Question

I have learned so much from your website already! I hope you don’t mind me e-mailing you, I’d love if you could give me some advice.

I’ve been a vegetarian for 8 years, but spent the majority of that time eating anything out of a box. Since I’ve moved away from home, my diet has completely changed. I spend a lot of time doing research on how I can improve things for myself, and it’s really paying off. About two months ago I started eating high raw, and the changes I have noticed in my body are amazing. For the first time ever I have some control over my weight. However I find I am getting bored of eating the same foods (I’m not very creative!) so am eating less and less of the ‘goodstuff”. I think I need to give some of the recipes on your website a shot!

I have always loved fitness but even though I’m only 19 years old, I’ve had a lot of problems with my body. I have PCOS so I am insulin resistant, and can’t lose weight. I’ve had problems with joints as well. As of September I’m doing the fitness and health promotion program in Kingston, which is even more of a push for me to learn more about helping myself.

Answer

Eating raw provides so many more health benefits than cooked food – it’s incredible! As for getting bored – you must try some new recipes. If you intend on eating more raw foods, I would suggest you purchase a dehydrator and blender. You can make so much with these two tools. My favorite raw food chef is Ani Phyo – her recipes are great! I’ll be posting lots more recipes and articles on my website so stay tuned! Or…

As for PCOS, consider a main cause of this condition can be excess estrogen. Remove the excess estrogen, and very often, the PCOS will disappear. The tiny ovarian cysts in PCOS, which sometimes aren’t so tiny, can be unopened egg sacks. Every month an egg migrates through the ovary to the outside. When hormone levels are normal, the tiny sack holding the egg bursts open and releases the egg. The leftover sack is the corpus luteum, it’s job to produce progesterone to hold onto a pregnancy, should the egg be fertilized. Either the egg will be fertilized and a beautiful little baby will be conceived, or the unfertilized egg will just get washed away during menstruation. But…in the case of PCOS, too much estrogen is present, which doesn’t encourage the sack to open. It just sits there, on the outside of the ovary, waiting, forever. The next month, the same thing happens over again, until the ovary is covered with unopened egg sacks, or cysts!

Excess estrogen comes from several places.

  • Birth control pills and hormone replacement therapy (these are the same thing).
  • Dairy products are high in growth hormones naturally, to cause a baby calf to grow into a massive cow or bull.
  • If you purchase packaged products, with U.S. dairy products, these products probably contain synthetic growth hormones, like Estradiol.
  • Meat products are also high in growth hormones, you can expect all meat products from U.S. companies to contain synthetic growth hormones. Canadian beef is also fed growth hormones in the last year of life, if not also, before the last year.

Because you have been a vegetarian for 8 years, you would not be exposed to the hormones in meat products and hormones — naturally present or added synthetically to dairy products, can be avoided by replacing dairy with other delicious foods and more healing foods. You can find lots of great alternatives for dairy, starting with making your own nut and seed milks, see Hemp Milk and other easy seed and nut milks.

There are safe ways of controlling pregnancies, and being pregnant is never a trade-off for your health.

Counter estrogen build up in your body by reducing stress, exercising, drinking lots of water, and getting adequate amounts of rest. These things help your body to clear excess estrogen.

The next thing is to eat foods that balance your hormones, which will automatically help you lose weight. These are plant foods, high in phytoestrogens.

They include,

  • Highly unsaturated fatty acids, which also help to break up trans fat and saturated fat, helping with weight loss. Flax seed oil is high in hormone balancing phytoestrogens, and this alone could be the answer to PCOS and weight gain. Flax seed oil works best mixed into a high quality protein, 2 tablespoons mixed into a smoothie with raw nuts and seeds, daily.
  • Red Clover Tea — be careful not to drink too much because Red Clover tea has been used historically to encourage pregnancy!
  • Chick peas and other peas and beans, try Heavenly Garlicky Hummus
  • Fennel seeds ~ just chew them like Indian women do, or add them to salads
    Berries ~ all kinds, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries ~ that’s probably why women love berries so much
  • Fresh green vegetables
  • Fermented organic soy ~ tempeh, miso, Nama Shoyu (naturally fermented soy sauce)
  • Whole grains in moderation

Please share your successes and let us know how you are doing by commenting at the bottom of this post.