You can't have any weight loss success story without the nutrition portion of health! Nutrition is even more crucial for someone with PCOS. When I had lost the first initial 50 lbs, it was mostly with just cutting out sodas, juices, cakes, cookies, and making better food choices that made sense. You know, whole wheat breads, eating more veggies and fruits, portion control, blah blah blah. Typical stuff. But when I was talking to my Gyno about loosing weight to monitor my PCOS (at this point I have yo-yo'ed and had gained 1/2 of what I initially lost), she had introduced to me the GI diet.
The GI diet, or the low Glycemic Index diet, looks at how much a food item (anything from produce, to meats, to processed goods) raises your blood sugar, and puts them in three categories; high, medium, and low. The higher the GI, the more it wrecks havoc on your blood stream. Made sense, it mirrored choices I have already made too loose the first 50, it's a balanced way of eating, except it was a little more "polished" then what I was already doing. It taught me new things, like I had no clue Bananas had about 27 grams of carbs- making them medium GI. I also didn't know whole wheat bread with at least 3 grams of fiber per slice was the best choice of bread for you. This is awesome stuff. Until I did some further research about managing PCOS, and this was pretty eye opening, even some what scary.
First thing I came across was gluten intolerance and some weird connection with PCOS. This wheat protein causes, from what I understand, at least inflammation. I say at least, because I'm not 100% sure as to how it plays with the hormones in the endocrine system. I also hear that there's no real scientific connection between gluten and PCOS, but then I read there's no nutritious value in gluten- too just avoid it all together.
I then came across a podcast interview of Dr. Rebecca Harwin, who not only was diagnosed with PCOS, but wrote a book on how she was able to reverse it naturally and holistically. In this particular podcast, she talks about her top 10 do's and don'ts on managing this syndrome. She mentioned going gluten free, and to avoid A1 dairy... A1 dairy?... Great. I decided to look this up, and learned there's two types of milk, A1 and A2. I'm still confused as to how there's two types of milk (something about the breed of cows, and a protein being modified), but apparently A1 is largely responsible for certain allergies, and inflammation. And of course, guess which type of milk is predominant in the US. Yup, A1 milk, making it more difficult to access A2 and raw milk.
So with the reading I have done so far, it's no Gluten, no A1 Dairy, and also no Soy (still doing further research on this) for me. These 3 are no good for someone with PCOS. And now I feel like I'm being forced into the Paleo Diet (A gluten free, dairy free, legume free diet). Although I'm still doing further research on these 3 PCOS villains, I'm not going to take any chances. I need to be healthy, and would like to get pregnant one day. Meaning if I want to improve my fertility, I would need to improve my health now. Even if that means going gluten, dairy, and soy free.
So I'm currently preparing my kitchen, self, and close friends and family for my combined paleo-GI conscious way of eating. As I do further research on what's best for my body and managing this syndrome I will make adjustments and edits here and there. And of course as I further my own learning on nutrition, I will be excitingly spreading my new found knowledge. You know what they say, Knowledge is Power.
Till next time!
-Tatiana
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