…I wanted to highlight eggs since they are a food many people don't eat, thinking about the cholesterol.
It used to be, when I was brand-new to this profession, I was taught to tell people to avoid eggs. Because of the cholesterol.
It turns out, the cholesterol in eggs has been shown to not increase serum cholesterol, and taking eggs out of your diet doesn't really decrease your cholesterol.
Besides that, eggs…
…are cheap. …have one of the highest quality proteins available. …are one of the very few foods contain choline (in the yolk), which is very important for maintaining memory, potentially reducing your risk for Alzheimer's disease. …are a good source of vitamin B-12, another nutrient that isn't always easy to get. …are convenient to eat. …if you get the omega-3 kind, can be a source of DHA, which is not easy to get in your diet if you don't like or don't have access to fish.
So have fun with your holiday and take advantage of the fact that you've got all those boiled eggs in the frig. Have them for breakfast. Put them on your salad at lunch.
And know it's something good you're doing for yourself!
Last night, after a long day at the computer, I walked over to the gym for a swim. And as I always do, I stop in to Trader Joe's to see what food and drink they were sampling. I have been so busy working I completely forgot St. Patrick's Day is just around the corner.and TJ's was sampling corned beef and beer for a themed promotion.
As I swam, I thought about some less fatty options you cysters could try this year. Which, beer fresh on my palate, led to my looking up recipes for beer soaked salmon (see below)…and then to a Google search for the health benefits of (moderate!) beer consumption to justify posting the recipe…and I found quite a bit!
•Hops contains flavonoids which may help to prevent certain kinds of cancer.
•Beer contains vitamin B6, which protects against heart diseases by preventing the build-up of a compound called homocysteine. •Beer contains folate! And you know how much inCYST loves folate!
•Magnesium, another mineral you see us write about in this blog, is also found in beer.
•You'll find vitamin B12 in your lager as well, which is needed for maintaining normal growth, good memory and concentration.
Since many of the readers of this blog are trying to conceive, I must caution you that consumption of any kind of alcohol is not recommended if you are or are trying to be pregnant. In this beer salmon recipe from the Food Network, there is opportunity for the alcohol to evaporate with cooking, leaving the nutrients behind. You can use garlic powder instead of garlic salt, and cut the brown sugar in half, if you wish. Since it's maple syrup season, you might even substitute a little bit of that instead if you have some on hand.
I found a nice quinoa stuffing with leeks, walnuts, and cherries at http://www.myrecipes.com/ that you might like to try along with the salmon.
Of course, you can enjoy the meal with a nice hearty beer if you wish, there will surely be some left from your six pack at dinner time! In my house, it's going to be the Guinness seasonal that inspired this blogging journey.
May the face of every good news and the back of every bad news be toward you… Happy St. Patrick's Day!
I just returned from the Natural Products West Expo in Anaheim, California. This show is where companies providing products to health food stores, Whole Foods, etc., bring their information and samples to introduce to buyers. I came home with enough trends and food ideas to keep me blogging until next year's conference! It was really exciting to see the many possibilities for people who want to eat healthier but who do not want to sacrifice taste.
One of the trends was snacks from the sea. I wasn't fond of a lot of them, but one I really loved was the toasted seafood snacks made from nori. Nori is the seafood used to wrap sushi with. It's now becoming popular on its own, for its nutritional value, including calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc, iron, vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin K, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, folic acid, and vitamin C. There's even a little bit of DHA, the kind of omega-3 that is primarily found in fish. Those are a lot of the things you hear me writing about here. For you vegans out there, take note of the vitamin B12!
Toasted nori is very much like the kale chips many of you told me you are now enjoying. It's very light and probably not something that would cure a case of the munchies, but crumbled onto salad or into a seafood salad, into soup, or on top of a pizza, they would be a great and tasty way to add nutrition to your diet without having to take yet another supplement. I will say that the type of fat is not the one you see us recommend here, but the amount you are likely going to get in the way I envision most of you eating this, it's not going to be the food that makes or breaks your fatty acid balance.
This product is so new the website listed on their package is not even up yet. For those of you who read this down the road, you will eventually be able to learn more at http://www.jayone.com/.
For now though, these nori snacks are available at amazon.com. Here is the order link for the salted flavor., and there is a sweet flavor to try as well.
In the spirit of Mardi Gras week, I thought I'd highlight a kissin' cousin of that Cajun crawfish…shrimp.
Shrimp are one of those foods people love…and they have learned to be afraid of. When I started out in this field, I was taught to teach patients to avoid shrimp because of their high cholesterol content.
Turns out, dietary cholesterol in foods such as eggs and shrimp do not influence our own cholesterol nearly as much as pro-inflammatory fats, saturated fats, and trans fats. Some researchers even suggest that shrimp consumption may IMPROVE cholesterol and triglyceride levels!
In addition shrimp, lucky for a shrimp lovin' woman like myself, is extremely low in fat! A 3.5 oz (deck of card-sized) serving of fish has about 1 gram of fat…whenever I'm questioned about shrimp I always remind the person with the question that shrimp is so low in fat, it almost squeaks from lack of lubrication against your teeth when you bite into it.
Shrimp is also a great source of protein, vitamin B12 (crucial for mental health), tryptophan (needed to make serotonin), and vitamin D (thought to be important in managing PCOS). In addition, shrimp helps omega-3 balance by contributing a moderate amount of DHA. And, when you're replacing red meat with seafood, you're exchanging pro-inflammatory omega-6 fats with healthier fats, which ensures that your omega-3's are not metabolically destroyed before they have a chance to benefit you.
So if you see shrimp cocktail, shrimp fajitas, grilled shrimp on the menu…go ahead! Enjoy! It's contributing to your health while providing a tasty adventure.
One of the more frequent searches bringing readers to our blog is"vegetarian" and"fertility"…and"vegetarian" and"pcos". I've also noticed when doing Fertility Friendly Food Tours at Whole Foods, that a disproportionate percentage of women attending these classes, are vegetarian. And, in my individual counseling, it's not uncommon to learn during an assessment that if a client is not currently vegetarian, she was at some point in her life.
So I wasn't surprised to find this study reporting that women with PCOS tend to be deficient in vitamin B12.
I often teach that PCOS is a counterintuitive illness. By that, I mean that what often needs to be done is the opposite of what you might think. In this case, rather than immediately assuming that the most important strategy is to restrict food choices because your appearance suggests overnutrition, it may actually be to add foods back into your diet to correct underlying deficiencies.
This B vitamin is found almost exclusively in animal products, including fish, meat, poultry, eggs, milk, and milk products. It is also found in some fortified breakfast cereals, but if you're avoiding carbohydrates as well as trying to be vegetarian, you're likely not getting enough vitamin B12 in your diet.
Some fermented soy products, namely tofu, tempeh, miso, and tamari, may contain vitamin B12, if the bacteria, molds, and fungi used to produce them were vitamin B12 producing. This is a project I'll look into and blog about in a later post.
Finally, some nutritional yeast products also contain vitamin B12. Lucky for you Aussies reading this blog, that means Vegemite and Marmite, made from yeast extracts, can be excellent choices to include in your diet!
It is possible to obtain vitamin B12 by taking a vitamin supplement, but the amount of the vitamin that is actually absorbed through the digestive tract may be very low. For this reason, physicians who note a low vitamin B12 level may recommend an injection, to bypass the digestive tract.
Women over 14 years of age, if not pregnant, should be consuming 2.4 mcg of vitamin B12 per day. They should aim for 2.6 mcg per day when pregnant, and 2.6 mcg per day when breastfeeding.
It's clear, if you don't do vegetarian eating in a thoughtful, proactive way, it carries considerable health risks. As you've seen before in this blog, inCYST believes that healthy vegetarian eating is about what you DO choose to eat, more than what you DON'T choose to eat.
It is a good idea, if you're vegetarian, or ever have been, to ask your physician to check your vitamin B12 levels. A low status is easy to correct and that can be part of your strong foundation for managing your PCOS and improving your mood, insulin function, and fertility.
Kaya C, Cengiz SD, Satiroğlu H. Obesity and insulin resistance associated with lower plasma vitamin B12 in PCOS. Reprod Biomed Online. 2009 Nov;19(5):721-6.
Thank you to Christine Marquette and Michael Keele for such an informative program this morning!
If you're interested in hearing our discussions about vegetarian eating, home design for better health, and farmer's markets, please visit our show archives. It is the second show on the list. (I'm still learning how to work the software and didn't properly title it.)
This is a tough one. Especially for those of you in our audience who are vegan. Even our PCOS Diva, who loves to cook, admitted she had a tough time this week. You know, that's ok. I have a tough time with this one too. This Nutrition 101 series is not about making anyone feel inadequate. It's about identifying places where you can specifically work to problem solve your personal nutrition situation.
Here are Amy's menus, which turned out really well. I appreciate your hard work on these!
Here's the list. If you're flincing as you read it…best be sure your vitamin supplement contains it. This post is short, but it's really a cut and dry issue. Either you're getting B12 or you're not. It's up to you, given the food lifestyle you choose, to find your own solution for keeping it adequate.
