Should Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Include Nuts in Their Diets?

Eat nuts for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)? Image source: Nuts for Life – www.nutsforlife.com.au

One in sixteen young women is afflicted with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS).  In PCOS the sex hormones get out of balance.  Many women experience a decrease in ovulation and grow facial hair.  Most will have small cysts grow on their ovaries.   PCOS affects a woman’s hormones, vascular health, fertility, menstrual cycle, and insulin production.  Women with PCOS are at an increased risk for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) as a result of insulin resistance due to the extra weight around their waist.  This condition affects 1 in 16 young women.  The cause of PCOS is not understood, however, it does seem to run in families.

Controlling blood sugar is critical for long-term health of women with PCOS.  It is helpful to follow a diet recommended by the American Diabetes Association.  This would include managing energy input, increasing exercise, and emphasizing carbohydrates from fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains.  Increase fiber to 28 grams per day and eat two or more servings of fish a day.

In addition to the above recommendations, nuts should be included in the diet.  Nuts are a good source of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA’s) and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA’s), which are beneficial to plasma lipids.  Nuts are also a great source of both soluble and insoluble fiber.  Fiber has a positive effect on serum glucose levels by slowing the absorption of glucose in the small intestine.  Nuts also increase satiety, this being very beneficial when trying to lose weight.  Walnuts have a high level of PUFA’s.  PUFA’s have been shown to increase insulin secretion.   In 2011, Nutrition and Metabolism published a study showing that fasting insulin was greater in those individuals who were given whole nuts.  The dual effect of increased insulin secretion and slowing of glucose absorption in the small intestines resulted in a decrease of blood glucose.   These positive results were also pointed out in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition during a study in which PCOS patients consumed 31 grams a day of nuts for 6 weeks.

In conclusion, women with PCOS may benefit by consuming about ¼ cup of nuts, including walnuts every day to help decrease blood glucose.  Controlling blood glucose in women at risk or who have T2DM is the first line of defense to long term medical problems.

WILTED BRUSSELS SPOUTS WITH WALNUTS

Source:  Mel Melcon, Los Angeles Times, December 23, 2009

6 servings

1 Tablespoon sherry vinegar

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

2 Tablespoons walnut oil

Salt

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1/3 cup chopped toasted walnuts

1 pound Brussels sprouts

1. Prepare the Brussels sprouts:  Trim the dried bases and pull away any loose or discolored outer leaves.  Stand the sprout upright on the cutting board and slice it as thin as possible into coins.  Aim for pieces as thin as a quarter.
2. In a small-lidded jar, combine the vinegar and minced shallot, and set aside for 10 minutes.  Add the mustard and walnut oil and shake well to make a smooth emulsion.  Taste and season with salt as needed.
3. Heat the olive oil over high heat in a large nonstick skillet.  When the oil is very hot but not smoking, add the Brussels sprouts, sprinkle with on-half teaspoon salt and cook, tossing until the sprouts start to wilt, 2 to 3 minutes.  The texture should be chewy crisp rather than simply crisp.
4. Immediately pour over the dressing and remove from the heat.  Continue tossing to evenly coat the sprouts with the dressing (they will only be very lightly coated).  Stir in the walnuts and serve either warm or at room temperature.

Each serving: 153 calories; 3 grams protein; 7 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams fiber; 14 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 28 mg sodium

Written by:  Sherry Schulman, Student Intern for Professor Christi Coy, MS, RD, Saddleback College

POWER UP! How to Avoid the Second-Half Slump

Feeling lethargic sometime after your main meal is common. Often called the “mid-afternoon slump”, this lull can hinder your work performance. Whether your shift is late or early, you will benefit from avoiding a crash. The key is to keeping your blood sugar stable to feed your mind and body consistently.

Here’s how to do it –

 

• Begin your day with a decent meal. It takes more than a glass of orange juice to start the day! A little nutrition goes a long way, and a whole meal lasts even longer. Include complex carbohydrates and lean proteins, such as shredded wheat and low fat ham, or oats and egg whites. Breakfast is an opportune time to include a calcium-rich food like milk or yogurt, too.

• Skip the buzz. Caffeine and high-sugar foods might perk you up temporarily but could leave you feeling flat later. Like riding a roller-coaster — the greater the rise, the faster the decline. The fall from a high feels like a slump, whereas if you maintain natural momentum there is less fluctuation in energy. Instead of short-term stimulants, opt for fresh, crisp produce for refreshment, or carbonated water for an effervescence lift.

• Be sure to include a little protein with COMPLEX carbohydrates (usually those with more fiber) to keep your energy levels stable. Digestion takes longer so the supply of sugar into the blood is gradual. Snack examples are peanut butter on Wasa crackers, or hummus and whole grain pita chips.

• Avoid large volumes of food. You know that feeling after a mega holiday meal? Yes, that’s your gut working hard on processing all that food means less blood for your brain to function, not to mention the boost in serotonin causing sleepiness. Keeping portions small-to-moderate means no “food coma” and better alertness.

• And, of course, get adequate sleep and exercise!

Debbie James, MS, RD

Ten Steps of Intuitive Eating

Image Credit: *Ann Gordon via Flickr

Who hasn’t felt bad about themselves at some point in time because of their food choices?  We live in a country that values self-control and the Puritan work ethic, ultimately leading us to miserably stuff ourselves with self-loathing every time a hefty helping of delicious, perfectly gooey, warm, chocolaty brownie (gasp!) makes its way into our mouths.  The astonishing reality is that the guilt of overeating causes overeating.  What?!  Overeating causes guilt causes overeating causes guilt causes… well, you get the point.

According to authors and California Dietitians Evelyn Tribole (MS, RD) and Elyse Resch (MS, RDN, CEDRD, Fiaedp, FADA), the way out is the way back.  Through their Intuitive Eating program, they aim to help individuals reconnect with their innate signals of hunger, fullness, and satiety by guiding them along ten steps toward a healthy relationship with food.  The ten steps, according to their book Intuitive Eating (2012), are:

1. Reject the diet mentality
2. Honor your hunger
3. Make peace with food
4. Challenge the food police
5. Respect your fullness
6. Discover the satisfaction factor
7. Honor your feelings without using food
8. Respect your body
9. Exercise – feel the difference
10. Honor your health with gentle nutrition

The steps essentially lead the reader toward self-acceptance, an annihilation of food-induced self-depreciating thoughts, words, and actions, and whole-body awareness in regards to food.

Whenever I am asked for a recommendation for a diet or something useful to read, I initially direct people to this book and the accompanying website (http://www.intuitiveeating.com).  I commonly refer to this book as the “Bible” of our profession (so far no one has taken offense to that reference, so I keep using it).  I firmly believe, and science agrees, that healthy-weight maintenance is nigh impossible to achieve without first having a healthy relationship with food.  Intuitive eating helps to restore food to its rightful purpose: physical nourishment and, yes, pleasure (without the binge-inducing guilt back-lash).

If you are interested in looking into this topic more deeply, check out these articles:

“Food as Ego-Protective Remedy for People Experiencing Shame. Experimental Evidence for a New Perspective on Weight-Related Shame,” by Ting-Hsien Chao, Chao-Chin Yang, and Wen-Bin Chiou (Appetite, October 2012)

“Embodied Metaphors and Emotions in the Moralization of Restrained Eating Practices,” by Sana Sheikh, Lucia Botindari, and Emma White (Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, December 2012).

Happy eating!

Heather M. Campagna

Dietetic Intern

California State University, Long Beach

A New Mom’s Story

I’ve been teaching about lifecycle nutrition for several years in my General Nutrition courses. But, I never had more than an academic interest in breastfeeding and nutrition until my daughter was born earlier this year. She was a preemie baby so it was even more important to me that she only receive breast milk. Did you know that the milk produced by the mother of a pre-term infant is higher in protein and other nutrients than the milk produced by the mother of a term infant? I think it is fascinating that our bodies can adapt the nutritional composition of milk based on our baby’s gestational age. Human milk also contains lipase, an enzyme that allows the baby to digest fat more efficiently. A breastfed preemie is less likely to develop infections that are common to babies fed breast milk substitutes.

Did you also know that a breastfeeding Mom requires more calories than a woman in her third trimester of pregnancy? A woman in her third trimester of pregnancy is advised to eat an extra 450 calories per day while a breastfeeding woman requires an additional 500 calories per day. (The recommendation if you are trying to lose weight is to take in 330 extra calories and allow the other calories to come from your body’s stores.) Overall, most women need at least 1,800 calories per day to receive the nutrients required for successful lactation. Taking care of a newborn is a full-time job – when do you find time to eat? I would easily go 14 hours without eating between the night feedings and morning feedings. The lack of adequate nutrition made my fatigue even worse. After a few weeks, I figured out that having a snack around 4 am (or whenever I was up) helped a lot. When you are sleep-deprived, it is mandatory that snacks are no-brainers. Things that I found were easy to keep in stock and could be grabbed by the handful were: grapes, trail mix, crackers and peanut butter, cheese sticks. It can be anything that is nourishing and satisfying but literally, you want something that can be eaten in 2 minutes. When you are new Mom or know of a new Mom, remember that the proverbial ‘midnight snack’ can be a great way to take in those extra calories that are needed for nursing.

Written By: Beth Blake, RD

Sources:
La Leche League www.llli.org
Whitney E, Rolfes SR. Understanding Nutrition. Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2011.

Making Time for Family Meals: How I’ve Earned My “RDH”

What is your favorite time of the day with your family? If you’re like me, it is dinnertime. I look forward to dinner together as a time to catch up on everyone’s day, laugh and reinforce our values.

As a working mom, it is important for me to coordinate my schedule along with my husband’s work, plus his volunteer activities with the local Little League board and manager of our youngest boy’s team. With two boys each playing soccer and baseball plus religious education and boy scouts, time in the evenings is at a premium.

Meals are still a priority, although I’m reconsidering two sports in a season. (Sometimes you learn from lapses in judgment.) It has challenged me to get creative with how to pledge to make meal times a priority.

For us, the most important part of the week is planning ahead for the days we can have a “regular dinner hour.” Often one of my children is assigned to cook for one of these “RDH” days. I let them pick the recipe and try to make sure all five food groups are included. On other days they help by setting the table, pouring the water and milk, and putting salad dressing and other condiments on the table.

Then there are the “crazy busy” days when activities are during prime dinner hours. For the “CB” days I follow one of two strategies. One is to serve a hearty afterschool snack to allow for a late dinner. Apples with cheese or popcorn, grapes and milk or last night’s leftovers work well. Active children can be hungry after a big workout and a post-sports dinner allows me to serve a nutrient-rich meal rather than sweet snacks. An unexpected benefit of later meals is that they are very relaxing and positive because we are not rushing off to an activity.

On other “CB” days I serve an afternoon snack that is really an early dinner. I can pull Black Bean, Corn and Zucchini enchiladas hot out of the oven or Lickety Split Lasagna Soup from the crock pot they are delighted to indulge. Preparing a recipe that includes most food groups makes it easy to round out the meal with a glass of milk or a bowl of fruit.

Sometimes no matter how hard I try there is no time for a family dinner. Since I’ve pledged to have a family meal most days of the week , I know that family meals can include breakfast and lunch. On those days when dinner together won’t work I make dinner for the kids and for my husband and make a point of sitting and eating with them. Yes, that can mean three dinner times for me but it also means three one-on-one conversations with the three most important men in my life.

This post was originally written for MealsMatter.org.  You can view this post and others by visiting their blog.

Written By: Trina Robertson, RD