my kids out there and I got quite unwell when I was in my late 20s. I just, you know, after sort of having quite good health, I got quite unwell and I just kept picking up infections and then I kept going to, you know, the equivalent of a GP out there and they would keep giving me antibiotics and the first time it worked and the second time it worked and the third time it worked and then, you know, it just became this cascade of like taking a lot of antibiotics in one year and then I just felt really ill, I didn't have great gut health, I felt kind of really low and, you know, being in Spain where there's so much emphasis on diet and lifestyle, this was in 2000, you know, late 2000s, you know, I started to think, well, you know, I'm going to embrace this diet and do a bit more, you know, bit of informal study on it and it was just incredible. 

I picked up some books on nutrition and I've kind of never looked back and I, you know, once you take some responsibility for your health and obviously things happen in life, we all get, you know, bashed about and, you know, things that are out of our control happen to us sometimes but once you can say, okay, I've got this problem, I'm going to, I'm not just going to take a pill and I'm not saying that, you know, medication, sometimes we absolutely need medication but, you know, I'm just going to make sure that my diet and lifestyle are doing everything for me to help me overcome this and, yeah, I suddenly got, you know, just felt so much better, you know, didn't take any antibiotics for years after that, I sorted my gut out, you know, I learned all about foods and what they can do for you and I've kind of never looked back and then when we moved back to the UK, I, yeah, I did my degree and I opened my practice and I was seeing, like, you know, lots of, yeah, lots of patients, men and women but then when I got, when I hit about 48, I started experiencing perimenopause and for me, I didn't know much about them but I was much about it then but I was very lucky that it was beginning to kind of gather momentum and people like Dr. Louise Newsom were talking about it and Liz Earle and it was definitely becoming, you know, there were places to look and the research was, you know, easier to find and, you know, just understanding hormones and the impact they have on brain and body and why, you know, suddenly you have low estrogen, you have all these symptoms but my symptoms were, I was, you know, I wouldn't say I'm an anxious person but, oh my goodness, I was so anxious, you know, I remember what, at one point, I was so anxious, I felt like I couldn't breathe, it's like, it just seems like, when I talk about that now, it seems like a different person and, yeah, I was very anxious, I got quite down and again, you know, I've got myself kind of, you know, did a few therapies, yeah, I started taking HRT and I've kind of, you know, never looked back but again, since then, I've sort of done a deep dive into everything that I can do for myself which has helped so much and I'd say, you know, I'm 56 now and I feel, you know, really energised and balanced and I just want to share that with other women because I think, having been through that, it's such a horrible place to be that, you know, we all need resources and, yeah, I hope that I can give people, you know, inspiration and motivation to eat well, you know, look after their bodies, have a healthy lifestyle but that kind of, that's what really drives me. And really interesting, you used one word there that really resonates with us which is about responsibility. Yes, yeah, yeah, it's so, I mean, I used to do it, you go to the doctor and you've got something wrong with you, you're like, I've got this, fix it, you know, give me a pill and I take the pill and three days later, I'm, you know, back to normal and it's just, you know, it just doesn't work like that, does it? It's okay for little, you know, minor, you know, minor issues but anything sort of chronic, it's, yeah, it's not so good and so I think when people realise the difference that diet can make, just diet itself, I mean, if you think about, you know, your bones, your eyes, skin, I mean, everything that we eat goes on to, you know, make these tissues so it's, you know, it's so important and it's not the only thing, you know, stress, sleep, movement, you know, the amount of toxins that you come in, you know, you get exposed to, they all play a part as well but, you know, diet is definitely, you know, a key foundational pillar of feeling well. 

So, your book, Amanda, is essentially the summation of everything you've learnt? Yes, it is, yeah, you know, at this stage, yeah, when I was sort of, yeah, 40, yeah, in my 40s and all the research I did when I was having problems but it's also, obviously, I've drawn from my experience as a nutritional therapist for 13 years and, you know, yeah, tied that in with problems, well, you know, just the changes that we go through when our, you know, our sex hormones start to decline, yeah. I read with great interest chapter two in your book which is all about hormones, HRT and so, for people listening in who perhaps are struggling a bit, you know, want to find a way forward, what advice would you give about engaging with medical professionals and their GPs? Yeah, well, like I said, I think it's come on, you know, even a lot more, you know, in the last sort of eight years but I would say, you know, a lot of GPs are definitely more open and have a much better understanding of, you know, what the menopause and perimenopause can mean but if you don't have that kind of GP, you know, I always say to my clients, you know, look on your GP's website and, you know, find a doctor that you feel has the training in that area and then opt to see them and be empowered, you know, nice guidelines, you know, that's the National Institute for Clinical Excellence which kind of informs, you know, the medical profession, clearly states that if you're a woman over 45 and you're suffering with menopausal symptoms, be those depression, hot flushes, anxiety, you know, lower libido, you know, whatever it might be, there are so many, as you probably know from reading the book, symptoms that can come up from sort of, you know, perimenopause but, you know, write your symptoms down and go and see someone and, you know, you, as I said, the nice guidelines do say that if you have any of your symptoms, you are entitled to take HRT so don't be fobbed off but I think it's really good to go in being quite prepared, having written down, you know, what you're experiencing and what you've read about and why, you know, maybe want a tropical oestrogen rather than, you know, an oral oestrogen. Yeah, just knowing a little bit about hormones and what's available and maybe trying to, I mean, it's very easy for me to say I feel I know quite a lot about it but when, you know, like you said, if you know nothing at all, I think it's a good idea to do some research and, you know, if you go out there now, there's the British Menopausal Society, there's the Balance app and the Balance website, lots of research papers on there so you can really kind of, you know, spend a couple of hours reading about it and understanding it, you know, what you're after essentially and that, you know, so that you don't go in and get offered something like antidepressants when that might not necessarily be what you need, you know, you might take some oestrogen, some progesterone and then suddenly, you know, your mood improves anyway because, you know, you were feeling depressed because you had a low hormone status and, of course, you know, it's very easy for me to sit here and say everyone should take hormones and it really isn't. 

I mean, some people, some women choose not to and then I think, you know, you have to really, you know, drill down on all the things that can help you in your diet and lifestyle, particularly, you know, foods and reducing your stress and making sure you're doing weight-bearing exercise, you know, to keep your bones and your muscles robust but, you know, if you are someone who wants to explore HRT, you shouldn't feel like you have to go in and apologize. I mean, you are completely entitled to it if that's something you want to explore and the other thing I would say to anybody, you know, I've seen lots of women, they go, oh, I started taking it, it was awful, I felt awful, you know, I didn't have any benefits but if they've gone back and they've had a sort of empathetic doctor that's, you know, willing to sort of engage in dialogue about their symptoms and, you know, maybe just change, you know, change that, you know, what they're taking and kind of tinker with it until it's sort of, you know, the right recipe, if you like, for that individual because we are all different and your best friend might be taking 50 micrograms of, you know, estrogel or a patch and feeling a marvellous on that and you might take it and, you know, not feel so good. So, you know, it's not just a quick fix but it certainly can be very, very helpful. 

Yeah, so it is about having a conversation. It might be worth, Amanda, at the end of the episode, we can pop a number of links in for people so that we get the right direction because sometimes it is a bit of a minefield out there. I have a very good friend who had a bit of a breast cancer scare and everywhere we go, she takes a fan with her because she melts all the time, probably gets two or three hours sleep at night but is a bit terrified about the discussion around HRT because she potentially is a bit on the watch list for breast cancer. 

So, it is, you know, that it's worth having the discussion and I absolutely know you're right because most of the GP practices now try and have someone who's super specialised in it. So, that's brilliant. Amanda, I know that in your book, you talk about the feel-good-for method. 

Can you explain that bit? Yes, of course. So, I try to, you know, if you go out there and Google a good diet, there are so many diets, aren't there? So, I've tried to make it as simple as possible and it's a method that I live by myself most of the time. So, the feel-good-for is just like four components of food. 

That is protein, good carbohydrates and when I say good carbohydrates, I mean everything from beans, lentils, chickpeas, vegetables. You know, vegetables have carbohydrates in them, just smaller amounts. So, you know, you want some good carbohydrates, your protein, your good carbohydrates, you want fats. 

I think a lot of us growing up in the 80s became very sort of fat phobic and we need fat for, you know, our brains, for many functions in the body and when you're very, very low fat, you know, you haven't got the raw ingredients even to make any hormones. So, you know, if we think about hormones are made from, you know, if you go right back to where they start, they're kind of you need some cholesterol, you know, and if you haven't got that, you know, you can't, you're not going to be able to make the hormones that you need. So, yeah, so protein, good carbohydrates, good fats and, you know, I list these in the book as you know and then greens, you know, just like a handful of greens and you can make it even simpler than that. 

You can just say make sure you've got protein and fiber on your plate but for me, like if I'm putting a meal together, I think, okay, where is my protein and I might start with a fillet of mackerel or some smoked salmon or a couple of eggs or some cottage cheese and then I might have like, you know, a cup of chickpeas, I might make that into a salad with some rocket, so I've got my greens and my watercress and maybe some good fats in the form of avocado and some olive oil and that kind of is my feel-good four. So, it takes a little while getting used to but I, you know, I have a whole podcast on the feel-good four if anybody wants to refer to that. I think it's like episode three and I go through that in more detail and list what they all are but it's just, you know, I'm saying it now, people aren't there, oh gosh, you know, gosh, that's quite a lot to remember but it's really, you know, you start with your protein then think about greens. 

I always talk about having a green drawer in my fridge, so I've always in my fridge got one drawer and I get very annoyed with my husband when he puts a red pepper in there. It's like, no, that goes in the drawer below Hamish but then, you know, and what I do, I tend to hold her. I tend to hold it organic but, you know, it needs a lot of washing so I wash the greens in a salad spinner, quite a lot of them, as soon as I get them and then I spin them and I keep them in the fridge so that when I want to add these greens to my lunch and my dinner, they're already there, I can just grab a handful. 

So, I think it's just an easy practice because, you know, lunchtime most of us are really, really busy, aren't we? And, you know, yeah, always have my olive oil on the counter, like avocados, walnuts, flaxseed, chia seeds, these are all lovely, lovely fats and just getting familiar and just trying and, you know, sometimes you might not get the four on the plate, you might only get the three but, you know, yeah, if you can build your plate up like that, it makes it much easier to reach your sort of nutrient targets and one thing I find and if you kind of, you know, study or, you know, you're in the sort of nutrition space, you know, lots of nutritionists and wellness coaches are talking about, you know, are you getting adequate protein and most, I mean, I've seen thousands of food diaries over the years and one of the things is that, you know, I will pick up is, you know, women are doing quite well with their diet but they often don't have, you know, enough protein and it's very, you know, I sometimes think, oh, that's not 25 grams. So, we're really, you know, we're really aiming for sort of 25 to 30 grams at breakfast, lunch and dinner and that does take some, you know, that does take some thought and preparation and I always say to anybody that I'm working with either in one of my group programs or one-on-one, if you want to be successful in your, you know, your quest to be lose weight or balance your hormones or have good skin or whatever your issue is, you really want to be thinking that you've got two or three meals ready to go unless you're lucky enough to have a chef but it's just you, you know, you've got to get organized and then when you do and you start batch cooking, you know, like today, I've got a busy day and my last call's at six so I'll be finished at seven but after I finish here today, I'm going to go and quickly make a two-bean chili and that will, you know, I can, you know, we'll have that for dinner and it's, you know, a handful of greens and, you know, yeah, but drizzle of olive oil and I'm kind of there with a feel-good form. Yeah, I was writing with my husband last night because he'd read something about muscle mass and aging essentially. 

This article said for a male age 70, they need to have doubled their protein intake from when they were 30. Yeah. Muscle mass and that. 

So I said to him, well, what does that look like in terms of an egg? Yeah, it's not much. It's like, I bet you said it's like 20 eggs a day or something. Yeah, one egg is sort of a drop in the ocean. 

I mean, it's about six grams of protein. Yeah, yeah. So it was quite interesting and it's quite sobering really that, and you're right, it's what I call the tab generation of diet drink generation, the 80s when everybody got onto diet drinks, diet margarine, diet yogurts.

There was no fat and it was all sugar. I mean, I remember, oh, it's only got sugar and it's fine. So really interesting. 

Melanie's with us today. Melanie's our head clinician here, our clinical director. And from a different point of view, Melanie, because we see what's called quantitative EEG in here. 

We take a lot of quantitative EEGs of brains. So we're looking at how people are running. We see people who are really struggling, the same people that present to you, Amanda, but we're just looking at it in a slightly different way. 

We're looking at it electrically. So how do you think perimenopause and menopause symptoms present in our clinic, Melanie? Well, I think it's very different for everybody. I mean, although we can generalize some of the core symptoms that people present with menopause, it's a very individual experience for every person. 

Somebody might have more issues with sleep, others with cognitive mood regulation and the physical side of things, the hot flushes and all those sort of things. I think it's very different. So it's not one size fits all. 

And I think for me, the overwhelming thing about it is the fact that we have got these huge hormonal shifts going on. And that means that there are massive fluctuations within our body and brain. And that from a simplest perspective can lead to sort of an instability in that arousal level that we all require to be stable for us to feel good in the day. 

So I think the EEG and the QEG will present in different ways depending on what are the major symptoms that people sort of suffer with. But there is a very, very, very strong correlation of EEG and QEG. It's not a diagnostic tool, but it does correlate very, very well with mental state. 

So if somebody, you know, is suffering with sort of mood instabilities and anxiety and depression, you know, we tend to see a lot more signatures in the frontal lobes and imbalance in the frontal lobes. You know, if people struggle with sleep, it may depend on whether they struggle to fall asleep or they struggle to stay asleep. And again, that will present differently in the EEG. 

But it fundamentally, you know, the fact that those, particularly the physical symptoms of hormonal shifts are those hot flushes, they come from nowhere. That is a paroxysmal event. And that is a sign that our brains are unstable. 

And what we're looking at are ways that we can help to promote that better hormonal and stability within the brain so that it can function better. So it's not one size fits all, and it's certainly not a diagnostic tool of menopause, but it can help to guide you as to looking at the correlations between what somebody struggles with on a daily basis, what we see on the EEG and how we think we can best, from our perspective, because we use neurotechnology, neurofeedback, neuromodulation, what are the technologies that we can use that we think will help to support that brain to calm and better regulate and stabilise? Because they're the fundamental key issues, not only for menopause, but for a lot of things, but definitely in menopause, promoting that stability. In terms of Amanda, when you see your clients, and I know you're a very busy lady, and you see an awful lot of people, how big is sugar? Because Melanie's just described something, and we see something called the island of no sleep on an EEG.

Oh, do you? That sounds interesting. Yeah, and that might not be sugar, it could be gluten, it could be wheat, but it's an expression on an EEG that's very particular, and it's very particular for people who don't sleep so well. Oh, really? But I'm interested in how you see people's food habits shift.

Yeah, I mean, it's really interesting what you said, Melanie, and I think there is that instability that comes with perimenopause as your hormones are dropping off, and then they drop off, and in one month, you have very little oestrogen, and the next couple of months, you might have too much oestrogen, and so there's no stability or balance, it feels like, and that can, in some women, trigger hot flushes. Although I do find myself that hot flushes aren't... We used to talk about menopause, oh, you're getting hot flushes, that's one of the main symptoms. I don't find that now, I find it's a whole host of things, skin, hair, weight gain, mood, these are the big ones for me kind of thing that I see when I'm seeing people. 

But going back to your... I was just thinking when you were talking, Melanie, that what I can do as a nutritionist is just try and get everything on an even keel as much as you can, because you can't... Whether you take hormones or not, you're never going to be quite the same in your 30s and 40s when you are having that nice regular 28 days and you're having the peaks and troughs of oestrogen and progesterone naturally and just following the cycle. That is changing, and it's going to be different, and you're going to get to a new normal. So I just try and help women to navigate that and get the meeting really healthily to try and avoid those peaks and troughs in the whole body. 

So if we think about one of the main things that we do, and you know from the old processed food, you know, we eat too much sugar and we eat too much processed foods. And we know what that does is, you know, it causes these blood sugar spikes in our bloodstream. You know, if we eat a very sugary diet, you know, if I was to sit here now and eat, you know, a candy bar, you know, my blood sugar would go up really rapidly and then it would probably come down really rapidly. 

And when I'm down here, I'm going to be feeling tired, irritable, you know, my brain's not going to be feeling foggy or, you know, not going to be feeling as stable. So we want to avoid those spikes. And not only do they affect brain, you know, they affect everything.

I mean, often I think when I'm talking about brain and body, I mean, what's good for the body is generally good for the brain. You know, it's all connected and we want good blood flow so that the nutrients can get to the brain and the toxins can be taken away from the brain. So, you know, it's good blood flow and getting the nutrients and the glucose where it needs to be. 

But we don't want that excessive peak. So you avoid that by getting your blood sugar balanced. So you've just got like, you know, you're having nice three meals a day and, you know, your blood sugar is going up, but it's not really peaking and it's not, it's going down, but it's not really going down into that trough where you're kind of like feeling like you just are horrible. 

So I think having a steady supply of glucose for the brain and we know that, you know, I think the brain, you probably know this better than I do, but the brain, you know, accounts for 2% of the body weight. Yet it uses 20% of our energy. So, you know, it does need glucose, but it needs a kind of, you know, steadier drip basically. 

And we get that by eating the feel good four, because then you're eating the protein. So if you were to have, you know, some chicken or some fish and some rice and some greens on your plate and, you know, maybe some olive oil or some other kind but, you know, you, and obviously you'd have oil in the fish, it was oily fish. But you, you know, you ate that. 

And although the rice, if you ate the rice on its own, up would go your blood sugar and it would come down really quickly. But if you eat it with the protein, the protein takes, you know, hours to digest as does the fat. So it's all in there together like a sort of cement mix.

And so the glucose from the rice is going to take longer to go, you know, through the stomach, through the small intestine and then shunt into your bloodstream. So that's the kind of what you're looking for. So if you can have, you know, protein or fats or fiber, you know, with your snacks and, you know, having, you know, like the feel good four, like having, you know, nice salads with a good amount of protein, you know, you won't get those spikes. 

And for me, that's kind of nutrition 101, whoever walks in the door, the first thing I generally work on is somebody's blood sugar, because once you've got this nice undulating curve going where you are avoiding the peaks and troughs, it affects everything. And it's not just your energy, but you just, you feel calmer, your mood is better, you're more optimistic, you're not irritable. It's like, it's life changing. 

So yeah, sorry. Yeah, no, go on. I think the I think the I think the other component of it is those sugar fluctuations. 

But I think it's also most people are, you know, the diet you're describing is very, so much so much of what we eat in a bad way is, is it pro inflammatory, that what you're describing is trying to reduce that systemic inflammation. And we know increasingly that that long standing systemic inflammation by eating processed and bad quality foods is foundational for a lot of disorders, a lot of absolutely. And depression.

If you have a diet high in ultra processed foods, you're more, you know, you've got 11% grease. I think it's about it's about creating is about promoting that stability in your blood sugar responses. And that promotes better stability in your brain.

Yeah. So I think and I was just talking about, you know, just just, you know, from a blood sugar perspective and getting that balance, but you're right, it triggers inflammation. And then your body produces these inflammatory cytokines, you know, and they can cross the blood brain barrier, you know, we've got this very thin barrier, haven't we were foods while everything can, you know, go across proteins, etc. 

And we know that that low grade inflammation can lead to anxiety, you know, depression, neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, dementia. I mean, it's just, yeah, it's so important. And then you get like insulin resistance in the brain, you know, you get it in your body, you know, where your, your cells aren't working in aren't recognizing insulin and insulin is the sort of, you know, it helps open the doors.

So the sugar in the cells, it helps open the door so the sugar can get into the cells. And, you know, you can use it, or store it. But if that insulin isn't working as well, you know, like we get in type two diabetes, you know, you might have the blood sugar in your bloodstream, but it's not getting to the places that it needs to get. 

So an ultra processed diet, and lots of sugar will absolutely do that for you. You know, if you want to increase your risk of, of dementia or Alzheimer's, just eat lots of sugar and lots of processed foods. So yeah, it's scary.

The it's interesting at both ends of the age spectrum as well. So we now have type two diabetic clinics full of children. Yes, yeah. 

And, you know, many years ago, that was absolutely unheard of. 12 year olds with type two diabetes. So, you know, so I think, what's really important, I think it's a bit of a revolution this because as a parent, if you can, you know, take that idea of the magic four, essentially, it trickles on your whole family. 

It's about Yeah, yeah. And, you know, we, on the other end of the spectrum, we see a lot of people with cognitive decline in here. And a really common feature is they love sugar. 

Absolutely. Really? Yeah. Yeah. 

So you see it every day, but it sounds a bit Yeah, they love sugar. There's something about the condition that makes them wired for sugar. But by the removal of sugar and a really good diet, low on a lot carbohydrate and high in protein can really change the trajectory of an awful disease, which is the number one killer now in the UK. 

And that is that the other day, the number one killer in the UK is dementia. Yes, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And we can do something about it. It's more common in women. 

It's more common in women and that we don't exactly know why, but it's probably because, you know, men's testosterones or their sex hormones, you know, they go off, they go down, but they go down quite kind of calmly and slowly, whereas we can kind of go off a cliff in our, you know, late 40s, early 50s. And then, you know, you get, you know, I think studies show that the brain shrinks a bit and, you know, suddenly, you know, yeah, you really want to do everything you can as a woman, I think, you know, to do what you, you know, do what you can to, you know, make your brain as robust as possible. Yeah. 

But it's all about education, isn't it? I think like you said, families, you know, if mum and dad aren't eating well, well, there's no chance the kids are going to be eating well. So, and it's effort. It's a lot of effort. 

You know, I'm always trying to come up with like quick ways, you know, batch cooking. You know, if I do buy something in, you know, having, knowing a good deli, you know, and you might buy some chicken or something that's already been prepared, but then you just add the vegetables to it. You know, just always trying to, always trying to improve whatever you've got. 

You know, sometimes we'll have a takeaway. I mean, for years when we lived in Spain, we never had a takeaway. I was like, no, no one's having takeaways.

And then we got back to Cambridge and we do have, you know, we do have a takeaway now and again, and we go to what we think is a really good vegan vegetarian. And I'm not, you know, I'm not vegan or vegetarian, but it's, you know, and, but I will always, you know, steam some broccoli to go with that takeaway because, you know, everybody needs a night off and no one, you know, myself included, I can't eat a hundred percent brilliantly a hundred percent of the time. It's just, you know, it's not possible. 

But the more you do it, the more that becomes the default rather than the default is the processed food. And I think the more that you do it, the more that you acknowledge you feel bad when you don't do it. Exactly. 

And you notice that. So, you know, you, you start to make that connection. Yeah. 

And, you know, so it's a bit like, so we, you know, we, we talk about neurofeedback, but we live in a, we live in a situation where we are getting feedback from our bodies and from the environment all the time. And by changing your diet, your body will start to recognise when you feel better. And if you do something that doesn't feel good, it will learn from that and then encourage you to change in a better way. 

It just needs, needs you to start. It needs you to step change and bit by bit you'll feel better. So that's what we're doing when we're doing neurofeedback. 

You know, you're working with the brain to, and bit by bit it will learn to be running in a better, the networks will learn to learn, learn to run better. And it will, so, you know, we, we, it is, it is, you know, it is, if you eat something that's good for you, it will make you feel better. Yes, it will. 

And like you said, it's kind of like, you kind of have to tune back in. I think a lot of people, you know, I sort of out of tune with their bodies. I mean, I feel everything. 

It's a real pain, but you're totally in tune, but that's after all these years. But yeah, you know, if you can sort of say, oh, that doesn't feel quite right and make changes before it becomes a problem. And, you know, yeah, so completely agree. 

There is a period where you have to go through, and often it's called, you know, it's a pain barrier. You have to, I have a programme called the Metabolic, well, I coach for a programme called Metabolic Balance. And it's a programme that's been around for 25 years. 

And it, you have a blood test. And then this programme, there's something like 10,000 different algorithms. What it does, it looks at your blood test, and then it translates it into a diet for you. 

And it's very structured. And I use it for people that, you know, want to lose weight or have a chronic health condition. And it's really good, because it just sets out what people need. 

But it takes four or five days, I find, on that programme for people to go through the pain barrier. You know, they're hungry to start with, they feel headachy, they feel just low energy. And then suddenly they're like, boom, and they become quite evangelical about the programme. 

Oh my goodness, I feel so much better. But it's just that, you know, they have to get to that stage. And a lot of people, you know, don't get that. 

And it's like, you know, the GLP-1 drugs like the Azembec and Rigovi and Monjaro. You know, when you are quite overweight, your messaging isn't, you don't get the message that you're full very easily. So you can eat the same as somebody else that's a normal weight.

And they're getting the message that they're full, they don't need any more when you're just not getting it. And that's why these drugs, you know, for people that are obese can be, you know, really, really helpful. But of course, you know, people that are size 14 are taking them to be a size 8 and then there can be problems. 

But that's another topic. But yeah. Amanda, what's your thoughts around supplementation? Because we definitely as a practice feel it's a bit of a minefield. 

There is no dictionary for... As a nutritionist, Maria, I find it a bit of a minefield. I mean, you get comfortable with like and then all these new ones keep constantly going at you. Yeah. 

So I think really to know what you need, you really want to see someone like myself, you know, that, you know, a nutritionist that's been properly trained and can, you know, speak to you and find out, you know, either run tests or give you safe supplements because it's all too easy to walk into a health food store and buy yourself 10 different supplements. And I've had people come in here and they'll empty their bag of supplements on the desk and it'll take me an hour just to look at the, you know, look at the labels. And there's a lot of crossover. 

You know, I've had people taking like 20,000 IUs of, you know, vitamin D when really most of us only need like 2,000, 3,000 IUs in the winter per day because they just, you know, a little bit it's good. So even more is better. And it's not.

Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin. And if you have too much, it's a problem and it can cause kidney problems, you know, so supplements there, you know, they should be used as a supplement to a good diet. Having said that, I think, you know, there are some really good ones. 

And for me, I suppose the key ones, I'd always, you could very easily check your vitamin D levels. It's such an important, you know, marker for immunity and bone health, you know, and it's an easy fix. But, you know, if you have very low vitamin D, you can be feeling tired. 

And, you know, sometimes it doesn't present itself as anything, but you don't want to be going around for decades with a low vitamin D. It's going to affect your bone health. It's going to affect your immunity. And we know there's a vitamin D receptor on every single cell in the body. 

So I will get somebody's vitamin D tested. You can do that for like 20 to 30 quid. It's not expensive. 

And then I will supplement accordingly. But if people don't want to do a test, I would say for most people, it's quite safe to take two to 3,000 IUs, that's international units, per day, you know, from October to sort of, you know, the end of April when they're not getting the sun. And then the rest of the year, you kind of want to get out and get some sun on your skin so your skin can synthesize the vitamin D. Also, fish oils. 

I mean, there are a lot of studies on fish oils. And, you know, yeah, that's been a very studied supplement. But again, there are good, the bad and the ugly, you know, and a lot of people, you know, we're all trying to save money, but, you know, they buy really cheap fish oil and, you know, it's not their stuff and it doesn't have that much in it. 

So again, a really good quality fish oil can be helpful for a period of time, or even better if you can eat oily fish three times a week, you know, you probably get enough, but you probably, you might have touched the fact that omega-3s from oily fish, your DHA and EPA is really important for brain health. But we also know for those omega-3s to actually get into the cells in the brain, you also need the B vitamins like B12, B6. So I sometimes will start somebody on a good B complex and fish oils and a lot of people come back, oh, you know, feel a bit, I feel better. 

I just feel, you know, a bit more alert or I just feel well, you know. So I think if you start taking a supplement and in three months haven't noticed any difference, then maybe, you know, that's not doing anything for you. But yeah, they would kind of be, you know, three that I probably use quite a lot and find quite helpful, but that, you know, I'm really just scratching the surface. 

But, you know, we strong, I mean, again, we're not, we're not nutritionists, but, um, uh, and we, you know, we would recommend people get, you know, expert advice, but for us, magnesium, magnesium, magnesium is another really great one. Yeah. Yeah. 

There's so many, they're so deplete with it because of this. Magnesium is a good one. I tend to use magnesium glycinate for a lot of people because it's very well absorbed. 

And again, I think most perimenopausal menopausal women do really well on magnesium because it's kind of, it's sort of nature's relaxant. So it can help you feel quite relaxed, but it can also help you with energy because you need magnesium for a lot of enzymatic processes to work in the body. Like something like through three or 600 different processes need enzymatic processes need magnesium. 

So magnesium glycinate, I've also found personally and, um, with, you know, people that I work with, the magnesium threonate can be quite helpful for people that are suffering headaches. I don't know if you've done any research on that or if somebody's constipated, you know, like I said, it's a muscle relaxant as well. It can be, you know, magnesium citrate can be a good one to start with, but they're all really, you know, um, you know, great, um, kind of magnesium supplements that you can get. 

But again, when you're looking at supplements, you look at the form and you kind of, you know, you want to buy a supplement that doesn't have lots of fillers and nasty chemicals in it. And they're generally the cheaper ones. Yeah.

Amanda, how do people find you? Yeah. So I am on Instagram at amandaridernutrition. My website is amandarider, or you just Google Amanda Rider nutrition. 

My podcast is called how to feel like a midlife goddess, because I think it's more about how you feel rather than how you look, which is kind of makes all the difference to the life that you lead and the way that you, you know, the way that you experience your life. So that's every couple of weeks I, um, publish a podcast with a few, you know, good tips that you can take away with you and, you know, use in your life. And like the feel good for there's an episode on that. 

I've also done an episode on, um, you know, the ultimate guide to eating well in 2025. And I do diet, you know, deep dive into what is an ultra processed food, and also the practical tips on how to stop eating ultra processed food, because it's just, you know, it's easier said than done, isn't it? When you think that 80% of the supermarkets are filled with this stuff. Um, yeah, so that's my podcast, how to feel like a midlife goddess. 

And yeah, and yeah, I think that's it. Yeah. And I'd absolutely encourage anyone to buy your book. 

It's great. It's been sat next to my bed for, I have been chunking for it and, and I, I'm now eating more protein every day. And, um, what would be, what I would love is it when we put the podcast out that we just put some links in for people that are helpful, perhaps the link to your podcast and, you know, the link to, um, your book and things like that. 

Yeah. So I can, I will send those over to you. No problem. 

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely fabulous. 

Um, um, that's absolutely brilliant. Well, we're coming to the end of the podcast now, and I'm so grateful for people listening in today. Um, we hope you've all learned something. 

Um, and there's been so much of value today, I think, what I would say is please don't hesitate to reach out to Amanda or to reach out to us at the Brain Collective. And so that's Halligate at thebraincollective.co.uk. Um, we're always happy to talk, please, please come and visit our website and please, please visit Amanda's website as well, or her Instagram post. Um, she is incredible. 

Thanks so much for coming. Yeah. Brilliant.

Thanks. Bye.