Nuts and seeds: Eating nuts and seeds in combination with fruit or other high–glycemic index foods lowers the total glycemic index and improves glucose and insulin regulation. Seeds (especially pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and cashews) contain essential fatty acids (EFAs) and zinc, which our bodies need. EFAs help regulate hormone function; improve hair, skin, and nails; lower insulin levels; stabilize blood sugars; and help regulate periods. These may also help with hirsutism.
Oats: Both rolled and steel-cut oats are nutritional powerhouses, though steel-cut oats are lower on the glycemic index. These gluten-free whole grains contain fiber, protein, antioxidants, and tons of vitamins and minerals, including manganese, phosphorous, magnesium, copper, iron, zinc, B1, B5, and folate. Thanks to the high fiber content, oats keep you feeling full while helping to lower your blood sugar and improve insulin sensitivity.
Buying Organic
When choosing meat, poultry, fish, fats like butter, fruits, and vegetables, consider organic, grass-fed, and wild-caught options. These are likely to contain fewer of the toxins that creep into conventional foods through pesticides, antibiotics, water, and feed. Some fruits and vegetables are especially prone to contamination; others are more resistant. The Environmental Working Group (ewg.org) keeps list of the “Dirty Dozen” and “Clean Fifteen” as well as a seafood guide on its website.
Listen to Your Body
Partnering with your body and listening to its signals will provide you with a wealth of valuable information on your healing journey. During the 21-Day Plan, you’ll learn:
To identify the foods that heal and those that hurt you. Do you need a nap an hour after eating a salad? What if you add chicken or a healthy fat like avocado or olive oil? Does adding croutons make you crave more carbs and feel logy later? For the next few weeks, you will use a journal to log what you eat and how you feel after you eat it. How do you feel an hour after your morning smoothie? Energized? Hungry? How do you feel after snacking on crackers and cheese? Bloated? Grouchy? Some effects can be felt in the short term while others may not present until hours later. Keeping a food journal will help you to spot the patterns and develop a personalized eating plan that nurtures your body. When you stop listening to fad diets and their one-size-fits-all promises and start listening to your body, you will be surprised by what you hear.
To recognize what your body needs. Cravings are your body’s way of telling you it needs something. No, it is not telling you that it needs some chocolate ice cream. Are you craving chocolate? You may need magnesium. Are you craving salty snacks? Your diet may be missing certain minerals such as calcium or magnesium. Are you craving sweets? Your blood sugar may be low. Are you craving carbohydrates? Your hormones are probably fluctuating. Sometimes, you aren’t really hungry at all; you may just be dehydrated. Is the craving emotional? Many of us eat reflexively when we are bored, sad, or tired. What we think is a craving is really just a habitual reaction to our state of mind, or we may use food to fill hungers in other areas of our lives.
Sometimes I just want a potato chip. There is something about the salt and crunch that my body craves. When I get this feeling, I ask myself what’s going on. Maybe I need more minerals and crave the salt. Sometimes I find that I am frustrated, and crunching on something like chips helps me take out my frustration. Sometimes I find another way to do this, and sometimes I decide to mindfully indulge. The important thing is to recognize what drives your craving.
Sometimes when a craving strikes (especially for a food that I know makes me sick), I tell myself, “I can have this food anytime. This is not the last time I will ever see it. I choose not to eat it right now.” This mindset helps me get some distance from the immediacy of the feeling.
Try to follow the 80/20 rule. Eat exactly what your body needs 80 percent of the time. The other 20 percent is for those times that you indulge, slip, or otherwise fall off the wagon. You will notice that, as you upgrade your everyday diet and start to crowd out processed foods, you will start to crave nourishing rather than unhealthy food.
Sugar-Craving Busters
Typically, we should listen to our body’s cravings and try to supply the nutrients it is signaling for, but with sugar our craving is often an indication of an addiction. Until we break the addiction, feeding this craving is not helping. Here are four Sugar-Craving Busters that may help:
1 L-glutamine is an amino acid that has been found to reduce or even eliminate sugar and carb cravings. Try a 500 mg dose up to three times a day when sugar cravings occur. This dose should rid you of sugar cravings within a month or two.
2 Coconut manna (also called coconut butter) is pure coconut flesh blended until it reaches the consistency of peanut butter. Eat a spoonful of this healthy fat straight from the jar or spread it on a piece of dark chocolate when you are dying for something sweet.
3 Mineral deficiencies can cause cravings, so drink a glass of high-quality mineral water, like San Pellegrino, to replace the trace minerals you may be lacking. Try this especially if you regularly drink filtered water.
4 Drink licorice mint tea with a little coconut oil to curb cravings. I also like Good Earth Organic Sweet & Spicy Caffeine-Free Tea for sweet cravings at night.
During the next 21 days, we will talk more about what to do when you have a craving. Until then, don’t fight your body. When you are craving something, first ask what your body may be telling you. Then try to give it what it needs. Remember, nothing tastes as good as feeling good feels.
Listening to your body takes practice. Be patient with yourself. By the end of the 21-Day Plan, you will be much more in tune with your body’s signals.
Choose Foods That Heal the Root Cause of Your Symptoms
Anti-inflammatory Foods
Chronic inflammation is the root cause of many of your PCOS symptoms, such as insulin resistance and acne. Every time you consume a food to which you are allergic or sensitive, your body reacts as though it is under attack, and inflammation results. This inflammation is recognized by your adrenal glands as stress. With your body under attack, the adrenals go into overdrive producing cortisol to get you through the emergency. As a result, they produce less estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, causing hormonal imbalance. If inflammation in your digestive tract is left unchecked, it can result in leaky gut syndrome, causing inflammation throughout your body and leading to a variety of autoimmune diseases.
Removing inflammatory foods from your diet is imperative. Determining which foods to eliminate from your diet is a process. Just as every woman with PCOS has a different set of symptoms, we each have different food allergies and sensitivities. A food allergy triggers an immune-system reaction, resulting in a range of symptoms such as hives, swelling, and trouble breathing. You may know almost right away if you have an allergy, but it could take four hours or more. A food sensitivity is an adverse reaction to a food that does not involve the immune system. Symptoms, including bloating, gas, diarrhea, nausea, and indigestion, may emerge hours or days after consumption.
The nine most common food allergens are:
1 Peanuts
2 Tree nuts
3 Milk
4 Eggs
5 Wheat and other grains containing gluten, including barley and rye
6 Soy
7 Fish
8 Shellfish
9 Corn
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