Many of you are following the Low GI (Glycemic Index) diet, which sorts food based on their potential to raise blood glucose. The approach I hear many on this diet use, is very black and white; in other words, if a food has a high GI, it's not to be eaten. Unfortunately, this may be overly restrictive and not entirely reflective of how food acts in the body. The glycemic load of a food is far more important.
Glycemic index for a given food is calculated when a food is eaten all alone, without any other foods. We simply do not eat that way. We eat foods in combinations, and what really matters is how the combinations of foods affect our metabolism.
The glycemic load of a food takes into account the amount of a food consumed as well as the amount of glycemic sugars (net carbs) it contains. Nutritiondata.com has a nice explanation of the concept, and for each food in its database, the glycemic load is provided.
A really good example of the importance of looking at the whole food is to look at the glycemic loads for 4 ounces of fat free ice cream vs. 4 ounces of regular ice cream. Four ounces of fat-free vanilla ice cream, the option many people would think would be best…has a glycemic load of 16, and four ounces of regular vanilla ice cream has a glycemic load of 8. That is because the fat in the regular ice cream helps to slow down the rate at which the sugar in the ice cream is absorbed into the bloodstream.
If you were to assume that because the regular vanilla ice cream was a better choice, however, and overindulge, it would only take a double serving to erase the difference.
Bottom line: --Variety in food choices is as important to your overall blood glucose as is types of foods --Too much of any food will eventually affect your blood glucose…there is no such thing as healthy bingeing or low glycemic food comas! --When you eat a food with a high"glycemic index", eat a small amount in conjunction with foods that make it harder to have an immediate opportunity to raise your blood sugar. --I have also found that"high glycemic" foods are best tolerated if eaten earlier in the day, so they have a better opportunity to be used in conjunction with your physical activity, rather than late in the day, when you're just not burning as many calories.
Nutritiondata.com recommends that glycemic load for a day be kept below 100. I would add to that, that the more the total can be spread across the day, the better.
I receive emails and comments from time to time, suggesting that my suggestions for PCOS management are unrealistic because they cost too much money.
Here is what I think about that.
I've offered expensive courses…no one came. I've offered free courses…no one came. I've tried every price on the scale…and learned that the resistance was not about price point. No matter what the price, people did not come. I am not the only person trying to help women with PCOS who experience this.
I recently spent a morning at a local food bank, with people who REALLY can't afford groceries. We are trying to figure out a way, at Chow Locally, to be sure that the wonderful foods we bring to our customers, in some way, also find their way to less fortunate people. We live in a city where 1 in 4 children goes to bed hungry, and improving access to quality food for everyone of our neighbors is important to us. I have donated a free consultation and kitchen makeover to Share Our Strength, a fundraiser devoted to wiping out hunger. I am acutely aware that hunger is a problem in this community. I am a nutrition professional who doesn't just tweet about it, she spends part of each day doing something to help solve the problem.
The picture above is from the Desert Mission Food Bank here in Phoenix. They have a chef who demonstrates how to make healthy food on a limited budget. All he has to cook with, are a toaster oven and a hot plate. And his food is tasty, nutritious…fabulous.
I was blown away. Here were people who really, truly, justifiably COULD use money as an excuse to not eat well…and they were doing everything in their power to get good, healthy food, and to learn how to use it well. It is hard for me when I see such a disconnect between people who really, truly don't have access to food, working so hard to have so little, and to know I can only help them a little bit, and then in my work day, negotiate with people who really truly do have breathing room that they either may not be able to or be willing to see, and not succeed in illuminating options.
If you need help getting food stamps, ask for that help. If you need help finding places where you can find healthy food within your budget, ask. But understand, no matter how much money you have or don't have, there are things you can do.
If you are eating well, by the way, you are likely spending less, not more money on food. Eating seasonally, eating less fast food, less packaged food, giving up the soda pop…usually adds up to money saved. I'm not asking anyone to eat like kings here. I certainly don't!
If Chef Ed can create what he does for his food bank patrons, given the restrictions he has, and his students can eat well on little to no money, so can you.
It is not your situation that is making you sick. It is how you are choosing to manage your situation that makes the difference.
I believe in you and I work on your behalf. But I can't invest in the changes that will make the difference. If you don't invest in yourself…who will?
I've been working all week with a client who has been TKO'd by broccoli. She's a broccoli lover. And right now, there are a lot of other foods that don't get into the day because she's not quite sure they're safe. So, while we work on that, she's been leaning pretty heavily on broccoli as a food.
The last few weeks she's been complaining about feeling bloated, which is common when someone whose food choices have been limited starts to expand their menu.
The situation reached a break point the other day when she had back and gut pain so severe she was rolling on the floor. The symptoms sounded enough like developing appendicitis that we decided an urgent care visit was in order.
Turns out, the problem was twofold: excessive gas and constipation.
The gas is likely related to the broccoli consumption. It's just a food that produces gas. And gas won't go anywhere if there isn't anything propelling it through the system.
The constipation is likely due to such a long history of limiting food intake, and the intestines quite literally forgetting how to process food.
So when you overdo one food that really shouldn't be eaten if your intestines aren't healthy…when your intestines aren't healthy…you just might find yourself rolling on the floor wishing someone was there to drive you to Urgent Care.
The moral of the story is, there's no such thing as a good food. Even a good food, when eaten in excess, can be a bad food for your health and your comfort.
PCOS is one of those problems where you can develop significant food fears. Is this going to make me gain weight? Is this going to raise my blood sugar? Is this going to make my acne worse? Is this going to interfere with my fertility?
PCOS is also a syndrome which, for recovery, is completely dependent on ridding yourself of that mentality, that some foods are good and others bad. Your body will respond best to a variety of foods eaten in moderation.
Broccoli is probably ok 2 or 3 times a week, in 1/2 cup portions. But on those other days…why not carrots or beets or spinach or green peppers?
If you do this right, you should be gradually increasing your food repertoire, not narrowing it down to a handful of choices.
I'm hearing more and more that many of you are switching to raw eating, and you're asking me if it's good for PCOS. It's not something that has been formally researched, so my answer is pulled together using what I do know about nutrition.
"Raw" refers to whether or not a food's temperature has exceeded a certain temperature during preparation. I actually tried to write a blog post about this several years ago and at the time could not find a specified temperature defining"raw" for a long time. I finally found something that suggested if it stayed below 124 degrees it would be considered raw. Then, last year, I ate lunch at the Whole Foods Venice, and decided to try a raw lunch for myself. The name of the restaurant that prepared my food was"118 Degrees," referring to the threshold raw temperature. This week, when researching it again, found everything from 104 to 118 degrees listed, without any scientific references for any of those values. It's one reason the diet can't be studied easily — those who follow it have yet to consistently define it.
One of the issues I have with any of those temperatures is that some of the foods popular in the raw community, by virtue of the fact that they grow in tropical climates, are regularly exposed to temperatures exceeding even the highest threshold. The mesquite trees growing in my backyard, yesterday alone, were exposed to an ambient temperature of 118 degrees the entire afternoon. The mesquite beans are dark, meaning they absorb heat and get even hotter. The flour made from them would not technically be raw, though mesquite flour is valued by the raw community. Coconuts, rice…both grow in tropical climates and therefore cannot be guaranteed to be"raw" if the benchmark is the definition above.
I'm assuming for the average person, for whom food is sustenance and not a religion,"raw" more likely means food that was not formally heated during preparation, and for the rest of this article that is the definition I will use.
Though raw eating has not been studied with regards to PCOS, it has been studied. It has been found to have both risks and benefits. The very first study of a raw food diet, published in 1985, found that after 7 months, subjects following this diet dropped their blood pressure, lost weight, and tended to spontaneously give up smoking and drinking.
One study found that raw foodists have lower cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations. However, a couple of other cardiovascular risk factors, serum homocysteine and HDL, were elevated, likely because a raw diet tends to be low in vitamin B12. It would be wise to take a multi-vitamin just to be safe.
Another study reported more dental caries in raw foodists. I'm assuming this is related to the increased carbohydrate and simple sugar content of the diet. So don't forget to brush and floss!
Here's what all you readers really need to pay attention to. One study specifically looked at menstrual function and raw food. It found that about 30% of women studied who were under 45 years of age had partial to complete amenorrhea, with subjects eating high amounts of raw food (>90%) being more affected than moderate raw food dieters. Ouch, ouch, OUCH.
A raw diet is also low in DHA and EPA, the omega-3 fatty acids primarily found in fish. If you're a raw foodist and also vegan, consider taking an omega-3 supplement derived from marine algae.
One benefit to a raw diet is that most people who consume it eat far more fruits and dark green leafy vegetables than they used to. Yay for antioxidants! Interestingly, however, one study found that though raw foodists had higher beta-carotene levels than average, their serum lycopene levels were low. Since lycopene is found in easily found fresh fruits and vegetables like tomatoes and watermelon, this suggests that even when eating raw, it's important to make conscious choices and not limit yourself to a few favorites. It can't just be about carrot juice!
The flip side of all those fruits and vegetables, however, is that protein is a difficult nutrient to get with this diet without soaking and sprouting legumes, in adequate quantities to balance out all of that carbohydrate. It may aggravate your insulin resistance. Be sure to add some protein powder to your cooking to prevent that from happening. Growing Naturals organic brown rice protein isolate powder has designed its product to be raw-compatible; be sure to check them out!
Another natural consequence of cutting out so much protein is that the fat content of the diet naturally increases. And even if it's raw fat, and good fat, it still has calories. I would recommend working out some menus on paper or running them through http://www.fitday.com/ just to be sure the diet doesn't push you in the wrong direction.
How your diet affects your health appears to be more determined by the proportions of carbohydrate, protein, fat, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that your diet contains. If you want to do that with raw foods, just be sure you do it right.
Douglass JM, Rasgon IM, Fleiss PM, Schmidt RD, Peters SN, Abelmann EA. Effects of a raw food diet on hypertension and obesity. South Med J. 1985 Jul;78(7):841-4.
Koebnick C, Garcia AL, Dagnelie PC, Strassner C, Lindemans J, Katz N, Leitzmann C, Hoffmann I. Long-term consumption of a raw food diet is associated with favorable serum LDL cholesterol and triglycerides but also with elevated plasma homocysteine and low serum HDL cholesterol in humans. J Nutr. 2005 Oct;135(10):2372-8.
Ganss C, Schlechtriemen M, Klimek J. Dental erosions in subjects living on a raw food diet. Caries Res. 1999;33(1):74-80.
Koebnick C, Strassner C, Hoffmann I, Leitzmann C. Consequences of a long-term raw food diet on body weight and menstruation: results of a questionnaire survey. Ann Nutr Metab. 1999;43(2):69-79.
Garcia AL, Koebnick C, Dagnelie PC, Strassner C, Elmadfa I, Katz N, Leitzmann C, Hoffmann I. Long-term strict raw food diet is associated with favourable plasma beta-carotene and low plasma lycopene concentrations in Germans. Br J Nutr. 2008 Jun;99(6):1293-300. Epub 2007 Nov 21.
We all know them. The people you can't go out to eat with. The ones who can go through an entire menu of options and find something wrong with each one. The ones who, on sipping a glass of wine, will tell you that this vintage, woodsy with a hint of vanilla, has come from the Bordeaux region, Francois Fancy's vineyard to be exact, and the grapes were most likely picked during the record rainy week of August 7, 1997. And you order what they order instead of the house wine because you feel like such an oenologic imbecile in their presence. They're the ones who want their ice cream slightly microwaved before eating it. The ones you have to call in advance of a dinner party to be sure what you're fixing will be something they will eat.
Picky eaters? Food snobs? Pains in the butt? Or supertasters?
I vote for the latter. Research in recent years has identified a type of eater who is naturally, genetically, more sensitive to the flavors and textures of foods. I experienced this phenomenon in person a few years ago at a nutrition conference. One of my college friends and now nutrition researcher, Valerie Duffy, studies supertasting. At her booth, she handed me and my coworker each a piece of paper and asked us to place it on our tongue. While I sat there for a few seconds wondering what the gimmick was, my friend immediately began to gag and cough, explaining that it was the most vile thing she had ever placed in her mouth. We learned that she is a supertaster and I…am a nontaster.
Supertasters are interesting people. I imagine they're the ones in medieval times called in to sample the king's food to be sure it wasn't poisoned. (I could use one of them in my home to let me know when I should be throwing things away.) We had a wine professor back at Cornell whose sense of taste was so keen he was flown to several vineyards each year to sample the harvest and, based on his response, the wine was priced.
The specifics of how this is determined are outlined nicely in this article. What is important to take away from this blog post, is that everyone experiences food differently, and that is important to account for. I try to use this information in my writing here. Rather than encourage you to eat only foods that I would like, I write about as many foods as I can in hopes that each of you develops your own"favorite" list with confidence. Without even doing the PROP test, I'm betting you can tell who you are by the kind of food blogs you enjoy. If you have cinnamon from 3 different countries in your custom-made spice cabinet (you know who you are!), love endless detail about ingredients, preparation, subtle characteristics of food…you're probably more of a supertaster. If that intimidates you and you're more of a"just tell me what to make for dinner and for heaven's sake use the five ingredients I have in the fridge and make it easy" kind of reader, you're more than likely a nontaster.
One of my dearest friends is a supertaster. It took awhile for this friend to relax around me with food, probably because this characteristic can make it hard to socialize with friends and you can begin to become self-conscious about how your tastebuds behave in public. You can be pegged as a pain, eyes roll, people wonder if you have an eating disorder. I eventually learned what the top ten list of"friendship favorite ingredients" was, to microwave the ice cream, and not to experiment too much in the kitchen (note to self: marinated smoked scallops--definitely not a supertaster's favorite), and we got along fine. I actually eat better when I'm with this friend, I believe, because whereas I am more of an eat to live person and can get by on pretty much anything that quaffs my hunger and gets me back to work, my friend tends to steer me toward food experiences that encourage me to sit, relax, taste, and enjoy food for the many other pleasures it provides.
What's interesting about nontasters is that they tend to like more fat. That makes sense, since flavors are more soluble in fat, and food for a nontaster is more enjoyable if you do anything to it to enhance the flavor. I definitely love my fat!
Taste perception outside of the food world is pretty interesting. Supertasters, for example, are less likely to experience depression. And middle-aged nontasting women are more prone to obesity. Well that makes sense…first of all, if you're eating more fat so you can taste your food, you're eating more calories…and if you're trying NOT to eat fat because you've been told it's unhealthy, you're walking around looking for something to nosh on that allows your tastebuds to tell you you're full and it's time to stop eating.
You apparently cannot fool your tastebuds the way some food companies would like you to believe.
Does that mean supertasters are destined to be happy and thin while nontasters are cursed to be depressed and fat? Absolutely not. Many factors contribute to your mood and your weight. The point here is that it's better to identify the foods you LIKE and learn how to eat those in healthy balance, rather than try to eat things you don't because some food expert wrote some diet du jour that half of Hollywood is following that has no foods you enjoy in the meal plans.
Be confident in what your taste buds tell you. Don't apologize for what you like and what you don't. Work with what you've got. Enjoy the flavor ride. Microwaved ice cream, nachos, and all.
Joiner TE Jr, Perez M. Phenylthiocarbamide tasting and family history of depression, revisited: low rates of depression in families of supertasters. Psychiatry Res. 2004 Apr 15;126(1):83-7. Goldstein GL, Daun H, Tepper BJ. Adiposity in middle-aged women is associated with genetic taste blindness to 6-n-propylthiouracil. Obes Res. 2005 Jun;13(6):1017-23.
This past spring I was on a committee to plan events for our local Earth Day celebration. I advocated for our catering to, as much as possible, follow the guidelines taught on this blog, and for our vendors to be locally owned (at least) and organic (whenever possible).
In the process, I came to know Chef Elizabeth, house chef at the Phoenix Downtown Market. She whipped up a delicious chicken/walnut/rosemary salad that was the hit of the party. Chef Elizabeth mentioned that several of our local City Council representatives are frequent patrons of the farmer's market, which I was excited to hear.
I thought it would be fun to contact each of our City Council members to learn more about their thoughts about food and local and organic eating. Our first installment is here, and I will post followup installments as they return.
Michael Nowakowski, representing Phoenix District 7, is a lifelong resident of Phoenix. He holds a Bachelor of Liberal Arts in Religious Studies from Arizona State University. He is married to Delia and is a proud parent of 5 children.
Councilman Nowakowski also is the General Manager of a non-profit radio station, coming from previous work with the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix where he served as Assistant Director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry. He currently serves on the Downtown and Aviation, Public Safety and Veterans, and Seniors, Youth and Families subcommittees. He also currently chairs the Housing and Neighborhoods subcommittee.
As you can see, Councilman Nowakowski, between his elected position, his radio station, and being the father of a growing brood, has plenty of reasons to not prioritize food. Sound familiar? Let's see what he says about how it really plays out!
LOCAL BUSINESSES
1. Do you have a favorite locally owned restaurant you enjoy patronizing? A favorite item on their menu?
I have many favorite locally-owned restaurants, such as China Chili on 3rd Street, MacAlpine’s on 7th Street, and My Florist on McDowell. The Mac Cheese Burger at MacAlpine’s is one of the best things on their menu and is always a good choice.
2. Do you have any favorite locally owned restaurants in your council district that you'd like us to mention?
My staff have told me that other restaurants they like, such as Carly’s on Roosevelt and Cibo’s on 5th Avenue, and Thaiger on Central are expanding what you can expect from restaurants in Phoenix and where you can find them.
3. When people visit you from out of town, do you have"Arizona Must Eat" experiences you like to share?
A restaurant I believe everyone should visit in Phoenix is Los Dos Molinos on Central and Dobbins. The food is amazing and unique to Phoenix.
LOCAL AND ORGANIC FOOD
4. Do you have a favorite Arizona-grown food?
Arizona green chili peppers are my favorite Arizona-grown food.
5. Have you had a chance to visit the Phoenix Downtown Market? If so, any favorite booths?
I’ve visited the Phoenix Downtown Market many times, and the food vendors always surprise me. I and many people have gone to the market intending to buy raw food, but wind up leaving with a full stomach from the tamales, Italian food and fresh fruit sold alongside what we bring home to prepare.
SOME BRIEF COMMENTS
There's a lot of variety in the listed choices, which means less possibility for losing out on important nutrients. And, clearly, a love of food! I especially love how the Downtown Market started out as a simple shopping excursion for the Nowakowski staff…and has become an enjoyable culinary experience. If you're not enjoying what you eat, you certainly aren't going to care about your choices!
Our legislators are in a position to be creating laws with impact on what we eat at home and in restaurants. I read this New York Times article last night about the food being consumed in Washington, DC, at the table where our health care plan revision is being hammered out. It left me wondering how nutrition could even be considered as an important component of those revisions. So nice to see, at least within our local government, that an appreciation for simple healthful choices and the local vendors working to create better choices that does show up on our representatives' radar.
JUST A FEW NOTES ABOUT CHILI PEPPERS Chili peppers are a wealth of antioxidants! Red chiles contain higher amounts of vitamin C and carotene than yellow and green ones, but all colors of chilis are a good source of most B vitamins, and vitamin B6 in particular. They are very high in potassium and high in magnesium and iron. If you're a regular reader of this blog, these nutrients should sound familiar, since they've all been mentioned as important to maintaining fertlity.
Vegetarian readers take note! The high vitamin C content of chili peppers can help increase the uptake of iron from other ingredients in a meal, such as beans and grains. Sounds like an authentic bean burrito with a side of rice (maybe from the farmer's market?) could be a great Nowakowski choice for dinner tonight!
Why would I pick such an esoteric fruit for this blog? I've got several reasons.
1. I have been asked to be part of a committee here in Phoenix that organizes Get Your PHX, monthly events promoting local businesses. Because my specialty is nutrition, I've been assigned the task of finding food for these parties. It's a great opportunity to give my fellow Phoenicians a chance to try some of the principles promoted on this blog--eat a variety of foods, organic and locally grown when possible--and to see that it actually tastes great!
The restaurant I am working with for next week's event is called The Breadfruit. It's a small but very popular joint in downtown Phoenix that obtains quite a few of its ingredients from the farmer's market around the corner. I joined The Breadfruit's Facebook fan page, and Sasha Ottey of PCOS Challenge, who is originally from Jamaica, commented that the breadfruit is a staple of Jamaica. So, for Sasha, I'm highlighting this food.
2. Women with PCOS often cut back what they are eating to just a small list of foods that they've culled from the Internet, at the expense of their dietary variety. I worked with eating disorders before specializing in PCOS, and my observation is that there is a lot more fear about food with PCOS than with eating disorders. I would guess, it has to do with wanting so badly to conceive, or lose weight, or whatever, that (unrealistic) magical powers to help or hurt PCOS start to be attached to certain food. There is no such top ten list of PCOS cure foods. In fact, the more varied your diet, the more nutrients you can get. So I wanted to pick a food that challenged all of you to think outside of that top ten list.
3. Dietary regimens for PCOS take all the fun out of food. It becomes a chore, eating the same foods over and over becomes boring, and eventually the backlash is likely to become a binge on foods that are counterproductive to PCOS. I encourage you all to have fun with food! Even if you're not coming to Get Your PHX next week, if you have an opportunity to try Jamaican food, or Korean food, or Bolivian food…don't pass it up! You might find something you like that you can add to your routine.
Back to breadfruit. What is it? It's a starchy staple of tropical nations around the world. It is typically cooked before eating, and it gets its name from its bread-like flavor. It can also be stored, fermented, and turned into a paste.
In economically disadvanted countries, breadfruit is consumed in large quantities that would not be appropriate for someone trying to balance their carbohydrate, protein, and fat intake. As a side dish, in moderation, it does provide vitamin C, choline, thiamine, niacin, vitamin B6, folate, and a lot of dietary fiber--11 grams per serving! And even though it is starchy, its glycemic index is not high, likely due to its fiber content.
So if you're out having fun, and the menu includes something exotic, don't pass it up just because it's not salmon, broccoli, walnuts, or blueberries. Mother Earth has a bounty of options that are good for you, fun to try, and pleasing to your palate.
Most people I work with know that they need to eat vegetables. They even eat them when served. But when it comes to planning, shopping for, and actually cooking them…there is a huge disconnect. Whenever I do a grocery store tour, I notice the participant body language change when we enter the produce section. When I start discussions about"How would you see using this?" there is often an uncomfortable silence before someone tries to answer.
One option I've really enjoyed for myself is a food coop. Rather than making up menus ahead of time, or showing up at a farmer's market not knowing what's going to be there and having to decide what to bring home, or having to make decisions in a crowded store at the end of a long day, a food coop simply puts together a food basket that you pay for in advance and pick up at a pre-determined time.
The beauty of this is that many of the decisions have been made for you. Your job is, to figure out how to use the items you've been provided. But the likelihood is, that since the food is already in your home, you'll eat it.
Years ago here in Phoenix I belonged to a food coop. I absolutely loved it. I would get things in my box I probably never would have purchased on my own, and what I learned in the process of researching recipes was always engaging. I have learned to like fennel bulbs and arugula thanks to that food coop.
Bountiful Baskets is a popular food coop here in Phoenix that many of my friends belong to. I love seeing their Facebook posts of what they got for the week, and following the conversations about ideas for what to do with the food. The picture in today's post is a picture of a typical purchase from Bountiful Baskets. They also, I learned in researching this, they also serve Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
For the busy person, this can be a timesaver as well as encouraging better food choices.
A few years ago I stumbled on a website that is a great resource for people wanting to learn about the relative health benefits of individual foods.
This website, www.nutritiondata.com, provides some PCOS-pertinent information in addition to the the traditional calories/carbs/vitamin content most other websites provide:
1. Fullness Factor: An indication of how physiologically full a food is likely to leave you feeling. For those of you who are trying to lose weight, the closer to the upper right hand corner you get, the more supportive of your weight loss goal that food is likely to be.
2. Caloric Ratio Pyramid: If you've been advised to eat a certain percentage of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, this section will tell you how closely you are meeting that goal.
3. Estimated Glycemic Load: Gives you an idea how your food choices are promoting…or discouraging…good insulin function.
4. Inflammation Factor: Since PCOS is a disease of inflammation, your goal is to have as anti-inflammatory of an eating pattern as possible.
You can keep your food diary here and see how a daily total adds up.
It's important to remember when using a tool such as this, there is no perfect way of eating, and no good or bad food. A food that is more inflammatory or less filling isn't bad, it's just one that needs to be eaten in smaller quantities in order to not throw your daily nutritional value in the pro-inflammatory direction.
I italicized the word physiological above because this tool does not work with emotional hunger. If you're using food to cope with depression, in response to negative pregnancy tests, or as an outlet for feelings you may have about PCOS-induced appearance issues…it's important to ask for help in learning outlets with less potential to be self-destructive.
Our"Food of the Week" feature is designed to help encourage a variety of foods, since many women dealing with PCOS have been on so many restrictive diets and yo-yoed back to an even higher weight, they often find themselves in a place where they don't even know how to get started on truly healthy eating. We can't possibly tell you every single food that will work, but we can trigger some ideas. With a tool such as this website, you can hopefully take the information you've learned here and apply it to your entire daily intake.
The last two weeks I have been spending a lot of time on my new gig with Chow Locally. It has been inspiring and eye opening for one interesting reason related to the readers of this blog. It has reminded me how normal people relate to food.
For the past 20 years I have worked, mostly with people who do NOT have a healthy relationship with food. It often leaves me feeling as though something is wrong with ME for eating the way that I do. Most of the people I am in contact with, with my work, are either clients who bounce back and forth between extremes of restrictive dieting and bingeing…or professionals who are very good with their analysis of food but not always great in the kitchen. Or…people working in the field who are there because of issues they had and may still have and are not admitting that they have them.
I honestly don't mean to offend anyone here…I am just saying it has been a wonderful experience to be in the real world with people who truly embrace I intuitive, mindful, healthful eating.
Here are some things these people do and do not do. Can you do these things? If you are shifting in your chair as you read this, consider that one of the reasons you are not able to make changes that would promote your hormone balance is because your relationship with food is not healthy. inCYST network members are happy to help you repair that relationship, on which you can build a healthy foundation of productive food behaviors.
Here is my list of Ten Signs of Healthy Eaters.
1. They try recipes, they don't just collect and/or read them.
2. They do not, after asking for help with recipe ideas, launch into a dissertation about why they eat raw/vegan/paleo/whatever. While they may do these things, it is not their lifestyle or their religion.
3. They have tolerance for ways of eating that are different than their own, even if those ways are not"healthy".
4. They don't need a nutritional breakdown, point value, or calorie count for everything they eat. They know that kale is inherently good, that fried kale is not going to be as nutritionally dense as kale salad, and that kale in general is a better choice than French fries. And so they eat kale. They don't order French fries and then monopolize the conversation explaining or apologizing for their choice. If they do order French fries, they eat them and savor them. They do not hide it, binge on them, or save them for that ridiculous thing known in some circles as a"cheat day".
5. Back to recipes. They use them as guidelines, not dictations. OK, so you forgot to buy the paprika. Make it anyway! Do not let it rot in the fridge because you were so perfectionistic that if you could not make the recipe exactly as directed you were not going to eat it at all.
6. If a new food is presented, they learn about it, ask about it, experiment with it, and try it. They don't offer an immediate"Blech!" simply because it is a new food.
7. If one recipe with a food doesn't work, they do not assume they do not like the food. they give it a couple of tries fixed in other ways before making that decision.
8. They know what is in season. They are in touch enough with Mother Earth to use seasonal variation as a menu guide.
9. While they may enjoy the occasional exotic food, they focus on what is available locally and have fun turning local foods into exotic creations.
10. They savor the finished product, often with a nice glass of wine. A well cooked meal is a work of art, a self-nurturing reward at the end of a hectic day. They would never consider eating it in the car or standing up in the kitchen.
This is my cat Rodeo. He's a 6 year old tabby who came into my life with his sister, when they were kittens living in the yard of my parents' forest cabin. Rodeo is the perfect name for him as he is very curious, industrious, and entertaining. He's a great pal, a bit of a mama's boy, always wanting to be right where I am.
About a month ago I woke up to a cat fight in my bathroom. After 15 minutes, when it didn't stop, I stumbled out of bed to find Rodeo's sister howling at him while he hyperventilated, drooled, and vomited blood. I was terrified, as he had never been sick with anything and he was clearly in tremendous pain.
We got into the vet, who poked and prodded and checked (and petted and gave Greenie treats), and finally diagnosed him with feline lower urinary tract disease (FLUTD). He had crystals in his urine, akin to kidney stones in humans, that were making it very painful for him to urinate.
FLUTD, it turns out, is a very common ailment in male cats as they approach Rodeo's age, and there is a very simple solution. Many commercial foods promote the development of the struvite crystals that were causing him so much pain. A diet change lowers the urine pH and solves the problem. Well, it's a simple solution on the human side of the equation.
Rodeo's vet prescribed a canned food called S/D to help dissolve the crystals, and another one called C/D for maintenance thereafter. And Rodeo absolutely hates the food. He has become obsessed with the kitchen, running in with me whenever he sees me headed in that direction. A few days ago he actually jumped INTO the refrigerator and sniffed around, then turned and looked at me like,"This is the best you can do?" And then he jumped down and slunk away with an indignant posture.
I've been killing myself trying to think of things to feed him so that he doesn't lose weight and create another problem. He's been getting half a trout every night. Trout used to be his treat, he'd stalk me all day when he saw me pull one out of the freezer. But now, it's just that thing he gets when all he wants is the good old dry food.
Earlier this week I walked into the bathroom where the old dry food bowl used to be, and found Rodeo lying down next to the toilet, head between his paws, wistfully gazing at the old dish. Every single time I head in there, he comes in and stares at the dish, as if all it's going to take to make things go back to normal, is to stare long enough at the place where the food used to be.
Rodeo has taught me a lot about food issues. Do they sound familiar?
1. Once you can't have what you want, you want it even more. 2. Once you have something that used to be a treat, every day, it kind of loses its thrill. 3. Some things just can't be done, no matter how healthy they might be.
I've been working with the vet on some compromises. Do they sound familiar?
1. We are going to try a dry food with a similar healthy formula, so that the part of the food that is comfortable to Rodeo, he gets to keep, and the part that the doctor wants to provide, is less noticeable. 2. We are going to mix the new food in with the old and gradually change over, so that the change is not as drastic. 3. We are going to let him have a handful of his favorite stuff in its pure form a couple of times a week.
We don't want perfection, we just want a general trend toward a different diet composition. Just enough to shift the biochemistry. Not so extreme to turn him into Super Cat. We just want him to have an improved quality of life. To be able to pee. And to hopefully never experience that pain again.
Rodeo is gradually accepting the changes, and gradually forgetting the old food bowl. It's the part where the change is occurring that is the hardest. On the other side of the change, life is not so bad.
If that part doesn't sound familiar, just keep at it. Someday you'll be right there with Rodeo.
OK, they finally had a dietitian tonight! And she was fun to watch. Not some sterile woman counting out food portions. No finger shaking. No weird, nasally voice. No"I'm-recovering-from-my-own-eating-disorder-and-don't-even-look-healthy" appearance, or overly perky personality. Just a normal person who knows about food…and who wants other people to enjoy food, too.
I think my favorite thing she did was the food taste test. It's the first time, in all of the seasons of this entire show, that someone actually talked about ENJOYING food. Well, food that is healthy. It tends to be so much about what you should and shouldn't eat. But…if you don't like the food you're eating, then you aren't going to stick with the plan.
She also talked about alcohol, another first. That was a nice piece to add.
I wish they'd delve a little more into the things that can be hard to talk about, but which get you into a situation where you apply to compete on a show like this. Such as binges. Eating in private. Tricks people use to make it look like they're eating less than they really are. Painful topics, I know…but it's the kind of thing that every viewer on my side of the screen with an eating problem can relate to and would love to hear some dialogue about.
I'm even willing to bet, if the producers of this program included a little bit more of that…they would still get ratings without Jillian yelling or exercising contestants until they vomit.
Overall, this was one of the best episodes in all seasons combined. Of course I'm biased because I'm a dietitian. But then this show in large part is about food and to not have that food person be an integral part of the program is like having Law and Order without any attorneys.
Clean Eating. It's the new buzzword in diet world. I know its users are well-intended, but I get concerned about some of the judgmental ways in which I see it being used. After all, in 30 years of doing this work, most of the people I've worked with have felt badly about themselves because of their weight, and they have a tendency to use their food language as a code for expressing that.
Got a news flash for you.
What you eat is what you eat. It's nothing more, nothing less.
Of course, the type of food that"clean eating" promotes is something I'm on board with. I'm just becoming concerned about how this term is taking on meanings about character and self-worth that it does not and will never deserve.
--It doesn't earn you brownie points in heaven. --It doesn't make you a better person than your neighbor or coworker. --It doesn't guarantee freedom from illness. --If it's not what you think you should be eating, and you eat it anyway, it doesn't earn you the right to a binge to punish yourself for the bad act you just committed.
You know what they say about porn, even if you can't specifically define it…you know it when you see it. Food that supports your best possible self is pretty obviously just that. Food that isn't, well, you know it when you see it. You don't even need me to write about it, really. What you mostly want here, is either for me to validate your choices or to inspire you to make different ones.
This blog is not about telling you what you should eat. It's about introducing you to foods you may have become afraid to eat because you've been told they're high-glycemic. Or too high in carbs (like those strawberries I wrote about the other day.) Or"unclean". Most of you have problems with your diets because they're not varied enough. Or because you're undoing the imbalances that too much restricting from some previous diet brought on.
I don't allow my clients to use words like"clean","good","right"…when describing their eating. It's counterproductive. It's really important for them to understand that as they are when they walk in the door, I enjoy their presence. There is nothing they are going to do to change that. If they didn't need help with their eating they wouldn't be coming to me in the first place, so there's no point in pretending to be perfect so I'll like them. I already like them.
I challenge you to start becoming aware of how many halos you attempt to hang over your head with your food language. When you stop focusing on using food to be acceptable, what is left? What is focusing on food allowing you to avoid? When we can figure that out…that's when the real changes can begin.
For a day, just a day, be aware of what kind of language you use to describe your food habits. Do your words suggest that you have more worth or value as a person because of what is on your plate? Or that you are a better person than someone else based on what they brought to work for lunch? If eating a certain way makes you feel better (more energy, mood stability, etc.), that's one thing. But if how you're eating makes you feel better or worse about yourself in general, it's time to take a look at why.
And we'd love your feedback. I gave PCOS Diva and soon-to-be inCYST Network member Amy Medling a heads up that this blog post was coming out. She's a big proponent of clean eating and I didn't want her to think I was singling her out in any way. Her immediate response was that maybe we should come up with a better way to describe it. So here's your chance. How can we describe eating that supports healthy metabolism that doesn't easily become a judgmental way to talk about your personal character? Any and all ideas are welcome.
And while you're figuring it out…take a moment and savor the lyrics of this song. It's really, really true. Even if your breakfast was an Egg McMuffin and not oatmeal, or you snacked on red vines instead of hummous and veggies.: )
One of the things I notice about sodium, in people who are watching it, is that they often overdo what they restrict. I think part of the problem has to do with the fact that sodim content is expressed in hundreds, and that sounds like a lot. Here's my favorite rule for evaluating sodium content, which helps to put it into perspective.
Milligrams of sodium and total calories, over the course of a day, should be roughly about the same. Here are some examples of foods that stand alone as being low sodium.
Calories Mg sodium
Apple 65 1 Carrot 52 88 Rice 205 2 Chicken breast, 3 oz. 231 104 1% milk, 8 oz. 102 107 1 c avocado cubes 240 11 Peanuts, dry roasted, unsalted, 1 oz. 164 2
Note that these are all foods that are pretty much occuring in their natural state, unadulterated. Look what happens when you start to process food
You can see that the ratio between sodium and calories climbs up, the more processed the food.
You can also see that even a Quarter Pounder would fit into a day's sodium count, provided…and that's a very qualified provided (for those of you looking for someone like me to justify your fast food habit!)…the rest of the food you eat, the rest of the day, is pretty much unprocessed. In my world, people either eat junk and fast food or they eat unprocessed food, and that kind of diligence simply isn't commonplace.
This is one of the reasons you hear so many nutrition experts advising to shop the perimeter of the store. It's the sodium-poor region.
One of the most common complaints I get from clients trying to follow recommendations for healthier eating is that it's more expensive. In this economy, that is not a problem to take lightly.
I would like to challenge you to consider whether you're actually doing your accounting correctly when you come to this conclusion.
First of all, consider that when changing your kitchen cabinets over to your new way of eating, you're completely replacing inventory. If you try to do a one time overhaul, and you're throwing out food in the process, it certainly can feel as if you're spending money in a wasteful fashion. How about, instead, replacing foods that you use up, with healthier alternatives? That can spread the initial investment out over time.
Secondly, if you're eating more at home, think about whether or not your food bill is grabbing your attention because it's concentrated one on receipt. One client I worked with a few years ago felt like his grocery bill had escalated when working with me, but when we factored in all the Starbucks and Subway runs and vending machine snacks that he'd eliminated, he was actually SAVING about $75 a month. That's where people often get nailed, in the nickel and diming that fast and snack foods do to your pocketbook. I like to only spend money on food using my debit card. That way when I enter it into Quicken, I can better track the expenditures I realistically can do without.
Thirdly, if the price you're paying for eating cheaper food is more doctor visits and medications, maybe it's not such a deal. Perhaps if you lump food and medical expenses together for the purposes of analysis, you'll see that even though you might be spending more money on food, the medical savings you experience more than makes up for the investment. That's what happened to the client I mentioned above. Within a month, he was able to cut his blood pressure medication needs in half.
If you're looking for a way to stretch your food dollar while still eating healthfully, check out this website: www.mambosprouts.com. Mambo Sprouts runs specials and manages coupons for stores like Whole Foods. Their website is full of healthy living ideas, recipes, and coupons to help you save money while changing your habits. And there's more! You can sign up for their newsletter and get regular electronic updates…with coupons to help you save money!
When changing behaviors, it's important to have consistent reminders to keep you on track. Simply resolving on January 1 that things are going to be different isn't likely to result in meaningful changes. Having a friendly reminder with money saving opportunities attached can be a fun incentive to actually make the changes that will make a difference.
Make 2009 the year your resolutions aren't just things you look forward to on January 1, but things you look backward to on December 31 and say to yourself,"Hey, I did it and I feel great!"
Why not cruise over to Mambo Sprouts and see what kind of deals they have?
One of the most frequently asked questions we get at inCYST, is whether or not a specific food raises blood glucose. It is understandable, given the fact that women with PCOS are insulin resistant and highly likely to develop diabetes, that this would be a concern.
And in response to that concern, it is understandable that nutrition and wellness experts often quote a list of foods to avoid in order to maintain a low-glycemic diet.
Did you know, this"low glycemic" list is highly variable? That even though there are trends, certain foods may affect one person more than another? and that a food that has a tendency to be"high glycemic" on its own…may be perfectly fine when eaten with a mixed meal?
Those high glycemic lists floating around the Internet tend to report the response of your body to a food when it is eaten by itself. So all of those people telling you not to eat carrots or bananas are not telling you the entire story. We rarely eat that way. If you dip carrots in hummus, or eat a banana in a smoothie with Greek yogurt, for example, your body will respond completely differently to that nutrient mix than it would eating either of those foods by themselves.
So when you ask us if a food raises blood sugar and whether or not you should eat it, unless someone has measured YOUR blood sugar two hours after you have eaten it, any advice they give you is pure surmising and not based on relevant factual information.
You can do these tests yourself, you know. All you have to do, is buy a glucose meter at your nearest drug store and test your blood sugar a couple of hours after eating a meal. And before you conclude whether or not a food doesn't work for you, you need to try it alone, in a mixed meal, and at different times of day in order to determine how your body interacts with it.
My point here is, a nutrition, fitness, or wellness expert who is merely parroting information he or she has read on another website and is not customizing that advice to YOU is doing you a disservice. You may be cutting out perfectly healthy foods that you could eat in the right situation. You may be dealing with a food sensitivity that is not going to respond to a low glycemic diet.
Why waste time on information anyone can Google when you can tailor information to your own personal situation?
We love to do this kind of detective work at inCYST, and our network members have taken a lot of time to learn how to interpret that kind of data and make specific recommendations based on how YOUR body works.
Listen to someone who doesn't know you and who may be misguiding you, for free…or get evidence-based, customized information with personal relevance. It may cost you in the short term but save you a lot of trouble in the end.
One of the most frequent questions I have gotten over the years, is whether or not a person should eat 3 square meals a day, or whether they should break that into 5 or 6 small meals.
The answer is…it depends.
If you are asking if I think you should make room in your diet for the top 10 foods people are likely to think of when they hear the word,"snack," the answer is no.
Unfortunately, we've let the food industry define"snack" for us, and if you look at the average snack machine in the break room, airport, or hotel, it is more likely to contain Pop Tarts, candy bars, and corn chips than it is apples, string cheese, or anything containing protein.
If you are asking if you should add more eating moments to your day without making your normal meals smaller…the answer is no. This is one of the issues I see with people switching to more meals. Their definition of meal is preset, and the switch adds unnecessary calories. If you want to eat more meals, each meal needs to be smaller so that the total adds up to be the same at day's end.
One of the biggest issues with PCOS is that large amounts of calories, especially when they are carbohydrate calories, are not handled well by the hormones that digest and absorb those calories. It may be easier for your body to process the food you eat if you do eat smaller amounts of food, more frequently.
All of your"eating incidents" should include some type of protein and a healthy fat. I almost don't like to use the words"meals" and"snacks", because each one conjures up images of what is and is not ok for each. I encourage you to redefine, and to eat what works best for you. When we use those words, it is almost as if one kind of eating is when we're doing healthy,"good" stuff, and the other is when we try to sneak in the other stuff. Every time you eat is an opportunity to be good to yourself, so be sure you choose wisely.
If an energy bar is an easier breakfast for you than a traditional breakfast, then do it!
If a half sandwich before bedtime is more reasonable than something that feels like a sweet and may trigger binge eating, then do it!
It can be challenging to figure out what plan works best for you. Here are some scenarios that would tell you a smaller, more frequent eating pattern might work better for you:
--you wake up not feeling hungry. If you didn't binge the night before, this may mean your blood sugar bottomed out overnight and your stress hormones released sugar to compensate while you were sleeping. A high protein meal/snack shortly before bed might help prevent this from happening.
--you eat a healthy meal, and just as you're finishing up, you start to feel ravenous. In this case, your blood sugar levels are telling you there was a dip prior to dinner, and the food you just ate has not had a chance to fix the problem. The answer is not to eat more food in the moment (as it is tempting to do), but to add a protein/carb combination a few hours before dinner to stablize your blood sugar.
--you participate in physical activity. You're simply going to need more food, more often, since you are using more energy.
--your schedule is not 9 to 5. If you work hours that interfere with our culturally standard mealtimes, you may do better with smaller meals that do not interfere with sleep. This is a situation where prepackaged foods that you can throw in a backpack or briefcase could be the answer.
A PCOS-trained dietitian can help you to analyze your food preferences, your lifestyle, and your own personal blood glucose response to certain types of foods. Whatever approach you determine is best for you. As I said, every time you eat is an opportunity to treat yourself well. Don't miss out!
This has been a stellar week in the world of nutrition and food politics. Early in the week, word got out that there is a move to rename high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) (apparently because sales have hit an all-time low). If this marketing strategy works, this sweetener will appear in food labeling as"corn sugar".
American consumers responded rapidly and impressively. All over Twitter, Facebook, and the blogosphere, it was clear that people did not take kindly to this information. They were insulted that the industry attempting to score this change in nomenclature assumed they were so stupid. And the worst way to maintain brand loyalty is to insult the people who give you money.
It's not looking like a name switch is gonna do it for the struggling HCFS industry. People have decided to take charge of their own health.
Later in the week, a major food company that uses HCFS as its sweetener, despite having been petitioned by consumers not to, announced a partnership with a major association representing health professionals. I'm not naming or linking to either party, because that would be rewarding them for acollaboration which is dubious at best.
It seems that this food company has decided to show interest in consumer health by using some of the money they earned by selling food containing an ingredient, HFCS, that is increasingly being associated with obesity, insulin resistance, and liver problems, among others…to pay for nutrition counseling purchased by the customers who bought that food and are now in need of health advice regarding what to do about it.
HUH?!?!?!? I'm not a WTF kind of writer, but WTF?!?!?
I'm not sure what the expectation here is, for those who accept money for providing these subsidized counseling visits? Are they expected to edit their advice? Overlook the glaring reality that one thing that may need to be eliminated from the diet…is the food that paid for their time in the first place?
My advice? Skip the middle men. Either don't buy the product, and if you find you still need health advice, use the money you therefore saved, to pay for it. Or, if you must have the product, look around for a version that is HCFS free. They are there.
This will hopefully be the next marketing faux-pas on the list of historic blunders. The one that includes the American car manufacturers tried to sell cars with steering wheels on the wrong side rather than make cars that worked with their customers' traffic rules.
When you stop listening to your customers, and act as though you know better than those customers what they want and need, your customers stop patronizing you.
Malnutrition is another cause of low progesterone. If you automatically assume that this can't apply to you, your loved one or a patient, because sitting in front of you they are"overweight", consider the many ways someone can be malnourished.
You can be malnourished if you eat a lot of calories without nutritional value. Eating a lot of junk food, and very few fruits and vegetables, for example, can deplete the body's supplies of important vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
You can be malnourished if you eat so much of one kind of food that in the process of metabolizing it, you burn through important nutrients. That can happen if you eat a lot of carbohydrates, for example, it uses up a lot of chromium.
You can be malnourished if the list of foods you eat is very narrow--even if all of them show up somewhere on the Internet as the"world's healthiest". You need variety in order to get all the nutrients that makes your hormones work.
You can be malnourished if you take certain medications. The list of nutrients that can be depleted on certain medications is long. If your physician or dietitian have never checked yours, maybe it's a good service to request on your next visit.
You can be malnourished if you only consider"nutrition" to be what you weigh and you starve yourself in order to change that number. That happens a lot with PCOS. It is an erroneous belief that overweight causes PCOS. PCOS is worse if your weight is too high, but your weight does not cause it. Eating healthfully will steer your weight down, if you need to lose some, but starving yourself may keep you stuck at a weight you'd rather not be at.
You can be malnourished if you yo-yo diet. That is what happens when you put all of the above together in one scenario. Eating disorders and PCOS go hand in hand. Most of the women I work with are soooooo afraid of food on our first visit. They don't eat anything because they're scared that one indiscretion will elevate their blood sugar, prevent that pregnancy, make the scale go up…and then when they can't take it anymore, they binge on all the foods they tried to avoid.
That is simply no way to live!
I had the most enjoyable visit with a client a few days ago who was exactly like that when we first met. I was so surprised when, in the middle of our visit, she took me into her kitchen and showed me her refrigerator, loaded with all kinds of fruits and vegetables. Then she cooked me some green beans in red chile that she'd created. We finished the visit over mango slices sprinkled with chile powder. (For another post!) It was such a turnaround, and I was so happy to see that the focus had become all of the wonderful things you can DO with food, instead of all of the sacrifices you have to make if you want to"eat healthy".
She's pregnant now. At one point she rubbed her belly and said,"Thank you, baby!" That little miracle we are all extremely excited to meet did her mama a huge favor by introducing her to food as something fun, and something to enjoy.
I am hoping that all of you enjoy your Thanksgiving dinners and think about what you eat as how you NOURISH, not what you DEPRIVE yourself of. It may prove to be an important part of pumping up your progesterone.
I know, I know, that includes a lot of foods. I promise after the holidays, I'll get back to information about specific foods. But it being the holidays, and the relationships we have with food during the holidays not always being healthy, I wanted to digress today.
Part of the reason I want to digress is because I've had some wonderful food experiences this week. Monday a friend and her husband invited people over for a Caribbean holiday dinner. From the mango-cucumber-avocado salad with the peanut butter chutney dressing to the platanos to the almond paste…it was fabulous! And most of all, the conversation around the table was a wonderful way to spend a blustery winter evening.
Last night Ivonne, who sometimes posts on this blog, asked me to meet her and her fiance so she could share some gingerbread (made with stout) that she loves to make over the holidays. Again, we spent a couple of hours chatting and laughing in the coffeeshop of a local Barnes and Noble and just enjoyed the company. And, I had a delicious yet unconventional treat for breakfast this morning!
These are not foods I normally eat, but Christmas is not a normal time of year. The important thing is not what I ate. It was how what I ate blended into the rest of my life. I am still working out, but I'm not adding an extra hour to make up for the extra calories. I am still enjoying the food, but I'm not starving myself in between to"account" for the goodies. And, I haven't thrown up my hands in defeat and started eating and drinking everything in sight with a"What's the use, I've blown it?" kind of attitude.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that when your life is balanced, that is, you're eating a variety of foods in moderation, you're physically active, you're getting enough sleep, and you're managing your stress, an occasional Caribbean meal or gingerbread breakfast, in the long run, shows up as a slight blip on the screen, but it doesn't send off the warning bells. But, only if you TREAT it as a blip on the screen.
There's no need to punish yourself with extra exercise, starvation, guilt, whatever, because you took the time to enjoy the food that accompanied the festivities. Holidays are not an excuse to eat, and they're not a reason to punish yourself. They're about family, friends, reflection, and celebration.
I sure hope you've got Ivonnes, Gerdas, Joses, and family in your life to help you partake in the fun! (I'll talk about comfort food next week after my family celebration.)
