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Sex Birth Trauma with Kimberly Ann JohnsonAuthor: Kimberly Ann Johnson: Author, Vaginapractor, Trauma Educator
Cutting-edge, pioneering conversations on holistic women's health, including sex, birth, motherhood, womanhood, intimacy and trauma with doula, certified Sexological Bodyworker, Somatic Experiencing practitioner, and author of Call of the Wild and the Fourth Trimester, Kimberly Ann Johnson. Language: en Genres: Alternative Health, Health & Fitness, Sexuality Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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EP 244: Consistency, Not Perfection - Nutrition for Menopause and Beyond with Karen Newby
Monday, 10 August, 2026
Kimberly wanted to speak with someone who was neither hormones-or-nothing nor going to offer complicated longevity protocol. Karen Newby is a UK nutritionist with a BSc in Nutritional Medicine and fifteen years of clinical practice, and she speaks with clear-eyed candor about how to support women's nutrition through midlife and beyond. What follows is a genuinely practical conversation. Karen explains why menopause is now classified as an inflammatory transitional event, what that has to do with joint pain, foggy head, eczema, and autoimmune flares, and how the shift in estrogen changes insulin sensitivity and where the body stores weight. Underneath the nutrition is a broader argument about what got lost for women in the hormone gold rush. There is useful myth-busting on creatine, on electrolytes as a marketing category newly aimed at midlife women, on the protein wars, and on why the ultra-processed conversation should be about refined carbohydrates and breakfast cereal rather than about whether protein powder counts. Karen's bottom line: the body wants to be well, consistency beats perfection, and confusion is the thing most likely to stop a woman from starting at all. Bio Karen Newby / Nutritionist BSc Nutritional Med, mBANT, CNHC Karen is a nutritionist, speaker, food activist, author and regular media contributor. She holds a BSc in Nutritional Medicine and has over 15 years of clinical experience. She works extensively with women navigating menopause and post-menopause, translating complex nutritional science into practical, sustainable strategies that support long-term vitality. She is author of three books focused on the menopause and post menopause: The Natural Menopause Method — a nutritional guide to perimenopause and beyond, The Natural Menopause Method Cookbook, and The Post Menopause Method — a nutritional guide to ageing well (out October 2026). Through her writing, she combines clinical expertise with practical recipes, lifestyle guidance and an emphasis on preventative health. Having lived for many years in China and Vietnam, she has witnessed first-hand how traditional food cultures place nourishment front and centre of everyday life versus the UK's ultra processed food culture. Karen is on a mission to help women reclaim agency over their health at menopause, through what they eat and how they live, and how we can learn from ancient food wisdom from wise women across the world. Living without a fear of ageing so our post menopausal lives can be vibrant, purposeful and fulfilling. What Karen Shares Why she isn't interested in telling anyone what to do and why the real obstacle is that women carry so much they can't get themselves onto their own to-do list Menopause as an inflammatory transitional event, and the through-line to aches, foggy head, eczema, psoriasis, and autoimmune conditions How changing estrogen affects insulin sensitivity, why weight moves to the middle, and the difference between metabolic change and cortisol-driven "worry waist" The protein-rich, fiber-rich breakfast as the single highest-leverage change and why caffeine belongs with breakfast rather than before it Her 1% / 2% / 3% framework: fifteen minutes for breakfast, half an hour for lunch, forty-five minutes for the evening meal A 14-hour overnight fast as the realistic version of intermittent fasting during perimenopause, and why long fasts during hormonal flux tend to backfire What she actually means by ultra-processed: refined carbohydrates, white bread, breakfast cereal versus the protein powders and jarred goods most people worry about Creatine: well researched, safe, cheap as monohydrate, not on her essential list, and the brain-health claims not yet supported by robust studies Why she's skeptical of electrolyte supplements for midlife women, and the Vietnamese soda chanh she drank through monsoon season instead The protein wars: why Blue Zones populations eat less protein than the West, and why she still thinks it matters at menopause Fat phobia inherited from a generation of calorie-counting mothers, and what nuts, seeds, and omega-3s do for cognition, cardiovascular health, dry eyes, dry skin, and morning stiffness Ground linseed and phytoestrogens, including for teenage daughters moving through their own hormonal flux How to read an ingredients list and why the brands making the biggest health claims are usually spending on marketing rather than product Good housekeeping as a lost skill: bone stock from rib bones, veggie stock from peelings, leftovers for lunch, and why real food is cheaper than processed Giving birth in Beijing, being shouted at by elders for taking her newborn outside, and what traditional confinement cultures understood that the West forgot Why the suffragettes were early proponents of vegetarian cookery and why she isn't vegan or vegetarian but thinks most of us could eat more like it What You'll Hear Why "hormones or no hormones" is the wrong first question, and what gets left out when it's the only one being asked Kimberly on being floored by menopause despite writing a book on postpartum nourishment and on dismantling her business, cutting sugar entirely, and spending a stretch in ketosis The generational break: what happens when your grandmothers had hysterectomies and there is no menopause to inherit Irritability and rage in perimenopause partly blood glucose, partly finding your voice, and Karen's caveat that some people genuinely are annoying The cortisol awakening response, that fluttery-hearted start to the day, and what to drink before coffee Why confusion is the real enemy the listeners writing in with "a PhD in menopause" who still feel worse, not better Kimberly on being a redhead with less margin for error, and when a more extreme approach is warranted Acupuncture, going twice, and why some interventions need a real course rather than a trial Learning to cook in midlife assembling versus cooking, the power of ribs as a great attractor, and what a full fridge does for the nervous system Food as community: daughters who cook, parents who start showing up for dinner, and the traveling tinned fish situation Hunger from the chest versus hunger from the gut, and how to tell a stress response from actual appetite The 3pm slump, the sad sandwich, and the reactive eating that follows both Resources Website — https://www.karennewby.com Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/karen.newby.nutritionist Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/karennewbynutritionist Pre-order The Post Menopause Method: A Nutritional Guide to Ageing Well (out October 2026) — https://www.amazon.com/Post-Menopause-Method-nutritional-guide-ageing-ebook/dp/B0GXFWS5XJ Pre-order Erotic Seasons: Tuning into the Rhythms of Women's Sexuality and Spirituality (out November 2026) — https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781649633743/eroticseasons/
