Diet taboos for polycystic ovary disease

The core dietary taboos for patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are essentially to avoid foods and dietary patterns that "can aggravate insulin resistance and disrupt sex hormone balance." When it comes to specific categories, the first are high-GI refined carbohydrates, processed foods containing trans fatty acids, and foods with excess added sugar. Secondly, the intake of high-purine and exogenous hormone foods needs to be controlled based on individual metabolic differences. There is no absolute taboo list suitable for all patients.

I have met 30 or 40 women with polycystic polycystic cysts who came to make dietary adjustments. The first thing many of them said when they sat down was, "Am I going to completely give up rice and milk tea in the future?" ”It doesn’t have to be so extreme. After all, the core of dietary adjustment for polycystic cysts is to control metabolism, not ascetic self-torture.

Let’s start with the least controversial category of taboos: added sugars and trans fats. The full-sugar milk tea you usually drink, the puff pastry bread sold in convenience stores, the fried skewers you can’t help but buy on the way to and from school, and cheap egg yolk crisps and custard buns mostly contain a lot of added sugar and artificial trans fats. Putting these two things together, the impact on polycystic disease is double: added sugar will cause blood sugar to rise and fall suddenly like a roller coaster, trans fat will reduce the body's sensitivity to insulin, and 70% of polycystic patients have varying degrees of insulin resistance. If you eat this kind of food for a long time, not only will your weight increase easily, but also androgens will increase accordingly, and the problems of acne, hirsutism, and delayed aunties will only become more and more serious. There is basically no disagreement in this academic field. Eat less if you can, and it is best to basically exclude it from your daily diet.

Next came the refined carbohydrate controversy that has raged for several years. A group of nutrition scholars advocate completely replacing white rice and white flour with whole grains and lowering the GI value of daily diet below 55. They believe that as long as they are exposed to refined carbohydrates, they will aggravate insulin resistance. ； The other school of thought believes that as long as the total carbohydrate intake does not exceed 40% of the total daily calories, with enough vegetables and high-quality protein, eating an occasional bowl of white rice will not have much impact at all. Among the patients around me, both patterns have corrected the cycle: there is a girl who eats brown rice and oats every day, and her aunt became normal after three months. ； There is also a girl who is unhappy without rice. She eats less than half a bowl of white rice, half a pound of green leafy vegetables and a piece of chicken breast every meal. After half a year, her hormone level has dropped by more than half. In fact, the key point is not whether you can eat it, but your body's reaction after eating it: If your blood sugar is measured two hours after eating white rice, and the value does not exceed 7.8mmol/L, there is really no need to completely cut off carbohydrates and increase anxiety. After all, long-term insufficient carbohydrate intake will lead to an increase in cortisol, which will still disrupt hormone levels.

There is another controversial item that people ask the most: Can soy products be eaten? I have met two girls who went to extremes before: One heard others say that soybeans supplement estrogen, so she drank two large cups of sweet soy milk every day. After three months of drinking, her androgens increased by 20nmol/L. ； Another heard that soybeans disrupted hormones and did not dare to touch even a bite of tofu. As a result, after half a year, the estrogen level was so low that the endometrium was only 3mm, and the basic conditions for pregnancy were not even met. In fact, the core of this issue is the amount and type of food: whole soybeans, sugar-free light soy milk, marinated tofu and other natural unprocessed soybean products. Eating the equivalent of 20g of dry soybeans every day (about a cup of 200ml light soy milk and 100g of northern tofu) will not only not disrupt hormones, but the two-way regulatory effect of soy isoflavones can help stabilize hormone levels. ； But if you eat sweetened soy milk or soy milk boxes with a lot of sugar, or take purified soy isoflavone supplements on your own, you really need to be careful. Especially for patients whose hormone levels fluctuate greatly, it is best to check your estrogen receptor type first before deciding whether to eat more.

There’s another minefield that many people tend to overlook: foods and supplements that contain exogenous hormones. For example, many girls drink royal jelly, snow clams, and high-priced brown sugar ginger tea that claims to "replenish qi and blood" to stimulate their aunts. The former itself contains trace amounts of animal hormones, while the content of added sugar in the latter often exceeds the standard. I once had a patient who drank two large cups of royal jelly to urge her aunt to drink it every day. After drinking it for two months, her aunt did not come. Instead, she was found to have two small breast fibroids. It was really not worth the loss.

Finally, I would like to say that there is really no need to compare the fasting lists on the Internet one by one. When I make a diet plan for patients, I never list items that are "absolutely not to eat." Instead, I ask them to keep a food diary for a week and write down their physical reactions after eating: for example, will they break out after eating a certain milk tea, will they feel sleepy all afternoon after eating white rice, and will there be bleeding during ovulation? These personalized reactions are 10 times more useful than a general taboo list.

Oh, by the way, if you are really not sure whether you can eat something, just check your blood sugar two hours after a meal. It is more reliable than asking 10 netizens. Even if you are greedy for a small cake occasionally, all your efforts will not be wasted. Adjusting for polycystic cysts is a long-term process. Finding a rhythm that suits you is more important than anything else.