The Ultimate PCOS Handbook: Lose weight, boost fertility, clear skin and restore self-esteem. Theresa Cheung
a big evening meal, then go to bed, you’ll just store away the calories, confuse your metabolic rate and put on weight.
HEALTHY SNACK IDEAS
Crisp vegetable sticks with peanut dipping sauce.
Celery sticks filled with cottage cheese and topped with sultanas or chopped nuts.
Raw vegetables, such as celery, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, green pepper, green beans, cucumbers, mushrooms or zucchini with a low-fat hummus dip.
A handful of nuts and/or seeds with fresh fruit in season, cut in slices or halves, such as apples, oranges, bananas, peaches, grapefruit, grapes, melons, pears, plums or strawberries.
A mixture of low-fat hard cheese cubes with nuts and dried fruits.
Thin slices of carrot and celery rolled up and filled with low-fat grated cheese and a slice of cold meat.
Next time you’re making meatloaf, double the quantity and make a batch of meatballs. These are great little snacks. Add a slice of pineapple with a toothpick to each meatball. You could even add tomato dipping sauce.
Make a batch of crust-less quiche and cook it in a muffin tray for healthy bites. This tastes delicious with wholegrain mustard.
Try wholewheat crackers spread with mashed banana and cinnamon, or mashed avocado, sliced tomato and beansprouts.
Chopped hard-boiled egg with low-fat mayo, herbs (e.g. basil) and spices (e.g. paprika) on a crispbread.
Wrap a cheese finger, celery stick and carrot stick in a lettuce leaf.
Plain yoghurt topped with nuts and seeds (0% fat Greek yoghurt feels like a treat, and also tastes great with chopped fruit).
Fresh chicken breast wrapped in several sheets of thin pastry. Brush pastry with beaten egg to glaze. Cut into desired lengths and bake in a moderately hot oven for 15–20 minutes. Use tomato or your favourite dipping sauce.
Spread a round of pitta bread with tomato paste and herbs. Top with tomato, ham, mortadella, onion, sliced mushrooms or pineapple. Sprinkle with grated low-fat hard cheese and grill to make a tasty mini pizza.
Place bite-sized pieces of fruit in season on kebab skewers and sprinkle with seeds or toasted pine nuts.
2) GO FOR WHOLE FOODS
Whole food means unrefined foods in their most natural form – vegetables, fruits, oats, wholemeal bread, wholewheat pasta and brown rice – which are naturally full of vitamins and minerals. Whole foods do not contain any additives such as artificial flavourings, colourings or preservatives.
WHY?
Whole foods are bursting with goodness because they’ve had none of their nutrients or fibre taken away and no chemicals have been added. Your body loves whole foods because it can absorb all that goodness easily without having to work through all the junk at the same time.
As well as being packed with nutrients your body needs for good health, whole foods contain plenty of fibre, or roughage, which has a stimulating effect on the digestive system. A diet rich in fibre is particularly therapeutic for women with PCOS because fibre is thought to prevent excess oestrogen from being reabsorbed into the blood.5
A high-fibre diet can also reduce the risk of insulin resistance by slowing down the conversion of carbohydrates into blood sugar.6
HOW?
Fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, wholegrain cereals and breads, legumes (peas and beans), fresh fish, nuts and seeds are all whole foods, so eat more of them. Choose brown pasta, wholegrain bread, wholegrain cereals, and eat lots of fresh fruit and veg. Try always to have fresh soups, smoothies and juices (not made from concentrates), and eat a side salad with every meal. Snack on fruit as well, and you’re well on the way to eating more wholefoods.
Avoid refined flours and bran as they have little nutritional value and act too fast, preventing you from absorbing nutrients. Healthy flours include wholemeal, quinoa, maize, rye, oat, barley, wheat germ and brown rice. Buckwheat and millet aren’t strictly speaking grains, but they make good alternatives.
Legumes, such as peas and beans (great in soups, stews, casseroles and dips like hummus), are another good source of fibre. Drink plenty of water to help whole foods pass through your system efficiently. And if you aren’t used to a whole-food high-fibre diet, you need to introduce it slowly to give your digestive system and your bowels time to adjust.
SAMPLE WHOLE FOOD MENU
Breakfast: Oat porridge with chopped fruit.
Mid-morning Smoothie: 10 fl oz (285 ml) goat’s milk, a banana and 3 oz (100 g) raspberries or strawberries.
Lunch: Hummus or lean chicken with salad, tomato and onion on wholegrain bread plus an apple and a few walnuts.
Mid-afternoon: Low-fat yoghurt with a handful of nuts and seeds.
Dinner: Wholegrain rice with lean fish, vegetables and a green bean salad, plus a fruit salad for dessert.
3) MONITOR YOUR SUGAR INTAKE
Once you’ve got used to eating regularly and having more whole foods, you’re more than ready for the next phase: monitoring your sugar intake.
WHY?
Eating more sugar than your body needs has been linked to many health problems, from diabetes to heart disease, obesity to cancer and, of course, PCOS. Sugar has no nutrients but lots of calories, and it goes straight to your bloodstream where it raises blood sugar levels, stimulates the release of insulin, triggers PCOS symptoms, contributes to weight gain and depresses the immune system so you’re more likely to get constant colds.
Sugar does have one thing going for it – it gives you energy. But your body gets plenty of sugar from whole foods such as fruits and unrefined carbohydrates; you don’t need to get it from the sugar bowl or from cakes, sweets or pastries.
We’re not suggesting you cut out sweets altogether, but you do need to monitor your sugar intake and cut down. Don’t forget that once the sugar has been digested it turns into FAT, something most women with PCOS don’t want or need.
HOW?
Most of the sugar we eat is hidden in our foods – not just in cakes and sweets but in juice drinks, sodas and refined, processed, pre-packaged foods from cheese slices and crisps to breakfast cereals, pre-packed pasta sauces and pickles.
It’s easy to cut down on sugar by cutting down on sweets, biscuits, cakes, pies, doughnuts and other processed refined foods with added sugar.
Start reading labels on your favourite foods. You may be surprised at how much sugar you discover there, in one of its many disguises: sucrose, raw sugar, brown sugar, turbinado sugar, sucrose, dextrose, honey, lactose, invert sugar, confectioner’s sugar, corn syrup, fructose, glucose, sorbitol, mannitol, malitol, treacle, molasses and so on. The higher up the sugar is listed, the more there is in the product.
Are any of these sugars better than the others? No. Forget the fancy names. The bottom line is ‘sugar is sugar’ – and in any form it’s high in calories and low in nutrients. Honey offers no special health benefits, either (unless you smooth it on to sunburned or dry skin as a natural face mask!).
Eat fresh fruit or choose low-fat low-sugar muffins or dried fruit. Go for oat or wholegrain breakfast cereals that contain no