What a great post.
Mrs T is going through peri-menopause and I am so glad it is now being talked about. I remember my parents generation and the menopause was almost a taboo topic and there sure as heck was no peri-menopause!
I remember when we lived in the States at being shocked at how sweet so many products were compared to the UK, and found out the amount of sweetened preservatives that were in tinned goods.
I've heard quite a few people saying that menopause was just never talked about, yet I recall my dad saying something when we were younger about his mum always being skinny except when coming up to menopause. He also mentioned the mood swings. She was never one to hold back on talking about taboo stuff, farts included. She had a saying, "Where ever you be let your wind go free." 🤣
We didn't avoid talking about it when my mum hit peri-menopause, but I think we still didn't largely know much about the symptoms other than mood swings and hot flushes at that point.
I've heard about what they call food deserts in the US, where in some places you can't buy anything that resembles real foods, just processed junk. There are often comparisons even in how much worse the fast food is there compared to the UK and Australia. The additives seem completely unnecessary.