Mariella's on a mission to help women eat 'fuel not filler' during menopause

MARIELLA Frostrup could probably assemble the country's most exciting dinner party. As a writer, broadcaster and campaigner, she has forged friendships with rock stars and political giants. But she is now on a mission to get women excited once again about the food on the table. Together with Belles Berry the daughter of culinary legend Dame Mary Berry she has created Menolicious, a cookbook the authors describe as a “call to arms” which will give women the “Grade-A fuel” needed to embrace “newfound freedom”.

- By David Williamson

She encountered the power of healthy food to transform daily life when she went on a health retreat in North Devon. “I ate like a horse,” she remembers. “The food was utterly delicious. I thought, ‘This is a disaster. I’m going to leave here even fatter than when I got here.’

“And in fact, about four days after I got home my whole body felt like it was just working — I had energy, and I had energy in the afternoons when normally I'd be slumping in a stupor. My stomach was the flattest it's ever been.”

She had discovered the difference it makes when you give your body “fuel” rather than just “stuff to fill it”.

And in the “force of nature” Belles Berry she found a friend and chef who shared both her passion for changing attitudes to the menopause and her delight in creating life-enhancing meals.

This is not meant to be “another rod for women to beat themselves across the back with”, insists Ms Frostrup. Most of the recipes can be made in 30 minutes and range from breakfasts to cocktails.

She remembers how the pandemic and the experience of having “four people trapped in the house all wanting different kinds of food” left her thinking, “I never want to cook again”.

But as an empty nester, the 62-year-old has rediscovered the thrill of kitchen experimentation.

And she wants people to enjoy the magic that can happen when friends and family gather around a table to feast together.

“People volunteer things you wouldn’t get on a phone call, and definitely wouldn’t get on a text,” she explains.

In recent years she has worked to get the nation talking about the menopause. In October she was named the Government's “menopause employment ambassador”. This followed research showing just over half of women aged 40 to 60 are unable to go to work at some point due to menopause symptoms.