I just read some information over the weekend targeted at women with PCOS, in which they were advised to eat more almonds because of their omega-3 content.
Please note, almonds do NOT contain omega-3 fatty acids. The only nuts that do, are walnuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachio nuts, hazelnuts, and cashew nuts. If you wish to verify this for yourself, by visiting the USDA Nutrient Database. The compound you want to look for is called"18:3 undifferentiated fat".
Almonds are not bad for you, and in fact, they contain a lot of great things. In fact, according to the Almond Board of California, they are the tree nut highest in calcium, vitamin E, riboflavin, and niacin. All of these nutrients are important for total PCOS wellness.
It's just important to know that if you're looking for ways to boost your omega-3 intake (which we strongly encourage at inCYST), almonds are not going to be the nut that gets you there.
*****WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG POST FOR AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT***
So excited to announce that starting this week, the Nutrition 101 series will be co-written in conjunction with PCOS Diva Amy Medling, of Nashua, NH. Amy, a professional health coach, is currently completing the inCYST training. She also loves to cook, and has a great series on her own blog with a week's worth of menus. You all are always asking for those, so I like that Amy likes so much to take the time to prepare them. The theme in her menus will be the nutrient I feature over here. It's so fun to see what she did with this first round…and I like that you get suggestions more diverse than what I would eat myself. Increases the likelihood that you'll find something between both blogs that works for you.
Riboflavin is my favorite vitamin. Not for any nutritional reason, but because in my senior year of college I was lucky enough to work in renowned nutrition researcher Daphne Roe's laboratory, as a lab assistant for a riboflavin study. I was one of the people who prepared the food for female subjects in a study evaluating whether riboflavin requirements increase with increased activity (turns out they do).
It was a most unique job, because riboflavin is destroyed by ultraviolet light. In order to keep it stable to increase the accuracy of the experiment, my entire work shift was spent weighing and measuring all of the subjects' food IN THE DARK. Yes, for a semester, I dished out rice and poured milk with the shades pulled and the lights out.
As you can see in the bio I linked to, Dr. Roe was highly intelligent, hugely curious, and very high energy. She completely intimidated many of her students, as she loved the Socratic method and thought nothing of stopping midlecture, looking a student straight in the eye, and asking their opinion on the subject of the day's lecture. It is in her class that I developed a keen ability to avoid eye contact and feign complete focused interest on the notepad on my desk.
I was so very fortunate to be able to work side by side with Dr. Roe, because I had the honor of seeing her other side, that of someone who was intensely curious about problems affecting real people. She had questions she needed to answer, and did her best to do that. She didn't have patience with messing around, because she had important things to do. It is because she was an MD (a practicing dermatologist of all things!) that I become somewhat impatient with physicians who do not appreciate or take the time to understand solid nutrition principles. Sorry guys, Dr. Roe set a very high standard. It would serve you well to follow in her footsteps. (On the flip side, I do my very best to work well with those who DO appreciate nutrition, like our own dermatologist, Dr. Van Dyke, who took time out of her busy schedule to take our training, much of which is not directly related to her personal medical specialty.)
I love riboflavin because by the end of the study I hated the tedious work so bloody much I decided I never wanted to be a researcher. BUT…I also gained such an appreciation for people who have the capacity to think about those questions and piece together the details of such a study to get answers that make the world a better place. I credit Dr. Roe for planting the very first seed of the inCYST Institute in this college senior's heart.
And since you all are working to increase your activity level, it's important that you benefit from Dr. Roe's research on the influence of exercise on how much riboflavin you need.
If you're vegetarian, vegan or dairy-free, be sure and take the time to analyze your diet to see how you measure up with this vitamin. You may be falling short.
Got milk? That's a good start. Look for the following in your next shopping trip. asparagus popcorn bananas persimmons okra Swiss chard Cottage cheese Yogurt Meat Eggs Fish Green beans
Thanks, Dr. Roe, for all of what you did that rubbed off on me. I was pretty humbled by your presence and am grateful for your passion and enthusiasm for instilling excellence in budding nutrition experts like myself. I hope if you're looking down on your students, like me and fellow classmates and researchers Valerie Duffy at the University of Connecticut, and Karen Parfitt at Pomona College, you're smiling. You laid the foundation for many professional passions and successes.
Belko AZ, Meredith MP, Kalkwarf HJ, Obarzanek E, Weinberg S, Roach R, McKeon G, Roe DA. Effects of exercise on riboflavin requirements: biological validation in weight reducing women. Am J Clin Nutr. 1985 Feb;41(2):270-7.
