Not long ago a woman with PCOS handed me a diet diary for analysis. She had eaten a burger without the bun and a sweetened ice tea for breakfast. Lunch didn't happen until 2 pm, and it was a brownie with ice cream. And finally, she recorded a bowl of cereal for dinner.
One of the things that jumped out at me was that there were no fruits or vegetables in her meal plan. When I asked her about it…she told me she was avoiding carbs!
Fruits have somehow gotten a bad rap because of their carbohydrate content. But they're not the culprit in an unhealthy diet. In fact, fruits are very high in antioxidants, which can help to repair the damage that life stress and the stress of having a chronic disease can create. In my opinion, you can't afford NOT to have fruit.
I chose oranges this week, because I live in Arizona and I have an orange tree off of my patio. It is the most wonderful treat to wake up, pick a few oranges, and have a glass of fresh squeezed juice. Or, when I need a break in the afternoon, to pick a fresh snack for myself. Nothing tastes better than fruit right from the source. I recently made a great salad vinaigrette using orange juice and olive oil as the base. Even with all these oranges, I'm not making a dent in my supply!
If your diet diary mimicks the one I described above, challenge yourself to try the following. Be sure to have a serving of fruit the size of a tennis ball at each meal, or the total equivalent of 3 servings that size of fruit in the course of a day. Challenge yourself to not eat any sources of refined sugar until you've met your daily quota of fruit. See if, when you focus on fruit, your appetite for other sugars diminishes. And in the process, if changing the kind of sugar you eat doesn't help stabilize your energy levels and help you to feel better.