Welcome to The Menopause Larder® by registered nutritionist Dr Tanja Harrison PhD RNutr
Thank you popping in! Lovely to see you here and be on this journey together! I hope that you will become a subscriber to get weekly updates (and more) from me.
First things first – Who am I?
I am a registered nutritionist, so I like to think that in principle I know my stuff, but every day is a school day in the exciting field of menopause food and nutrition. (More on that further down.) I am keeping my knowledge constantly up-to-date to ensure that my advice will always be rooted in the evidence that is currently out there.
I am going through the perimenopause myself at the time of starting The Menopause Larder® and I have had some rough times with regards to some of the symptoms, especially with brain fog, which was a pain in the arse considering the type of full-time employment that I used to have (again, see below)
I have lived in the UK (mostly Liverpool) for a long time but am originally from Germany, which can be attested by the fact that my accent is apparently a mix of something that people can’t quite put their finger on with a bit of Scouse thrown into the mix. Hey, I married a Scouser after all, you learn from the best! 😊 (I will try and make as much content as possible available in audio format, so you can be your own judge of that!)
I am a motorcycle pillion, currently on a Benelli TRK502, and plan to one day have my own licence and bike. In the meantime, I am happy to sit behind my husband while we enjoy a bit of freedom and adventure
I really, really enjoy food and working with different ingredients, but I am also a busy person, so a lot of the meals that I cook during the week are fairly straight forward and don’t take ages to prepare and cook. If I have time and feel inspired on a Sunday afternoon I might do quite a bit of meal prep for the week ahead, but that frankly depends on what else is going on. Going through perimenopause meant that I had to start looking at nutrition in a new light again to effectively respond to the way my body and mind have started changing.
What exactly is A Larder and ultimately The Menopause Larder®?
A larder used to be a cool area in the kitchen mainly for storing perishable ingredients. Over time, the use expanded to also keep dry and tinned foods safe. Basically, a larder encompasses the places where we store everything that we are planning to eat and drink, whether these are staple foods or less often consumed ingredients.
The idea of this publication (and everything that I might develop from this moving forward) is to empower you to build your own Menopause Larder – Not with wood and nails, of course (although happy to see photos of your DYI projects upgrading your Larder at home! 😊). Fact is that there is lots of information available on what to eat before, during and after the menopause transition, but the often-conflicting evidence shows us that what might work for one person, might not do anything for the next. Every one of us has a different experience of the menopause transition and not every person has either the same types of symptoms or the same severity of symptoms. It is therefore important to consider this when focusing on different foods and dietary patterns that might help with different issues.
We also have different preferences for diverse cuisines and styles of cooking. I might happily scoff down a tofu dish or Miso soup, whilst this mightn’t be at all your cup of tea. But on the other hand, you are more than happy to learn to love chickpeas (if you aren’t a hummus afficionado already). The idea of The Menopause Larder® is therefore to give you an idea of different options based on research and evidence. This is what I mean by building your own menopause larder.
The science of food and nutrition to help us not just survive but also thrive as we are approaching, going through and eventually having reached the point of menopause (and beyond) is fairly young. Whilst we are a lot that is increasingly being studied by the scientific community (but loads more work to be done!!!), a lot of the stuff can still be confusing and may even feel conflicting. What’s a woman to do?!
This is where I come in, therefore stay with me. I am super confident that you won’t regret it!
I have trained extensively in trying to make sense of exactly this sort of stuff. I have studied on an accredited nutrition BSc in the UK and straight after went on to complete a PhD nutrition, to then work for a few years as a full-time academic and senior lecturer at a UK university. (But my full focus is now The Menopause Larder®.) My job is to read the complex, jargony stuff and to translate this into content that makes more sense in the real world, for those who are on a very similar journey to me. It is very important to me (and I guess it should be to you, too) that I am an evidence-based practitioner. This means that I will scrutinise the scientific literature to the best my ability to provide information and content that is trust-worthy and not hyping-up the latest fad!
Some of my posts will therefore focus on quite sciency stuff, but this is to help you try and understand what exactly is currently going on in this temple that is your body – even if chances are that you are quite tempted to try and return it and ask for a refund. (“Ah yes, and can I speak to manager as well, please, to make a complaint while I am here!!”) I do think gaining a better understanding of what and why all this is happening can help. At least it might give you an opportunity to see the light at the end of the tunnel and to start being kinder to yourself.
Other content will focus more on the beautiful and practical aspects of food and nutrition, whether that will be talking about a particular ingredient (and which impact eating it can have on our peri/postmenopausal health) or a particular nutrient and where to find it.
One thing that I will always bear in mind is that we are all most likely stupidly busy as it is anyway (always have been these past few decades, building careers, families, getting on with life etc.), but now we also have to content with our bodies seemingly letting us down. Plus - who has time to wade through mountains of (potentially conflicting and confusing information) when you can hardly remember where you left the car keys!
For the past few decades of our adult lives, we have been bombarded with information on how to eat more healthily and now it might look like we need to start all over again to some extent. It can feel really, really overwhelming to try and get it all right (even knowing what ‘right’ might look like). If you stick with me, over time you will learn more and more about how food and nutrition can become a useful ally and a thing of joy again.
I strongly believe that you should not let perfection get in the way of progress! There will be days that absolutely suck and where you will be eating (or drinking) stuff that is not great for you (or not enough of the good stuff), and you know it! Okay, the next day is a new day, and you can try again to make those positive changes to help you a) through the menopause transition, and b) towards gaining and maintaining great health for the remainder of this beautiful life.
It can get messy and frustrating at times, but being a part of The Menopause Larder® community will help us all get through this, have fun and start to thrive again.
One last thing to say before we get on to the subscription part, is to let you know that I am currently on menopause hormone therapy (MHT - AKA HRT). I feel that this is quite personal information, but I think that it is important to be transparent here! Therefore, this is not a space where I will tell you that nutrition is all and everything to sailing through the menopause. But I am 100% certain that it does have an important role to play as one part of your tool kit (in addition to exercise, stress reduction etc), not only with regards to managing symptoms, but also with mitigating potential future health risks that women are increasingly prone to as they are reaching postmenopause. Plus whilst lifestyle changes alone were not enough to help me manage my symptoms whilst having a very stressful job, I can actually tell when I have been neglecting my diet and lifestyle. It does make a difference! This is especially important for those amongst us who can’t or won’t have MHT.
What will you get when you subscribe to The Menopause Larder®?
Free subscription for all until 13 August 2025
I get that you have to get to know me first to see what I have to offer. For the first couple of months of my Substack offerings, everything will be completely free to you. After that I will put some things behind a paywall. By that point I hope that I have convinced you that this is a good community to be a part of an that you will therefore become a paid subscriber.
I am now a freelance nutritionist, which means that my Substack content will become an important source of income for me. This will help me to continue to provide you with really valuable information to support you in your journey.
If you feel that you can or want to support me earlier, there is already the option to take out a paid subscription straight away. Thank you very much for your support! I am incredibly grateful for your vote of confidence!
Free subscribers
As a subscriber you will get a new post from me every Wednesday with information about stuff related to food and nutrition before, during and after the menopause transition.
Paid subscribers (£7 per month (less than two cups of coffee) or £75 per year)
Weekly post every Wednesday delivered directly to your Inbox (same as free subscribers)
Access to audio recordings of posts in case you do not have the time to read and prefer to get on with stuff whilst listening to informative and interesting content
Access to bi-monthly pre-recorded webinars with the options to attend Q&A sessions later on
Access to a community with the ability to comment on posts
Depending on how this space develops, there might also be extra stuff in the future
Founding members (£90 per year)
Everything paid subscribers get plus my immense gratitude! You are helping me to develop my offerings even quicker!
If you like what I do, please remember to tell your friends, family, colleagues, anyone really you think will benefit from what I offer. Thank you! 😊
Thank you for reading! I hope you have a good idea now of who I am and what to expect from this space. I’d love to see you become part of The Menopause Larder® community.
To learn more about the tech platform that powers this publication, visit Substack.com.
