Rachel, founder of The Menopause Nutrition Clinic and author of Nourish for Menopause, received the national honour in recognition of her work helping women in midlife improve their health through nutrition and lifestyle medicine.

“I’m absolutely thrilled and deeply honoured to receive this award. This award is not only a massive win for me personally but also for menopause. The conversation around menopause is changing for the better, and I’m proud to be part of that movement!“,” she said.

This was the first year of the Evoke.ie Wellness Awards which brought together over 150 wellness professionals to toast some of the best and brightest in the industry.

The timing of the award was particularly appropriate as it came during October which is Menopause Awareness Month, Rachel noted. 

“It’s also at a time of my life when I’m menopausal so it’s really empowering to get this award when the other nominees were younger than me. I feel like it’s a win for women in menopause the world over as well as personally.”

Rachel, who for many years ran the popular Eno restaurant in Dundalk with her husband, fellow Dubliner Victor, is equally passionate about food and about raising awareness about how nutrition can help women live with the menopause.

She was 43 when the menopause hit and she describes in the introduction of Nourish for Menopause how” it seemed my health was changing for the worst from one day to the next.”

This sent her on a quest to find out how food could help her and other women deal with the symptoms she was experiencing.

She spent four years studying at the College of Naturopathic Medicine in Dublin and then went on to qualify as a medicinal chef in 2018, and became an accredited menopause education from the British Menopause Charity.

Eager to share the knowledge that she had gained, she began operating out of a room in a GP’s practice in Blackrock, with a special focus on women’s health a”Thnd the menopause.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic forced her to go online, launching her own website and online clinic at menopausenutritionist.ie so that that she could reach out to women directly.

It was also during this time that she began working on her medicinal cookbook, Nourish for Menopause, which can be found in kitchens around the country and further afield. Combining over 100 recipes with practical guidance to support hormone balance, energy, and long-term health it has been described as “a life-changing toolkit for women in midlife.”

This is all a far cry from the days when the menopause wasn’t spoken about or worse still was seen as a cause of shame.

“The whole conversation thankfully has gone mainstream,” she says. “It was something my Mum would never have spoken about. It was a taboo subject the,.”

She welcomes the fact that the menopause is now recognised as “a normal life stage in a women’s reproductive life journey along with puberty and pregnancy.”

Through her work, she wants to make women aware of what steps they can take to help themselves and to empower them with information to help reduce the risks of lifestyle-related diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, and dementia

“My emphasis is very much on the positivity so that women don’t see the menopause as something to dread. It’s a time in a women’s life when we can reinvent ourselves – in Asia it’s called the Second Spring.”

Rachel runs an online menopause nutrition clinic, offering one to one consultations alongside online group coaching inside her MENOSHIP membership community.

“This provides women with a huge library of resources and the support of a community of other women all on the same journey.

“I also offer online cooking classes and cover issues like exercise and keeping fit.”

She explains that the cookbook focuses on the nutrients that have been found to be beneficial to women going through the menopause with over a hundred recipes.

“The book has become such a great resource for women and its a great way to get started on their menopause journey.”

However, she warns that they will need six months to see and feel the benefits of what they are doing, which is where membership of the MENOSHIP community can help.

Rachel also delivers corporate well-being talks and programmes for businesses supporting menopause in the workplace.

She joined leading Irish endocrinologist Professor Mary Ryan and pharmacist Oonagh O’Hagan for EmpowerHer workshops in Galway, Kilkenny and Limerick during October.

Those are really add-ons to what I’m doing on a daily basis between the on-line clinics and corporate workshops.”

She welcomes the fact that the menopause is now being discussed in the workplace with many companies offering programmes to support their female employees.