Is a Vegetarian Diet Good for PCOS?

Can a vegetarian diet be helpful for PCOS? On this episode, we help you learn the health benefits of the vegetarian diet as well as concerns for those with PCOS!

We explain what helpful nutrients are commonly obtained from a vegetarian diet as well as which nutrients are usually lacking and how this could directly impact women with PCOS! We discuss a study on the vegetarian diet and women with PCOS…what was their conclusion??

What about Soy? You’ll learn if soy is actually a endocrine disruptor and whether it’s a good choice of protein if you are deciding to go vegetarian!

Are you trying to go vegetarian with PCOS? We have the best tips to make the vegetarian diet PCOS friendly if that’s what you choose to do!

What was your experience like on the vegetarian diet? We read your responses from Instagram, live on the podcast! We also answer your questions from the PCOS Hotline…stay tuned to hear your calls on the show!

Study mentioned: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6857098/

Call our PCOS Weight Loss Hotline at 1-833-ASK-PCOS (1-833-275-7267). You can leave a question or tell us how we’ve helped you! We might just play your message on the podcast to inspire other Cysters!

Join us in The Cysterhood, a community of women learning how to manage PCOS & lose weight, Gluten and Dairy Free! (bit.ly/The-Cysterhood-Membership)

Pique Tea: 5% off code TheCysterhood (bit.ly/PiqueTeaPCOS)

PCOS Friendly CBD: 10% OFF code TheCysterhood (bit.ly/CBDpcos)

Ovasitol Packets: 15% OFF prc code 292660 (bit.ly/Ovasitol)

While Tallene is a Registered Dietitian and Sirak a Personal Trainer, this podcast provides general information about PCOS. It is not meant to serve as fitness, nutrition or medical advice related to your individual needs. If you have questions, please talk to a medical professional. For our full privacy policy, please click on the following link: (bit.ly/PCOSPrivacyPolicy)

Full Episode transcript:

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Take a deep breath and have some pure spectrum CBD. Sure. Hey sisters CBD can help with acne inflammation, anxiety asleep, and so many other PCs symptoms. I personally take it throughout the day to help keep my stress hormones nice and low. Not to mention I sleep like a baby every night and I don’t wake up fatigued at all. Now open your mouth,

please. So I can give you a serving. Now, hold it for 60 seconds. Head over to pure spectrum cbd.com and use the code, the sisterhood one word for 10% off. Can I stop now? Nope. You got 30 more seconds. Welcome to a sister on your Mr. A podcast where we show you the real behind the scenes of how we balance the PCRs lifestyle in our marriage,

gluten and dairy free. I’m telling your fellow sister and registered dietician and I’m doc husband, engineer MPCs personal trainer. We’re going to make PCO as a little less overwhelming and a lot more fun. Welcome, welcome sisters. Hey sisters. Welcome to another episode of the podcast today. We’re going to talk about vegetarian slash vegan diet for peace, us pros and cons is right for you.

Vice versa. Any other magical words I can say to make it sound pleasant, but we’re going to get into it. Get a lot of DMS about vegetarian diets. And you know, when people ask us if we cater to the vegetarian diet and the sisterhood and so on, we want to talk all about our stance on the vegetarian diet, the pros and cons and all the fun things without being vegetarian.

But first, I just want to say thank you to everybody who has been leaving reviews on our podcast. We really appreciate it. So many positive feedback. And it like, honestly, when we first wake up in the mornings, we actually open up the podcasts, like usually on a Tuesday, because Monday is a new episode and we open it up on Tuesday to see like how people liked it,

the feedback, the reviews. And like, it’s literally, we sit up in bed like children at eight in the morning, reading the reviews and like telling each other, Oh my God, It’s so nice. It’s so nice to know that we can impact people so positively. It really makes doing this podcast so worthwhile. And we get so excited when we sit here to make a podcast for you guys.

Yeah. So we actually wanted to do something a little fun right now. There’s like this trend, I guess, on social media where people are, are asking their followers, what are your assumptions about us? And then you kind of like read them and then say if it’s true or not. So we did that on Instagram a few days ago, tie-in asked like,

what are your assumptions about us? Why don’t you read them, babe? Okay, I’m going to read my favorite one. First. This is by Abby Jacobs. She says he secretly hates the eating lifestyle. I was cracking up Like the gluten and dairy free lifestyle. Imagine, imagine I hated it. And I was like lying about it this whole time too Half of marriage later,

you could break. You’re like, I can’t do this anymore. Give me a cheeseburger. Yeah. I mean, I’ve been basically like 90, 95% gluten dairy free the year and a half that we’ve been married. Imagine I was like secretly hating it. And I was just like running in my, She died giving me chickpeas again. This gluten free bread is too small.

No, no, King’s good. I think it was probably a joke, but that was a great joke. And honestly, I love being gluten dairy free. Cause I know like the benefits it’s helping me, even though I don’t have PCs. All right. So then there’s another one. She says Rachel, when he w when Winnie, sorry, you’ve both always been healthy.

Have we both always been healthy? I think Maybe true for awhile for me, like, I, I started becoming like healthy around the age of like 19 and I’m like 29 now. So for 10 years, but I would say up until I was like 18, 19, I was not that healthy. Like I was eating, I was like eating out,

like, you know, take out from like fast food places and like eating different foods. Cause I was like young, you know, busy schedule at school and all this crazy stuff. And like, your metabolism’s great at 18 usually. Yeah. And I didn’t know a lot of stuff that I know now. Like a lot of stuff that I know now I learned from podcasts that I’ve been listening to for the last 10 years,

like Joe Rogan experience and so much more. And that’s how I became healthy. What about you? When did w w what year do you think you started becoming healthy? I think I always ate generally healthy cause we had Armenian food, you know, growing up and so did you, but we didn’t really buy junk food. There was one point, I think like maybe it was like in middle school or something like we did,

I bought like Oreos and like ice cream and things like that. I remember having that in the kitchen and starting to like, get an addiction towards it. And then that was temporary though. Like, I don’t remember having a complete, like phase of eating super unhealthy. Would you say maybe when you start to figure out things for your PCs, would you say that then?

Well, yeah, once I started figuring out what’s right for my body having PCOS, I realized that the way I was eating wasn’t right for me. And so I guess that’s considered like unhealthy for me, like having gluten and dairy and you know, like we used to eat like cereal and milk and that’s just like a bowl of gluten and dairy and sugar and like everything that’s bad for PCO S so I mean,

for some people, so, you know, there was that, but I never, I was never like into fast food generally. Okay. Sorry. Sorry. It looks like Colleen has been a healthy all their life. I was like trying to get to the details. Like what about your PCOS? But what about this? But there’s, there’s a response to everything.

No, no, no, no response to everything. It seems It was healthy. Armenian food. Yeah. No, it’s it’s homemade food. Homemade Gets healthier. You know what I mean for you? For sure. I’m sorry. Okay. Let’s move on. What’s some other assumptions Good together. And your husband’s voice is kind of cute and so motivation.

Aw, thank you. Kind of, I think it’s really cute. Oh God. You’re best friends. This is, I would say so. Yeah. I mean we’re with each other day and night and like we get along 99.9% of the time. What’s that 0.1. Okay. Let’s see. I mean, they’re all pretty much as everyone’s saying all these cute things,

you both look great. You guys are Didn’t someone say you wear the pants in the house. Yeah. I don’t wear the pants. I’m like that, that, that who’s that 15 year old girl who was getting mad at the political leaders for climate change. How dare, you know? I mean, it’s 50, 50. It’s a lot of work to wear the pants.

Be in charge All the time. I would say we’re 50 50 on that. Yeah. I don’t think in any instance in the past year and a half of marriage, it’s been not 50 50, right? Yeah. No. I would spend pretty much where, like we always consult each other on like big decisions and things like that. And bottom line,

like you want your partner to be happy? The Mr is Indian. No, we’re actually Armenian. I guess I kind of like Indian, but now we’re Armenian and yeah. It’s you guys, we’re very proud to be Armenian Where, I mean, you secretly eat lots of ice cream. Hm. Maybe when we were on our honeymoon, we were eating like ice cream for dessert with every dinner.

But I would say like, it’s not that often, especially like consuming summer. It was, we did not have ice cream at all. It seems like maybe once a month, That was when guests came over, they brought some ice cream, like you were on dairy free. And then that would like, our freezer is small. And that would like take over our freezer.

Yeah. I mean, I feel like usually we like to eat ice cream. Like when we’re out, you know, not really at home. Like we like to eat it when we’re like trying to enjoy like a view or something that like, You’re doing something you want to try some delicious food. I haven’t done that in a long time, but we haven’t ate out at a restaurant since March when people are doing it.

We haven’t even got takeout. No joke, no takeout. No. We did take out one time and we regretted it because the food was freezing by the time we got home. And yeah, like since March, we’ve only got takeout one time and not been to a restaurant. And it’s been super hard. I mean more harder on time. Cause she’s cooking every day.

God bless your soul every day. Yeah. Yeah. We had fish tacos last night. It was bomb. Okay. All right. Let’s get to the nitty gritty Vegetarian diet, the nitty gritty Nitty gritty. Yes. We’re going to go into the vegetarian vegan diet. What you came here to listen about. I like to first give a disclaimer though.

So if you’re a vegetarian or vegan because of religious reasons or for the reasons of like, you know, animal cruelty and things like that, we just want to say, we completely respect your decision. And what we may say in this podcast may not matter to you. And we completely understand and respect that. Like no, if you’re doing it for religious and religious reasons and animal cruelty,

totally understand. And if it works for you, we totally understand, like we’re not trying to push anything on anyone. We just want to give the information and then you can make the right decision for your body. Absolutely. So let’s start with what is a vegetarian diet, babe? So this eliminates all meat products like cow lamb, fish, and focuses.

It focuses on plant sources, such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, you know, all of this has some protein in it and seeds and legumes. So it’s, you know, a very nutrient dense diet if you do it, you know, in a mindful way. Yeah. So that’s like the, basically the Complicated. Yeah.

Just flush out the meat. Yeah. Pretty much. Pretty much no, no animal, a non-meat products, things like that is veganism. When they take out all the animal products like dairy and like things like that. So that’s the difference, right? Vegetarian, you take out the meat and then vegan, you take out all old animal products, including the dairy,

like milk and things like cheese. Okay. Yeah. Makes sense. So there are some health benefits to being on the vegetarian diet. And then there are some concerns for women with PCOS, let’s start with the health benefits. So if you’re eating a balanced, vegetarian diet, you’re probably getting lots of nutrients like vitamin B6, vitamin C full, late potassium,

magnesium phosphorus, beta carotene, and fiber, lots of fiber. You know, this is a really nutrient dense diet. If you make sure that you’re not leaning towards carbs and processed foods, you know, just, you know, manufactured like things that come from a box versus eating things that are whole foods. So if you’re having whole foods, you’re going to get lots of great nutrients in your body,

which is great to like replenish the minerals that you lose, maybe when you take Metformin or when you take birth control. So Yeah. And it’s, and it’s also good for like heart health, you know, because of all the nutrients that Ty mentioned, as well as, you know, having, you know, maybe like a abundant amount of like meat meats and things that could,

you know, contribute to cholesterol and things like that. So as a result, like your, your heart health is better, same thing with blood pressure. And there’s even like studies showing that it can, it can reduce cancerous for some people and not to mention there’s a lot, a lot of like ethical benefits, right? Like it’s great for the environment in a lot of cases.

And it’s great for animals, you know, animal we’re reducing animal cruelty when people are becoming vegetarians and things like that. So there are, you know, benefits there as well. Yeah. Lots of people say that they feel great on a vegetarian diet, but there are some concerns for women who have PCO S and go on a vegetarian diet. So some of them include eating a lot of soy,

like soy is rich in protein for vegetarians, but many women with PCOS have a sensitivity to it. And so in addition, most soy contains GMOs, which can be endocrine, disruptors, not very good for your hormones. And if you have soy, you know, you want to make sure that you’re choosing soy, that’s not processed. And it’s non-GMO,

and it’s kind of hard to come across that, but you have to be careful with soy because that’s often what the, you know, those fake products that they make that are like high in protein for vegetarian. Yeah. It’s usually made of soy. Yeah. So if you do like a vegetarian diet, you want to make sure that like you’re not basing the protein all around soy and tofu and things like that.

Tiny mention, you know, Women with PCOS have a sense. Some women have a sensitivity to it. So you want to be mindful if you do choose to eat this. Okay. And also many women feel better eating more protein. So protein from me and fish because grains, although they have protein in it, and when you’re vegetarian, you lean towards grains for your protein.

It might be a lot of carbs for you and could increase your blood sugar and insulin levels. I feel like this Is really important. We should highlight this aspect. So I want to be the first concern. Well, when it comes to PSUs, you know, one of the things like one of the most important things that we recommend is having a high protein to carb ratio.

And a lot of other doctors, you know, like Dr. Nadia paddock, Guana, and many other doctors we’ve had on agree with this, you know, high protein to carb ratio because, you know, we need to console the insulin. We need to help heal the insulin resistance. So when you have a vegetarian diet and you’re eating all these,

you know, grains and carbs, you’re looking for basically a protein in there, right? So like, you’re going to have beans. You’re going to have chickpeas, all these different things that have protein, but they all come with carbs. So like the amount you’re raising your protein is not going to be that much higher than the carbs. So that ratio is going to be too close.

Exactly. So when you’re tracking your carp tolerance, it’s going to be hard to reduce your carbon take and get enough protein at the same time. And you might have to resort to the process like products that provide more protein. And that might not be ideal. You might have to have lots of protein shakes to counter how much carbs you’re having. So it’s sometimes it’s really challenging for this like carbon protein ratio.

I feel like it will be crucial for a lot of people to kind of supplement with a protein powder here. Because again, it’s gonna be hard to have The high ratio exactly. Another concern. So 40% of women with PCs have IBS, and that makes it hard to digest foods like beans and other high fiber foods, because it causes like bloating and gastric upset.

So a lot of women, you know, raise your hands. If you’re listening and you have IBS, this is very common, 40% of sisters and eating all that fiber can really be distressful. I wonder how many women just raised their hands while like in the office or at home? Like they were like, yes, yes. That’s me. And then their college has looked at them.

Why are you raising your hand right now? Just listening to a PCLs podcast. Yeah. Very interesting. So yeah, if you’re like tie and said, it’s very important to consider that, like, if you have IBS, it’s going to be hard to digest foods like, like beans and like these like grains and things like that. Yeah. Because the gut lining is not very strong.

Like when you have IBS and PCLs in general, a lot of times the gut lining is struggling. You know, how I explain how like gluten gets through the gut lining the tight junctions, loosen up and, you know, causing bloating and gas and all of these issues. And so, yeah. Eating grains in general. I remember Dr. William Davis had said this on the podcast,

grains in general, like not just gluten alone, grains can cause that gastric upset when you’re not able to digest them. So you have to be mindful of your body and to if this is working for you, not just doing it because it sounds healthy. Yeah. And there’s also a lot of things you mentioned about grains, like the cons of it.

So I, I really, I would employ any sister listening right now to listen to that episode. If you haven’t already, it’s just, it’s just a couple episodes ago. It’s called peace us and we with Dr. Dr. Davis. So check that episode out and you can learn about some of the pros and cons of grains and things like that,

too. Yes. And then, you know, another concern when you’re doing the vegetarian or vegan diet is there’s a lot of nutrients lacking. So for example, in like a, in like a traditional vegetarian diet, usually some of the nutrients that are lacking are B12 omega-3 fats, calcium and zinc, and like a couple of other ones, but these are the main ones that are usually missing in many vegetarian diets because you’re not having meats.

So like omega-3 fats are usually found in like fish, things like that. And then like B12 is found in me. And these are like really important for energy levels, as well as like recovery of the muscles and things like that. Hormonal production, these are really important nutrients for your hormones. So supplementing is really important. So if you’re, if you’re a vet,

if you’re a vegetarian, just, it might be really important for you to get your blood work done, make sure that your levels are all balanced. And if not, then definitely try supplementing, especially with these ones right here, if you know that your low, low windows that’s right. And then, you know, we also want to mention that there is,

you know, a lot of like herbicides and pesticides that are used with all these greens and plants and things like that. So you just want to be, be careful where you’re getting your food from, right. You want to make sure it’s organic. You want to make sure that they’re coming from farms that are not using like a crazy amount of pesticides.

You know, I, I got to say, I have started a farm on our patio and I am seeing how hard it is to grow kale and things without it’s insane. Like I have all these organic sprays, but they’re barely working. Like they’re barely doing the job. I literally had to buy ladybugs to help with the aphid infestation. And like,

it’s, I think it’s going, okay. It seems like the lady bugs are doing their thing, but I don’t know. Like, we’ll see. Yeah. I think we have to wait until they like plant their eggs and stuff like that and opened the larva. But anyways, so yeah, like it’s, it’s difficult to grow greens without pesticides and herbicides and things like that.

So you want to make sure that you’re not getting what is exposure to these over a long-term period, cause that can just contribute to other illnesses and things. So just make sure they’re coming from That’s a good point. Yeah. And then lastly, for pregnant woman, it’s like, it’s very important to make sure that you pay a lot of attention to your diet when you’re pregnant or when you’re lactating.

So we’re just saying if you’re pregnant or lactating consult with a doctor to make sure that everything is okay with your, with, you know, nutrient levels and things like that. Cause you know, it’s very important in the, in the development of a baby for them to get everything that they need. So we’re not saying that you can’t do it. We’re just saying you always need to consult with a doctor with any diet.

Yeah. Make sure you get the right supplements. And you’re, you know, supervise in doing this with someone who is experienced. Exactly. So the bottom line, babe, what’s the bottom line with this vegetarian line that goes on the bottom. There is no one size fits all diet that works best for everyone with PCOS. It has to be right for you.

So if vegetarian is making you feel good, go for it. But if it’s not then consider changing, consider adapting and figuring out what might work better for you. In our experience, the majority of women feel better. Women with PCs, feel better eating meat from proteins, like, you know, cow or fish or poultry and like organic pasture raised of course minimally processed.

So that’s what we’ve seen with our community. Yeah. And just to let you don’t think we’re biased either. Like there is no one size fit diet for everybody and the same thing goes for gluten dairy free. Like it doesn’t work for, it may not work for every single person. Right. So, but that’s why like it’s worth trying these different things to see if it’s right for you.

So, I mean like with the vegetarian diet, the same thing, same thing applies like there’s no one size fits all. It may work for some, it may not work for others. So yeah. Just like consider that in your experience when TRIBE, when trying things out. Yeah. I did find one study that was done on S women Study done with PCLs and vegetarian diet.

Yes. Okay. 62 non-vegetarian women with PCOS from a place in India called Srinagar Srinagar and 82 vegetarian PCs. Women from Delhi were studied in this research and they concluded that vegetarian women with PCLs had significantly higher levels of C reactive protein and resistant, which are inflammatory markers and lower levels of anti-inflammatory and adiponectin so that’s not ideal, like having more inflammation. And then it said,

however, their creatanine Create it creates meaning create need. Great to me. Cause you say creatine right for protein. So if it has any creatanine Okay. Yeah. I mean, I dunno triglycerides and LDL cholesterol levels were higher than the non-vegetarian PCLs women. What that means. So the women who were not vegetarian, their LDL and cholesterol were higher, but the women who were vegetarian had more inflammation.

So of course the study isn’t super because it’s not being done on a global level and you know, it’s just one study, but it was just interesting to see that the women with PCOS who are vegetarian had more inflammation being vegetarian. Yeah. So a little shocking. I just, I wanted to mention this one study that’s been done on women with PCOS.

Yeah. That’s very interesting. I mean, and then the people who were doing non-vegetarian, I mean their cholesterol levels triglycerides were higher, but it would be interesting to see like, is it so much higher that it makes up for the less inflammation or vice versa? Like, you know, there’s like a, there needs to be more research done on this to know like if you’re eating meat with,

is it like how much worse or how much better is it than someone who’s not doing that with vegetarian diet? I mean, I read through the study and I was like, okay, this is like some information, but not conclusive, but they’re starting to do some research on women with PCOS. Yeah. But it just like, I guess one thing to take away is that possibly with vegetarian diets,

some women have more inflammation could be, you know, could be due to those reasons could be, yeah. Some of the nutrients are missing, but yeah. As time mentioned, there needs to be like more research done on this to make it more clear. Yes. So we have some tips for sisters who are choosing to be vegetarian or eat more plant based and we want to go through some of them so that we feel like we’re supporting you guys in case you want to be vegetarian.

So the first tip is to eat the good carbs, the carbs that have lots of protein in them. So if you’re going to choose something, choose beans and or keenwah and try to avoid processed white carbs like bread. So that’s our first step. The second tip is to supplement. So you want to make sure that you’re supplementing all these nutrients that Sierra had mentioned that you might Yeah.

Like B12 omega-3 there’s even Coleen. You get like consult your doctor to like maybe get like some blood work done, see where like w what’s missing and what’s not missing. And then you can like supplement accordingly, Right? You also want to pair meals with fats. This will help with insulin resistance. Of course, it’s going to slow down your body’s absorption of the carbs for,

into your bloodstream. And so this is so ideal because the slower, it goes into your bloodstream, the less it’s going to bombard your cells and cause insulin resistance. So it’s great to pair some fat with your meals. You know, you can add all the oil to your meal or avocado or hummus, things like this will help slow down the absorption of carbs into your bloodstream.

And also keep you fuller longer. You know, the more fat you put on something it always helps keep me fuller and goes great with like every millennial, come on, come on with huddle, lunch, dinner, take it easy. All right. The fourth one, adding fiber into each meal. So I know that we had mentioned like IBS in women with PCOS and this diet might be two fiber full.

So add it slowly into add these like vegetables and beans and stuff slowly into your diet, because it might cause digestive upset. And you, you might find that you’re like bloated all the time. So you want to add in, you know, five grams of fiber a day, more like each week increase your fiber intake by five grams each day. So until you reach like 30 grams a day,

which is the ideal amount of fiber. And so, so if the, if like beans and stuff are causing digestive upset, but you still want to get some nutrients, chia seeds, and flax seeds are a better choice because they’re easier to digest than those intense grains and beans and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. And then what didn’t you say? Like the same thing applies to people who are non-vegetarian like,

you should have, you should be having fiber every day. Make sure you like your meals include fiber and you’re getting this adequate amount every single day. Yeah, exactly. You want to get like 30 grams a day? I feel like, you know, that’s not too difficult to do. It’s just that sometimes when you have stomach upset, stomach issues,

you, you can’t eat like 30 grams. All of a sudden when you decide to like eat healthy, like you have to add it in five grams per week, like at a time per day, per week. Oh good. I didn’t know that. Yeah. I did a little bit of research on like how to get your body to adapt to a high fiber diet.

And that’s what it said. So slowly add it to your diet week weekly if you’re having stomach issues. Exactly. Interesting interest. Yeah. Okay. Next one is controlling carbs. So try to fill up on veggies instead of large portions of grains. So you can get also get most of your protein from low carb foods, like chia seeds, flax seeds,

hemp seeds, some non-GMO GMO tofu, but yeah, you, you know, obviously like you want more protein. Yeah. But when you reach that capacity of carbs, because the protein is found in carbs, then start trying to fill up with veggies and seeds. Yeah. And like tried to add, like if you’re trying to get some protein and your only options are carbs,

then try to add some sort of like a supplement, like a protein powder that that would just give you that protein. Yeah. Team powder is a great idea. You know, it’s low carb, it’s high in protein. It’s great. It goes into the next tip, which is, don’t try to meet your protein needs with overly processed soy products.

So Ty talked about earlier how like too much soy can be an issue as well as you know, there, a lot of like, you know, processed stuff for soy, like GMOs and things like that. So you want to make sure that you’re not having too much of these products and instead of finding other sources of protein, like protein powder Non-GMO from tofu or ed,

mommy is a good option. Yeah. Do you like it? A mummy? I do like it at like restaurants and stuff. When they bring out those like beans and stuff and like salted a garlic and like I miss Korean barbecue so much. Let’s see. That’s one thing I’m not cooking, babe. I’m not going to mommy. I love that.

Salted garlic and mommy. Yeah. And then if you’re trying to include like, like if you’re trying to get protein and things like that, you can still get it from things like chias or chia seeds, flax hemp seeds, or like, you know, like non-GMO tofu. Yeah. And then lastly, I think Tom, you should say this one.

Okay. Paying attention to how your body feels. So if you’re really fatigued on a vegetarian diet, it might be because you’re having a lot of carbs, you know? And if you feel like you’re having a lot of cravings, that might be carbs as well. And so you’re just, if you’re not satisfied, you know, pay attention to how your body feels and don’t force yourself to do something that isn’t working for you.

So this style of eating might not be for you. And some people feel better with animal protein and that’s okay too. So you just have to figure out what works for your body. Exactly. And I’d like to conclude this section with that, because that is like the bottom line of everything. Yeah. It’s like you, you always have to try different things to see what’s going to be right for you and what’s not.

And at the end of it, there’s like, if you try the vegetarian diet and it’s not working for you, it doesn’t mean that it’s not going to work for anybody. Like you don’t have to like, hate that diet and the same thing, vice versa, like a vegetarian diet works for you. Then you don’t have to hate a meat based diet either.

It’s just, that’s what works for that person. That’s what works for this person. Yeah. It’s, it’s funny because not funny, but like it’s interesting because like veggies, there’s a lot of like bias or like there’s like two groups with a vegetarian diet, right? Like a lot of people are for it while some people aren’t and you know, there’s obviously a middle,

like it’s working for some people and it’s working for, it’s not working for others. Like nothing is black and white. So you always have to kind of like, see what’s happening and like, try it for yourself if it may work. Honestly. Yeah. Personally, this is just our personal belief. We don’t recommend it for, for like our patients and things like that.

Because of that, you know, all the things we talked about as far as the protein to carb ratio, nutrients that are missing, that are important for recovery. However, we respect everyone’s decision to try it and see if it works for them. And especially like, if you’re doing it for religious reasons or like for animal cruelty, we completely respect your decision and,

and totally understand. That’s why it’s Exactly. Couldn’t have said it better myself. It’s completely up to the person. There’s no like team vegetarian team, anti vegetarian. That’s all like whoever it works for. It works. Yeah. And with that being say, we actually asked you sisters, we asked on Instagram, what has your experience been on the vegetarian diet?

And then we got some responses. Tell you want to read some of the responses. Sure. So one of them, one of the sisters said, I love being vegetarian, but struggled to balance macros due to high carbs. This was a pretty common message. I was noticing in the sticker. Yeah. As one of the topics we talked about is the high carbs.

And unfortunately it’s, it can be difficult to get that the protein without having high carbs. another response. Absolutely. Wreaked havoc on my stomach. This goes back to what we said about IBS. So, you know, 40% of women with PCOS have IBS and it could be really painful to eat all of this fiber and all of these grains on a vegetarian diet.

So it could really wreak some havoc. Yep. Yep. And then next person said I was vegetarian then vegan and I had anxiety and was always hungry. The, it makes sense. Like the hunger could be, could be due to like a lot of the carbs or maybe perhaps you were having too little carbs, could resolve hunger or even not having enough protein when you’re not protein,

high protein with your breakfast, you get hungry faster. Cause the protein a lot of times will keep you a fuller for a longer period of time. Yeah. That blood sugar roller coaster that you go on when you’re eating a lot of carbs is can trigger anxiety. And I would totally feel anxious if I was vegan because my blood sugar is like really sensitive.

If I don’t like do certain things that keeps it stable, like eating protein, working out, things like that. But yeah, I can totally imagine feeling anxiety. Yeah. And then the next person said, I personally love it on full vegan. Well, that’s good for that person that it worked for them just like with any diet, if it works for you.

That’s good. And then the next one said, I’ve been vegetarian for six years now and it hasn’t had any impact on my PCOC. That’s great. Yeah. Sounds like she’s not, you know, in a super sensitive like insulin resistant state. Yeah. Didn’t go so well, felt exhausted or drained most of the time because of the high carbs. Yeah.

And it calls maybe also because of the nutrients missing things like a protein missing, things like that, like related to the other one that we read. And then the last sister says, do you want to say this one? Sure. She says amazing, less bloating, beautiful skin and better energy. Well, that’s it. It’s working for you. That’s great for you to stick to it,

girl. Alright. Well, I guess that concludes basically the topic on the vegetarian diet. We kind of read your responses, your experiences. We talked about the pros and cons our conclusion, as well as the tips to make a vegetarian diet PCs friendly, if that’s what you choose. So we hope that was very helpful, but we’re not done yet.

We had the piece us hotline. We’re going to answer a question from the hotline and today’s message comes from Hi guys. Thank you so much for creating this hotline so that people like me can ask questions. I’m still fairly new. I think I actually joined a day ago, but I have been debating whether or not to go gluten-free and dairy-free for a long time.

And only recently has it really started to affect my life in a very negative way. So I’ve decided that this is something that is good for me, but the reason it’s been so hard for me to decide is because I’m a very avid home Baker and gluten and dairy is something that’s very important for a lot of recipes that I use. So I, my main question I think,

would be what sweeteners would you guys recommend as an alternative to sugar that wouldn’t be a danger to influence biking? If that makes sense. Cause I feel like with, with dairy and gluten, those are pretty easy to find alternatives for those in, in baking most of the time. But it’s the sweeteners that tend to be a little bit harder, I would say because honey is a liquid and sometimes liquid sweeteners,

aren’t very good for certain recipes. And then Stevia, you know, kind of has that odd taste in the background that some people don’t enjoy. So I, if you guys could give me some tips on that, that would be very helpful. Thank you again. Great question. Great. Perfect question for you. I mean, honestly, so just because you know,

you have PCO S doesn’t mean that you have to completely cut out all of the fun foods that have sugar in it. Of course, ideally you’re minimizing your sugar as much as possible on a daily basis, but if you like to bake a sweet treat every so often, I think that, you know, having some is completely fine and it’s a lifestyle.

So you want to do what makes you happy now, personally, I cut the sugar of everything I bake in half. That’s why I’m not like a renowned Baker in the family or amongst my friends, but that’s fine because I have, yes, I have adapted my palette to a less sweet pie. You know what I mean? Like I just don’t crave that type of extremely sugary cake or cookie or whatever.

Like I really enjoy it when it’s not like slapping me in the face with sugar because I’ve adapted to that. Like I’ve really honed in my insulin resistance and I’m okay with that. So what I do is cut like half the sugar of every recipe. And then I also try to replace like white sugar with fruit. So maybe like a banana bread or applesauce or something like that to add its sweetness.

I get creative. I just try to find ways to like, not have to put so much sugar into the, the dish or the pastry or whatever it is that you’re baking. And also adding like nuts, things like that to help slow down its absorption in your bloodstream, cooking with all mins butter, whatever peanut butter. What do you think about other alternatives?

Like, like artificial sweeteners, like Stevia or like maybe even like Brown sugar, things like that. Good question. So I don’t replace sugar with artificial sweeteners. Like I don’t think that they’re any better than sugar. So in fact, you know, artificial sweeteners can make your body think you’re eating something a million times sweeter than actual sugar and pump that insulin up because your body thinks you’re eating something sweet and then make insulin resistance worse,

even though it’s not affecting your blood sugar. So I’ve had patients who are like addicted to sugar, they moved to artificial sweeteners and then this addiction for sugar gets so much worse. So I’ve seen it before. And obviously it’s not everyone that this happens to, but you know, most of my patients who have had experience with artificial sweeteners, this happened.

So I don’t recommend like baking with it doesn’t even taste that good. Yeah. I mean, your sister was saying, and it gives it that chalky weird taste. Yeah. It’s like so weird. It’s like super, super million times sweeter than sugar. So just replace it with fruit, replace it with, you know, take out half of the sugar.

Maybe it won’t taste like it used to, but that’s my story. Yeah. And I also remember like if you’re following like a consistent lifestyle, you can have fun and, and bake sweet things and things like that. So Great. Live your life. Great. Well, great tips on baking vape. I have nothing else to add. Cedric hates it when I bake something that’s too sugary.

Oh yeah. He will ask me how many grams of sugar are in this cookie. Yeah. In this one slice how much? And you don’t tell me, like, what do you mean? You don’t know? I want a nutrition label on what I eat. Is that why you married me? Dietician? Because you thought your dinner would come with a nutrition labels.

Okay. Alrighty. So let’s move on to the last part of the episode, which is the one of the week. If you’re a new, we, every week we announced like a winner, a scissor, who’s taking a step with her piece shows journey, or maybe she’s meeting her goals or her, you know, anything basically. So today we have,

it looks like we have two winners for today, right? That’s right. All right. Should I say the first one? All right. The first winner is Prakriti Prakriti says hi Tallinn. I’ve been gluten and dairy free for two weeks now. And I’ve already lost two and a half kilograms. She says that’s five and a half pounds. I’m so excited.

I don’t get cravings anymore. And I only eat when I’m hungry. Thank you for all your information. Awesome. I love this. She’s really good. And I mean, she says I don’t get cravings anymore. And I only eat when I’m hungry. Mean, it sounds like she’s got control of that insulin resistance, doing things to help control it.

When you talk about how gluten and dairy affect your hunger, hormones and satiety hormones, and you know, the, this is why I chose this one. Cause she says I only eat when I’m hungry. And it’s like, a lot of sisters say that, like they don’t even feel hungry sometimes. Or sometimes they feel hungry all the time. It’s just like this up and down mess.

And it sounds like she has it under control by going gluten and dairy free. Yeah. Amazing. Amazing. The next one Dolly Jackleen telling exactly one month ago, my opacity all arrived today. I got my first natural period. I hadn’t had one since the end of July when I stopped taking birth control. I am trying my best to follow up with my gluten and dairy free diet,

little mistakes here and there, which have caused me not to lose weight yet, but I have not been gaining any weight either. Thank you so much for sticking with us sisters through this journey. Much love amazing. That’s awesome. This is crazy to me. Like we keep on reading messages like this, where someone says, I got my period after this much time.

And it it’s, it’s crazy that like this is happening through natural supplements cycle, versatile hall and diet and lifestyle change. And it’s, it’s, it’s beautiful. And I chose this one because she didn’t actually lose weight yet, but she’s still seeing good results with it and she’s sticking to it and she’s going to wait and layer in other lifestyle changes to see,

you know, what’s going to work for her. She’s not giving up. So I think that’s an important message. You know, while we’re reading all these great wins, It’s like, if you’re feeling good, if there are things happening from the inside, that’s making you feel good. Like in this case she got hurt. She got her first natural period like that.

Those are signs saying that like, you know, there’s some positive things happening and if you like continue more and more things can happen. It’s awesome. Amazing. I love it. All right. So this is a great episode. This is fun ladies. Yeah. It was fun. We even read the assumptions, which I wasn’t even planning on reading those,

but that was, that was pretty fun. All right. He says there’s. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. Episode code. Don’t forget to subscribe. Leave a review if you enjoy this one and we’ll be back next week With another one. Talk to you soon. Bye-bye If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, you have to come check out the sisterhood.

It’s my monthly membership site, where sisters just like you are learning how to move through the stages of PCs from Sage one cold and alone at the doctor’s office to stage five, nailing the PCs lifestyle, gluten and dairy free. Get ready to finally feel in control of your body. Again,

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