The PCOS Diet: A Diet Plan for Women with PCOS

The PCOS Diet: A Diet Plan for Women with PCOS
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What is Insulin Resistance?

In order to understand the impact of diet on PCOS, it is important to understand the concept of insulin resistance. When you eat, and especially when you consume carbohydrates, your pancreas produces a substance called insulin. Insulin removes the sugar from your bloodstream and aids in its conversion into energy. Women with PCOS often are insulin resistant, which means that the cells in their body don’t recognize the insulin as easily. Therefore, they send messages to the pancreas to produce more insulin. The excess insulin the bloodstream can cause several problems, including cysts on the ovaries, weight gain, and an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Although some women with PCOS are not found to be insulin resistant, some experts believe that insulin resistance is the cause of PCOS. In their opinions, the tests are simply not sensitive enough to pick up all level of insulin resistance. Other experts disagree, maintaining that PCOS is linked to insulin resistance, but that many women with PCOS are not insulin resistant. If you have been confirmed to have insulin resistance, however, dietary changes can minimize your symptoms and treat the underlying problem.

Complex Carbohydrates

Regular diets often don’t work for women who have PCOS. Even small amount of simple carbohydrates, such as refined grains and sugars, can send a woman’s insulin levels skyrocketing, if she has PCOS. Therefore, the key to weight loss and symptom minimization with PCOS is eating a diet low in which simple carbohydrates are replaced with complex carbohydrates.

Simple carbohydrates include foods such as white rice, white bread and other products of refined flour, potatoes, and sugar. Complex carbohydrates include whole grains and brown rice. If you have PCOS, try to replaced refined grains with whole grains, and avoid sugary products as much as possible. If you suffer from obesity as well as PCOS, you may want to consider a low-carbohydrate diet as well.

Other Dietary Changes to Make

· Pair the complex carbohydrates with proteins. Eating a protein food along with a complex carbohydrate slows down insulin production even more.

· Make sure that you’re drinking enough fluids. A low-carbohydrate diet can increase your risk of dehydration.

· Limit your intake of saturated and trans fats. Because PCOS puts you at a higher risk of heart disease, it is important to take these additional steps to lower your risk.

· Exercise regularly. Exercise, along with a PCOS diet, can help you to lose weight. In turn, losing as few as ten pounds can reduce the severity of your symptoms.