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Weight management in perimenopause

Sarah Mitchell Weston 4/3/25 Sarah Mitchell Weston 4/3/25

Weight management in perimenopause

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Gut health advice online is everywhere, and most of it is written for no one in particular. Here, you'll find guidance that's actually built around your gut: general tips and reads if you're simply looking to eat and feel better, a structured plan if you're dealing with IBS or IBD, and a growing library of recipes and guidance for everyday gut support.

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Gut health reads

Everyday gut health

The basics

Good gut health, without the noise

Your gut is home to trillions of bacteria and other microbes — collectively, your gut microbiome — that do far more than digest food. They help train your immune system, produce compounds that nourish your gut lining, and are in constant two-way communication with your brain via the gut-brain axis (it's part of why your gut has a real hand in mood, energy and even food cravings, not just digestion).

A healthy gut isn't about eating a "clean" diet or cutting out entire food groups on principle. For most people, it comes down to a handful of things done consistently:

Diversity of plant foods — different fibres feed different bacteria. People who eat 30+ different plant foods a week have measurably more diverse gut microbiomes than those who eat 10 or fewer — variety matters more than any single "superfood"
Prebiotic fibre and resistant starch — garlic, onion, leek, oats and legumes feed your beneficial bacteria directly; cooking and cooling rice, pasta or potatoes before eating boosts this further, at no extra cost
Fermented foods, most days — live yoghurt, kefir, sauerkraut and kimchi support microbial diversity; look for "live and active cultures" on the label, since baking, filtering or pasteurising kills the live bacteria in many fermented products
Colourful, polyphenol-rich foods — berries, extra virgin olive oil, green tea and cocoa feed a different, complementary set of beneficial bacteria
Enough protein — your gut lining is one of the fastest-renewing tissues in your body, and needs a steady supply of amino acids (particularly glutamine and glycine) to keep it strong
Going easy on the things that work against it — excess added sugar, alcohol, and heavily processed foods are consistently linked with less diverse, more inflammatory gut bacteria

One myth worth busting early: cutting out gluten or dairy isn't an automatic gut health upgrade for most people. Outside coeliac disease or a genuine intolerance, wholegrain and fermented dairy foods are actually valuable fibre and bacteria sources — removing them without good reason can do more harm than good.

This is general guidance for the average gut. If you have a diagnosed condition like IBS or IBD, some of this advice needs to be adapted — that's what the Good Gut Plan further down this page is for.

Dig deeper: gut health reads

A few places to start if you want to go further than the basics:

mitchell weston nutrition

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HEALTH, DIET & LIFESTYLE QUESTIONNAIRE