Читать книгу PCOS Diet Book: How you can use the nutritional approach to deal with polycystic ovary syndrome - Theresa Cheung - Страница 64

Following a diet plan can seem like a good idea when you’re leading a busy life and want to change your eating habits – but which popular diet plans are actually PCOS-fighting, and which are fad crash diets that won’t help your PCOS in the long term? For a discussion of low-carb and high protein diets, turn to page 190; the table below is a basic guide to other diets which could be useful for women with PCOS.

A word of warning: don’t ever be taken in by diets that claim to help you lose huge amounts of weight in short amounts of time, or diets based on one ingredient (‘monodiets’) such as cabbage soup or grapefruit – these are not offering a nutritionally-balanced option for long-term health for women with PCOS.

What’s the Diet?		Meal replacements
What’s the Idea?		Replacing meals with nutritionally-balanced drinks or shakes
Will It Help My PCOS?		May be a healthy short-term solution under the supervision of a nutritionist or doctor. If you choose to try this, be sure to snack on fruits and vegetables to increase your phytochemical intake. Once you’ve lost the weight, try to go back to eating, not drinking, your food.
What’s the Diet?		The Chocolate Diet
What’s the Idea?		Created by Sally Ann Voak, chocoholics are divided into six types and each is allocated a diet to cope with their particular issues. The aim is to improve your relationship with chocolate so that you feel more in control.
Will It Help My PCOS?		Certainly could do – if you are addicted to chocolate or other sweet foods, this healthy diet plan can encourage you to deal with your emotional relationship to food.
What’s the Diet?		The Omega Diet
What’s the Idea?		An eating system based on 12 food units (protein, seeds, nuts, etc.) a day to provide all the nutrients and calories needed, without having to count calories, read labels or weigh and measure amounts. Creator Judith Wells says, ‘up to 75 per cent of us are eating too few essential fatty acids, or the wrong balance of them.’
Will It Help My PCOS?		Could be really useful. Women with PCOS do need to ensure that they get enough EFAs; following this eating plan is a good, healthy way of doing this.
What’s the Diet?		The Schwarbein principle
What’s the Idea?		That food should be thought of in terms of the effect it can have on your hormones, including insulin.
Will It Help My PCOS?		Possibly. The diet recommends avoiding processed carbohydrates in favour of those you can ‘pick, gather or milk’. Also emphasizes the importance of ‘good’ fats: eggs, butter, flaxseed oil, olive oil. The principle is helpful for PCOS symptoms but the diet itself, which emphasizes high-cholesterol foods, would have to be altered to meet the needs of women with PCOS.
What’s the Diet?		Detox/fasting
What’s the Idea?		Cutting out foods/using detox supplements to help you lose weight/allow your body to use its own energy reserves.
Will It Help My PCOS?		Fasting stresses the body, even in the short term. It slows the metabolism and may throw blood-sugar levels into chaos. Do not try this unless under the supervision of your healthcare practitioner.
What’s the Diet?		The Zone diet
What’s the Idea?		Based on a ratio of at least 1:1, though can go up to 2:1, carbs to protein at every meal, advocating healthy, fresh foods rich in Omega-3s and vegetarian protein.
Will It Help My PCOS?		Can be very helpful in controlling insulin resistance and maintaining a healthy weight, promoting a good balance of carbs and proteins and providing essential vitamins and minerals.

Fad diets look simple, and sometimes they can give short-term results. But no matter how sophisticated a fad diet sounds, the great majority operate on one doomed, ill-fated tactic: drastic calorie reduction. These doomed diets usually deprive your body of essential nutrients, exacerbate your symptoms, may trigger overeating due to deprivation and often make it more difficult to lose weight in the long run. They may even add complications you don’t need and put your health at risk.

Once you are on your healthy eating path and reaping the benefits, it’s time to think about stage 2: your diet and lifestyle detox.