In this multi-part series, I will be exploring natural treatments for PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) plus how to know when to consider medication for this condition. First up – let’s work out the best diet for PCOS – including some strategies that may surprise you.
What is PCOS?
PCOS is the most common hormonal disorder inflicting as many as 1 in 10 women of childbearing age in the U.S., and it is the largest known cause of female infertility. (source)
Women with PCOS often have fluid-filled sacs (cysts) in their ovaries, insulin resistance, and elevated androgen levels (male hormones).
Common symptoms of PCOS include:
- Irregular or absent menstrual periods
- Infertility and miscarriage
- Weight gain, especially around the middle
- Facial hair or other male hair growth/balding pattern
- Blood sugar imbalances
- Acne or oily skin
- Other skin abnormalities including skin tags or patches of dark, thick skin on the neck, arms, breasts, or thighs
- Pelvic pain
- Depression/anxiety
Many women with PCOS will not have all of these symptoms, and some are asymptomatic – only diagnosed after frequent miscarriages or the inability to conceive. While there is no known cause of PCOS, it is likely that poor diet and lifestyle are contributing factors.
Which brings us to…
The best diet for PCOS – 6 surprising strategies:
#1 – STOP DIETING
According to a recent study at the University of California in Los Angeles, the most consistent predictor of future weight gain is dieting. In other words, diets don’t work. Many diets are based on either gimmicky products with toxic ingredients or some sort of deprivation.
Any dieter will tell you that dieting is hard and results are inconsistent and difficult to maintain.
Being overweight can make PCOS worse, but frequent dieting actually slows your metabolism and deprives your body of essential nutrients contributing to further deterioration of your health.
So – the #1 rule of healing through food for any condition is to stop dieting. The next steps are to Eat REAL food, and start listening to you body. I know, this task falls into the much-easier-said-than-done pile, but I promise it’s not that hard.
Read this beginner’s guide to Real food, and make sure to start with what inspires YOU. Then read below to learn how to heal your metabolism, manage your blood sugar, and control food cravings.
#2 – Eat More Fat
I meet lots of women who believe that they eat “healthy”, and while their diets don’t contain lots of processed junk they are also missing (or super skimpy with) one of the three main macro-nutrients of food: FAT.
Contrary to mainstream beliefs, saturated fat and cholesterol are essential to human health. Your body needs these “evil” nutrients to produce hormones and keep them in balance; and saturated fats help your body to metabolize vitamins and minerals.
It has only been since the advent of modern “franken-foods” (margarine, industrial vegetable oils) that we have sought to demonize good-quality animal fats.
Hang on to your hats… here’s what to include:
- Butter and cream from grass fed cows – read more about why butter is better than those weird “heart-healthy” spreads.
- Lard from pigs raised outdoors on organic feed – this includes nitrate-free bacon! – Read why I heart bacon.
- Meat - including the fat – from pasture raised beef, bison, venison, etc.
- Eggs - including the yolks – from pasture raised hens
- Coconut oil
- The usual “healthy’ fats – olive oil, avocados, wild caught fish from cold waters.
#3 – Eat Meat – But Choose Pasture Raised Only
When it comes to PCOS, your body needs nutrient-dense foods, and does NOT need extraneous hormones and toxins.
“Red meat” has gotten a bad reputation in the health-conscious community, but it really depends on how the animals are raised.
That’s why its important to seek out grass fed meat to ensure that you are receiving the essential fats and fat-soluble vitamins without an extra toxin load from hormones, pesticides, unhealthy animals raised in stressful confinement.
You can read all about the health benefits of grass-fed vs. feedlot beef here.
Keep in mind that “organic” doesn’t necessarily mean an animal has been raised in the proper conditions, it just means they were fed organic feed while raised in confinement.
A note about eating out: Most restaurant (even fancy ones) serve factory-raised meat and dairy unless otherwise specified. If you aren’t willing to only eat at home for every meal, familiarize yourself with eateries that carry pasture-raised, or at least organic, meat. Find more tips on how to eat out here.
What About Dairy?
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, it is advised that women diagnosed with PCOS avoid dairy products. PCOS is thought to be a condition of “damp accumulation” and dairy generally contributes to this problem.
As at TCM practitioner, I take this on a case by case basis. For women who have dairy allergies or sensitivities, I certainly recommend avoiding milk, yogurt, cream, and cheese at least until their food allergy is reversed. (Take this class to learn how to reverse food allergies for good.)
For others, I recommend only eating raw dairy from pasture-raised animals. Because of the natural probiotic content of raw milk products, they are often much easier for the body to assimilate, resulting in less “damp and phlegm” conditions. I never recommend eating low or non- fat dairy. Read why to skip skim milk here.
You can read more about the general milk controversy here.
#4 – Ditch this stuff:
Hopefully the least surprising strategy as we carve out the best diet for PCOS, but it is essential that you eliminate the following junk from your daily meals:
-
Soy – contains phyto-estrogens that mimic estrogen and throw your hormones out of whack. More about why soy is not safe here. - Reduced-fat foods – Reduced fat foods often contain weird stabilizers to maintain desired consistency or – in the case of low-fat dairy – oxidized cholesterol (the bad kind).
- Industrial oils – Despite what anyone tells you, canola oil is not healthy. It falls in the same trash bin as corn, soy, cottonseed, and grapeseed oils, and should be avoided. These oils contain very unstable poly-unsaturated fatty acids or PUFAs. You can read all about the evils of PUFAs here.
- Chemical preservatives, additives, artificial sweeteners, and coloring – This should go without saying, but chemicals will put more strain on your already taxed system. Eat Real food, read labels, and think before you bite.
#5 – Manage Your Cravings
I’ve experience a few sugar cravings in my life. So I also know that wanting a cookie can feel more like a starving lion being tempted with a juicy gazelle just out of reach.
Thankfully, I recently had the privilege of listen to a lecture series by a really smart lady named Dr. Julia Ross who taught me a thing or two about managing the roaring sugar cravings.
What I learned from Dr. Ross, is that sugar is FOUR TIMES more addictive than cocaine, and that many sugar craving are due to a neurotransmitter deficiency (these are the brain chemicals that communicate information throughout our brain and body.) This can happen because you eat a crappy diet, you don’t get enough sleep, or you have been under a lot of stress (either acute or chronic).
Here’s the good news:
You can cut craving for sugar by giving your body the amino acids it needs to correct your particular imbalance.
Check out this chart to find out if you may be low in any of these five neurotransmitters and what amino acids which may help to curb your cravings.
If this seems relevant to you, check out The Diet Cure to learn more. You can also read my friend Kristen’s experience with beating sugar cravings at Food Renegade.com.
In relationship to PCOS and diet, I think neurotransmitter therapy is a great tool to you use while you work on #6…
#6 – Heal Your Metabolism to Manage Your Blood Sugar
One of the most common dietary recommendations for PCOS is to control your blood sugar, because insulin resistance and elevated blood sugar play a role in perpetuating PCOS symptoms.
In a nutshell, here’s what happens:
In healthy folks, insulin helps to make a gate for glucose (sugar) to pass through cell membranes where it will be processed into energy.
Insulin resistance (IR) develops due to high stress, unhealthy lifestyle, or sometimes genetics. With this condition, your body’s cells don’t play nice with insulin, so there is no way for the glucose to pass through.
Glucose then floats around the blood stream (elevate blood sugar) until it is converted to fat by the liver.
Insulin resistance also elevates insulin levels in the blood stream. This excess insulin stimulates the ovaries to produce large amounts of the male hormone, testosterone – which can inhibit ovulation.
Elevated insulin also triggers the body to convert testosterone to estrogen – upsetting hormone balance, perpetuating weight gain, and contributing to the formation of ovarian cysts. (source)
Mainstream advice is to cut out processed carbohydrates including white breads, pasta, potatoes, and cereals. Many people turn to a gluten-free, low sugar diet – including paleo or primal diets.
These approaches may work for some women to manage blood sugar, reduce the symptoms of PCOS, and promote fertility – at least in the short term.
Does eliminating carbs fix the problem or just avoid it?
Health researcher, Matt Stone claims that avoiding sugar and starches to deal with insulin resistance is dodging around the problem rather than healing it, and that a long-term restrictive diet will only lead to more health issues down the road.
Stone asserts that in order to truly correct insulin resistance, you must heal your metabolism; and in order to heal your metabolism, you CANNOT eliminate macro-nutrients (protein, fat OR carbohydrates). He says:
The root cause [of PCOS] is probably a quintuple combination of excessive polyunsaturated fat accumulation in your tissues (which is estrogenic), excessive consumption of xenoestogens (toxic chemical pollutants) and phytoestrogens – soy being the worst offender, oral contraceptive use, excessive stress and inflammation, and repeated attempts at weight loss through any of the popular approaches ranging from doing lots of “cardio” to calorie restriction. (source)
Stone’s program that includes “Rehabilitative Rest and Aggressive Re-Feeding” – basically lots of sleeping and eating until balance is restored – may be the right solution for many women with PCOS and infertility, especially those with a history of restrictive diets or endurance exercise.
I highly recommend Stone’s Diet Recovery ebook – an intriguing perspective at permanently healing your metabolism and improving overall health. While his methods are certainly unconventional, healing the root of any condition always makes the best sense to me.
Whoa! Are you still there?
Apparently I have a lot to say about the PCOS and diet… Over the next few weeks, I will get into some easy lifestyle changes that can help heal PCOS and then on to balancing hormones with herbs, and finally when medication may be helpful in dealing with PCOS and infertility.
We covered quite a bit here…
Got Questions?
Leave them in the comments below.
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And coming soon… my premium program for addressing infertility… stay tuned!
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Hi,my daughter has Pcos – she has had anxiety nd depression for about six years and s slowly recovering. She s only 24 years. Sam s about 100 kg and 5foot1inch. She s also a vegetarian (as am I) besides coconut oil, what can she use to supplement meat for ths diet. Eating met is nt an option.
Hi I was recently diagnosed with PCOS. I can’t lose weight and need to. Can you please give some avenues to explore.
Have you tried low carb. I understand that our host here is not for it but for millions of people it has been the answer to PCOS. Also, I would look into supplementing with iodine. This has to be done carefully so do your research. This has been key for me, when I was gaining with no change in diet.
This is an awesome article! Thank you!
I’ve been following most of the above recommendations for the last year and am feeling very, very good now. I have even reversed many of my hypothyroidism and fibromyalgia symptoms! I am also supplementing with natural progesterone (and eating a fertility diet) to help raise those levels up.
I recently found about Go Kaleo and how she reversed her PCOS through strength training. I just started that and will see how it goes. At least it’ll make me stronger, right?
I think another step in my recovery will be to buy raw cow’s or goat’s milk instead of the cow’s milk we drink.
But isn’t eating REAL food, dieting? I mean dieting is going from one form of eating to another form. What we eat is our diet. Dieting is changing what we eat? We go from eating processed foods to real foods is dieting in my mind still, it is just a forever change though it seems more and more diets are being honest that changes do need to be life long. Maybe I am just caught up on definitions. To be though, REAL food is just another way of dieting. Anything that is not native to what we already eat is dieting in my mind. I could always be wrong. Let me know if you ever want to guest post on my blog about this!
Hi Kimberly – I see what you mean. I would say that what we eat is our “diet” and “dieting” is when we restrict what we eat.
Switching to Real food may feel restrictive at first while you are eliminating non-foods/processed junk.
Personally I find that there is really nothing that I don’t allow myself to eat – burgers, fries, pizza, nachos, ice cream, even candy – I just prefer to eat versions made with Real food. Occasionally when I eat something that is not Real food, it is disturbingly non-food-like to me… Like eating cardboard, or poison.
So I never feel like I’m dieting with Real food, only eating exactly what I crave.
Thanks for this interesting discussion!
I’m new to PCOS, I was diagnosed in December and have been doing a bit of research since then. My cousin, who also has PCOS, went to a specialist recently and he put her on a low carb, no starch version of the Paleo diet. But for me and my cousin, we’re not looking at this as a diet. For us it’s a lifestyle change. If I’ve really found a way to get my weight under control and stop the constant pain (and stop taking so much ibuprofen all the time) then I would never go back to eating badly.
I thought women with PCOS should avoid dairy because it has IGF-1 which increases androgen production from the adrenal glands? IGF-1 specifically stimulates an enzyme called 5 Alpha Reductase, which converts testosterone to its stronger form DHT (dihydrotestosterone), causing acne and hirsutism in people with PCOS.
Forgot to mention, I have heard Dr Julia Ross as a guest speaker on Blog Talk Radio, she was amazing, very thorough. She mentioned PCOS and Endometriosis. If anyone is interested http://www.blogtalkradio.com/undergroundwellness/2012/06/22/the-diet-cure-2012-with-julia-ross skip to the 2nd half of the program where they talk about women’s issues.
I am loving the coconut oil at the moment, I take it every day and have been researching its benefits, it is full of a healthy fat called Lauric Acid which is fantastic for our bodies and is supposed to assist with weight loss
The first part of this seems right on to me but I was surprised to see the Matt Stone recommendation at the end. Doesn’t Matt suggest all sorts of less than stellar foods? Soda, potatoe chips, crackers, pancakes with syrup and such. To eat quite a few carbs…all those things that spike blood sugar. Isn’t that conflicting with #6?
Hi Sam – I know that some readers are really put off by Matt Stone. Suffice to say, I am put off by the fanaticism of his ‘disciples’. Matt himself has some really smart ideas.
While recommending junk food may seem like dietary suicide, it is actually a brilliant way to heal from all of the sub-clinical eating disorders that we suffer from in our modern world. Allowing yourself to have what you think you want is the first step in healing your body’s broken ability to really tell you what it needs.
PCOS is complicated and very different for different women, so the solutions vary widely as well. With anything my hope is to empower readers and my patients to start to make decisions that really resonate for them.
Hope this helps to clarify!
So can anyone point me toward a more detailed list or diet of recommended foods for PCOS treatment? I have been battling PCOS for years now, without much luck. It’s nearly impossible for me to lose more than 5-20 lbs without regaining it all back again. I was finally able to conceive, and have my son 2 1/2 years ago. But since then every symptom has practically doubled. I’m heavier now than I ever was, and nothing works like it used to. I am heavily researching holistic approaches, because I’m so sick of feeling sick! Dr. has me on Metformin now, which I hate taking. Please help!
I’ve been struggling with cysts rupturing on my ovaries for the past few months… The pain has been so severe that originally the doctor told me that he was almost certain I was dealing with an ectopic pregnancy… Weight is a concern for me, but not a huge one, I’m short, but muscular, and I have gained a little bit of weight since I started my professional degree in college. I’m only 20 so the idea of possibly becoming infertile is what scares me the most about this condition. I am a vegetarian and have been for about 14 years and have no intention to stop. So soy based meat substitute products have been a staple for me. I do however drink milk and occasionally eat eggs. Do you have other dietary options that do not include meat that can help my PCOS?
Hi Carissa – I would absolutely ditch the soy.
I have a question in regards to soy lethicin . I have become more and more aware of the amounts of soy that is in our everyday food and make every effort to avoid it, but recently I have noticed that even products you would assume don’t have soy in them, have soy lethicin. Is this additive something us women with PCOS should avoid as well or are the quantities so small that it’s not something to worry about. Is it the same for non-gmo sources as well?
Thank you for your time.
Hi Amanda – This would depend on the individual. In general I think a smidge of soy lethicin every now and again isn’t the end of the world, but with women with PCOS it may be necessary to avoid all traces of soy depending on your symptoms, severity, and health goals (like getting pregnant, for example).
Soy lethicin tends to be in packaged foods, so if you focus on whole, unprocessed foods, you’re likely to avoid most sneaky ingredients like this one.
As for GMOs – everyone should avoid at all costs IMHO. Wishing you the best!
Thanks so much for this series on PCOS. I’ve been living with it for 10 years now, and my husband and I will be trying to conceive this fall. I was a pescatarian for three years, but I have recently switched to a whole, traditional foods diet at the encouragement of a cousin who is a public health professor (I’ve been reading a lot from Nourishing Traditions). So far so good, but I’ve added a lot of dairy back into my diet that I wasn’t eating as an herbivore. I’ve located raw milk and tried some, but my access to it isn’t convenient or practical, so I’ve been buying a local milk that is very close to raw (un-homogonized, organic). I’m wondering if cutting out this dairy would help during conception, although my midwife suggested I eat plenty of full-fat dairy during this time. I work full time and am interning as part of my master’s program, so my diet isn’t always as perfect or nutritious as I want it to be. Any suggestions for a good prenatal vitamin I can take to help supplement when I’m not eating perfectly? I’m already taking fermented cod liver oil daily, as is my husband. Thanks, and thanks always for the great information and insight.
Hi Tessa, thanks for sharing and for your question. I would suggest this prenatal supplement. Other than that, just keep on doing what you’re doing.
Hey Emily!
I have a quick question about Pasture Raised meats. I have been a vegetarian for about a year since I discovered how awful factory raised meats are … Since then I have read Nourishing Traditions and followed many Real Food blogs and I absolutely believe that I should introduce meat back into my diet…but living in Canada I have had trouble finding Pasture raised meats since we don’t have green grass half the year for the animals to eat!! That being said, would you recommend just buying local, Organic Meats? There are some small farms in Quebec (I live in Montreal) that sell their meats in healthfood stores, they are organic but most definitely not 100% grass fed and . Would it better to leave that meat out as well?
Thank you for your response!
Hi Hillary, thanks for your comment. If I were in your situation, I would prioritize grassfed over local and mail order meat. U.S. Wellness meats ships to all fifty states, Puerto Rico, Bermuda and most of Canada. So, perhaps that would be something worth looking into so that you can reintroduce meat into your diet?
Hi Emily,
I live in Canada (Ontario), and as far as I know, US Wellness meats does not ship into Canada. They can’t get their stuff across the border. I have tried!
I would suggest Hillary try http://www.eatwild.com website and see if she has any luck there, or see if there is a WAPF chapter leader in her area that could help her find grass fed meat. I know here in Ontario, there is no shortage of local grass fed beef.
Hi Christine! I was able to source grass fed meat through that website just a few days ago! woohoo!
Thank you for the helpful advice
Thank you for this article. I was just given this diagnosis, even though I was told I had it years ago, but did not. I have been eating real foods now for a while, but think that I am going to have to look into Matt Stone…I had thought I should go that route, and need to read his book. But, THE WEIGHT GAIN IS HORRIBLE!
Did anyone else gain, then lose once their metabolism regulated? Thanks!