Note: I've received quite a few compliments about this blog post. It was written and published without a single edit by Sarah Jones. Sarah is currently a nutrition student and Arizona State University and has been interning with me over this academic year. The attention to detail you see here is just how Sarah does things. I'm very lucky to have her, and glad she has shared such a timely topic in such a wonderful post. Thanks, Sarah!

You may have noticed that vitamin D has been a hot topic in the media lately and, at this point, it is likely that we as consumers are becoming overwhelmed by all the media hype. Recent studies have suggested that in prehistoric times, in addition to normal skeletal development, humans probably used vitamin D as a natural form of sunscreen. Before majoring in Dietetics, my basic knowledge of the role vitamin D played in the body is that it somehow worked with calcium to promote healthy bones. As it turns out, I had no idea how complex the relationship actually was between vitamin D and the human body! Let’s take a further look at vitamin D. Most of us may know vitamin D as the “sunshine vitamin.” We get it from the sun, right? Sure, but how? When ultraviolet light from the sun shines on a cholesterol compound in our skin, it is transformed into a vitamin D “precursor” (compounds that can be converted into active vitamins that the body can use) and is absorbed directly into the blood. The liver and kidneys finish converting the precursor to the active form of vitamin D. There are two major forms of vitamin D; these are vitamin D₂ (ergocalciferol), which is present in plants, and vitamin D₃ (cholecalciferol), which is present in the skin of animals. Vitamin D was discovered in 1920 and was originally classified as a vitamin. However, it has since been revealed that vitamin D is actually a hormone (steroid) since it can be synthesized by the body when exposed to sunlight. Essentially, the major biologic function of vitamin D is to maintain normal blood levels of calcium and phosphorus in our bodies, which aids in the absorption of calcium and helps to form and maintain strong bones. Vitamin D₃ is the most active form of the vitamin, which is what you will see in most supplements. Obtaining vitamin D from sunlight presents no risk of vitamin D toxicity because the body is able to regulate the vitamin D precursor – see what I mean about complex! But, as we know, getting too much sun puts us at risk for skin cancer. Since moving to Arizona, I have started wearing sunscreen everyday to decrease my risk of skin cancer, but sunscreen can reduce or prevent the synthesis of vitamin D. And, because vitamin D is one of the most toxic of all the vitamins, taking supplements can put us at risk for toxicity. Now you may be thinking, I wear sunscreen, I am concerned about supplementing without first consulting my doctor, and I live in an area that does not get much sunlight during this time of year, what foods can I eat that have vitamin D in them? As far as foods are concerned, dietary vitamin D is provided primarily by foods of animal origin, especially liver, beef and eggs (mainly the yolk). You can also find vitamin D in dairy products such as milk, cheese and butter. Lastly, vitamin D is in some saltwater fish, including tuna, salmon, herring and sardines. Because few foods naturally have substantial vitamin D content, i n the United States there are pre-selected foods, such as milk, cheese, margarine and yogurt as well as some orange juice, bread, and cereals that have been fortified with vitamin D. If you are a vegetarian, you likely will not be obtaining vitamin D by eating liver, beef or fish, but you may still be eating eggs and dairy products. I mentioned yogurt as a source of vitamin D, but after a trip to the grocery store and looking at no less than ten brands of yogurt, I was stumped! I was hard pressed to find yogurts that have been fortified with vitamin D. However, it was not a complete loss, as I eventually spotted one (which also happens to be one of my favorite brands). Stonyfield Organic Yogurt has fortified most of their yogurt products with vitamin D₃. Here is a list from their labels of the “percent of daily values based on a 2,000 calorie diet”: Organic Fat Free Smooth and Creamy 6 oz (all flavors): 20% of D₃ Organic Fat Free Fruit on the Bottom 6 oz (all flavors): 15% of D₃ Organic Low Fat Smooth and Creamy 6 oz (all flavors): 20% of D₃ Organic Low Fat Fruit on the Bottom 6 oz (all flavors): 15% of D₃ Their soy and Greek yogurt’s do not have vitamin D, but they also make six and ten ounce organic smoothies that contain vitamin D. Additionally, they have two other products that are worth mentioning: “B-Healthy and B-Well.” B-Healthy includes omega-3 fatty acids, as well as three of the B vitamins ( B₃ or Niacin, B₅ or Panthothenic Acid and B12). B-Well contains vitamin B₆, probiotic cultures and vitamin D. According to their website, if you live in the Phoenix area, Stonyfield Organic Yogurt can be found at: Bashas’, AJ’s Fine Foods and Sprouts Farmers Market.

References

I recently received a newsletter from one of our network members that I wanted to share with you. Karen Siegel, in addition to being a registered dietitian, is a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist. Her practice is located in Houston, Texas. She writes a wonderful newsletter entitled,"Qi Mail", which some of you might really enjoy. I am pasting the contents of her most recent newsletter for you to sample. Karen's contact information is listed below, if you'd like to schedule an appointment, or sign up to personally receive these wonderful newsletters. The actual layout is much more beautiful than what I can reproduce here, I can only paste the content in Blogger's format. As many of you are likely rushing around this weekend to get the last few holiday gifts, foods, and details taken care of, I thought this topic was especially pertinent. Enjoy!

REST, RESTORE, REVITALIZE

In nature, winter is the season where all living things slow down, conserve their energy and prepare for the outburst of new life and energy in the spring. Our bodies are instinctively expressing the fundamental principles of winter – rest, restoration and revitalization.

The Nei Ching, one of the earliest surviving medical books on acupuncture, advises:
“During the winter months one should refrain from overusing energy. Retire early and get up with the sunrise, which is later in winter. Desires and mental activity should be kept quiet and subdued, as if keeping a happy secret.”

Eating warm hearty soups, dressing warmly, and refraining from cold and raw foods is also recommended.

Element: Water
Nature: Yin
Organs: Kidney, Urinary Bladder, Adrenal Glands, Ears and Hair
Emotion: Fear and Depression
Flavor: Salty

Seasonal acupuncture treatments in winter serve to nurture and nourish kidney Qi (the organ associated with winter) which can greatly enhance the body's ability to thrive in times of stress and aid in healing, preventing illness, and increase vitality.

Call now for more information or to schedule your seasonal tune-up

De-stress this Winter with Acupuncture

While optimal health and well-being in the winter season calls for rest, energy conservation and the revitalization of body and spirit, your holiday activities may have a different agenda. This year can be filled with a mad scramble of visitors, family get-togethers and frantic shopping trips. Compound the usual seasonal pressures with the constant barrage of bad economic news and you may find this to be one of the most stressful times of the year.

Stress, frustration and unresolved anger can cause a disruption in the flow of qi or energy through the body. These energetic imbalances can throw off the immune system or cause symptoms of pain, sleep disturbances, mood changes, abnormal digestion, headaches, and menstrual irregularities, and, over time, more serious illnesses can develop. Acupuncture treatments can correct these imbalances and directly effect the way you manage stress.

Studies on Acupuncture and Stress

Numerous studies have demonstrated the substantial benefits of acupuncture in the treatment of stress.

A 2008 study published in Anesthesia & Analgesia found that acupuncture point alleviated preoperative anxiety in children while a 2003 study conducted at Yale University showed that ear acupuncture significantly lowered the stress level of the mothers of children that were scheduled for surgery.

A German study published in Circulation found that acupuncture significantly lowers both systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The extent of the blood pressure reductions by acupuncture treatments was comparable to those seen with antihypertensive medication or aggressive lifestyle changes, including radical salt restrictions.

Another study from the University of New Mexico measured the affects of acupuncture on 73 men and women with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The researchers found the acupuncture treatments to be as helpful as the standard treatment of cognitive behavioral therapy.

Needless to say, if the stress in your life is throwing you off balance, consider acupuncture therapy to regain peace of mind, regulate your immune system and stay healthy.

Miso Soup with Scallions

Did you know that Miso Soup with Scallions is actually an ancient herbal remedy for colds?

In 300 AD famous herbalist, Ge Hong, writes about Miso Soup with Scallions in a book called, Bei ji zhou hou fang or Emergency Formulas to Keep Up One’s Sleeve.

The soup is indicated for the onset of a cold when a person is just beginning to feel a headache, stuffy nose and a slight fever. So, the next time you feel a cold coming on, be sure to have your miso!

Miso Soup (Serves 4)

Ingredients:

* 6 cups water
* 3-4 Tablespoons Aka Miso or red soy bean paste (usually sold in the refrigerated section)
* 3-5 green onions stalks, chopped

Directions:

* Dissolve the miso in a little bit of boiling water (about 2 tsp.)
* Bring water to a boil in a saucepan and add the miso & scallions.
* Simmer for 5-10 minutes.
* Remove from heat top with green onions and serve.

Variations: you can add various other ingredients to make a more substantial soup, such as tofu, seaweed, fresh mushrooms, cooked shrimp, snow pea sprouts, cooked rice noodles, or paper-thin slices of fresh ginger.

Be a Good Friend
Refer someone you know for acupuncture and get $10 off your next acupuncture treatment.

Stress Busting Foods

The foods that you eat play a crucial role in your overall well-being as well as your ability to handle stress.

Over 1400 chemical changes occur as stress hormones, such as cortisone, sap important nutrients such as B vitamins, vitamin C and magnesium from the body.

Here are three foods that can replenish your supply of these nutrients and enhance your ability to manage stress:

Cauliflower – Cauliflower and other cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, cabbage, and kale are chock full of stress-relieving B vitamins. Cauliflower is also one of the very best sources of vitamin B5 or pantothenic acid.

Pantothenic acid helps turn carbohydrates and fats into usable energy and improves your ability to respond to stress by supporting your adrenal glands. Fatigue, listlessness, numbness and tingling or burning pain in the feet are all indications that you may need more vitamin B5 in your diet.

Salmon – Salmon is a healthy and delicious way to get your dose of B vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids. Vitamin B12 supports production of red blood cells, allows nerve cells to develop properly and is essential to the synthesis of the “happy” brain chemical serotonin.

Among the many benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, a 2003 study published in Diabetes & Metabolism found that a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids significantly reduced the stress response and kept the stress hormones cortisol and epinephrine in check.

Blackberries – Blackberries are jam packed with Vitamin C, calcium and magnesium. Vitamin C has shown to be a powerful stress reducer that can lower blood pressure and return cortisol levels to normal faster when taken during periods of stress.

Magnesium and calcium act together to help regulate the body's nerves and muscle tone. When there is too little magnesium in your diet, nerve cells can become over activated and can trigger muscle tension, muscle soreness, muscle spasms, muscle cramps, and muscle fatigue.

Blackberries have more than double the amounts of vitamin C, calcium and magnesium than their popular cousin, the blueberry.

Karen Siegel MPH, MS, RD, LD, L.Ac.
9660 Hillcroft, Suite 202
Houston, TX 77096
713-721-7755
karensclinic@gmail.com

My friend Steven recently returned from a vacation to Australia. He shared this photo of vegemite ice cream! It reminded me that our friends Down Under have a culinary love affair with a food our vegan readers should become better acquainted with. That is, brewer's yeast.

Vegemite (also known as Marmite if it is produced in the UK, New Zealand, or South Africa, and Cenovis if made in Switzerland) is a dark paste made from brewer's yeast leftover after the brewing process. It's most commonly eaten as a spread on bread, as shown in this photo.

Some of the more common descriptions of Vegemite's taste include: salty, bitter, like beef bouillon. One friend described as"Australian miso". It's never really taken off in the United States, but my friends from places where it is common do seem to"Jones" for it when they've gone awhile without a fix.

Nutritionally, Vegemite is an incredible powerhouse! It is very high in thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, and folic acid, all vitamins which women with PCOS need more of. Kraft, maker of Vegemite, has a website with some interesting recipes for the adventurous reader, including this one for a roast pumpkin and leek risotto. I may have to buy some myself just in the name of trying that one!

One of the things I like about Vegemite is that it is actually made from the leftovers of the beer-making process. In short, leftover yeast cells are processed and combined with salt, celery extract, and onion extract to make the popular black paste. So it's green as well as nutritious, meaning everyone wins!

If you happen to be reading this from Vegemite's home turf, be on the lookout for a new product released just last month. My First Vegemite, actually designed for children, is 50% lower in sodium. It's also fortified with vitamins B6 and B12, which makes it even more attractive to vegans, who have a hard time finding sources of vitamin B12 that are compatible with their food philosophy.

While nutrition purists may insist that Vegemite is too salty, I maintain that in moderation, and used in other recipes, it has its benefits. Amazon.com has not yet picked up this new product but I did find it on eBay.

I'm not an expert on this food, but I'm told Vegemite's cousin Marmite, which is actually available at the local Fresh and Easy, is milder in flavor and also contains vitamin B12 which the original Vegemite does not. That IS available on amazon.com if you're not close to Australia, Fresh and Easy, or other store catering to expat Aussies.

I'm still wrapping my head around vegemite ice cream…though my adventures with jalapeno beer (local), reindeer sausage (on a trip to Alaska), and elk steak (on a ski trip to Steamboat Springs) were far from disappointing. Hmmmm…may I'll have to scheme a business trip to Australia and do some in-depth journalism…

To our many Aussie readers, thank you for your visits! I see you on our stats and I appreciate your visits. I've actually been timing new posts to show in concert with YOUR early evenings, not ours. I hope you find us helpful, mates…be sure to ask questions when you have them! And if you have ideas for how to use your food that we newbies might appreciate, please share!

To our vegan readers, stay tuned. More on brewer's yeast tomorrow. You REALLY need to become friendly with this nutritional gem.

inCYSTer Christine Marquette recently gave a great, detailed webinar about supplements and PCOS. In it, she pointed out that there are certain nutrients women with PCOS may need more of because their metabolism is altered.

What I've been wondering ever since, is whether or not they need more because their intentional eating plans have thrown them out of balance…or would they need more even if they ate absolutely perfectly? The research does support these additional needs, but what the studies do NOT do, is provide women with healthy food for a period of time to discern whether those needs exist even when the diet has been brought back into balance. I suspect the needs would still be different, although not perhaps not quite as remarkable as they are when you're not eating well.

I thought, once a week, I'd introduce you to a vitamin or mineral and challenge you to see if you eat enough of it, regularly, over the course of the day.

Once you bring all of your vitamins and minerals back to baseline, then you can more accurately determine whether or not supplementation is going to work for you. If you want to check out how you're doing, check out http://www.fitday.com/, where you can enter all of your foods and check out how your own intake measures up to the recommendations for the vitamins and minerals.

Vitamin A
How do you do with the following foods?
liver carrots broccoli leaves (not the commonly eaten florets) sweet potatoes butter kale spinach pumpkin collard greens cantaloupe egg yolks
Keep this list handy over the next week and think of ways you can be sure you're getting enough vitamin A. Here are some suggestions.
1. If you make your own smoothies, be sure to throw a handful of leafy greens into them. Even if they're fruit flavored, a handful won't make a difference flavor-wise, but they'll make a huge difference nutrition-wise.
2. If you juice, which is the easiest way to get tons of vitamin A, be sure to balance all that carbohydrate with some protein. The biggest problem with juicing for people who tend to be insulin resistant is the huge carbohydrate load in comparison to the protein juice tends to not provide.
3. Always buy the darkest possible greens for your salad
4. Think kale chips, broccoli chips, etc. They're easy to make and tasty to munch on!
5. If that hour between arriving home and eating dinner is a problem, stock your refrigerator with baby carrots and hummous to snack on while you wait.
6. Try putting spinach leaves instead of plain lettuce on your sandwiches.
7. I'm a huge fan of omelets and frittatas. I never ate Swiss chard until I learned to put it into a frittata. It's also a great way to clean out the vegetable bin at the tail end of the week, it's a cheap dinner (it adds some eggs to your diet), and it's so easy on those nights when you come home exhausted and not wanting to think about anything complicated for dinner.
8. Boil up some eggs and keep them handy for snacks and to top salads with. We tend to be afraid of eggs because of the outdated information about cholesterol. They're actually quite healthy, quite convenient, and something that can make getting vitamin A…as well as protein…a little bit easier.
9. Still have an abundance of vegetables after eating the frittata? Why not make some soup! I have a slow cooker and it is the best appliance for making an easy dinner. A few minutes in the morning and I've got the house smelling great by late afternoon. If thinking about this in the morning while you're rushing out the door just isn't going to work…try putting everything in the slow cooker the night before and programming your smart phone to remind you to plug it in before you leave for work.
10. Stir fry! It's quick and it's easy. You can also buy chopped up vegetables if you want it to be even easier.
OK, let's do it! Let us know how you do with the challenge, or if you have new suggestions to add.

I've always wanted to take this topic on but everytime I started, and I looked at the list of supplements needing to be covered, I've been overwhelmed.

Thank heavens for a network of professionals with different interests and talents! Christine Marquette, RD, LD, HFS, CLT, has recently released an e-book on this very topic. If you order it be sure to use the coupon code she's created for inCYST fans, INCYST10, for a 10% discount.

I've actually talked her into doing a webinar for us as part of the 2011 PCOS training. To name a few, Chris is covering: cinnamon, turmeric, American Ginseng, Saw Palmetto, D-Chiro-inositol, L-Arginine, Alpha-Lipoic Acid, the B vitamins, vitamins C, D, and a few minerals (calcium and magnesium).

Click here if you'd like to buy Chris' e-book on PCOS supplements.

If you'd like to test drive our professional training with this session, you can register for this topic alone ($40) at this link. If it turns out you like what you hear…you can apply the money you invest into our complete training ($425) if you do so on or before December 31, 2011.

Most people, by the time they find this blog, have been introduced to the idea that carbs are"bad".

I propose a new way of thinking.

Carbs, when eaten to satisfy insatiable carbohydrate cravings, are being used to feed a potentially destructive biochemical imbalance.

Carbs, when eaten as part of a balanced diet, and when chosen from unrefined foods that also provide fiber, vitamins, minerals, and anti-oxidants, can be incredibly important in overall health and recovery from PCOS.

By now this blog has quite a bit of information on what you can do to help your carbohydrate cravings. So today I wanted to talk about a carbohydrate that can be helpful to include.

Ezekiel bread gets its name from the fact that its ingredients are all mentioned in the Bible verse Ezekiel 4:9.

"But as for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and spelt, put them in one vessel and make them into bread for yourself; you shall eat it according to the number of the days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days."

The bread is supposedly nutritionally complete. I'm not so sure about that, but I do know because it contains bean flour it is much higher in protein than your average bread. And, Biblical scholar or not…it can be a great food to add to your diet so that sandwiches, a handy convenience food, don't have to be eliminated from your"things I can pack for lunch" list.

I like to call our PCOS diet an"aggressive Mediterranean" diet. And because this recipe originates from the Bible, it falls in that category.

These days, Ezekiel bread is pretty easily found in most healthy food stores. The folks at Food for Life have trademarked the name"Ezekiel 4:9", and they've ventured into other products such as pasta, that you may be interested in trying.

If you cannot find Ezekiel bread in your local store, I found the recipe online for you to make it yourself.

Turkey sandwich piled with veggies…here I come!

I recently started to tell a good friend about the antioxidant power of turmeric. He stopped me midsentence.

"What is it with all this antioxidant stuff? First it was pomegranates. Then it was Mongolian gojis. It's something different every day."

(Insert big sigh and eye roll here.)

"Can you even tell me what an antioxidant looks like?"

My friend's reaction verified something I've sensed for awhile now. In our quest to show how much we know about antioxidants, we've thrown long words and catch phrases at the public, to the point where the concept has become nothing more than hype.

It's not long after any concept hits"hype mode" that it becomes passe. And being passe is absolutely not what the average antioxidant should be, to ANYONE.

So, I'd like to answer my friend's question. My answer is somewhat long, but I will do my best to encourage him--and you--to see past the hype that's been flung at all those innocent pomegranates and beets and Indian curries!

Here are ten important things to know about antioxidants.

1. AN ANTIOXIDANT IS LIKE RUSTPROOF FOR YOUR BODY. Oxidation is the natural process of something breaking down over time. On your car, oxidation looks like rust. Oxidation in humans isn't much different; it's somewhat of a biological rusting out process. So an antioxidant, really, is human rustproofing.

2. AN ANTIOXIDANT SLOWS DOWN AGING. This is primarily a blog for women with PCOS. What does aging have to do with that? PCOS is a disease of inflammation, and inflammation is an aging process. If you stand back and look at the big picture, a lot of the symptoms of PCOS are actually indications of an accelerated aging process--arthritis, forgetfulness, poor sleep, diabetes at an early age, premature menopause--I am struck at how many of my clients really present as old people in young peoples' bodies. Just as there really is no cure for the wear and tear on the body of a car that works better than prevention, PCOS needs preventive action. It's about choosing food, activity and lifestyle behaviors that make it easier for your body to stay young. It IS possible to reverse some aging, but it's a whole lot easier to prevent aging before it happens. Making good antioxidant choices every day is an important part of your personal rustproofing plan (PRP).

3. DON'T JUDGE AN ANTIOXIDANT BY ITS SCRABBLE SCORE. This one drives me nuts. Nutritionists tend to be extremely detail oriented, and they seem to have adopted this compulsion to throw dozens of new long words at the public. I am equally as nerdy when it comes to biochemistry, but there is a place for those words. If seeing them in an article isn't inspiring you to put some new and different foods on your shopping list, what's the point?

I don't believe in dumbing down the public, but I have to admit, much of what I read has MY eyes glazing over because how the word was spelled or pronounced was apparently more important to the author than what's in it for me to care.

If you're adding a few beets at the salad bar or learning to cook Indian curries, that's what matters. The chemicals will help you to be healthier, whether or not you can spell or pronounce them.

4. THE BEST ANTIOXIDANTS ARE FOUND IN THEIR ORIGINAL PACKAGING. I graduated from college in 1982, and there were only a handful of antioxidants to learn about at the most. Back then (I guess you could say the nutritional dark ages!) we learned mostly about vitamins and minerals. Many of the compounds we knew about, were extracted and sold as"complete nutritional replacements". Of course, the definition of"complete" was based on our limited knowledge of what food actually contains. They weren't really complete because they did not contain the antioxidant compounds we didn't even know about!

That, for me, was a huge lesson learned, about how much of an expert I can truly be in this field. There will always be things I don't know, and need to know, and my responsibility as a health educator is to be as complete in talking about what I don't know as I do about what I do know.

Therefore, my advice when it comes to antioxidants and supplements, is not to focus on what the most important, most perfect antioxidant might be, then to extract it and consume it in large quantities. Rather, look for opportunities to eat whole foods that are as close to the ground and/or tree when you consume them. The more something is sliced, diced, extracted, powdered, concentrated, the less like nature it is.

Remember, whole is best. There may be important nutritional compounds we have yet to learn about that aren't in those expensive antioxidant supplements.

5. ANTIOXIDANTS ARE COLORFUL CHARACTERS. Your plate needs a variety of colors if it's also going to contain antioxidants. I created this graphic last summer to illustrate the concept. If you're eating lots of reds and blues, and are judicious about which white foods you choose, that's a good start. But remember the greens, yellows, and oranges, too! It's really not that hard to choose colorfully. A plate of food that contains a lot of colors is also attractive. Would you rather have a plate of white fish, cauliflower, and mashed potatoes, or a chicken salad packed with apples, walnuts, and spinach?

Eat patriotically--doesn't matter what country--if you put color on your plate, you can't go wrong.

6. ANTIOXIDANTS LOVE A GOOD PARTY! Antioxidants tend to be more effective in the presence of other antioxidants. In other words, you'll get more bang for your buck out of Compound A if you are also eating Compound B. That's why there is no such thing as the ultimate antioxidant. Just like you have less fun at a party if you act like a wallflower, your"health party" will be a whole lot more worthwhile if you introduce and mingle different compounds.

7. ANTIOXIDANTS LOVE THE GYM. Antioxidants have an interesting relationship with exercise. Exercise, because it raises metabolism, is actually an oxidative activity. However…when you exercise regularly, your body becomes more efficient at storing antioxidants for future use, and then mobilizing them to areas where exercise has raised your metabolism. To get the best advantage out of exercise, it's important to (1) not overexercise, but (2) exercise regularly, and (3) be sure the diet you eat on a regular basis is full of colorful foods.

8. ANTIOXIDANTS ARE HOMEBODIES. When fruits are picked early so they can be shipped to distant markets, they're not allowed to ripen and develop their fullest antioxidant potential. When fruits are processed so they can be stored and consumed through off-seasons, they lose antioxidant power. So while I love blueberries and I appreciate their antioxidant power, they are more of a summer treat for me. Since I live in Arizona, I try to eat lots of citrus in the winter, watermelon in the summer, and to use foods from other areas as occasional treats. Every locality has its specialties. Become familiar with what's in season in your area, and if you travel, experiment with local specialties. A Goji berry is definitely a powerful antioxidant tool, but you can be antioxidant friendly even if your plate was not partially picked by distant farmers on exotic hillsides. Some of your greatest antioxidant friends may be lurking just down the road at your local organic farm.

9. ANTIOXIDANTS SHOULD NOT BREAK YOUR BUDGET. When you eat seasonally, you should also save money. In fact, one of the easy way to know what fruits and vegetables are in season is to look for what is cheap! If you frequent your local farmer's market, what you see at the majority of the stands is likely the local seasonal offering. I like eating seasonally because foods move in and out of my menu and I don't get bored because I'm eating the same thing over and over again. Get to know how seasons affect food availability in your area, and plan menus around that. It is fun, not to mention tasty!

10. THE BEST ANTIOXIDANT OF ALL--IS A PROACTIVE LIFESTYLE. OK, here's a picture of an antioxidant. (A face only a molecule mother could love…) What it looks like isn't as important as what it does. An antioxidant keeps you healthy and young! Any choice you make that creates an imbalance--too much exercise and not enough rest, not enough sleep, an imbalanced diet, poor stress management--puts you at risk of antioxidant deficiency. If you're not making good lifestyle choices and assuming a supplement will absorb the imbalance, you're putting yourself at even greater risk. Be sure your diet has a lot of variety and color.

Even better, apply that mentality to the rest of your life.
--Create a social support network with a variety of personalities that encourage the best in you to come out, and who accept you for who you are without unrealistic expectations.
--Participate in a few different physical activities that allow muscles to rest while others work.
--Do things that make you laugh! (Yes, in a way, your favorite corny movie is an antioxidant!)
--Do something creative.

There are many kinds of antioxidants that have nothing to do with nutrition. Be sure your choices add up to move you in the direction of capitalizing on them, rather than putting you in a position where you need to supplement to reverse damage that didn't need to be done.

OK, good friend, I hope I answered your question and you made it to the end of this blog post without rolling those eyes again!

I don't have to tell you this is one of your crucial vitamins. It's important for becoming pregnant, staying pregnant, and helping your unborn baby to grow and develop. It's just a super hard nutrient to get in, when your appetite is driven by carbohydrate cravings.

PCOS Diva, once again, has created a wonderful set of menus focusing on including folate. Check them out (below), pick even one to try and see if it's something you can add to your rotation.

Last week I had the opportunity to eat at a wonderful and popular restaurant in Venice, California, Lemonade. Today's picture is a photo of me with my plate and my friend's plate from that lunch. You couldn't go wrong in that place, practically everything on the menu offered a hormone-friendly benefit. It was such a contrast to the weekend before when I found myself in an unfamiliar part of town when the lunchtime hungries rolled around. I walked in to a Burger King. And while I ordered the chicken sandwich, I had to special order to keep the sauce off, and everywhere I looked, if there wasn't a promotional ad encouraging me to eat something sugary or fatty, someone WAS eating something sugary or fatty. I rarely step into these establishments and I felt completely out of my element.

I'm guessing it works the other way around. If you're used to fast food restaurants, a place like Lemonade might seem a little intimidating. So for another writing gig, I went through Lemonade's menu and listed the items they offered that were high in folate.

A big part of eating better is getting used to being in environments that support the change. It's not going to happen in a place where the profit margin is largely supported by foods that do not support health. In a place that is devoted to making healthy eating easy, the hardest decision you're going to have…which I faced in Lemonade…was figuring out WHICH healthy route to go!

If you think the reason you cannot eat better because you don't enjoy cooking, or do not feel like you have the time to do it, get in the habit of patronizing establishments that incorporate the foods we encourage you to eat. Order a little extra to take home for dinner, or if you're eating dinner out, for lunch the next day. Make it hard for yourself to have a reason to walk into fast food world. Eventually, you'll wonder why it was ever even an option.

Folate foods (foods with asterisks are fortified with added folate)

Breakfast cereals
Beef liver
Cowpeas (blackeyes)
Breakfast cereals
Spinach
Great Northern beans
Asparagus
*Rice, white
Vegetarian baked beans
Green peas
Broccoli
*Egg noodles
Broccoli,
Avocado
Peanuts
Lettuce, Romaine
Wheat germ
Tomato Juice
Orange juice
Turnip greens
Orange
*Bread
Egg,
Cantaloupe
Papaya
Banana

It's that time of year when anything even slightly cool and moist is all I want to eat. Watermelon…mmm…watermelon.

I'm lucky to live in melon country, where for much of spring and fall we can get melons cheaply and abundantly. I just love how watermelon cools me down when I snack on it in the middle of a hot afternoon.

As much as I love watermelon, I never used to eat much of it because it seemed, with its size and storage challenges, to be a little too high maintenance. Then it occurred to me, why not cut it up as soon as I bring it home? And now, that's exactly what I do. I buy the watermelon, cut it into chunks, and store it in a container that is right at eye level in the refrigerator. That way, when I get the munchies and open the refrigerator to see what I have, the beautiful red color catches my eye and reminds me I have healthy options. Often times a couple of chunks is all I need to feel satisfied.

I think, a lot of times, when we think we're hungry, we're actually thirsty. Which is why watermelon is so satisfying. It quenches my thirst before I've eaten and realized I wasn't hungry after all.

Nutritionally, watermelons are high in vitamin C and the antioxidant lycopene, not to mention some B vitamins.

If you're feeling more ambitious, consider making an agua fresca. This is a Mexican specialty in which fruits are juiced, then diluted, and spiced up with a bit of lime juice. You get the flavor of the fruit for a lot less sugar than regular juice. They're awesome! Here's a basic recipe for you: http://www.whats4eats.com/recipes/r_bev_aguafresca.php. Note that you can even make agua fresca with cucumber!

Not long ago, I stopped into Planet Raw, in Santa Monica. It's a very popular hangout for raw foodists, so I wanted to see what the buzz was about. I actually enjoyed perusing the shelves, and they did have some fun things to buy for the more adventurous cook. I'll probably eat there from time to time, as it's a stone's throw away from my office.

However…I had a most disturbing conversation with one of the employees. When she learned that I was a dietitian, she commented,"Cool, maybe you can help then. We're having trouble finding protein sources. Do you have any ideas?"

So I mentioned Growing Naturals, the rice protein powder that I wrote up last week.

"Oh, we don't do rice."

When I asked why, she responded by explaining that Planet Raw's owner"doesn't do rice".

So I suggested pea protein.

"Oh, we don't do peas, either."

When I asked why, she responded by explaining that Planet Raw's owner"doesn't do peas".

I could see I wasn't going to get anywhere because I was in a food religion debate, not an evidence-based scientific discussion, so I politely guided the conversation to its end.

I later went to the website (which you can Google for yourself, I won't provide free advertising for this place through linking), and could find absolutely nothing explaining this philosophy. I saw plenty of advertising for expensive certifications as raw chefs, and courses for raw foodists…which, in essence, kind of seemed like me to be expensive courses on how to promote malnutrition.

I do my best to be positive and inspiring rather than confrontational on this blog, but sometimes I get pushed past my limit of tolerance. This philosophy, especially for women with PCOS who need a decent amount of protein in their diet to reduce the influence of insulin resistance, is simply dangerous.

Of course, a diet that is heavy on the raw, is perfectly fine. It means you're eating plenty of fruits, vegetables, nuts…all great sources of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber. But a completely raw diet needs to be taken on with a lot of thought, not be a source of pride with regard to how many foods you can find an excuse not to eat. Here is why.

At the same time raw food diets have been studied and found to have benefit, they have also been associated with many problems women with PCOS already have.

lower bone density,
amenorrhea and underweightness in women,
dental erosion with a raw vegan diet,

elevated plasma homocysteine and low serum HDL cholesterol" and vitamin B12 deficiency.

Bottom line? Enjoy your occasional lunch at Planet Raw, and buy their coconut flour. But don't depend on them for advice when it comes to how to eat this diet in a way that allows you to reduce the influence PCOS has on your life.

For the record, I am NOT anti-raw. I am anti-malnutrition, and anti-inflammation. Be sure you know the difference if you choose to pursue a raw foodist lifestyle/food religion.

Fontana, L; Shew, JL; Holloszy, JO; Villareal, DT. Low bone mass in subjects on a long-term raw vegan diet." Archives of Internal Medicine 165 (6): 684–9, 2005.

Koebnick, C; Strassner, C; Hoffmann, I; Leitzmann, C. Consequences of a long-term raw vegan diet on body weight and menstruation: results of a questionnaire survey. Annals of Nutrition & Metabolism 43 (2): 69–79, 1999.

Ganss, C; Schlechtriemen, M; Klimek, J. Dental erosions in subjects living on a raw food diet. Caries Research 33 (1): 74–80, 1999.

Koebnick, Corinna; Garcia, Ada L; Dagnelie, Pieter C; Strassner, Carola; Lindemans, Jan; Katz, Norbert; Leitzmann, Claus; Hoffmann, Ingrid. 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. Journal of Nutrition 135 (10): 2372, 2005.

The day after the FDA warning about pistachio nuts came out, I was in a local grocery store. As I walked through the produce aisle, I noticed the produce manager and his clerk with a huge bin; they were emptying out their inventory of pistachio nuts into a huge garbage bin. They had no idea where their pistachios had come from, and they had to throw them away.

I felt sad that so much food had to be wasted.

The day that the FDA warning about pistachio nuts came out, I received a note from Whole Foods Market. They were working to source where all their pistachio nuts came from. A detailed memo was released later in the week regarding the safety of pistachios in their many stores.

Please read this blog post and make your own decisions. But do consider the value in being an informed consumer. If you are judicious about where you shop, it may be worth a little extra investment. If you make a choice to purchase locally grown products at your farmer's market, you're not only supporting a local small business, you know exactly what hands your food passed through before it fell into yours.

There will come a time when pistachios will be considered generally healthy to eat, no matter what the source. And when that comes, keep these pistachio fun facts in mind:

--a one ounce serving of pistachio nuts scores higher on the USDA's antioxidant scorecard than a cup of green tea.
--pistachio nuts can help to reduce bad cholesterol and raise good cholesterol
--pistachio nuts are high in lutein and can help prevent macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness
--pistachio nuts are a good source of many vitamins and minerals, including: thiamin, vitamin B6, copper, manganese, potassium, dietary fiber, phosphorus and magnesium
--pistachio nuts are a good source of healthy fats, including omega-3's

My point is…I hope you don't eliminate pistachios completely from your diet because of what you've heard in the news. The pistachio recall was specifically for pistachios from Setton Farms. If you can shop at a store or farmer's market where you can be assured pistachios did not pass through this processing plant, they can be a wonderful addition to your PCOS eating plan.

Here's a recipe for white bean pistachio chili to get you started!

The tennis world was all aflutter this week over an article in the Wall Street Journal about professional tennis player Novak Djokovich's rise in the tennis ranks in the year following his switch to a gluten-free diet. While there may be a correlation, relatively little in the article directly addressed the direct connection between gluten-free eating and a phenomenal tennis season.

So here are some facts for all of you tennis players looking for an edge, as well as those of you courtside who may wonder if gluten is affecting your hormone balance.

What is gluten?

Gluten is the protein found in many grains, especially barley, oats, rye, and wheat. Statistically, 1 in every 133 individuals is gluten intolerant or experiencing celiac disease. In this condition, gluten irritates the lining of the intestines to the point where the absorptive surface erodes away and can no longer absorb food. It is painful, it causes malnutrition, and it. This photo, courtesy of http://www.sensibleceliac.com/, shows how the"fingers" of the intestine, where nutrients are absorbed, gradually shrink in size and disappear.

Symptoms of true celiac disease are related to malabsorption: diarrhea, gas, bloating, fatty stools are common. However, they do not occur in everyone. Other symptoms are related to the nutrient deficiencies resulting from malabsorption and can include: weight loss, fluid retention, anemia, easy bruising, nerve pain, muscle weakness, and…yes…infertility.

A full workup to confirm celiac disease includes blood testing, intestinal biopsy, and a challenge with a gluten-free diet to see if the body responds in a healing way. Because the symptoms of celiac disease can also be symptoms of other serious disorders, it is important to not self-diagnose and treat yourself.

It is possible to be gluten sensitive even if you do not have celiac disease. Many women reading this blog may have a gluten sensitivity, and it can be the source of the inflammatory process that is triggering PCOS. Many of our inCYSTer providers have completed LEAP training, which allows them to help you diagnose and treat food sensitivities in a way that is precise and direct. It is a way to shorten the process of figuring out what is truly causing your symptoms, rather than randomly eliminating a food and hoping it will help you to feel better.

Should You Go Gluten-Free?  In the last five years, gluten-free eating has become somewhat trendy. Please don't misunderstand my comment. I know many of you truly ARE gluten-intolerant and gluten-sensitive. But many of you are not. Something that can happen if your primary sources of gluten were baked and processed foods, and you cut those out, you tend to decrease your caloric intake and improve your ratio of carbohydrates to protein. You improve your chances of improving insulin resistance, which may have nothing to do with gluten issues even though gluten intake was altered with your dietary choices.

In addition, inCYSTer and LEAP guru Michal Hogan recently shared with me that if you are NOT gluten sensitive, and you restrict gluten, you can create an sensitivity where none previously existed. So it is really important to make this dietary adjustment only if it is necessary and in an informed way, not because you think it might help when nothing else has.

It's also important to understand that a gluten-free diet is NOT automatically healthier! I belong to several gluten-free discussion groups and have seen chats literally obsessing about ways to keep eating sweets and calorically dense/nutritionally inferior foods while getting around the gluten issue. It's important to understand that whole grains, even those containing gluten, contain other important nutrients such as magnesium and
B vitamins, that will need to be included in other fashions if you eliminate a major category of foods.

For those of you who ARE in need of gluten-free eating, we encourage you to become familiar with Zing Bars, who you've seen us blog about before, who we've interviewed on our radio show, and whose bars are all gluten-free. Zing has also been generous with the PCOS community and their product is one that is insulin as well as gluten-friendly. It's not just a candy bar that's easy on the intestines, as some products pan out to be.

If your first name is Roger or Rafael, you play tennis, and you're wondering if you might make some dietary adjustments to better keep up with that guy on the other side of the net…Zing Bars certainly will help to keep your energy levels stable for good coordination and focus through the longest of matches. But before you switch out a major staple and completely change your diet, be sure to ascertain that it genuinely has potential to help you.

If you're not sure if gluten is your problem, and you'd like to work with someone who can help you know for sure, for a list of inCYSTers who are also LEAP-certified who would be happy to help you work through the maze of information and to do it productively…visit www.afterthediet.com/pcoshelp.htm and look for"CLT" behind the provider's name.

Continuing on with yesterday's theme, I wanted to summarize options for anyone who, for whatever reason, chooses to drink milk alternatives instead of cow's milk.

The primary problems with these alternatives are:

1. They almost, without question, do not provide equivalent amounts of protein and raise your diet's carbohydrate to protein ratio.

2. They are often sweetened, increasing your simple carbohydrate to complex carbohydrate ratio.

3. Most of the alternatives, except for coconut milk, do contain vitamin D. However, check your label just to be sure.

If you choose to use these, in general, you are not substituting milk alternatives for milk. You are drinking a beverage that creates a need for you to increase your protein, vitamin D, and complex carbohydrates in the foods you also choose, in order to make up the deficiencies this switch inevitably creates. If you do not know how to do that, a consultation with one of our inCYSTers might be helpful. Many of them offer Skype consultations if you do not see on our list below and to the right who lives near you.

Here's the rundown. For comparison, per 8 ounces, 1% milk contains:
110 calories
8 grams protein
5 grams fat
12 grams carbohydrate
0% added sugar

One bias I do have which is reflected below, is toward soy milk. Too many women with PCOS have thyroid problems, for me to feel responsible presenting it as an option. So I have omitted it.

All information is for an 8 ounce serving.

ALMOND MILK
This one appears to be the most popular. One benefit to almond milk is that since almonds are naturally sweet, there is not as much of a need to add sugar in order to make them palatable. The disadvantage to almond milk is that, consumed in large enough quantities, it may increase your omega-6 intake enough that you promote, rather than reduce, inflammation (almonds, while beneficial in moderation, are the only nut that contain absolutely no omega-3's and for that reason should not be the only nut you exclusively eat).

Almond Breeze Brand
45 calories
2 grams protein
3.5 grams fat
3 grams carbohydrate
0% of carbohydrate is added sugar
Pacific Foods Vanilla Almond

45 calories
1 gram protein
2.5 grams fat
3 grams carbohydrate
0% of carbohydrate is added sugar

FLAX MILK

I do like flax milk's omega-3 fatty acid content. It's sweetened, but not to the same degree as many of the other milks. I could see using this in cooking, in any recipe that called for cream, or as coffee creamer, as a way to enhance your diet's overall omega-6 to omega-3 ratio. It still comes up short in the protein department.

Flax USA Flax Milk

50 calories
0 grams protein
2.5 grams fat
7 grams carbohydrate
100% of carbohydrate is added sugar

HEMP MILK
One benefit to hemp milk is its omega-3 content. However, it is sweetened pretty significantly so consumers will drink it.

Living Harvest Hemp Milk

130 calories
4 grams protein
3 grams fat
240 grams carbohydrate
75% of carbohydrate is added sugar
Manitoba Harvest Hemp Bliss

110 calories
5 grams protein
7 grams fat
7 grams carbohydrate
86% of carbohydrate is added sugar

OATMEAL MILK

Highest in calories, partially because it's sweetened. Eating the real oatmeal will give you better benefits.

Pacific Foods Oatmeal
130 calories
4 grams protein
2.5 grams fat
24 grams carbohydrate
79% of carbohydrate is added sugar

HAZELNUT MILK

The fat in hazelnuts is primarily monounsaturated, making the fat here healthy, but again, low protein and high added sugar are problematic

Pacific Foods Hazelnut Milk

110 calories
2 grams protein
3.5 grams fat
18 grams carbohydrate
78% of carbohydrate is added sugar

COCONUT MILK

I love this milk, but consumed in place of milk, the saturated calories will add up. Yes, the fat in coconut milk is different than the fat in meat, but even so, your overall intake of saturated fat, regardless of the source, should be no more than 10% of total calories. So I say save this one for cooking (as in Thai curries) or used sparingly on breakfast oatmeal or quinoa. It's not really the best choice for drinking by the glass.

Regular Canned Coconut Milk

445 calories
5 grams protein
48 grams fat
6 grams carbohydrate
0% of carbohydrate is added sugar
Trader Joe's Light Coconut Milk

150 calories
0 grams protein
12 grams fat
12 grams carbohydrate
0% of carbohydrate is added sugar

So Delicious Coconut Milk (carton)
50 calories
1 gram protein
5 grams fat
6 grams carbohydrate
86% of carbohydrate is added sugar

Silk Coconut Milk (carton)
90 calories
1 gram protein
5 grams fat
10 grams carbohydrate
90% of carbohydrate is added sugar

RICE MILK

Until recently, rice milk was also an option that fell short in protein and in which sugar was added to sweeten and flavor. The first example here illustrates that point. The second option, which has recently come on the market, is a great advancement as far as milk alternative options go.

Both brands are made with brown rice, and both contain vitamins D and B12. However, safflower oil, one of the pro-inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids we encourage you to limit, is also listed as a Rice Dream ingredient. Just wanted to cover that base.

For women with PCOS, the addition of stevia by Growing Naturals is an added plus, as research is suggesting that regular consumption of stevia may help to improve pancreatic function, reduce cravings for sweets, and improve memory. All of those are chronic issues which make it hard to make the choices promoting hormone balance. In addition, Growing Naturals DOES contain vitamin D (in the vegan D2 form), and vitamin B12, often deficient in vegans.

Rice Dream Rice Milk

120 calories
1 gram protein
2.5 grams fat
23 grams carbohydrate
43% of carbohydrate is added sugar
Growing Naturals Brown Rice Milk

110 calories
8 grams protein
1 grams fat
17 grams carbohydrate
0% of carbohydrate is added sugar
So by now you know my bias, but now you also know why it exists. I use all of these milks in my kitchen. But I do so in different ways. Some as condiments and even coffee creamers, as I do enjoy their flavors, but not as a beverage choice I drink by the glass. The two I drink by the glass are cow's milk and Growing Naturals. Hopefully I've provided you with enough information to de what combinations are most hormone-friendly for you.

If you're interested in trying/using Growing Naturals yourself, and it hasn't arrived at your local store, here is information for ordering.

Source: uponafold.com.au via Kyoco on Pinterest

We love to hear how we're helping you, what you want more of, less of, etc.

I recently received this letter from someone who joined the inCYST Institute. Thanks, friend!

I remember very clearly which article was the one that opened my eyes. I'd been reading the blog for a while after I'd done a PCOS-related search. I think there were a few articles where you mentioned fish oil and I do remember reading them but I figured I'm already seeing a Naturopath and if she hasn't prescribed it to me then I must not need it.

And then you wrote this: http://www.incyst.com/2011/11/what-inflammation-means-to-your-brain.html. I remember reading it and it was like a hit in the face. I'm an Engineering student and for the last five years I've carried around a ton of guilt regarding my 'professional' success. I used to be more motivated in high school and I'd put in more effort and I'd get better results. Ever since I'd started my undergrad career those things had just gone more and more and more downhill. I couldn't concentrate and I just stopped caring after a while, I basically resumed to doing whatever I can to pass, and honestly I don't think I had it in me for much more than that.

Before reading that article, I blamed it all on myself, thinking I'd just become lazy and I'm not as smart as I think and I'm never gonna be as good as the other Eng students around me. I can't even tell you how much I thank you for that article, it was the biggest relief of my life to read it and think that maybe it wasn't all me. I've been taking fish oil ever since and things do seem to be getting better. So thank you, again. Thank you!

I very much enjoy reading articles like that because you explain in very common terms what it is that bad habits do to you and it kinda scares me into submission (I know it's a bad way to put it). I find that I have to constantly remind myself what could happen if I don't have healthy habits since I'm constantly being bombarded with images of unhealthy people who still look great (I'm referring to the mass media here). I also find it useful when you review products and/or actual food items, nutrients and vitamins, with the science behind of course as you always do. I'm really excited about Fitness Fridays and I think the first article was really useful (perhaps not for me personally right now since I can't afford a personal trainer anyway) for people who actually spend their money on working out with someone.

I won't lie, I rarely try recipes that you post even though I read them unless they're super raw. I'm way better at taking ingredients that I know I want to eat and somehow mix them up together to create a great meal rather than following instructions. I do use the recipes you post to guide my creative meal-making though. I also try to eat most of what I eat in the most natural form possible so I don't actually cook quite so often.

Anyway, that's all I can think of for now. I made the final decision to join when I read this on facebook:

inCYST Programs for Women With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
I am starting to get the feeling that one of the reasons many of you have so much trouble with food…is that you were not raised in environments that were in touch with food in healthy ways. So much of what suggest is too far removed from where you are in reality. Do you need some kind of boot camp or club that worked you through the basics of food and cooking? This would have to be a paid offering, as I am pretty tapped out with regards to offering help that does not pay my bills.

It's pretty sad that it had to come to that for me to decide but it did. I think I often forget that there's an actual person behind all of this and yeah, why not help if I can. I mean for 25 dollars, it's not the end of the world. I spend that much going to see a movie with my boyfriend. If I could I would encourage more people to support inCYST, but I know of no one else who actually benefits from it since I don't know any other women with PCOS in my non-online life. I think that people respond better when they realise what kind of impact they can have with just a little bit of help from each of us.

I had not put that on Facebook to garner sympathy, but rather to encourage people to consider investing in something they felt had value to them. An investment here has the potential to save you money on medications…and for some…assisted reproduction. We don't ask for much, but we hope you can help if we have helped you!

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.

This past week I've been in Santa Fe, New Mexico with our sponsor Beauty Foods, getting the word out about her product at the Green Spa Network Buyer's Conference. While we were there I had the opportunity to meet some companies with great hormone-friendly products. I came home with samples, but felt they would be best used by some of our readers. So I told our Facebook fans they would go to the first person who would share her pregnancy journey if she felt our support had played a part in her success. Here is what we received from"S", who will be getting a fun package with samples from two great companies. Mayron's Goods is an organic skin care and baby product line created by actress Melanie Mayron, and Mama Mio is a phthalate/paraben/xenoestrogen-free skin care line designed for pregnant women. Thank you for taking the time to share and inspire with your story…and enjoy the samples!

About two years ago my husband and I sat down and decided we were ready to start a family. So like most couples I didn’t imagine it would be too hard. In school they practically tell you if you think about having sex you will for sure get pregnant! So I stopped my birth control and sat back and waited and waited. No period for about 3 months. So I took myself to the doctor and they ran a bunch of tests and then they told me. You have PCOS… here is the pamphlet. Gee, Thanks?

In the mean time I decided I wanted to try to get healthy so I joined the gym and signed myself up for Boot camp for a year. If someone told me back then that I would begin to enjoy exercise and I would willingly go to the gym 4 days a week because it was fun, I would probably suggested they get their heads checked! But I for me signing up for a whole year really made a difference. I was able to meet a great group of ladies and found an excellent support network at the gym.

Getting a little pamphlet off the wall telling me the basics of PCOS wasn’t quite enough information. I got online and started doing some research and came across the very helpful book called The PCOS Workbook. That book gave me the lead to the Incyst network. I often go to the website and read the blog of the day and find some of the information really helpful so I start implementing that into my routine. The consistent information I gathered from these resources was to focus on eating whole grains, high protein and lower carbs, trying to find the Balance. And of course don’t forget the fish oil!

I found a fertility doctor in my area and we started working together. I did about 6 rounds of Clomid. 2 Rounds of Letrozole and then 2 rounds of Letrozole with IUI. I also did Accupuncture with several of the treatments as well. With another negative I was tired of trying so hard. So I decided to take a month off and just keep up with my exercise and eating well and my spoonfuls of fish oil and other vitamins. My doctor and I had a plan for the next month of doing the HSG test and another one which of course insurance will not cover. I was really not looking forward to that so I was dreading the arrival of my period. Somewhere along the line my period started to get normal and almost predictable. So the end of Februarys was arriving quickly my life was really hectic with some family medical issues, but no period. So finally I dug out a pregnancy test figuring I would just get this over with so I could go on with my life. HOLY SMOKES it was positive.

So after all that I am delighted to be expecting our bundle of Joy this December. And now a new journey begins… Pregnancy!

~ Sandra D ~

From: Monika Woolsey [mailto:marika@google.com]

I love bananas. They are one of my favorite fruits. My basic smoothie recipe is one cup of yogurt, a banana, and whatever fruit is in season. I put them on my oatmeal. I bake with them. I freeze them and eat them like ice cream. So it always bothers me to see nutrition and fitness experts steer people away from bananas. Apparently they are too high in carbohydrate. If you DO get permission to eat one…you have to cut it in half. (Like who is going to eat the other half the next day when it's all brown?) My theory has always been, if you eat a banana, you get fiber, and you get vitamins and minerals, so you get a whole lot more than carbohydrates. And if you eat a banana, it is filling enough that you are less likely to be hungry for other, less nutritious carbohydrates. So last week, when I saw bananas hit the newswires, for a good reason, I was excited! A new study tested the athletic performance of people eating bananas vs. those using sports drinks. And the bananas won out. Of course they did. Mother Nature designed them. There are people, a lot of them, who devote their lives to creating the ultimate nutrition supplement. There are labs with hundreds of thousands of dollars devoted to researching whether or not those supplements should contain vitamin M, mineral T, or antioxidant Y. And the banana, the fruit we've been telling people to stay away from, was the secret weapon all along. By the way, if you're like me and you like bananas when they're still a little green without any brown spots, you're getting an additional type of carbohydrate--resistant starch. This type of carbohydrate passes through the stomach undigested and is not processed until it ferments in the large intestine. The resulting byproduct is a prebiotic, meaning it feeds healthy bacteria and promotes calcium absorption. It may even promote weight loss, because carbohydrates your body uses as resistant starch yield fewer calories than calories that do not.

So before you take bananas out of your diet because a trainer who heard it from another trainer who heard it at the gym from someone who read it on a website told you not to eat them…take a look at the research. I think this guy knows a lot more than personal trainers who have nothing to gain and money to lose if you eat bananas instead of earning them commission and endorsement money on some artificial supplement. Has Mother Nature ever packaged anything with bad intent?

Recently I read"Prodigal Summer" by Barbara Kingsolver. In it one of the characters noted that her menstrual cycle and the moon were related. I did some Internet research and found an interesting article in Wikipedia, from which this is excerpted.

Menstruation and the moon
Traditional sources agree that the menstrual cycle is linked to the cycle of the moon.[citation needed] These sources generally indicate that women menstruate at the time of the new moon, and ovulate at the full moon. Although scientific evidence for this has been weak, the problem may be that most women today live in urban environments where the moon is no longer a significant contributor to nocturnal light. The fact that women who work on night shifts, where they are exposed to strong light at night, often experience menstrual irregularities, is just one example of how rhythms of light and darkness do influence hormonal physiology, including the menstrual cycle.[22]

The word"menstruation" is etymologically related to moon. The terms"menstruation" and"menses" come from the Latin mensis (month), which in turn relates to the Greek mene (moon) and to the roots of the English words month and moon — reflecting the fact that the moon also takes close to 28 days to revolve around the Earth (actually 27.32 days). The synodical lunar month, the period between two new moons (or full moons), is 29.53 days long.

A 1975 book by Louise Lacey documented the experience of herself and 27 of her friends, who found that when they removed all artificial night lighting their menstrual cycles began to occur in rhythm with the lunar cycle. She dubbed the technique Lunaception.[23] Later studies in both humans[24] and animals[25] have found that artificial light at night does influence the menstrual cycle in humans and the estrus cycle in mice (cycles are more regular in the absence of artificial light at night), though none have duplicated the synchronization of women's menstrual cycles with the lunar cycle. One author has suggested that sensitivity of women's cycles to nightlighting is caused by nutritional deficiencies of certain vitamins and minerals.[26]

Some have suggested that the fact that other animals' menstrual cycles appear to be greatly different from lunar cycles is evidence that the average length of humans' cycle is most likely a coincidence.[27][28]

Note that the cycle reconnected itself to the lunar cycle with the removal of artifical night light. It's another way of saying what I've been saying all along: melatonin, which does not reach its normal levels in the presence of light, is crucial for normal functioning menstrual cycles.

Take a look around. Are you pulling the shades completely? Have you removed night lights? Taken the clock radio away from your nightstand? Avoided excessive computer and television in the evening hours?

Mother Nature has funny, yet insistent ways of reminding us that when we drift too far from her wisdom…things just don't work the way they should.

It's back…food of the week! I was busy with mandatory paperwork much of this month and it consumed blogging time. I'm excited about a summer full of fun foods to try.

I ran across this while writing another article, and since PCOS is common in Hispanics I wanted to be sure to include it.

Nopalitos are cactus pads…as shown at the top of this post, in their natural environment.

But there's a lot to getting them ready to eat! You have to skin them, which takes out the stickers. And you have to cook them. I see cactus pads in the local Hispanic market, but for those of you who are not quite so adventurous, you can find them already cooked, in which case this is how they look.

What's so great about nopalitos? Well, they're chock full of the kind of fiber that helps bring your cholesterol down. You will notice when you take them out of the jar, they have a bit of a gooey consistency, kind of like okra. Don't"boo the goo"--that's the fiber!

In addition to fiber, nopalitos have a decent choline content. Susan Kleiner, Ph.D., R.D., a respected colleague, shared in a presentation last year that choline is not at all easy to find in the diet. And that can pose a problem since choline is the building block for acetylcholine, crucial for memory. So crucial, in fact, that many Alzheimer's medications are designed to increase acetylcholine levels.

Who would have thought that cactus could be brain food? They are also a decent source of vitamins A, C, K…and folate, that reproductively important vitamin that keeps showing up in our recommended foods on this blog.

So how the heck do you cook it? I'd recommend you Google"nopalitos recipes" for a lot of suggestions, but I'll share one here that makes it look pretty tasty, adapted from a recipe I found at Karen's Kitchen.

Nopalitos Salad

Ingredients:

1 jar precooked nopalitos
3 lemons
1 T olive oil
1/2 small onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic
Cilantro (1 or more bunches, to taste)
3 medium tomatoes, chopped
Salt to taste

Preparation:

Empty nopalitos into a strainer. Fill a large bowl with water and juice of 2 lemons. Add about a teaspoonful of salt and then put the cactus into it, soak for about 30 minutes.

Remove the leaves from the water and chop it into 1/2" pieces.

In a skillet, heat the nopalitos with onion, garlic and salt until warm.

Remove from heat and drain. Add the rest of the ingredients, adding juice of last lemon, salt and olive oil for a dressing. Serve cold.

Buen apetito!

I recently started to tell a good friend about the antioxidant power of turmeric. He stopped me midsentence.

"What is it with all this antioxidant stuff? First it was pomegranates. Then it was Mongolian gojis. It's something different every day."

(Insert big sigh and eye roll here.)

"Can you even tell me what an antioxidant looks like?"

My friend's reaction verified something I've sensed for awhile now. In our quest to show how much we know about antioxidants, we've thrown long words and catch phrases at the public, to the point where the concept has become nothing more than hype.

It's not long after any concept hits"hype mode" that it becomes passe. And being passe is absolutely not what the average antioxidant should be, to ANYONE.

So, I'd like to answer my friend's question. My answer is somewhat long, but I will do my best to encourage him--and you--to see past the hype that's been flung at all those innocent pomegranates and beets and Indian curries!

Here are ten important things to know about antioxidants.

1. AN ANTIOXIDANT IS LIKE RUSTPROOF FOR YOUR BODY. Oxidation is the natural process of something breaking down over time. On your car, oxidation looks like rust. Oxidation in humans isn't much different; it's somewhat of a biological rusting out process. So an antioxidant, really, is human rustproofing.

2. AN ANTIOXIDANT SLOWS DOWN AGING. This is primarily a blog for women with PCOS. What does aging have to do with that? PCOS is a disease of inflammation, and inflammation is an aging process. If you stand back and look at the big picture, a lot of the symptoms of PCOS are actually indications of an accelerated aging process--arthritis, forgetfulness, poor sleep, diabetes at an early age, premature menopause--I am struck at how many of my clients really present as old people in young peoples' bodies. Just as there really is no cure for the wear and tear on the body of a car that works better than prevention, PCOS needs preventive action. It's about choosing food, activity and lifestyle behaviors that make it easier for your body to stay young. It IS possible to reverse some aging, but it's a whole lot easier to prevent aging before it happens. Making good antioxidant choices every day is an important part of your personal rustproofing plan (PRP).

3. DON'T JUDGE AN ANTIOXIDANT BY ITS SCRABBLE SCORE. This one drives me nuts. Nutritionists tend to be extremely detail oriented, and they seem to have adopted this compulsion to throw dozens of new long words at the public. I am equally as nerdy when it comes to biochemistry, but there is a place for those words. If seeing them in an article isn't inspiring you to put some new and different foods on your shopping list, what's the point?

I don't believe in dumbing down the public, but I have to admit, much of what I read has MY eyes glazing over because how the word was spelled or pronounced was apparently more important to the author than what's in it for me to care.

If you're adding a few beets at the salad bar or learning to cook Indian curries, that's what matters. The chemicals will help you to be healthier, whether or not you can spell or pronounce them.

4. THE BEST ANTIOXIDANTS ARE FOUND IN THEIR ORIGINAL PACKAGING. I graduated from college in 1982, and there were only a handful of antioxidants to learn about at the most. Back then (I guess you could say the nutritional dark ages!) we learned mostly about vitamins and minerals. Many of the compounds we knew about, were extracted and sold as"complete nutritional replacements". Of course, the definition of"complete" was based on our limited knowledge of what food actually contains. They weren't really complete because they did not contain the antioxidant compounds we didn't even know about!

That, for me, was a huge lesson learned, about how much of an expert I can truly be in this field. There will always be things I don't know, and need to know, and my responsibility as a health educator is to be as complete in talking about what I don't know as I do about what I do know.

Therefore, my advice when it comes to antioxidants and supplements, is not to focus on what the most important, most perfect antioxidant might be, then to extract it and consume it in large quantities. Rather, look for opportunities to eat whole foods that are as close to the ground and/or tree when you consume them. The more something is sliced, diced, extracted, powdered, concentrated, the less like nature it is.

Remember, whole is best. There may be important nutritional compounds we have yet to learn about that aren't in those expensive antioxidant supplements.

5. ANTIOXIDANTS ARE COLORFUL CHARACTERS. Your plate needs a variety of colors if it's also going to contain antioxidants. I created this graphic last summer to illustrate the concept. If you're eating lots of reds and blues, and are judicious about which white foods you choose, that's a good start. But remember the greens, yellows, and oranges, too! It's really not that hard to choose colorfully. A plate of food that contains a lot of colors is also attractive. Would you rather have a plate of white fish, cauliflower, and mashed potatoes, or a chicken salad packed with apples, walnuts, and spinach?

Eat patriotically--doesn't matter what country--if you put color on your plate, you can't go wrong.

6. ANTIOXIDANTS LOVE A GOOD PARTY! Antioxidants tend to be more effective in the presence of other antioxidants. In other words, you'll get more bang for your buck out of Compound A if you are also eating Compound B. That's why there is no such thing as the ultimate antioxidant. Just like you have less fun at a party if you act like a wallflower, your"health party" will be a whole lot more worthwhile if you introduce and mingle different compounds.

7. ANTIOXIDANTS LOVE THE GYM. Antioxidants have an interesting relationship with exercise. Exercise, because it raises metabolism, is actually an oxidative activity. However…when you exercise regularly, your body becomes more efficient at storing antioxidants for future use, and then mobilizing them to areas where exercise has raised your metabolism. To get the best advantage out of exercise, it's important to (1) not overexercise, but (2) exercise regularly, and (3) be sure the diet you eat on a regular basis is full of colorful foods.

8. ANTIOXIDANTS ARE HOMEBODIES. When fruits are picked early so they can be shipped to distant markets, they're not allowed to ripen and develop their fullest antioxidant potential. When fruits are processed so they can be stored and consumed through off-seasons, they lose antioxidant power. So while I love blueberries and I appreciate their antioxidant power, they are more of a summer treat for me. Since I live in Arizona, I try to eat lots of citrus in the winter, watermelon in the summer, and to use foods from other areas as occasional treats. Every locality has its specialties. Become familiar with what's in season in your area, and if you travel, experiment with local specialties. A Goji berry is definitely a powerful antioxidant tool, but you can be antioxidant friendly even if your plate was not partially picked by distant farmers on exotic hillsides. Some of your greatest antioxidant friends may be lurking just down the road at your local organic farm.

9. ANTIOXIDANTS SHOULD NOT BREAK YOUR BUDGET. When you eat seasonally, you should also save money. In fact, one of the easy way to know what fruits and vegetables are in season is to look for what is cheap! If you frequent your local farmer's market, what you see at the majority of the stands is likely the local seasonal offering. I like eating seasonally because foods move in and out of my menu and I don't get bored because I'm eating the same thing over and over again. Get to know how seasons affect food availability in your area, and plan menus around that. It is fun, not to mention tasty!

10. THE BEST ANTIOXIDANT OF ALL--IS A PROACTIVE LIFESTYLE. OK, here's a picture of an antioxidant. (A face only a molecule mother could love…) What it looks like isn't as important as what it does. An antioxidant keeps you healthy and young! Any choice you make that creates an imbalance--too much exercise and not enough rest, not enough sleep, an imbalanced diet, poor stress management--puts you at risk of antioxidant deficiency. If you're not making good lifestyle choices and assuming a supplement will absorb the imbalance, you're putting yourself at even greater risk. Be sure your diet has a lot of variety and color.

Even better, apply that mentality to the rest of your life.
--Create a social support network with a variety of personalities that encourage the best in you to come out, and who accept you for who you are without unrealistic expectations.
--Participate in a few different physical activities that allow muscles to rest while others work.
--Do things that make you laugh! (Yes, in a way, your favorite corny movie is an antioxidant!)
--Do something creative.

There are many kinds of antioxidants that have nothing to do with nutrition. Be sure your choices add up to move you in the direction of capitalizing on them, rather than putting you in a position where you need to supplement to reverse damage that didn't need to be done.

OK, good friend, I hope I answered your question and you made it to the end of this blog post without rolling those eyes again!