Many women are moving to vegetarian meals these days and I have more of a vegetarian ‘slant’ these days too. But when I have a week whereby I’ve increased my exercise volume, then I do include red meat.
We often forget that our thyroid function is changing as we move through menopause, and if you are a regular exerciser, then you need to be aware of this. Exercise, especially higher intensity exercise from heavy weights or cardiovascular exercise, or longer endurance training, may have a negative impact on thyroid function.
This is because too much exercise can affect other hormones around the body – including your sleep hormones, stress hormones (especially cortisol), the hormones that control blood sugar and blood pressure and high levels of exercise can also lower your iron levels.
Iron is an element that is essential for the human body to make and metabolise the thyroid hormones. The body is dependent upon iron to convert thyroxine (T4) into the active hormone triiodothyronine (T3) via thyroid peroxidase (TPO). Not that you need to know this, but what you do need to know, is that if you are an exerciser and you are still menstruating in peri-menopause, then get your iron levels checked sometime. Yes, it’s that important!
Iron deficiency (ID) is concerned as the most common nutritional deficiency worldwide. (Luo et al, 2021). It can start out as a decrease in the extracellular iron of the bone marrow and then ferritin (iron stores) may be affected. There is concern in some nutritional papers that iron deficiency is now the most common nutritional deficiency worldwide.
That’s a concern for women in their menopause transition, because iron deficiency is just one of the hormone deficiencies that may lead to adverse effects on thyroid metabolism in women (Luo et al, 2021).
Heme-iron is the type of iron found in red meat. It is the type that is highly absorbable and helps to produce haemoglobin in our blood. this carries oxygen around your body.
Plant foods, such as vegetables, cereals, beans, and lentils, contain only non-heme iron, so the iron in these foods is not absorbed as well by the body. (NZ Nutrition).
Because we need at least 12-15mg of iron during peri-menopause (compared to only 8-10mg in post-menopause, when menstruation has stopped), I thought that those of you who do eat red meat, might like to try this iron-boosting meal. Whether you exercise or not, your ageing thyroid will love you for it.
Moroccan Lamb Rice Pot
Ingredients
- 1 Onion
- 4 garlic cloves
- 500g lamb mince
- 2 tbsp of ras el hanout or baharat spice
- 1 cup brown rice
- 2 cups of vegetable stock
- 2 carrots, grated
- 1 zucchini (courgette), grated
- 1 large lemon, juiced
- Salt & Pepper
- To serve: Spinach, Apricots, Feta Cheese, Peanuts and coriander (cilantro).
Method
- Heat a large, deep pan to medium-high heat. Add a splash of olive oil and fry the onion, garlic, lamb mince and spices for approximately 7 minutes (until the lamb has browned).
- Add in the brown rice, vegetable stock, zucchini and carrot. Place a lid on the pan, and turn the heat to low to let it simmer for about 20 – 25 minutes (until the rice is cooked).
- Once cooked, add the lemon juice and salt and pepper. If it needs more flavour add in a bit more lemon juice and/or another tablespoon of spices.
- Serve on a bed of spinach with apricots, feta, peanuts and coriander (cilantro).
