You can manage your PCOS incredibly effectively just by controlling how you eat. Fundamentally, the best PCOS diet is simply a healthy diet that consists of balanced, wholesome, low-glycemic index foods.
Eating a variety of foods rich in fibers, proteins, vitamins, and minerals and low in sugars, refined carbs, and highly-processed fats is guaranteed to help you feel better. Those foods will improve your overall hormonal balance. This kind of diet will ward away many of the negative health outcomes of PCOS like diabetes, heart disease, and more. To help you understand the basics of a healthy PCOS diet, here are my key do’s and don’ts!
Do Eat a Lot of Veggies
Vegetables are an important part of every healthy diet. For those with PCOS, it’s particularly key that they are a primary part of every meal you have. The fibers and antioxidants present in vegetables help prevent insulin resistance, which is a risk many women with PCOS face.
Don’t Eat Sugars and Refined Carbs
Sugars and refined carbohydrates like white bread or sugary cereals wreak havoc on the human body. They cause an insulin spike, which in turn leads to more androgen production, making PCOS symptoms worse. Those with PCOS are already at a higher risk for insulin resistance and diabetes, and eating many of those foods increases that risk significantly, so it’s best to avoid them altogether.
Do Eat Lean Proteins
Lean proteins from fish and poultry, as well as from plant sources like beans and lentils are an important part of a PCOS diet. They help you feel full and sated, and will keep your blood sugar from spiking. They also have a role in hormone production and insulin regulation, making them key to achieving hormonal balance.
Don’t Eat Processed Food
It’s not just about which macro and micro-nutrients you consume, but also about their quality! Processed foods are often higher in sugars and saturated or hydrogenated fats that can throw off your hormonal balance. They also often contain synthetic chemicals that the human body doesn’t need and will only cause harm.
Do Stay Consistent
One of the worst things you can do to your body when you have PCOS is to constantly switch from one fad diet to the next. Achieving hormonal balance requires consistency, above all. Ascribing to regular meal times will also allow you to plan what you’ll eat, and helps ensure that your body gets the right balance of nutrients that it needs.
Do Remember It’s Personal
Every person has slightly different nutritional needs, and this also applies to women living with PCOS. While I can say with certainty that you need to consume a nutrient-diverse diet that consists of high-quality, natural foods, there are other factors to consider.
Different women require a different number of calories in a day, a slightly different balance of macronutrients (i.e. carbohydrates, proteins, and fats), and different micronutrients, which, in some cases, are easier to acquire through supplementation.
A Holistic & Individual Approach
That’s why my approach to treating PCOS is so individualized. Through labs and testing, I can help you create a holistic nutritional plan that’ll suit your body’s unique needs. I can also offer the support you’ll need to actually stick with a healthy meal plan.
Diet isn’t the only aspect of treating PCOS, of course. I have developed a Holistic Program for PCOS Management that is based on a Naturopathic Approach. In this post, I discussed two of elements of the program:
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???? Dietary Modification
However, there is more to PCOS than testing and diet. In my program, I include two other natural methods of managing PCOS:
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The main principle behind my program is the belief that it’s time to redefine PCOS. Instead of focusing on its negative health outcomes, we need to treat every woman as an individual and help her achieve the balance she needs to thrive.
As such, this is how I define PCOS:
Positive
Change
Over
Suffering
PCOS does not have to define you, but rather YOU define PCOS!