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Managing Menopause With Nutrition

16th December 2022

16th December 2022

By Adele Webb

Menopause – ugh. Just the pure mention of the word can make many mature women curl their toes and crinkle their noses. Unfortunately, there comes a time in a woman’s life when this dreaded change must come to fruition. However, there’s always light at the end of the tunnel, and for those who are beginning to embark on this unavoidable transition, or maybe have even suffered with it for a while, there are easy tips and tricks one can implement within their daily life to ensure menopause stays at a minimal discomfort. Here at Innermost, we not only produce some fantastic food supplements to regulate hormone imbalance like The Recover Capsules, but also want to shed a light by explaining how nutrition and menopause can go hand in hand with one another. We all love food, right? But first, let’s delve deep into what menopause actually is…it’s better to know the signs we can assure you.

What is menopause?

To put it simply, menopause is the time that marks the end of a woman’s menstrual cycle, and this usually occurs between the ages of 40 and 50, although in some this may arise earlier still. The reproductive cycle begins to slow down as a woman ages and prepares to stop – something that has been on a continuous cycle since puberty. As menopause approaches, the hormone called estragon that your ovaries produce becomes less frequent, and with this begins the period alteration. First, most women will experience irregular monthly bleeding, which will eventually peter out to a stop.

Before the real deal, many will experience perimenopause – the traditional timeframe into menopause, and this on average can last from 4 to 8 years, with some lucky ones only experiencing it for a month! To differentiate between the two – perimenopause is when a lady experiences symptoms alongside a period, with the latter meaning symptoms without a period. Once 12 consecutive months have passed by without any bleeding, this is when you know the pesky full transition has occurred and will last for the rest of your adult life (ah).

The most difficult part of this change is the subtle and not-so-subtle symptoms, but bear in mind that you may only experience a few of these:

  • Irritability and mood swings
  • Night sweats
  • Hot flushes
  • Sleep problems – discover our blog on how to improve sleep to help with this
  • Memory issues
  • Heart palpitations
  • Weight gain
  • Decreased muscle mass
  • Poor bone density
  • Anxiety
  • Decreased sex drive
  • Skin changes

This may seem like a long list (we know) but there are lifestyle alterations that can be implemented to ease troublesome symptoms, and an important one is managing these with nutrition – being careful with what you put into your body is key.

Nutrition vs. menopause

With or without menopause, and no matter your gender, nutrition has and will always greatly impact your body’s functionality and parts. It is always important to keep up with a healthy diet and gain all the necessary nutrients to take on everyday life, which extends to menopause. We are aware that some of you may be questioning what the best diet for menopause is, and we can help you with this. Switching up your diet whilst you are experiencing the change is a must – ensure you are fuelling your body with enough vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, electrolytes, etc, as this will give it a better fighting chance as well as supporting your digestion, gut health, organs, muscle mass, and bone strength. In addition to this, as weight gain is one of the symptoms, it will help keep this in check too. A win-win situation all around. The following pointers are a great place to start when altering what you put into your body.

  1. Consume fruit and vegetables

As a rule of thumb, ensure your plate is as colourful as it can be, and that means grabbing all those beneficial fruit and veggies (even the ones you may dislike). We know this may stifle a groan but the more colour in your diet, the more minerals, and vitamins you will consume which will greatly benefit you in the long run. So, drop that chocolate bar and fill your boots with broccoli, sprouts, and carrots – yum!

  1. Consume more lean proteins

Protein is one of your best companions when it comes down to improving your symptoms and we suggest focusing on lean meats like fish, eggs, and chicken – try free-range or organic If possible. Protein will improve muscle mass and aid in digestion, as well as keeping you fuller for longer. If you are opting for a vegan diet and are on the scout for the best sources of vegan protein, then pulses are a great alternative.

  1. Focus on foods that contain phytoestrogens

Phytoestrogens are plant-based compounds that mimic estragon, making them a fantastic choice to combat the estragon deficiency caused by menopause. Start introducing soya, lentils, flaxseeds, chickpeas, oats, and wholegrains into your meals which in return will help keep you in check and balance those annoying imbalanced hormones.

  1. Get enough calcium

Calcium is essential for keeping bones and teeth healthy, as well as nerve and muscle function. In a worst-case scenario, a calcium deficiency can lead to osteoporosis which is a condition that causes bones to thin. Ladies who are going through their change are particularly vulnerable to this, so it is important to drink enough milk, indulge in that cheese (Ok maybe not too much), and even consume other non-dairy foods like leafy greens. Or opt for non-dairy alternatives like plant-based milk.

  1. Did someone say omega 3

To help maintain a healthy heart, keep joints flexible, and maintain youthful-looking skin – take to foods that contain omega 3. This good fat nutrient may stir people away, but don’t let the scare of fats deter you as it is a great aid alongside menopause. Fish may not be to everyone’s liking (sorry), but buying oily fish like salmon, mackerel, and herring are the favourited foods. Flaxseeds can be a replacement for those who can’t seem to consume the fishy subjects.

  1. Eat more nuts, seeds, and legumes

Eating seeds and nuts such as almonds and sunflower seeds, as well as helpful legumes like lentils, chickpeas, soybeans, peanuts, and peas, can help prevent the dryness of the skin that occurs during the alteration and can also have an impact on hormone levels due to being filled with nutrients like zinc, calcium, and vitamin E – perfect!

Foods to avoid during menopause

With the Ying comes the Yang which means whilst there are plenty of healthy food groups to delight in that can be of benefit, there are also alternatives that will in the end do you more harm than good. So, grab those colourful, natural groceries and avoid the following food cravings:

  • Processed foods – like crisps, cookies you name it. These are usually high in sodium and loaded with sugar, it is definitely best to avoid these.
  • Spicy foods – this one may seem odd but consuming hot foods can actually trigger hot flushes and sweats and anyone with menopause can agree they don’t need more of that!

  • Fast foods – it may be oh so convenient to pop to your local fast food restaurant, but these quick meals can serve up a huge amount of fat and this will do you no good.
  • Alcohol – to help with menopause symptoms, keep your alcohol consumption to a moderate amount as drinking well over this can aggravate annoyances further.

  • Caffeine – like alcohol, it is best to limit or completely stop your caffeine intake. In a caffeine and menopause study, it was discovered that women who consumed caffeine whilst going through menopause suffered from hot flushes more than women who consumed none at all.

Summary

Life is inevitable, and we cannot avoid the natural processes that are meant to occur within our lifetime. Women age, and with that comes the alteration into menopause. It can be a difficult time to endure, but there are ways to combat this pesky change. Lifestyle factors play an important role in this and keeping up a healthy diet whilst consuming all the necessary vitamins and minerals is a must. In the long run, this will help to manage the onset of symptoms and keep your body fit and healthy. Please keep in mind that no woman has to suffer with this in silence, so please reach out to your friends and family for support. Or even gain guidance from the NHS and speak to a healthcare professional that can help nurture you along your way. After all, life is for living - don’t let the troublesome menopause take control.

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The Best Supplements for Muscle Recovery
Nobody has ever asked me which supplements are best for muscle recovery. Instead, they ask how to build muscle. They ask how to tone up without getting bulky. Recovery is a big part of the answer to both, but one that nobody goes looking for. Which is a shame, because it's where an enormous amount of good training goes to waste. It's also where a lot of money gets wasted. Your local supplement shop or preferred online retailer is almost certainly full of products that either duplicate something you're already taking or do a completely different job to the one implied on the label. Neither makes them bad products, but it does make them a poor use of your budget. The short version is like the rest of the fitness industry – there’s a ton of misinformation out there and it’s easy to get lost in the noise. So this is the list I'd give you if you asked. Nine supplements that are well worth considering, three that are probably worth giving a miss, and how to put them together without paying twice for the same thing. Key takeaways Protein, creatine and tart cherry have the strongest evidence behind them. If you only ever buy three things, buy these. Magnesium, zinc and vitamin D don't speed recovery up so much as lessen the things that hold it back. Vitamin D is crucial, especially through a British winter where there’s not as much sun. Omega-3 and curcumin help manage the inflammatory response. These are useful during heavy training blocks, but not something you want to suppress all year round. Carbohydrate and electrolytes only become a priority when your recovery turnaround is short: think two sessions a day, endurance work, or training in heat. BCAAs aren't a recovery supplement. EAAs work but they usually duplicate your protein powder if it’s high quality. Glutamine's evidence in trained, well-fed people is weak. Tart cherry appears to help you produce force again sooner rather than make you feel less sore, which is the more useful of the two anyway. No supplement compensates for poor sleep, insufficient protein or badly managed training load. What recovery actually involves Before we get to the list, we should take a moment to understand what we're asking these supplements to do. It’ll also start to explain why some of them work and why others never really had a chance. After a hard session, you need three things to happen. Your muscles need repairing, which requires a steady supply of amino acids (the building blocks of new muscle tissue). The inflammation that follows training needs to run its course and resolve; it isn't the enemy here, it's part of how you adapt, but it does need managing rather than leaving to run wild. And your body needs to refuel and reset: your muscle glycogen needs replenishing, hydration restored, and your hormones and nervous system brought back to baseline, most of which happens whilst you're asleep. Which means a supplement can really only do one of three jobs. Supply raw materials. Moderate the inflammatory response. Or support the systems doing the actual repair work. If it doesn't fit into one of those three categories, it's an expensive maybe at best. Keep that in mind as we go, because it's the quickest way to work out whether something belongs in your stack. We've covered the science of post-workout recovery and what's actually happening when you get DOMS in more detail elsewhere. This piece is about what to take to aid things. The non-negotiables These three have the strongest evidence behind them and the biggest practical effect. If you only ever buy three things, make it these. Protein powder (the type matters less than you think) Protein is the raw material. It’s the headliner of recovery and anything muscle related as a whole. Everything else here is a supporting act. You can't build a house without bricks, and you can't rebuild muscle without amino acids. The research points fairly consistently to 1.6g to 2.2g of protein per kilogram of bodyweight per day if you're training seriously, spread across the day in servings of roughly 0.3g per kilogram. For most people that's 25g to 40g at a time. Powder isn't magic. It's simply the most convenient and cost-effective way to close the gap between what you eat and what you need. Where it gets interesting is which type, because that's where you hear a lot of marketing noise. Firstly, should you choose whey concentrate or isolate? Isolate is filtered further, so it comes in around 90% protein by weight against roughly 70-80% for concentrate, with less lactose and less fat. But here's the part the labels tend to skip: when your total daily protein is matched, isolate has no meaningful advantage for muscle growth or recovery. Choose it if lactose bothers you, or if you're on a tight calorie budget and want the nutrient density. Don't pay extra expecting more muscle. It pays (literally) to know what you’re getting. Casein digests more slowly and gives a sustained release of amino acids over several hours, which makes it quite useful before bed or across a long gap between meals. The better protein blends usually include at least some casein for exactly that reason. Egg protein is excellent, and one of the best options if you're avoiding dairy. But it's worth clearing up a myth that refuses to die: egg is not the most bioavailable protein you can buy. On DIAAS, the current gold standard for measuring protein quality, whey and milk protein score at or above whole egg. Egg is very good. It just isn't the winner it's usually sold as. You deserve a straight answer about beef protein too. It’s often marketed as a cleaner, lower calorie alternative to whey, but a significant proportion of beef protein products are made from hydrolysed collagen or gelatin rather than muscle meat, and collagen has a poor amino acid profile for our purposes. Very little leucine, and no tryptophan at all. It simply can't drive muscle protein synthesis the way whey does. The same applies to collagen powders generally: collagen is a protein, but it isn't a muscle-building one. For most people, a blend covering both fast and slow digesting sources is the most sensible choice. The Strong Protein gives you 34g per serving from whey concentrate, whey isolate and casein together, so you get the immediate spike and the sustained release without managing two tubs. Creatine monohydrate Creatine is the most researched supplement in sports nutrition, and it still gets filed under "strength and size" rather than recovery. That's a mistake. People view creatine purely for its ability to enhance performance, and it definitely does, but it also has value for recovery. That value lies in how quickly you can produce force again. By topping up the phosphocreatine system that fuels high-intensity effort, creatine helps restore performance between hard sessions, and it plays a role in glycogen resynthesis alongside carbohydrates. I do need to provide one honest caveat though. The evidence on whether creatine actually reduces markers of muscle damage is genuinely mixed. One systematic review is titled, without a hint of irony, The Paradoxical Effect of Creatine Monohydrate on Muscle Damage Markers. So I won't tell you it lowers your creatine kinase. What it reliably does is get you back to training hard sooner, which, being honest, is the outcome that really matters to many of the people taking it. Take 3-5g daily, every day, rest days included. Timing is irrelevant. Consistency isn't. You don't need to load, and you want plain monohydrate; the more expensive forms have never convincingly beaten it. If you want a proven, science-backed source of quality creatine, you can find that right here on the Innermost site. The Power Booster is 5g of German-sourced creatine monohydrate and nothing else. There's also 3g built into The Strong Protein if you'd rather not manage another tub. Tart cherry (montmorency) Most articles on the subject of tart cherry get it slightly wrong, so let’s be precise and clear things up. You'll usually see tart cherry described as a soreness remedy. A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis of 19 trials found something more interesting. There were significant improvements in the recovery of maximal voluntary contraction (your ability to produce force), and the effect grew over the days following exercise. There were also reductions in C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation. What there wasn't was a significant pooled effect on muscle soreness itself. So tart cherry appears to help you perform again sooner rather than help you feel less sore. If you're training or competing to a schedule, that's comfortably the more useful of the two. The authors of the review do flag low to moderate certainty and a lot of variation between studies, so treat it as promising evidence rather than set in stone fact. There's one other thing worth adding. Inflammation is part of the signal that drives adaptation, so suppressing it aggressively all year round may cost you some of the progress you're training for. Use tart cherry when recovering quickly genuinely matters more than adapting maximally. That might be during competition weeks, a congested fixture list, or perhaps a hard training camp. Then take it back out. The Strong Protein includes 300mg of Montmorency cherry alongside 250mg of bilberry, both for their anthocyanin content. The supporting cast These four won't transform your recovery on their own. What they do instead is help to lessen the things that might be holding it back, which for a lot of people is where the real gains are hiding. Magnesium Magnesium is involved in hundreds of enzymatic reactions, including muscle contraction and relaxation, energy production and protein synthesis. It's also one of the more reliable influencers of sleep quality, which makes it a recovery supplement twice over. It's worth paying attention to because UK intakes are frequently below the recommended daily amount, particularly among younger adults, and hard training increases what you lose through sweat. Form matters more than dose here. Magnesium glycinate or citrate are far better absorbed than the cheap magnesium oxide you'll find in most supermarket products. Aim for 200-400mg daily. There's 200mg in The Strong Protein, and magnesium appears again as part of the ZMA in The Recover Capsules. Zinc Zinc supports immune function, protein synthesis and hormone production, and like magnesium you lose it through sweat, so heavy training weeks are sure to increase the amount you need. We need to be precise about the hormonal claim here, because this is one of the most oversold supplements going. Zinc supports normal testosterone production if you're deficient. It will not push your levels above normal if you're already topped up, and no amount of fancy packaging will ever change that. Correcting a genuine shortfall is worth doing. Chasing a hormonal edge you don't have isn't. Don't megadose either, because sustained high zinc intakes interfere with copper absorption. Around 10-15mg a day is plenty for most people. The Recover Capsules include zinc as part of their ZMA content if you’re looking for a supplement to cover multiple bases in one. Vitamin D If you train in the UK, Vitamin D is one of the things that’s likely to be limiting you without you even realising it. Between roughly October and March, the sun doesn't climb high enough at our latitude for your skin to make meaningful amounts of vitamin D, no matter how much time you spend outside. The NHS advice is that everyone should consider a daily supplement through autumn and winter for exactly that reason. For recovery specifically, vitamin D is involved in muscle function and force production, and low levels have been linked to reduced strength and higher injury risk in athletes. It's also the least exciting item on this list, which is probably why it gets skipped over. Our Recover Capsules provide 1000IU per serving, which is 500% NRV. Whether you choose them or not, make sure you’re getting enough Vitamin D! I truly can’t stress that enough. Omega-3 (EPA and DHA) Omega-3 fatty acids help resolve your body’s inflammatory response rather than simply blunting it, and there's reasonable evidence for reduced soreness and better retention of muscle function after damaging exercise. Look for around 2g of combined EPA and DHA daily, and read the label properly. Plenty of fish oil products advertise an impressive capsule size whilst delivering a fraction of that in actual EPA and DHA. Third-party testing for purity is worth paying for if you’re unsure, and algal oil is an equivalent option if you don't eat fish. Worth it in specific situations These two aren't for everyone. In the right context, though, they're excellent. Curcumin Curcumin, the active compound in turmeric, has built up a reasonable body of meta-analytic evidence for reduced muscle soreness, lower creatine kinase and better retention of functional strength after damaging exercise. It's doing the same job as tart cherry: managing the inflammatory response rather than supplying raw materials. Bioavailability is the main thing to consider here. Curcumin on its own is poorly absorbed, so adding more turmeric to your cooking won't achieve anything useful. Look for a formulation enhanced with piperine (a natural compound found in black pepper), or a phytosome or liposomal preparation. Apply the same caveat as tart cherry. This is a tool for congested periods, not a year-round default. Carbohydrate and electrolytes Refuelling is the third job, and it's the one most lifters can happily ignore. If you train once a day and eat properly, your normal meals will restore glycogen comfortably before your next session. It becomes a real priority when the turnaround is short. If you’re doing two sessions in a day, lots of endurance work, compete in tournament formats, or are training in heat, you might need some additional support. In those cases the research points to roughly 1.0-1.2g of carbohydrate per kilogram of bodyweight per hour in the first few hours after finishing, which is difficult to hit through solid food alone. Hydration belongs here too. Sweat costs you fluid and sodium, and turning up to your next session dehydrated will take more from you than most supplements can give back. The Hydrate Blend covers the electrolyte side with sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium. It’s well worth considering if you’re in the market for a top tier electrolyte blend. What about BCAAs, EAAs and glutamine? This is where a lot of people spend too much money, so let's be direct. BCAAs Branched-chain amino acids aren't a recovery supplement, and the reason is simple. They're three of the nine essential amino acids, and you can't build a complete muscle protein from an incomplete set. If your daily protein is adequate, adding BCAAs on top adds nothing to the repair process. That's a separate question from whether they do anything at all. Taken before or during training they have a role in perceived exertion and central fatigue, helping the session feel more manageable rather than helping you recover from it afterwards. That's a legitimate job, and it's why you'll find 5g of BCAAs in The Workout Blend, sitting alongside citrulline, beta-alanine and caffeine in a pre-workout formula. Just don't buy them expecting a recovery benefit they were never designed to deliver. EAAs Essential amino acids do work. All nine are present, so unlike BCAAs they can genuinely fuel muscle protein synthesis. The problem is redundancy. If you're already hitting 1.6-2.2g/kg of protein a day from food and a protein powder, you're paying a second time for something you've already bought. There are real cases where they earn their place. Poor appetite. Avoiding dairy without a good alternative. Training fasted first thing in the morning. Older trainees dealing with anabolic resistance, where the leucine threshold is genuinely harder to reach. Outside of those, sort your total protein out first and pay close attention to your diet overall. L-Glutamine Glutamine has a strong reputation and a weak evidence base, at least for the people usually buying it. In trained, well-fed individuals it has repeatedly failed to produce meaningful improvements in soreness, strength recovery or body composition. The gut and immune benefits people cite are real enough, but they come largely from research in extreme endurance loads and clinical settings. Those are states of physiological stress that lifting three to five times a week simply doesn't replicate. If you're training hard and eating enough protein, you're almost certainly getting plenty of glutamine already. You’d be better off spending that money on protein or creatine. How to build your recovery stack Rather than buying everything at once, build it in layers. The Foundation: protein, creatine, vitamin D. This is the version almost nobody regrets. Raw materials, force restoration, and the deficiency most likely to be holding you back. If budget is tight, stop here. You're already in a really strong position and are capturing the majority of the benefits available from supplements when it comes to muscle recovery specifically. Complete: add magnesium, zinc and omega-3. Worth it once you're training four or more times a week and the basics are consistent. These address what accumulates with volume, and the sleep quality everything else depends on. Hard block: add tart cherry, curcumin, carbohydrate and electrolytes. Reserve these for periods where recovering fast genuinely matters more than adapting maximally. Then take them back out, save your money and rely on your diet, which should always be the foundation of everything you put into your body anyway. Notice that the list gets shorter as your budget gets tighter, not longer. That's deliberate. The most important recovery tool isn't a supplement It would be strange to write all of this without saying the obvious thing. Sleep is the single biggest recovery variable you have, and no combination of capsules compensates for consistently getting six hours or more of sleep a night. Your total daily protein matters far more than which powder you choose. And managing your training load, programming deloads before you need them rather than after, will do more for how you feel and perform than anything on this list. Supplements are worth taking. They're worth taking because they close specific, identifiable gaps, not because they replace the fundamentals. They're the final few percent, and the foundations have to be there first. If sleep is where you're struggling, The Reset Capsules combine reishi, L-glycine, lemon balm and chamomile for exactly that. But the habits come first. Read more
The Glow Blend: A Confession
I need to tell you something I've never said publicly, and it's not flattering. When our product team first brought me a plan for a collagen supplement, my honest reaction was no. Not "let me think about it." A flat no. And if I'm being fully honest about why, it wasn't the science. It was that collagen felt, in my head, like a beauty category. Something for someone else's brand. Not ours. I built Innermost around performance and evidence. Protein, creatine, mushrooms, electrolytes. Things I could point to a study for and feel comfortable talking about at a dinner table full of people who workout regularly. Collagen sat in a different mental folder. Skincare aisle. Jars with gold lids and brand sponsorship by one of the Kardashians. I'd absorbed a version of what "beauty" meant without ever examining it. The argument in the room So we had the argument internally. A proper one. A few people on the team pushed back hard, and rightly so. One of them put it to me plainly: we started Innermost to follow the evidence wherever it goes, not to follow it everywhere except the places that feel awkward. That line stuck with me. Here's what changed my mind, and it wasn't a feeling. It was the research. What the evidence actually says Collagen is the most abundant protein in your body. It's structural, it's in your skin, your joints, your gut lining, and production declines steadily from your mid-twenties onward. That's not a marketing claim, that's basic physiology. The question was never whether collagen matters. It was whether supplementing it actually does anything, and that's where most of the category falls apart. Most collagen products on the market use whole collagen molecules, which are too large to be absorbed effectively when you drink them. The ones that do use hydrolysed peptides, which are broken down into smaller chains your body can actually take up, still run into a second problem: dose. A lot of labels list collagen content that sits well below the 2 to 10 grams used in the trials that show measurable effects on skin elasticity and hydration. You're paying for a placebo with good branding. The ingredient most brands leave out The third problem is the one that convinced me completely. Vitamin C isn't a nice-to-have alongside collagen. It's a required co-factor for your body to actually synthesise collagen at the cellular level. Without adequate vitamin C, the enzymes responsible for stabilising collagen structure don't function properly. You can take a perfectly dosed hydrolysed peptide and still get a fraction of the benefit if the product doesn't include enough vitamin C alongside it. Most don't. They sell you the raw material and leave out the one thing your body needs to use it. Once I saw the category clearly, laid out like that, the decision stopped being about how I felt and started being about what the evidence supported. That's the whole operating principle of Innermost. I couldn't defend saying no to a legitimate, well-evidenced product category. What we built So we built The Glow Blend properly. Hydrolysed collagen peptides at a dose that reflects the research, alongside vitamin C, hyaluronic acid for hydration, biotin and folic acid for hair and nail health. Nothing in it that doesn't earn its place. What surprised me after launch The part I didn't expect was the response once we launched it. A good number of the messages came from women, as you'd expect, and they were generous and specific about what they'd noticed. But a surprising number came from men. Customers writing in to say they'd felt exactly what I'd felt, that awkward little flinch at "collagen," and had quietly bought it anyway because the ingredient breakdown made sense to them. That response told me more about why this category needed an honest voice in it than any research paper did. I'm not going to pretend I have this fully figured out. I still catch myself, occasionally, hesitating slightly before I mention it in a room. Old habits sit deeper than good evidence sometimes. But I take it, and increasingly a lot of men I respect take it too, quietly, without needing to make a thing of it. If this sounds familiar If any part of this resonated, and you've felt that same small resistance to a category you assumed wasn't for you, hit reply and tell me. I'd genuinely like to know I'm not the only one who had to get over it. And if you know someone, a friend, a partner, who could use this exact reasoning rather than a tesimonial, forward it on. It might do more good coming from someone else's honesty. Read more