How Ultra-Processed Foods Hijack Your Mood During Perimenopause

In this episode of Joyful Menopause, host and functional nutritionist Lynda Enright discusses the negative effects of ultra processed foods (UPFs) on mood, particularly for women in their perimenopause years. Lynda explains how UPFs contribute to chronic inflammation, disrupt the gut-brain axis, and affect dopamine cycles. She shares practical advice and simple food swaps to help improve mood and overall health, illustrated by the success story of her client Jane. This episode emphasizes the importance of making small, intentional dietary changes for better mental and physical well-being.

00:00 Introduction: The Impact of Food on Mood

00:26 Welcome to Joyful Menopause

01:19 Understanding Ultra Processed Foods (UPFs)

02:12 How UPFs Affect Mental Health

04:04 Client Story: Jane's Transformation

05:18 Practical Tips for Healthier Eating

07:30 Conclusion: Take Control of Your Mood

When you're ready, here are 3 ways I can help you to feel your best during perimenopause and menopause:

1. Want more science-backed health tips? Click here to sign up for my free weekly newsletter for practical advice on navigating menopause with confidence:

2. Click here to get the free guide: 5 Natural Ways To Reduce Menopause Symptoms.

2. For more information about Lynda and how she supports women on their health journey, click here to learn more.

3. Interested in seeing if nutrition coaching with Lynda is right for you? Click here to book a free discovery call with Lynda.

Transcript

0:00

Have you ever noticed how a quick snack or sugary treat can lift your spirits only to leave you feeling sluggish, anxious, or irritable later on? If you're in your perimenopause years and struggling with mood swings, depression, or low energy, you are not imagining it. What you eat might be playing a bigger role than you think. Today, we're uncovering how ultra processed foods can be hijacking your mood and what simple swaps can make all the difference. Hello and welcome to Joyful Menopause, the show dedicated to empowering women in their perimenopause and menopause years through knowledge, science, and practical solutions. Today, we're tackling a topic that's not just about food. It's about how what you eat affects how you feel. I'm Lynda Enright, your host and functional nutritionist. I've worked with hundreds of women over more than 20 years, and I've seen over and over. How food affects mood and stick around and I'll tell you how my client Jane took the tools I'll give you today and put them into practice and saw big improvements in her mood. So let's get started. Menopause doesn't have to feel like you are living in someone else's body. Your host Linda Enright has spent the last 25 years helping women to thrive in midlife. Here you'll find science based practical advice that you can start using today to get real results for your health. Welcome to Joyful Menopause. We're talking today about ultra processed foods or UPFs we call them and their surprising role in mood, especially for women navigating perimenopause. First, let's start with the definition. What do I mean when I say ultra processed foods? These are factory made or mass produced items loaded with additives, preservatives, and artificial ingredients. Think packaged snacks, frozen meals, sugary cereals, and soft drinks, and just endless convenience foods. they are convenient, but they're often stripped of nutrients and filled with substances that just don't naturally occur in nature. So why does this matter? There's research that shows that diets that are high in UPFs are linked to increased rates of depression and anxiety. For women in perimenopause who are already dealing with hormonal shifts, that can impact mood. UPFs may be adding fuel to the fire. So how exactly do UPFs disrupt your mental health? Let's look more at why. Number one, creating chronic inflammation. Ultra processed foods are packed with refined sugars, unhealthy fats, and artificial chemicals, all of which can contribute to chronic inflammation. Studies, including one from the Lancet Psychiatry, highlight how inflammation affects the brain and is a known risk factor for depression and anxiety. Number two, a disruption to your gut brain axis. Your gut isn't just about digestion. It's often called your second brain. The gut and brain communicate through this gut brain axis and UPFs disrupt this system by harming beneficial gut bacteria. And this can lead to mood instability and cognitive decline. And number three, stimulating your dopamine cycles. Have you ever noticed how eating a bag of chips or a sugary treat feels good for a little bit? Ultra processed foods stimulate dopamine, which is your brain's reward chemical. But this short lived high often leads to an energy and mood crash, setting you up for a cycle of emotional instability. These are concerns at any time in life, but these disruptions can be particularly detrimental for women during perimenopause and menopause. During this phase, estrogen levels fluctuate, and because of these changes in estrogen, women can be more vulnerable to mood swings, anxiety, and depression. Then you add in these ultra processed foods, and you're looking at a recipe for increased stress, poor sleep, and worse moods. It's not just theories, studies suggest women in perimenopause may rely more on UPFs for convenience during busy or stressful days. This only exacerbates the problem, creating a vicious cycle of poor nutrition and mental health. Let me give you an example, Jane is a client who I've worked with who is in perimenopause and came to me because she was struggling with a variety of symptoms, one of them being her mood. She felt like she was going crazy. She used to be so easygoing, and she was finding herself really irritable lately, both at home and at work. It was really starting to affect her relationships, and she just didn't feel good about it. When I learned more about what she was eating, I found that because she was so busy, she was eating a lot of processed convenience foods. She'd drive through and get a coffee drink and, sandwich on her way to work, she'd grab a burger or something similar at the work cafeteria for lunch. And because she was running every night, taking her kids to activities, a home cooked meal was rare. Her family was often relying on quick, convenient foods for dinner too. I'm going to give you four things you can get started with today in just a moment. But today we've been talking about ultra processed foods and the role they can play in your mood. So what did Jane do to fix this and what can you do about it? The good news is that small intentional changes can really make a big difference. They certainly did for Jane and for her family. The added benefit was she felt better, but her kids were in a better mood too. Added bonus. The first thing is to simply focus on whole foods. First, you could swap out UPFs for some nutrient dense options. So here's some examples for you. Trade chips for nuts or seeds. You can get 100 calorie packs of nuts that are so easy to bring with you, or you could make your own snack bags for an easy grab and go snack. You could replace sugary snacks with fruit like berries or an orange. Even canned fruit that's packed in water can give you something sweet without any additives. You do have to make sure though it's packed in water because sometimes they do contain additives and artificial sweeteners. Instead of a protein bar, which is often filled with tons of different ingredients, you could have a hard boiled egg, peanut butter, string cheese, or maybe some hummus and vegetables. Second, planning ahead is key. I love batch cooking or prepping meals on weekends. It can make your week go so much better and make it easier to avoid grabbing that frozen pizza or driving through for fast food. Start small, maybe just prep your breakfast for the week. For Jane, she would grill a bunch of protein on the weekends and she'd use that in salads or a bento box type meal for her lunch all week long. Third, focus on a Mediterranean type diet. This way of eating emphasizes whole grains, lean proteins, and plenty of vegetables, which have been shown to support brain health and reduce inflammation. For Jane, she would chop up all the vegetables she bought on the weekend and keep them in clear containers in the fridge so it was easy to see what was available to grab for snacks or for sides for meals. And lastly, feed your gut well. Add fermented foods like yogurt, those that are not ultra processed, sauerkraut or kimchi. Fermented foods, in addition to fiber rich foods in the Mediterranean type diet, nourishes your gut microbiome. And a healthy gut microbiome is good for your brain and mental well being. What happened for Jean? She began to feel like herself again. She found she wasn't biting her kid's head off when she got home after a busy day. She was thinking more clearly at work. She just felt happier overall. And side benefits, she lost weight, her skin cleared up, and her asthma was gone. To wrap up, here's the key message. Ultraprocessed foods can wreak havoc on your mood, especially during perimenopause when hormonal changes make you more vulnerable. But the power to improve your mental health is in your hands and on your plate. Small, consistent changes can help you break the cycle and help you to feel your best. You got some ideas today on how you can implement changes in your diet to reduce your exposure to these ultra processed foods. When your diet is filled with packaged convenience foods, the consequences are not fun and can impact your mental well being today and for years to come. But what a difference you can make when you start implementing some of these small shifts. I can speak from experience. I see it happening to the women in my practice every single day. For more ideas on making menopause your best years yet, get my free guide, five natural ways to reduce menopause symptoms. For Jane, when she just took one component of the fifth way in my guide, she saw big improvements in her mood and her energy. To get the guide, go to the comments below and click on the link. Thank you for joining me today. If you enjoyed this episode, please click to subscribe. Until next time, take care of yourself and here's to feeling your best every day.