PCOS | Diet | Dairy

PCOS affects my day to day life more than I like to let on to the people that surround me everyday. But lately I have been noticing a change in my energy levels. Since finishing university and moving back in with my mom there have been more treats around me than there was before. There are cookies, chocolates, cakes and sweets all the time. My brother and sister are twelve and fifteen and like to eat the usual treats and rubbish that kids there age do. However, I am twenty-one and no longer a child and that means my needs for sugar aren't and shouldn't be matched with theirs. But the time of the month got to me when I first arrived back that first month and I ate a few too many sugary treats. Since then though I have been a bit of a sugar and snack addict up until a month ago when I managed to straighten myself out and get me back on a healthier road.

Growing up there wasn't a doctor to sit me down and properly  explain what PCOS was. That also included what you should eat and how people with the syndrome struggle with insulin resistance. I had to instead research on my own and find out about everything about it, and I still feel like I'm learning today. In fact I take my symptoms more serious now, than I ever have before. I'm learning more about my body and how certain and different foods make me react. That's both IBS and PCOS related. At the moment I'm figuring out what works for me and what doesn't. So far it is working and I am paying attention to how my body reacts to certain foods. There's still a long way to go and more I want to figure out, but so far so good.

Here is one of the main things I have recently learnt about PCOS:

~ Dairy - before my recent research I didn't know how bad Cow's milk and products are for your body. I knew that soy products were bad but I didn't realise that the milk contains IGF-1 or Insulin Growth Factor 1. IGF-1 is a naturally occurring hormone with a similar molecule structure as that of insulin, mimicking the role insulin plays. However, women with PCOS already have higher than normal levels of IGF-1, meaning that their ovaries are sensitive to heightened or added amounts of this hormone. This leads to their ovaries going into overdrive and doing more work than they in fact need to. I have now switched up my use of cow's milk and gone back to almond milk. It isn't a favourite but I am going to keep using it because I know how the switch has helped others internally, including helping the reproduction system and aiding natural unassisted periods.

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For more information I have found this website called pcosdietsupport.com. Tarryn suffers from PCOS herself and has also made podcasts which I have found useful that you can find on Itunes by searching pcos diet support.

Do you have PCOS? If so, have you learnt anything that you would like to share?

xChloex