Swaying Pink with PCOS – 2 featuring the super easy, “Slow Burn” version of the Low Everything Diet!

Blue swayers – you will use the alternate atomic fertility sway diet.

Pink swayers, you have two diet options with PCOS. The first (atomic fertility diet) is more suitable for those who have greater fertility challenges. This is another option for those who have a mild case of PCOS and do not need to follow the AFD. Remember, this diet is not only for people who have PCOS full blown, but who have any markers of PCOS, insulin resistance/Type 2 Diabetes, a history of gestational diabetes, more than 30-50 lbs to spare, have concerns about egg quality particularly if you’re over 40, or who have had an opposite on the standard LE Diet.

There are two schools of thought on diets for PCOS. One school of thought allows small amounts of whole grains in an otherwise PCOS-friendly diet, and the other school eliminates grains all together and focuses more on vegetables and meat, fruit in smaller amounts. I personally prefer that whole grains are eaten in small amounts (esp. for pink swayers) and I explain why below. The following essay goes pretty far afield but I want people to truly understand that I have legitimate reasons why I recommend the things I recommend.

Of course, above all you must do what works best for you and your body.

Since high protein, low/no carb diets are all the rage for PCOS, let’s take a closer look at those. The higher protein, no-grain diets include the Paleo/Primitive/Caveman Diets, along with the Atkins Diet in the induction phase. Higher protein some-grain diets include Protein Power and South Beach and later phases of Atkins, which allow small amounts of whole grains).

The basic idea underlying the high protein, low carb keto/Paleo-style diets is that humans did not evolve eating grains in large amounts and so grains should be eliminated all together from the modern diet, fruits should be limited due to the sugar content, and people should get most of their carbs from vegetables and eat more meat.

While at first blush this does make some sense, it isn’t quite borne out by historical fact. In nature, our closest living primate relatives eat a LOT of fruit and seeds and insects, not a lot of meat and their diets are higher in carbs, lower in protein than one might think (while seeds and insects do have protein, you have to eat quite a few to amount to much). The amount of evolutionary time in which proto-humans were avid hunters eating a lot of meat, is minuscule compared to the amount of evolutionary time they spent eating mostly fruit, seeds, insects, and the occasional bit of scavenged rotten meat. In fact, it was probably an increase in meat eating that caused protohumans to evolve into modern man. The earliest tools found for butchering meat date to 2.5 million years ago and modern man appeared 200,000 – 300,000 years ago – while this seems like a long time, it dwarfs the amount of time human ancestors existed before they learned to live on hunted, butchered meat.

Furthermore, there is a fundamental difference between fruits and vegetables – the entire purpose of fruits is to be eaten, because when animals eat fruit, they spread the fruit seeds far from the parent plant and that’s how the parent plant manages to spread their offspring far from home (if you’ve ever planted too many seeds in one spot, you know that for a plant, having your babies sprout under your feet is bad for both you and your offspring because there’s not enough resources for them all to live in such a confined space). Fruits are sweet and luscious and high in carbs, because they WANT animals to eat them so they can reproduce their genes. Fruits have ALWAYS been sweet and luscious and high in carbs because it’s in their best interest to be that way and any animals that eat a lot of fruits, get a lot of calories from carbs.

Vegetables on the other hand, are generally consumed earlier in the life cycle than fruits (bear in mind that tomatoes, winter squash/marrows, and avocado ARE fruits, and seeds that are consumed when mature or nearly so, like legumes and grains, also depend on animals to spread them about and behave in a similar fashion to fruits. These plant foods tend to be higher in carbs than some of the low carb diets allow).

Low carb vegetables such as lettuce, broccoli, spinach, asparagus, and more primitive ones like fern heads, nettles, etc have no evolutionary motivation for being tasty and high in carbs because if they are eaten before they reproduce, they die without handing down their genes to future generations. Root crops do have some sugar in them because they store it for their plant’s future use, but they also often contain high levels of toxins that require cooking/processing to eliminate before they can be eaten (I’m sure we’ve all seen green potatoes at the supermarket – that green color is a toxic chemical that the potato develops when exposed to sunlight, to prevent animals from eating it). Most plants in nature that aren’t fruits/seeds, contain high levels of toxic chemicals as a deterrent against being eaten in large amounts. It is only due to generations of careful breeding that the tasty vegetables we eat now were developed. Regardless of the claims of keto dieters, people DID NOT eat many low-carb vegetables at all in their native environment, nor do other primates, and when they did, it was often only in times of severe hardship.

In fact, I have read two very plausible theories that claim that morning sickness and also children’s aversion to green vegetables and anything “bitter” is actually an evolutionary tactic that causes the most sensitive individuals to avoid ingesting too much of these plant-related toxins during critical phases of development. The only reason why we eat vegetables at all now, let alone in the high quantities we now eat them, is due to the fact that over centuries of agriculture and selective breeding, we managed to develop veggies that have lower amounts of these toxic chemicals, actually taste good, and are edible in more than just a mouthful here or there. If you research the history of vegetables, you will discover that many vegetables we now take for granted, actually were not eaten by anyone, let alone the majority of people, until the 1500’s or even later. Since many of us had not heard of arugula until 10-20 years ago and now no one will shut up about the stuff, I can totally believe this is true!!

Where do the grains come in, then?? We know that grains were in cultivation by humans at least 11,000 years ago and evidence indicates that humans were grinding and storing grain they had gathered in large quantities from the wild (they’ve discovered the grindstones and found grains in storage buildings) hundreds of years before that if not longer. That’s right – we’ve been eating grains and high carb fruits and vegetables, milennia longer than we have low carb vegetables!!! The stuff the keto dieters say about humans evolving to eat tons of meat and vegetables is simply not true.

Additionally, it is HIGHLY likely that humans were eating grains long before they developed technology to grind them and store them in storehouses. Our teeth themselves bear this out – the reason why so many kids have to have orthodontic work is because most of human existence the human diet was heavy in foods that required significant chewing in order to be digestible (fruits, seeds, grains – all high in carbs) and as a result, our teeth are too big for our skulls. Our skulls shrank as a meat-heavy diet caused our brains to grow and we needed more room for brains – but too large a head size made it too risky to give birth to large-headed babies and so evolution struck a compromise…less bone, more brain. Our teeth have not caught up yet because even as our brains grew and skulls shrunk, we were continuing to eat large amounts of high fiber, chewy foods – and history supports that these foods were predominantly grains.

Putting this all together, it is highly likely given the shape of human teeth that for at least the last portion of the evolution of modern humans, all our ancestors were eating at least SOME grains and for much of that time, most human diets were based primarily around grains/seeds because unlike fruits, vegetables, and meats, grains and seeds are easy to store.

Fans of the keto and Paleo-Style Diet claim that 12,000 years of eating grains, is not enough time for any human traits to evolve, but that is nonsense. Dogs, cattle, and vegetables have all evolved significantly in that time, with a little help from their humans. Animals in the wild including guppies and finches have been observed to significantly evolve within only 10 years! We know for a fact that many humans evolved the ability to digest lactose in adulthood within the last 8000 years. And the higher the population, the greater the odds that favorable mutations will take hold and spread…since the human population has skyrocketed since the domestication of grains, it is EXTREMELY likely we are better able to digest grains now than ever before. Also, I would point out that since the human population has increased exponentially since the advent of agriculture, it’s really unlikely that grains are rendering wide swaths of humanity infertile due to PCOS or any other reason.

Virtually all humans on the face of the planet eat starchy, high carb, grain/seed/root crop foods as dietary staples and yet only humans eating the high calorie, highly refined modern Western Diet is suffering these rampant health problems that the promoters of the high protein, Paleo-style Diet claim, probably erroneously, are being caused by grains and starches. PCOS was not described in medical literature until 1935 and was a rare condition at that point despite most humans around the world having lived on a grain/starch based diet for millennia previously.

Whole grains and starchy carbs in and of themselves, just cannot be the issue here.

I feel that the logical conclusion that must be drawn is that PCOS is NOT caused by eating reasonable amounts of whole grains or fiber-rich carbs in an otherwise low-calorie diet. PCOS is caused by eating LARGE amounts of refined grains/sugars in an unnaturally high calorie diet (the human diet has NEVER been as calorically dense as it is today…not even when we were born!)

I personally believe that whole grains in sane, healthy portion sizes, are fine for those with PCOS. According to the book Fertility Foods by Dr. Jeremy Groll, a diet that is overly high in protein (50% or more of cals from protein) is not good for fertility because your body produces something called ketones that it needs MORE insulin to break down!! (keto dieters, beware) More insulin, whether it comes from carbs OR protein, is bad for PCOS. We will be including a good amount of insulin-healthy, high fiber carbs and also good fats so we aren’t getting too many cals from protein.

So, long story short (too late!) you can eat small amounts of whole grains, starchy veg, and fruits when you have PCOS if you make OTHER dietary changes at the same time.

PCOS PINK Sway Diet!!!!!!!!!! Or, the “Slow Burn” Low Everything Diet.

Please note, this is STILL the Low Everything Diet. Often when I recommend this diet to people they despair because they had hoped to be on the LE Diet. But this is just a slightly different form of LE Diet, and it’s actually gotten BETTER results than the standard “Crash and Burn” form of LE. In fact, I’d use it for everyone, but it’s much harder to stick to and many people will lose too much weight while eating the “Slow Burn”, PCOS-friendly form of LE. We often have nicknamed this form of LE the “PCOS-type LE Diet” just to avoid this confusion for people.

When swaying with PCOS, insulin resistance, have a significant amount of weight to lose (more than 30 lbs), egg quality issues (egg quality is highly sensitive to carb intake) particularly if you’re 40+, or have gotten an opposite on the standard “Crash and Burn” LE Diet, empty carbs are not going to help your sway. They may in fact harm your sway by sending your testosterone levels skyrocketing – other people would see T drop on the Crash and Burn LE, but you likely won’t.

Hold on a minute here – how do you know you need the Slow Burn, PCOS-type LE Diet, anyway? What if you don’t have any of those markers but you think you may benefit from fewer carbs? Helpful hint – If you are having trouble losing weight when you believe you should be, and you’re following the standard Crash and Burn” style of LE Diet, especially if you’re gaining weight on fewer calories than you were eating before, this may be a sign that you are a bit insulin resistant and you should switch over to the Slow Burn, PCOS-type LE Diet. If you have ANY suspicion you will benefit from the Slow Burn form of LE, DO IT. We have had better results with it than we do with the standard Crash and Burn LE Diet. The ONLY downsides are that the Slow Burn is hard to stick to and you can lose weight very fast on Slow Burn, but if you’re willing and you’re careful, the Slow Burn appears to be superior to the standard Crash and Burn LE Diet.

If you fall into one of these categories, the first change you should make is to change the proportions of protein and fat to carbs (cutting carbs overall in favor of more protein and fat) and get most, if not all, your carbs from small amounts of whole grains and fiber-rich fruit and vegetable (fresh or lightly cooked is much better than canned/well-cooked).

How does this work?? Protein and carbs have the same amount of calories in them – about 4 calories per gram. Fat has 9 calories a gram. So by getting more protein and more fat, you make up for any caloric deficit that you would incur by cutting back on carbs somewhat, and yet you are still sticking within the overall limits of LE Diet in terms of calories. Don’t just cut out carbs, you’ll starve that way! Remember, no one should ever drop below 1200 calories!! Also keep in mind that low carb vegetables are free for everyone on both types of diets – you do not count them for calories, fat, or protein and you can eat as much as you want.

Protein – increase to 50-60 g (up from 40-50 g) and if you are super tall, are breastfeeding, have fairly severe PCOS, and/or are working out a lot, you may want to even increase this a bit more, using 5 g increments (meaning, first try boosting to 65 g and seeing how that goes, don’t just start eating a keto diet and give up swaying totally!) and giving yourself time to adjust as you increase, to see where your body is happiest while eating the least amount of protein. I would not increase over 70 g protein no matter what, at least not without consulting with me at Gender Dreaming first. Many times I can spot changes that will help you adjust your diet without needing to continue upping protein. Remember, fruit and vegetables are free for protein, so if you’ve been counting the protein in them, stop. You actually need to eat more protein if you’ve been counting protein in fruit and veg.

Fat – should be at upper limits for calorie intake (about 30% of your day’s calories should come from fat, but please use GRAMS to measure and not percentages.) On a 1500-1800 cal diet this will be 50-60 g fat. VIRTUALLY EVERYONE SHOULD BE EATING 50-60 GRAMS FAT ON PCOS DIET even at lower cal intake. If you are very petite, on a 1200 cal diet, you may need to lower back to 40 g fat (although we’ve seen best results with more like 50+, on 1200 calories that may not be possible). If you need to increase calories beyond the 1800 mark, such as, you’re losing weight or your cycle is getting longer, or if you’re very tall, breastfeeding, have very severe PCOS, or exercising a lot, you can always up in 5 g increments. (meaning, first try boosting to 65 g and seeing how that goes, don’t just start eating a keto diet and give up swaying totally!) and giving yourself time to adjust as you increase, to see where your body is happiest while eating the least amount of protein. I would not increase over 70 g fat no matter what, at least not without consulting with me at Gender Dreamin first. Many times I can spot changes that will help you adjust your diet without needing to continue upping fat. Remember, fruit and vegetables are free for protein, so if you’ve been counting the protein in them, stop. You actually need to eat more fat if you’ve been counting fat in fruit and veg.

So while a traditional “Crash and Burn” Standard-type Low Everything Diet would look like this (please try not to get too hung up on the numbers, this is really just ballpark for illustration only):

1500-1800 cals – Roughly 1000-1500 cals are going to be from carbs, depending on the amount of calories overall and the proportions of protein/fat you are eating. On the Standard Crash and Burn LE Diet, these carbs can be in the form of empty white carbs, even sugar, but can also include small amounts of whole grains and also fruit and higher carb vegetables. Low carb veg are free and unlimited, you count nothing in them not even calories.

40-50 g protein – 160-200 day’s cals from protein not counting fruits and veg

30-60 g fat – 250-540 day’s cals from fat. On the Standard Crash and Burn LE Diet, while you might want to try to get more Omega 6 fats, if you’re eating low fat in the 30 g range due to having only 1200 cals – which 98% of everyone will be eating more than this! – it becomes less important to do this, and in fact you may need to make some effort to get at least a bit of saturated and Omega 3 fats to ensure you continue ovulating.

The “Slow Burn” PCOS-type of Low Everything Diet would look more like this:[

1500-1800 calories – Roughly 750-1000 cals from carbs and these carbs will all be in the form of whole grains, fresh or lightly cooked fruit and higher carb veg with lots of fiber to help with insulin resistance. While I rarely like to see anyone who is taller than 5 feet drop to 1200-1500 calories, some gals with severe PCOS/IR and a lot of weight to spare may benefit from this low a caloric intake at the beginning. As the weight comes off, insulin sensitivity will improve and you can increase calories at that point. Generally I prefer to see you guys start off HIGHER than you think you need, and then increase, but if your insulin response is really terrible it may be necessary to kickstart weight loss and get you to a place where your body can digest carbs. You will probably know this about yourself going in, if you know you’ve never lost weight at 1500-1800 calories before. If you’re not sure if this is you, start off higher than you think you need and see what happens. You can always reduce calories if you need to.

50-60 g protein – 200-240 cals from protein, and if you’re tall and/or are working out a lot, you can up this as high as 280.

60 g fat – 540 cals from fat. If you can get primarily Omega 6 fats, that’s going to help your sway a lot – you don’t need to worry about getting enough Omega 3 or saturated fat, because your protein foods, including full fat dairy, which you should be having on the Slow Burn LE Diet exclusively – no skim or part skim dairy at all! – will have some, and the Omega 6 fat sources will have a little bit in them too. and ~usually~ that will maintain ovulation effortlessly.

Wow that was a lot of writing and mathematical equations there! I know, I know, very confusing, very complicated. Some people have really been discouraged by the amount of math involved. I share it with you just so you know that there is in fact a lot of thought and consideration involved in the creation of both forms of the Low Everything Diet.

The short version is this:

1500-1800 cals for most, not counting the calories in low carb veg which are free and unlimited

50-60 g protein and fat for most, not counting protein and fat in fruit and veg (count cals only in high carb vegetables like potatoes and corn)

Whole grains only, limit sugar or avoid it completely, and use full fat dairy only, no skim or part skim dairy.

That’s it. It’s really just that easy. But if you feel distraught over the grams of this and percentages of that, here is a simplified version LE Diet I made for some of my custom swayers with PCOS/IR and math phobias. While it’s not going to be right or necessary for everyone to be quite this strict, it will help you kinda envision what a “Slow Burn” PCOS-type of LE Diet is going to look like. And if you really, really feel you can’t track the macros (it IS a bit more of a challenge on the Slow Burn LE to balance everything) you can use this diet as a skeleton to create your own diet from.

Where it says “eat X number of times a day” that means you eat that amount that many times per day. It’s like the Weight Watchers points system – you can have 2 or 3 servings at one meal or 1 at 3 meals or however works the best for you. You do not, and in fact shouldn’t, be eating 5 times a day on any form of LE Diet. On the Slow Burn PCOS-type Low Everything Diet, it can be very beneficial to your insulin response to have a nice long fast period for 12-16 hours (no longer than that) every day with no food coming in and this also seems to sway pink.

–Eat every day:

1 full fat yogurt every day (NO SKIM OR PART SKIM DAIRY AT ALL EVER) OR 3/4 c whole milk
1 Taste Nirvana Coconut water (or any coconut water, that one is good tasting while some other brands are ucky)

NOTE – these two things, full fat dairy and coconut water, will ensure you get a decent amount of potassium and will help with fat and protein. DO NOT fudge on the full fat dairy. Avoid skim and part skim dairy whenever possible. I know people think “but it has fat, surely that won’t be good for my pink sway” but the milk sugars in skim dairy are AWFUL for PCO-tendencies. And that small amount of dairy fat will help to ensure you keep ovulating even as you lose weight.

–2-3 times a day, pick one :

½ c brown rice
½ c cooked whole wheat pasta
1 slice whole grain bread (NOT wheat bread, must be 100% whole grain)
4 Ry Krisp crackers (unsalted)
8 Hint of Salt Triscuits
16 Hint of Salt Wheat Thins
One graham cracker (this is a treat to be had when you’re craving something sweet and you MUST top with the peanut butter option below.)

NOTE – you can split these things into smaller servings and have more often if you would prefer this…but remember, you’re still eating just 2-3 meals a day in most cases. These products are not going to be available in all areas and in that case you just would substitute an equivalent product. The salt limits are only for those who are limiting sodium; if you’re not limiting sodium please feel free to eat the normal versions.

2 times a day, pick one:

1-2 cup fruit (if the fruit is chunky and not too sugary like watermelon, you can have more; if it’s kind of dense like blueberries, stick with the smaller amount.)
1 baked potato (pick a smallish one)
1 baked yam (smallish one)
Carrot Sticks (you can have quite a few, like 2 carrots’ worth)
1 banana
1 apple or pear (I actually want you to leave the skins on these for extra fiber that will keep your blood sugar in check.)
1 corn on the cob
½ c storebought pasta sauce

5 times a day pick one:

2 egg whites
1 whole egg (unless you’re fully vegetarian, it’s probably best to keep these to 4-6 per week)
2 T hummus
½ c beans, lentils, or peas
1 1×1 inch cube of cheese
2 chicken nugget size pieces of chicken (use on top of salad or on taco)
1 oz. turkey (ground or sliced deli meat)
Piece of tofu about the size of a deck of cards
1/8 of a cup of nuts or seed (use to top a salad)
3 large shrimp or scallops (this is an occasional treat – no more than 2x a week)
2 T peanut butter (eat on top of the graham crackers if you are craving something sweet)

NOTE: eating that amount of the above foods, plus the protein in the yogurt/whole milk and grains, will ensure you get enough protein without having to count it if you really feel overwhelmed by the prospect. I do very much prefer you guys track nutrients, but it is harder to balance them all on the Slow Burn PCOS-type LE Diet – that’s why we have this “makeshift diet”.

3-5 times a day pick one:

1 T oil (corn or vegetable oil with Omega 6 fats are best)
1 T butter (margarine with Omega 6 fats may be better)
1 T mayo
1 T not-very-sweet salad dressing like vinaigrette or ranch
1 T whipping cream (can pour over berries or use in coffee)
1 T parmesan cheese

NOTE: If you don’t NEED to eat them, this is a place to cut some cals, but please feel free to include them if you would like. Don’t fear calories, remember if you eat too little you will stop ovulating and will basically have to sway blue just to get your cycle going again. And you NEED 50-60 g fat from somewhere on the Slow Burn PCOS-type LE Diet.

UNLIMITED

You can have as much as you want.
Mustard and unsweetened Salsa
Mushrooms
Herbs
All low carb veggies (asparagus, bell pepper, broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant, green beans, lettuce, spinach, spaghetti squash, tomato, zucchini)
If you can, use leeks and green onions instead of garlic and onion (this is probably not at all necessary, but if you’re still hung up on the old school sway diets this is something that is not impossible to include if you’d like.

Questions? Join our community at Gender Dreaming, where I’m available to answer all your questions about Natural Gender Selection!

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