Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Low carbohydrate diet - is it good for people with PCOS?

I am going to take a big big step and try the high protein, low carb diet, favoured by the Dukan Diet. A main difference ( and advantage!) of the Dukan Diet over the very famous Atkins Diet is it emphasis on lean protein. So, it is a low fat, low carb high protein diet.

High protein diets are bad for your kidneys and liver, and therefore I have always been very very sceptical about them. There is a link between PCOS and NAFLD ( Non alcoholic fatty liver disease), and I don't want to put myself at further risk. Spent a couple of days researching on whether high protein diet would be bad for me.

There isnt much real evidence or data out there - only lots of OPINION from "experts". There isnt a study specifically looking at whether high protein diet is good or bad for people with PCOS. However, what is known is these diets are effective in weight loss! This para from editorial in a gastroenterology journal summarised it well:
Low-carbohydrate diets have long been considered fad diet by the medical profession. Several questions have been raised regarding their weight loss potential and possible adverse effects. Public interest continues unabated, and books detailing low carbohydrate lifestyles are regulars on best seller lists. A number of studies have be en publ i shed  in  r e c ent  y e a r s  e va l u a t ing  the  e f f e c t s of low-carbohydrate diets on weight loss as well as on metabolic markers, comparing these diets to traditional low-fat diets. However, none has compared their effects on liver histology and NAFLD. Effects on obesity and biomarkers of the metabolic syndrome will be reviewed, given their important etiologic association with NAFLD.
and....
Caution must be exercised in subjects with baseline a b n o r ma l  l ow - d e n s i t y  l i p o p r o t e i n  ch o l e s t e r o l  l e ve l s. E f f e c t s  o n  b i o ch emi c a l ma r k e r s  a s s o c i a t e d  w i t h  t h e metabolic syndrome appear to be more favorable with low-carbohydrate diets. In general, these diets show greater improvements in insulin sensitivity, triglyceride and highdensity cholesterol levels. It is possible that for patients with the metabolic syndrome, a low-carbohydrate diet may be more advantageous. This, in turn, may positively affect NAFLD. 

I don't have a cholesterol problem (yet!) - so I do have a LDH ( low density lipoprotein) problem. I am going to get started on this Dukan Diet thing! Watch me shrink.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Dukan Diet, will this be the holy grail?

Unless you had live in a cave, it is quite difficult to escape "Dukan diet". It first gained prominence as the diet of the Middleton girls ( including the mum, Carole), and responsible for Kate's weight loss and Pippa's bum. A couple of days a go, the British Dietetic Association voted it as the No 1 BAD DIET, and the ever Middleton obsessed Daily Mail wasted no time in splashing it in the headlines: Kate Middleton's diet slammed ineffective.

To be honest, I am quite fed up of this loss weight healthily type of things. I only crash diet-ed once in my life, and know that weight rebounded horribly. I hope the Dukan diet is worth the risk on my kidneys!

This diet promises a lot. A couple of pounds on just a few days of eating of protein sounds a lot to me, especially when it takes so much efforts for me to lose a pound.

Still thinking on whether i should give it a try. Is it worth to go on this Dukan diet? It is bad, but if it is effective, should I try this diet? Cutting out carbs seems not a bad idea for someone with PCOS, but is it easy?

I think I better read up more before I try!


Friday, November 11, 2011

Skin - do you have large pores?

My skin pores enlarged quite a lot in the past few years, especially after I started to have PCOS.

Acne is usually associated with PCOS, but I  noticed that my skin pores, especially those around the T zone enlarged considerably after I have PCOS. Skin become oilier.