Nutrition & Menopause: Feeling Your Best

Women spend 30% or more of their lives in a post-menopausal state – and what you eat during this time matters more than most people realize. In this free nutritional education webinar, Megan Ellison, RDN, CDCES – a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist with Sound Dietitians, LLC – offers an evidence-based, deeply practical guide to navigating menopause through nutrition, covering everything from how estrogen affects over 400 bodily functions to exactly which supplements to take and why. Sponsored by Stilly Valley Health Connections, this class is part of our free class recordings on nutrition and health.

What’s covered in this class:

• Understanding the hormone changes – what estrogen and progesterone actually do (over 400 functions including bone density, cholesterol processing, insulin sensitivity, mood, mental clarity, and muscle protection), what happens when they decline, and why post-menopausal women face the same cardiovascular disease risk as men
• Metabolism and weight in menopause – why metabolism slows by 200-400 calories per day during the menopausal transition, how involuntary movement decreases, why fat shifts to the abdominal area, and why most women gain around 12 lbs in the first 8 years after menopause
• Muscle, bone, and protein – why resistance training twice weekly builds both muscle and bone, why protein needs increase post-menopause (1.0-1.3g per kilogram of body weight), how to space protein throughout the day, and what to know if you are also using a GLP-1 medication
• Key nutrients for this life stage – calcium (1,000-1,200mg/day, split into two doses for better absorption), vitamin D paired with K2 (why the combination matters for bones vs. arteries), which magnesium form to choose and why not all forms are equivalent, omega-3 fatty acids, B12, and iron
• Phytoestrogens and the gut-hormone connection – how lignans in flax, soy, sesame seeds, and berries have a mild estrogenic effect that may ease symptoms, how the gut microbiome influences estrogen metabolism, and why aiming for 30 different plant foods per week supports hormonal balance
• Heart health, alcohol, sleep, and HRT – why women’s heart attack symptoms often present differently than men’s, how alcohol affects menopausal weight and sleep, practical sleep hygiene strategies, and what the current evidence says about the timing and type of hormone replacement therapy