New to Forum

[Ruth 04]

Hi! New to this web site and thought I would say hi. I plan to mainly link in with the vegetarain forum but as I also have PCOS thought I'd say hi here too. The main reason for doing so is to see if anyone else has a Sydrome X "diagnosis". I put that in quotes as the endicronologist referred to a constellation of problems and when I said 'Do you mean Syndrome X?' he said 'yes'. I'm not too sure of it is a legitimate medical diagnosis yet. Basically it was insulin resistance (found following a glucose tolerance test), PCOS and hign blood pressure that led them to prescibe metformin. Luckily my cholesterol is OK (perhaps as 20 years as a vegetarian). The other problem is hypothyroidism - which forum to link in with has been a problem!!

All the best. :wiggle:

[Squid]

Hi Ruth,

Glad to see you here. I have PCOS and ate as a vegetarian for a long time. I finally had to give it up. It was ruining my health. My triglycerides were through the roof and my blood pressure was climbing.

I am not a fan of meat, but I did go on a low carb diet. I eat a lot of tofu, nuts, avocados and eggs to keep the meat down to one meal a day usually - and that is almost always chicken or fish.

I can't argue with the results. My blood tests are all within normal ranged now and I'm finally losing weight. Blood pressure is fine too. I think it's very hard to be a vegetarian and low carb, but I'll be interested in hearing how you're doing.

Squid

[Ruth 04]

Thank you for saying hi and I appreciate your comments. A colleague at work, a doctor, said that it was possible, if not likely that being vegetarian was causing me to be heavier. Not that being veggie did so, but may have not been right for me with the insulin resistance etc and not eating enough protein. I will ask the edocrinologist when I next see him. Reckon there is a research project ready for someone to do on how many women with PCOS are veggie, in comparison to the usual rate for of vegetarism amongst women (or something like that!)

I will see how I go low carbing as a veggie. I've not eaten meat for 20 years and wish I could actually turn off that bit of me that finds it so awful. I struggle to eat eggs as I think of them as a meat of sorts - but have to to get the protein intake higher. I've found that I have to be strict and not think too much about eggs when I am eating them!

Again I do appreciate hearing your experience and it is food for thought! If I ever did go back to meat it would have to be only one meal a day as you are doing. Ironically I went veggie at age 17 to not get fat and here we are 20 years on with so much more knowledge!

All the best.

[Squid]

I'm curious to know what you're endocrinologist will tell you. I just had an appointment today with a new one and he increased my dose of glucophage and told me to eat low carb.

I'm with you that it's not easy to start eating meat. Fish and chicken were easier. In fact, anything that was highly processed and looked less like meat was easier for me to eat at first. But it did get easier with time. I wish I could eat vegetarian, but that's not the reality for me.

Keep me posted how you're doing.

Squid

[Ruth 04]

Thanks "Squid" for the reply. Glad to hear that your endocrinologist says to use low carb. My next appointment is in March. I'll keep you posted on what they say. Also like you if I ever did go back to meat it would have to be processed, but hope I can get away without having to do so.

All the best