I know you want to tell me that red wine is healthy.

But who has funded that study, and for every study you can find, I have 100 that say otherwise.

Eat a handful of red grapes and you’ll get all the resveratrol you need!

Sadly there are ZERO redeeming features of alcohol, especially for women because after menopause our risk of heart disease increases to the same as men.

So we don’t need any more risk factors – but really that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

For starters…

– Alcohol reduces the function of immune cells
– Damages the lining of gut cells and decreases the absorption of vitamins & minerals in both the stomach and small intestine.
– Disrupts the gut barrier and therefore more bacteria get into the bloodstream and increase inflammation.
– Is a diuretic and therefore increases the excretion of B vitamins.

However what you REALLY need to know is… as soon as you start drinking, your liver stops breaking down estrogen.

In fact, your liver shuts its door so your blood levels of estrogen immediately start to rise (hence why your hormonal symptoms get worse when you drink).

This is because alcohol is toxic to your body (as are all pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter medicines), and your body knows that if too much alcohol builds up in your body you will go into a coma and die.

PLUS your liver dumps half-processed estrogen back into the bloodstream to deal with later.

It is this half-processed estrogen that is 400x higher in women with estrogen-sensitive cancers.

AND do we want to talk about the obvious side effects of alcohol?

– Contains calories and they slide down way too easily!
– It slows down your metabolism making weight loss difficult.
– Your willpower fades and you eat food you hadn’t planned on.
– You feel like crap the next day and eat more food you hadn’t planned on!
– You fall asleep easily but then wake up at about 2am and can’t go back to sleep.

As a side note – not getting enough sleep can be a key to your weight loss issues as well.

I understand this can be tough to hear and even harder in reality if you know that alcohol is an issue for you. It took me years to put my glass down for good (1st Jan 2015) but it’s still the best decision I ever made for my health.

If you find yourself reassessing your relationship with alcohol then you may like to check out Annie Grace, she has a lot of free resources on her website.
https://thisnakedmind.com/the-alcohol-experiment/

I love Annie’s approach because she comes from a place of heartfelt compassion having walked the journey herself, but also she invites you to experiment.

When I first started experimenting I did Febfast and DryJuly and while it didn’t happen overnight I eventually got to the place where drinking alcohol was no longer compatible with my health values – especially after getting breast cancer, you can check out my story here.

Initially, I made sure I had plenty of kombucha on hand, so I didn’t feel deprived, and I always had my non-alcoholic drinks in a wine or cocktail glass.

As we head into menopause it’s worth reducing or even eliminating alcohol from your life, because the short and long-term health benefits are worth it.

I offer a free Mini menopause assessment where I take a peek at your current diet and lifestyle, and give you one or two personalised strategies that you can experiment with.

My philosophy is tweaking what you’re already doing rather than reinventing the wheel… this is way more sustainable in the long term.

As a Dietitian of over 30 years, I’ve been helping women lose weight and I can tell you that those who are successful find a way that works for them, they keep on experimenting until they find what works.

You can DM me here if you’d like some personalised strategies to help you get back in the driver’s seat of your health and breeze through menopause.

Nic x

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