risk of diabetes, heart disease and memory loss.
As they are not stored in your body, you need to eat foods rich in phytochemicals on a regular basis to benefit your heart, skin, hair and mental and reproductive health.
If you have PCOS, ensure that you stock up on phytonutrients every day.
How?
It’s quite simple, really. Just make sure you meet your daily fruit and vegetable food requirements. Plant-based foods are brimming with phytonutrients. The best strategy is to include a wide variety of colourful fruits and vegetables in your diet on a daily basis. Variety is the key. Eating a few apples and a banana a day is OK, but not as good as being more adventurous. Research shows that those who eat a diet with a varied mix of vegetables have a 20 per cent lower risk of colon cancer than those whose intake is less varied. A useful trick is to think about the colours of the rainbow when you choose your fruits and vegetables. A good selection of colours will mean that you get a good selection of phytonutrients. So aim for multicoloured meals – check orange, yellow, red, purple and green are all present by choosing foods such as mangoes, blackberries, cabbage, bell peppers, carrots, etc. The deeper the colour, the more phytochemicals are present.
The main groups of phytochemicals include: flavonoids (these give grapefruit its tartness and cherries their blush, and reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke); phytoestrogens (in soya, tofu, pulses and sprouts – they reduce the risk of breast cancer and improve bone strength); carotenoids (they give orange and green fruit and veg their colour and protect against heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease).
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It’s only since the advent of phytochemical research that red wine has been found to be good for you (it’s packed with a phytochemical called reseveratrol). Also, 40 g of chocolate has a similar phytochemical content to a glass of red wine. It also has the undesirable type of fat and sugar, so has some disadvantages, but proves once again that everything can be good in moderation. Tea, especially green tea, is a rich source of phytochemicals. Four cups of green tea gives you optimal amounts of epicatechin, which has antioxidant, antibacterial, antiviral, anticancer and immune-enhancing properties. If you don’t like green tea, look for black tea blends with green tea added.
Vegetables highest in phytochemicals are cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli and other green leafy vegetables. Fruits high in phytochemicals include tomatoes, cranberries and blueberries. The 30 best sources of phytochemicals identified to date are:
| apples | cherries | pineapples |
| eggplants | chillies | red bell peppers |
| avocados | garlic | red wine |
| bananas | grapefruit | rye |
| barley | green tea | sesame seeds |
| bean sprouts | leeks | soya (including tofu) |
| berries | milk | spinach |
| broccoli | oats | tomatoes |
| carrots | oranges | walnuts |
| celery | parsley | whole wheat |
8) Eating to Reduce Cholesterol
Include foods in your diet such as oats, which have been proved especially useful in reducing cholesterol levels.
Why?
Cholesterol is a fatty, wax-like substance produced by stress, biochemical and hormonal reactions and food, primarily in your liver but also in your intestines and other cells within your body.
Cholesterol isn’t all bad news. It plays an essential role in bodily processes including the production of sex hormones such as oestrogen and progesterone. Cholesterol, as with other blood fats, only creates a problem when you have too much of it. Too much cholesterol can promote the production of fatty plaque which can clog up your arteries. If this happens, the blood flow is interrupted and this could lead to a heart attack or stroke. Blocked arteries also cause circulation problems, numbness and pain in your feet and hands.
Nutritionally you need to keep the risk of fatty plaque-blockage as low as possible. You can do this by eating foods which stimulate the production of ‘good’ cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein – HDL) and avoiding foods which stimulate ‘bad’ cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein – LDL). HDL carries excess amounts of LDL back to your intestines where it is excreted. It doesn’t matter how much HDL you have in your blood – the thing to watch out for is raised LDL.
You can encourage your body to excrete LDL by taking in more beneficial foods. In addition, you can ensure that your diet contains plenty of the nutrients that prevent LDL from forming deposits in your blood vessels.
The Pill
It is important to point out that the contraceptive pill, the most common medicine for PCOS, lowers HDL and increases LDL levels. If you have PCOS and have been or are on the contraceptive pill, it is crucial that you check your LDL levels regularly with your doctor and pay attention to your diet.
Controlling cholesterol is vital for everyone, and especially for women with PCOS in order to protect against heart disease, especially as low levels of good cholesterol and increased levels of bad cholesterol are seen in women with PCOS, particularly those with insulin problems. This situation is associated with the risk of developing heart disease and diabetes.2 It is estimated that women with PCOS have a 7-fold increased risk of having a heart attack when compared to the general population.3
How?
Regular exercise is one of the best ways to reduce cholesterol (see Chapter 7), but certain foods can stimulate your body to produce HDL. Garlic has a substance that has this effect, as do oily fish such as herrings, mackerel, sardines, tuna and salmon. Oily fish contains Omega-3, which can help your body carry more LDL to the intestines to be excreted. Other foods which are thought to lower cholesterol include fresh fruit, vegetables and olive oil. Kidney beans and other legumes such as chickpeas, as well as soy-based foods are also thought to lower the risk of raised LDL levels.
Aim to have at least two or three meals containing garlic/oily fish a week. Why not try freshly grilled sardines, herrings, tuna steaks or salmon, or make fish soups and garlic dips? Add garlic to pasta sauces and stir-fries, or you can take a daily supplement.
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