Health is Wealth - 11 - 16july2024

The main ideas from this information are: - The gut hormone axis is the relationship between gut health and female hormones. - Many women are not aware of the gut hormone axis. - Gut health can affect various bodily functions throughout a woman's life. - A diverse diet with lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and lentils is important for gut health. - Dairy is considered a superfood and should not be given up, even on a low-cholesterol diet. - Red meat is important for iron and zinc, but it's the fat that can be harmful. - Cutting down on ultra-processed foods and focusing on home-cooked meals is recommended. - Other factors that can improve gut health include getting enough sleep, managing stress, and regular exercise. Summary: Gut health and female hormones are connected, but many women are not aware of this. A diverse diet with fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and lentils is important for gut health. Dairy and red Oh, Doctor, I'm in trouble. Well, goodness gracious me. For every time a certain man is standing next to me, a flesh comes to my face, and my pulse begins to race. It goes boom, boody, boom, boody, boom, boody, boom, boody, boom, boody, boom, boody, boom, boom, boom, boom. Boom, boody, boom, boody, boom, boody, boom. Goodness gracious me. I'm delighted to have with me Dr. Mary McCreery, who is a dietician and nutritionist, and we're going to be talking about the relationship between gut health and female hormones, which seems to be, just from a press release, I've got a very interesting topic. So, first of all, Mary, you're very, very welcome to Connemara Community Radio. And thank you very much. I believe I have talked to you before, actually, I think a few years ago. Yes, I have. I think so, yes, I do remember that. So, it is, I mean, it is the gut hormone axis is what we're going to be talking about. So, explain to me what that means. I will, of course. This is following on from the survey that was done from Yakult, looking to see had women actually heard about the gut hormone axis. Now, when 90% of women have heard of your gut health, 9 out of 10 of the women in this survey had never actually heard of the gut hormone axis. So, just explain very briefly what it is. We do have a relationship between our gut and the female sex hormones, estrogen and progesterone. And we have all these receptors in our gut, as such, to estrogen and progesterone. So, therefore, during a woman's life cycle, so from years of when she'd be menstruating to perimenopause to postmenopause, it's going to affect different stages of her life. So, if you look at women who are in the menstrual cycle, the majority of women will say they have loose stools and gas and bloating around the time of their period. And then you look at postmenopausal women. And as our estrogen levels go down, your gut microbiome changes because we're producing less estrogen and we have more progesterone then. And that can then affect other bodily functions like your weight, your bone health, your brain and your heart health as well. So, it's very important that women do become aware that through the different stages of their life cycle that they do need to pay full attention to their gut health because it is going to affect various other bodily functions. Right. As you said, a lot of people are aware that gut health has become very important and we've heard about probiotics and all that sort of thing to help that situation. But it is a bit different because, unlike men, we do go through all these different stages of menstruation. And the hormones are going to be changing numerous times during our life. Without a shadow of a doubt. And, you know, you mentioned there about the probiotics. But it really is down to trying to get a very, very diverse diet as such. Now, in this day and age where we're bombarded by usually a lot of pseudoscience about you shouldn't eat this and you shouldn't eat that and the buzz word at the moment is ultra-processed foods without people actually understanding what that even means. So, what we need to do is look at what we should be eating as opposed to what we shouldn't be eating. So, very much things like lots of fruits and vegetables. And particularly in Ireland, at the moment, we have such a wide range. We have all the strawberries and berries. We have beautiful potatoes and vegetables that are all available to us. So, a very diverse diet of lots of different colored fruits and vegetables. But lots of whole grains as well. And you can't beat Irish brown soda bread. I mean, you don't get it anywhere else in the world. And then including a lot of the beans and lentils. So, if you're making a spaghetti bolognese, put in like a can of chickpeas or beans or something like that. So, trying to get a wide, wide diverse diet. But then while we age them, particularly women in menopause or postmenopause, that they do need really to start looking at their diet as such. Because they're at risk of heart health and bone health and osteoporosis. And also mood and things like that. So, if a younger woman can start looking after her gut health from very, very early years and carries it then through to menopause and postmenopause. So, things like a very typical Mediterranean diet. You know, we all know the Mediterranean diet. What I hope we do at this stage is to say lots of fruits and vegetables and the oily fish and the low-fat dairy products. And I would see dairy as really as a superfood. And yet, there are so many women that are actually giving up taking dairy and taking milk in their diet. Whereas, it really would be a risk factor for them to do that. Right. You mentioned dairy there. And I'm just going to focus in on that for just a moment. Because, I mean, if you've got high cholesterol, are you not better off not, we'll say, having too much butter and cheese and things like that? Well, the lovely thing is we have all the low-fat alternatives. So, low-fat milk, low-fat yogurts, low-fat... I mean, even on a low-cholesterol diet, you don't have to give up the cheese completely. You just have to have it, like, not maybe quite as often. But also, what I would advise to patients is that you use cheese as a meal. So, you'll have, like, a toasted cheese sandwich rather than as an extra. Whereas, the habit can be that you have your dinner and then you have the cheese poured afterwards. Whereas, if you use it as part of your meal as such. So, I definitely wouldn't be, even on a low-cholesterol diet, I would not be recommending people to give up dairy. Okay. Well, that's a very interesting one. Now, you mentioned fish as well, and particularly oily fish. Yes. But what about meat? What's the advice on meat? I mean, with so many people who are becoming vegetarian or becoming vegan and so on, much more so than before. Is there any good, you know, dietetic? I've got to get the wrong word. Dietetic. Dietetic reason for that. Well, you know, this is the whole thing about what a diverse diet means. I would never advise anybody to give up eating red meat. It's a very, very important food and it's our main source of iron and zinc in the diet as well. But it's the fat on meat that can do the harm. And the lovely thing about meat is that you can actually see the fat. It's visible. So, you just cut off the fat bit. But I would say to most people, unless there was a specific reason not to, to try and include red meat two to three times per week. Try and include your chicken. Include your fish. So, that's where the diversity comes in. And instead of going the all or nothing scenario, which seems to be in vogue at the moment, it's going back to the basics. It's going back to proper basic food, you know, having your meat, your veg, your potatoes, and whatever sauces and things like that you add to it. But it's going back to basic foods and what you can cook at home and trying to get as diverse a diet as you can in that rather than having the same thing every single day. Now, you did mention earlier on this very processed foods, ultra-processed foods. So, presumably amongst those, if not anywhere else, you would be advising people to cut down on certain things? Well, that is another ballgame all by itself as to what is an ultra-processed food. And it's not something, you know, another day we might have a look at that as such. But obviously, you know, where nobody is advising you to go and buy takeaways for your dinner seven nights a week and, you know, to buy already made meals. It's really to go back into the kitchen and what you can produce in the kitchen yourself. And every food is processed. I mean, our food has never been safer ever in the history of mankind than what it is currently. And we have billions of people that we have to try and feed as well. So, we can't look at the exclusivity of people being able to actually pick and choose again. So, you know, it's back to basics and, you know, by, you know, people who are struggling from a money perspective, that's where they need to start using all the basic, you know, using frozen vegetables instead of fresh vegetables, using the basic things like rice and pasta and potatoes to fill up. It doesn't have to be. And again, this whole thing about being a protein-heavy diet, that's not where we need to be looking at at all. I don't think I've ever come across anybody that's lacking protein in their diet. But again, if you look back at the dairy products, that's a great source of protein. So, why would you take a powder that's made from your milk rather than taking the milk? So, you know, if you look at it in that sort of context. Right. Okay. Well, as you say, it's a big topic. I mean, we should leave that. We're talking today about gut health, really, the gut health and how it works with your hormones. So, I mean, really, to achieve that sort of gut health, you're really just saying it's the kind of diet we all know we should be eating, but are inclined to get lazy about. That's right. And that's where I'm saying that we should be, you know, looking at what we should be adding into our diet rather than what we should be taking out of our diet. Now, there's all the other health benefits then as well. I mean, sleep is a really, really big important factor, and it tends to be something that is nearly like an add-on into people's lives. And, you know, stress hormones are obviously going to affect your gut as well. So, getting plenty of sleep, but also getting exercise. I mean, trying to even do that 30-minute walk a day, which is 15 minutes up the road and 15 minutes back. So, it's a combination of just easy things to improve our overall health that is going to improve our gut health as well. So, regular exercise, sleeping well, eating well, and concentrating on those high-fiber foods. So, it's really, really important to get those fiber foods in. Right. And the other thing I noticed actually in the top tips, which you sent through very kindly, was keeping hydrated. Yeah, well, indeed. So, that's obviously an important one as well. It is indeed. I think most people are fairly good on that, but if you don't drink enough, you're going to suffer from constipation. So, again, if it's one of the symptoms that you're getting during any stage of your menstrual cycle, you just make sure that you increase your fluids because you need the fluids to avoid constipation, which is, again, a symptom that a lot of women will get when they're on their period. Okay. And when you say that, it's not just necessarily drinking loads and loads of water. No, it can be anything. Well, presumably not too much alcohol. I know. But fruit juices or milk or tea, coffee. Absolutely. Any of those will keep the hydration power. Absolutely. And people think it has to be water, but it doesn't have to be water. We're a great nation of tea drinkers. So, you know, you increase your tea, milk, sparkling water, anything like that, anything that you feel you're comfortable actually drinking. You just need to increase your hydration as well. Right. Well, do you know what, Mary? You've given us a huge amount of very, very good advice there in a period of about 10 minutes or so, and I do hope people who are listening will take it on board because, as you say, I mean, a lot of women, particularly around the perimenopause and postmenopause, do have all these sort of problems you've been talking about. And, you know, I think any of them would be delighted to find something as simple as a change of diet that could actually help them. Exactly, indeed. Now, Yakko do have a fantastic website. It's very straightforward. It's www.yakko.ie, which is about prioritizing your gut health and particularly looking at the gut hormone access as well. So it's certainly worthwhile, I think, for most women to educate themselves on an area that would be so relevant. Okay. And just have a look at that website and see if there's something useful to them on it. Yes. Okay. Well, Dr. Mary McCreery, thank you very, very much. You're very welcome. And I'm sure we'll be coming back to you. I'm very interested actually to come back to you and follow on on that sort of ultra-processed foods. Absolutely. Because I think that's something that's very important. So we might cover that now in the next few weeks or so. Great. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. So that was Dr. Mary McCreery, a dietician and nutritionist. So that, I think, mostly sounded to me very sensible advice. Oh, doctor, I'm in trouble. Well, goodness gracious me. For every time a certain man is standing next to me, a flash comes to my face and my pulse begins to race. It goes boom, boody, boom, boody, boom, boody, boom, boody, boom, boody, boom, boody, boom, boom, boom. Boom, boody, boom, boody, boom, boody, boom. Well, goodness gracious me.