Fatty liver is a common problem in women with PCOS. In this study, EPA, an omega-3 fatty acid and a fish oil, was shown to improve the symptoms of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (fatty liver). EPA is the fish oil that you cannot get when you rely on vegan sources of omega-3's--it's not in flax, and it's not in marine algae. Some research shows that when you've eaten enough marine algae to completely saturate your tissues, what's left can be used to make EPA, but it's not the way of getting it that the body prefers.
This is important to understand, because the vast majority of foods that are labeled as supplemented with omega-3 fatty acids either contain ALA (primarily in the form of flax) or DHA (primarily from marine algae).
The other advantage to eating fish is, that if you've put a fillet on your plate, you've likely removed another (fattier) kind of protein. That's the positive double whammy you get in seafood choices.
In my training I was always encouraged to develop good negotiation skills. In other words, if a client didn't like a certain food, to have a few other options up my sleeve that would provide equivalent nutritional value. Only when I got into omega-3 chemistry, inflammation, and PCOS, did I realize that in this one crucial area, I would have to dig my heels in and advocate that this essential nutrient was simply non-negotiable: if you don't eat fish, you miss out on total health.
Over the weekend I had an animated discussion with another dietitian who was adamant that her clients (mainly with eating disorders) simply were not going to accept this. I told her they simply would not achieve total health…and possibly total recovery. I got some resistance, but hopefully at some point this colleague will come to understand that we're here to guide our clients where they have the potential to go. We're not here to tell them what they want to hear, with the hopes that somehow health will just magically appear.
Tanaka N, Sano K, Horiuchi A, Tanaka E, Kiyosawa K, Aoyama T. Highly Purified Eicosapentaenoic Acid Treatment Improves Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis. J Clin Gastroenterol. 2008 Apr;42(4):413-418.
So you've been told you need to clean up your nutrition act, and you've stopped eating the Fritos. You've decided to stop being the reason the stock price of your local fast food restaurant has weathered the Wall Street willies. Your salad dressing shelf in your refrigerator is now half of what's in your refrigerator.
Still no luck.
Hey, isn't eating better supposed to be the answer?
Depends on how you define eating better.
I'm noticing with my inCYST classes that a disproportionate percentage of women coming for information have adopted vegetarian practices. And I'm beginning to wonder if it isn't part of the problem.
No, the problem isn't that you're vegetarian. It's how you're defining vegetarian, and it's how you go about being one that matters. Here are my simple rules for being the healthiest (potentially fertile) vegetarian you can be.
1. Define your vegetarianism by what you DO eat.
Most people I know who become vegetarian after eating meat, define that practice in terms of what they DON'T eat. They DON'T do red meat. They DON'T do dairy. They DON'T do fish. DON'T, DON'T, DON'T.
Therein lies the problem.
A most important rule of nutrition is, when you eliminate an entire category of food, for whatever reason, be it meat or wheat, you are also eliminating crucial nutrients that this category contains.
My definition of vegetarian is someone who meets all of their complete nutritional needs without using animal products.
Do you know what fertility-related nutrients you're likely short on if all you've done is cut out meat? If not, read on!
2. Zap yourself with zinc!
Zinc is needed for oodles of reactions that keep your body running, from your brain to your ovaries. Are you eating whole grains? Beans? Pumpkin and sunflower seeds? Nuts? Oops…go get your shopping list, right now, and put them down!
3. Forgetting folate can be fatal
You likely know about this nutrient since there has been so much publicity about its role in pregnancy. Put spinach on your sandwich instead of lettuce…make sure your morning cereal is fortified…eat more beans and split peas…and become savvy with sunflower seeds!
4. Cultivate a copper attitude
It's not as famous as folate, but it still is important to remember. Outside of red meat, its vegan sources are rather random: molasses, green olives, cocoa, nuts, avocadoes, black pepper, sunflower seeds…hopefully at least one of these sounds tasty!
5. Try to remember tryptophan
Tryptophan is a building block for serotonin, one of the major neurotransmitters regulating the brain's hormone center. For vegetarians, there are still a lot of options even if you're not using dairy products or eating turkey. Does your pantry have…cocoa, mangoes, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, oats, dates, chickpeas, peanuts, bananas, and sunflower seeds? It needs to.
6. Allow for algae
If you're vegan, chances are you're not getting enough DHA and EPA, the omega-3 fatty acids primarily found in fish. Become friendly with an ingredient known as Life's DHA, a marine algae source of DHA (unfortunately not EPA), that is being added to vegan-friendly foods. The link I'm providing gets you to the most recent list of foods containing this ingredient that you may want to become proficient at finding.
7. Not all vegan products are created equally healthy. Be sure if you've gone vegan, that you are aware of oils that can interfere with healthy balance. These oils are all vegan, but tend to be pro-inflammatory: safflower, sunflower, soybean, corn, cottonseed, sesame. (Remember my"S and C" rule from previous posts. If you're eating absolutely no meat at all, but you're eating a salad doused with soybean oil-based dressing…that could be a problem. Become familiar with brands that are made with olive or canola oils, or learn to make vinaigrettes. (Canola is the"C" oil exception, by the way.
8. Be happy without hydrogenated.
Hydrogenated = trans fat. Enough said.
9. Forget the fructose…high fructose corn syrup, that is.
It's been connected to insulin resistance in more than one study. And despite what marketers would really like you to believe, more than one nutrition expert does not endorse its use.
10. Be pro-protein
This is the most obvious one…know your complementary proteins and be sure your diet includes them. One caveat…soy may be hard on your thyroid function and is not a good choice if you have a family history of breast cancer. Be sure you are reading labels, as soy is a filler in many, many foods.
I like to look for patterns that make nutrition recommendations easy to recommend. In this post, it didn't work out that way. A lot of these foods are random. If I'm not giving you ideas that seem easy to work into your food plan…think of consulting with one of our experts! That's what we excel at, and that's what we're waiting to help you with.
After all, you became vegan to be healthy, let's work together to do it correctly.
While I was at Walmart today looking for vinegar, I ran across a new product that is perfect for PCOS! Crisco's Puritan brand has released a canola oil with algal DHA. What that is, is regular canola oil blended with marine algae omega-3's.
If you regularly read this blog, you know the"S" and"C" rule about oils; avoid, as much as possible, (with the exception of canola), oils beginning with the letters"S" and"C". For most women, that translates into cooking primarily with olive and canola oils. This new canola also has those hard-to-find marine oils, in the form of marine algae oil.
One tablespoon of this oil contains 32 mg of DHA. Fat is still fat, and you should still moderae fat intake…so this is really not a practical way to get all of your omega-3's. But, if you make simple switches and add a little DHA where before there was none, you can effect big changes. This oil could be used in waffles, muffins, salad dressings…wherever you were using any other kind of vegetable oil.
I especially love that I found this product at Walmart…meaning you don't have to have a lot of money to buy health-promoting foods or take care of yourself.
If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know how big I am on omega-3's from seafood. For those of you who are vegan, I've been recommending a product called Life's DHA, which can be found in supplements as well as foods. Many of these foods are labelled as organic, which is supposed to mean they are free of anything genetically modified.
Many thanks to our network member Michal Hogan who forwarded a news release with a detailed report about this product. It is GMO, and it is being incorporated into many foods that are sold as organic. I used to point several of them out when I did grocery store tours at Whole Foods.
This creates a dilemma for vegans, as the truth seems to be, if you're omega-3 deficient, and wish to supplement, you may have to use a fish-based product. There is always nori (sushi wrappers) and you can add sea vegetables…but the reality is, the average American is unlikely to be able to eat enough of these to be able to use them as a way to replete low DHA stores.
If you're vegan, it's going to be especially important to cut the omega-6 out of your diet to be sure it's not overwhelming the omega-3 that is actually there.
One thing I can recommend, and now that I read this report, strongly recommend…is that you have your blood omega-3 analysis performed with the home fingerprick test we offer. We do offer it at a discounted price. It will tell you exactly where you stand, how much this situation personally affects you, and gives anyone trying to help you pick the right foods, a better idea of what to advise you to do to improve your omega-3 status.
If you're simply relying on generalized Internet information you're playing a huge game of hit and miss. Why not get right to the point and figure out what YOU need to do personally?
I am not just sorry about having to backpedal. I am very, very sad. Such a high percentage of our readers and fans are vegans, and this was one of the ways out of the dilemma. Back to the drawing board.: (
A significant percentage of the women I counsel, whether their issues are officially related to PCOS or not, are vegetarian. They get in trouble with their vegan lifestyle because it eliminates the essential nutrients DHA and EPA.
Not any more!
Marine algae is an up and comer in the omega-3 world. It's been increasingly incorporated into foods, which I've written about before. Now, the people who developed this ingredient are reporting that this algal DHA is as effective as salmon in increasing the body's DHA levels.
You can either take it as a supplement, or you can find it in popular foods. The best place to go in order to get the list of foods you can use is the Martek website. I'm also including the"Life's DHA" logo here, because it's on the packaging for these products for easy identification.
No more excuses, all you vegans! You can make choices that help you to be healthier while honoring your culinary code of ethics.: )
Arterburn LM, Oken HA, Bailey Hall E, Hamersley J, Kuratko CN, Hoffman JP. Algal-oil capsules and cooked salmon: nutritionally equivalent sources of docosahexaenoic Acid. J Am Diet Assoc. 2008 Jul;108(7):1204-9.
I hope I got your attention! Because, yes, algae can be a very important part of a diet for PCOS.
It's becoming increasingly clear, as our baby counter ticks up and up and up, that omega-3 fatty acids ARE the answer for a lot of women out there who may not have found fertility success.
But I also know, from being in this business for over two decades, that there are some people, no matter how much you tell them that fish is good for you, simply aren't going to eat it. Whether it's because of taste, allergies, or vegetarian practices.
That's where algae comes in. The innovative people at Martek Biosciences have been culturing a species of algae, Crypthecodinium cohnii, that is naturally high in DHA, one of the omega-3 fatty acids. Don't worry, I stink at Latin, too. Just remember,"omega-3 algae" and you have all you need to know.
Martek has figured out how to take this algae, extract the DHA, and put it into a form that can be incorporated into foods that you and I actually eat. The examples I found today on Martek's website include (in alphabetical order):
Beech-Nut® Stage 2® DHA plus+™ Jars — a product of Beech-Nut Beech-Nut® Stage 2® DHA plus+™ Cereals — a product of Beech-Nut Bellybar™ Nutrition bars — for pregnant and nursing women from NutraBella Challenge Dairy Spreadable Butter — a product of Challenge Dairy DHA plus+™ Yogurt Blends with Juice — a product of Beech-Nut Crisco® Puritan Canola Oil with Omega-3 DHA — a product of the J.M Smucker Company Fujisan Sushi — a product of Fuji Foods Products, Inc. Glucoburst™ Diabetic Drink — a product of PBM Nutritionals Gold Circle Farms® Eggs — a product of Hidden Villa Horizon Organic® Milk — a product of WhiteWave Foods Kids-Pro Nutrition Drink — a product of British Biologicals Little Einstein's Disney Milk — a product of Stremick's Heritage Foods Minute Maid® Enhanced Pomegranate Blueberry Juice — a product of the Coca-Cola Company NuGo Organic Nutrition Bar — a product of NuGo Nutrition Odwalla's Soy Smart™ Oh Mama!™ Nutrition bars — for pregnant and nursing women from Vincent Foods, LLC Oroweat Whole Grain 9 Grain Bread — a product of Bimbo Bakeries USA, Inc. ProSource NutriPure Supreme — a product of ProSource Rachel's® brand, Rachel's® Wickedly Delicious Yogurt — a product of WhiteWave Foods Rico's® Cheese Sauce — a product of Ricos Products Company Silk® Soymilk — a product of Whitewave So Good™ Omega DHA Milk — a product of Soyaworld Stremicks Heritage Foods™ Organic Milk — a product of Stremicks Heritage Foods Vitasoy® Soymilk — a product of National Foods Yoplait Kids™ — a product of General Mills ZenSoy Soy on the Go™ — a product of ZenSoy Yo on the Go® — a product of Whitney's Foods, Inc.
Bottom line, if you can't or don't do fish, you can still do omega-3's.
One note, it's still important to have a diet that overall, is balanced in fat, carbohydrate, and protein. So if you're loading up on one option here that is sweetened, you may not get the optimal effect of the DHA. It might be worth downloading this list and showing it to your dietitian so the two of you can work out a game plan that incorporates these foods with the best chance of benefitting from them.
