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The Period Party Podcast · EP. 68 · November 2, 2020

Breaking the Curse of Menstruation

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podcast guest

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Amanda Laird is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist™ and host of The Heavy Flow Podcast – a weekly podcast dedicated to periods, reproductive health, and other taboo health and wellness topics. Amanda is also the author of Heavy Flow: Breaking the Curse of Menstruation, where she examines the history of period shame and stigma, discusses its effects on women’s health and wellness today, and provides a crash course in menstrual self-care. Heavy Flow aims to lift the veil on menstruation, change the narrative, and break the “curse” once and for all.

In this episode, we talk about the problems that arise from women’s pain being viewed as normal, how Western culture perpetuates period shame, common menstrual myths, what it means to be “period neutral,” and so much more!

Episode Highlights

Resources Mentioned

Fix Your Period

How Fix Your Period Uses Nutrition to Balance Hormones

What you eat directly shapes your hormonal health — from estrogen clearance to insulin sensitivity to progesterone production. Fix Your Period translates Nicole's nutritional approach into practical, day-to-day tools.

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Symptom Tracking

Track how dietary changes affect your energy, mood, skin, cycle regularity, and PMS symptoms — seeing the food-hormone connection in your own body.

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Hormone Health Assessment

Take Nicole's free Hormone Health Assessment and get personalised results that reflect the downstream effects of your current diet and lifestyle on your hormonal health.

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Nutrition-Based Protocols

Fix Your Period Premium includes Nicole's protocols on eating for your hormones, blood sugar balance, liver support, and gut healing — the nutritional pillars of her approach.

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Eating for Your Cycle Education

Nicole's signature Period Pillars include a comprehensive How to Eat for Your Hormones series — covering the nutritional foundations of hormonal balance in accessible, practical detail.

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Nicole.AI

Fix Your Period Premium includes Nicole.AI — trained on Nicole's methodology — giving you personalised guidance on the dietary changes most likely to improve your specific hormonal symptoms.

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Personalised Protocol

Fix Your Period Premium unlocks your personalised protocol from your assessment results — including targeted nutrition guidance tailored to your unique hormonal picture.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions from this episode — and how Fix Your Period can help.

How does diet affect hormonal health?
Diet affects hormones through multiple pathways: blood sugar regulation (which directly influences androgen production and ovulation), liver function (which governs estrogen detoxification), gut health (which determines estrogen reabsorption vs. excretion), and nutrient availability (since hormones are synthesised from dietary precursors like cholesterol, amino acids, and vitamins).
What foods support hormonal balance?
Nicole's nutritional approach prioritises: quality protein at every meal (for hormone synthesis and blood sugar stability), fibre-rich vegetables (for estrogen clearance), healthy fats (for steroid hormone production), cruciferous vegetables (for liver estrogen metabolism), and fermented foods (for microbiome and estrobolome support).
Are there foods that worsen hormonal imbalances?
Foods most likely to worsen hormonal imbalances include ultra-processed foods and refined carbohydrates (driving insulin resistance), industrial seed oils (driving inflammation), alcohol (impairing liver estrogen clearance), and foods containing endocrine-disrupting pesticides or additives.
Is there an app with hormone-healthy nutrition guidance?
Yes. Fix Your Period's free Hormone Health Assessment gives you personalised nutrition insights based on your symptoms. Fix Your Period Premium unlocks Nicole's How to Eat for Your Hormones Period Pillar, targeted nutrition protocols, and Nicole.AI for personalised dietary guidance.
Should I eat differently at different phases of my cycle?
Nicole's approach emphasises foundational hormone-supportive eating throughout the entire cycle — protein, fibre, healthy fats, and minimal processed foods — as the non-negotiable baseline. Cycle-syncing your diet can be a useful layer on top of these foundations, particularly around the luteal phase.
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