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Carbohydrates aren’t just comfort foods, the sort of flour-based, stodgy cakes and breads we often turn to for a fix when we are feeling low. Fruits and vegetables are carbohydrates, too. So when we say 50 to 60 per cent of your daily intake comes from carbohydrates, this doesn’t mean two-thirds of your diet should be bread and pasta. It means that you should eat more fruit and vegetables, while the rest of your intake should come from complex, low-GI carbs.

Because they break down into sugar slowly, complex carbohydrates like legumes, wholewheat bread and oats are generally better for you than simple carbohydrates found in sugary cereals, pies, cakes, cookies and other processed food made from white sugar and/or white flour. Complex carbohydrates such as a fruit salad snack, a bowl of vegetable and lentil soup, or a handful of dried apricots and nuts, also provide more vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre than simple sugars.

In the glycemic index, carbohydrate foods are classified into three main groups according to how quickly they are turned into blood-sugar by the body. The higher a food appears on the index, the faster it induces insulin and therefore the greater its undesirability if you have PCOS. The lower a food’s GI factor, the more slowly the food will convert into blood-sugar, promoting a weaker insulin response. Lowering blood-sugar levels will help balance your energy, reduce carbohydrate cravings, reduce insulin and testosterone levels and help you lose weight.

The Glycemic Index

The Glycemic Index was developed by David Jenkins in 1981 to express the rise of blood glucose (sugar) after eating a particular food.¹ The standard value of 100 is based on the rise seen with the digestion of glucose. The glycemic index ranges from about 20 for fructose and whole barley to about 95 to 98 for a baked potato. The glycemic index is used as a guideline for dietary recommendations for people with hypoglycemia or diabetes. Basically, a good starting point for people with PCOS (as for those with blood-sugar problems) is to avoid foods with high values and choose those with lower values. However, as we shall see, the glycemic index should not be the only dietary guideline on which to base your food choices.

Glycemic Index of Some Foods

Sugars		Fruits		Vegetables
Glucose 100		Apples 39		Beetroot 64
Maltose 105		Banana 62		Carrot, raw 31
Honey 75		Oranges 40		Carrot cooked, 36
Sucrose 60		Orange juice 46		Potato baked 98
Fructose 20		Raisins 64		Potato boiled 70

Most vegetables and many fruits have low GIs. The following have such low GIs that they can be eaten as often as you want, especially in their raw form:

Apples

Cabbage

Celery

Cherries

Cucumber

Lettuce

Parsley

Peaches

Pears

Plums

Radishes

Spinach

Turnips

Watercress

GIs of Other Foods
Grains	Legumes		Other foods
Bran cereal 51	Beans 31		Ice cream 36
Bread, white 69	Lentils 21		Milk 34
Bread, whole grain 72	Peas 39		Nuts 13
Corn 59			Sausages 28
Corn flakes 80
Oatmeal 49
Wholemeal pasta 45
Rice 70
Rice, puffed 95

Make sure that at least half the grains you eat are whole grains. When whole wheat is milled into white flour, 25 nutrients are lost and only 5 added back. Other good choices include wholewheat pasta, wholewheat bread, oatmeal and basmati rice.

There are lots of easy ways you can increase your intake of complex carbohydrates:

Try wholegrain bread and cereals with some vegetable dips, fruit toppings or low-fat cottage cheese. Bear in mind that brown bread doesn’t necessarily mean wholemeal. It could be white bread with added colourings. To be sure, read your food labels.

Try a different grain each week. Use oats, rye, barley, millet, rice, corn or buckwheat. Whole grains, like millet and quinoa, taste great and are simple to cook.

Add variety by eating rye bread or wholewheat biscuits with some low-fat spread and 100 per cent fruit jam (jelly).

Try some fruit bran or oatmeal cookies and muffins.

Fresh oatmeal porridge flavoured with chopped dried fruit is very satisfying.

Try a dish of brown rice with lean meat and vegetables in a curry sauce.