Snacks for PCOS

If you have been diagnosed with PCOS, you likely have a lot of questions about what you should be eating for meals and snacks. If you are like many of the women we work with, you have likely already consumed a lot of information on the internet or via podcasts about eating for PCOS. You might even be feeling MORE confused, the more you research, due to information overload and all of the conflicting advice out there. This article is going to break things down for you and give you ideas for appropriate snacks for PCOS.

Things to keep in mind when planning PCOS Snacks

Insulin resistance is at the root of 70% of PCOS cases. Elevated insulin and blood sugar levels leads to food cravings, which can make it difficult to make good food choices. Your body wants sugar and it wants it now! Addressing this component with the right lifestyle changes is essential, and we help women with this in our functional medicine program.
Women with adrenal and inflammatory PCOS should still pay attention to blood sugar balance. Elevated cortisol levels can lead to elevated blood sugar because this helps our body survive and have immediate energy when in “fight or flight” mode.
Sometimes when we think “snack” we think foods with low nutrient density like chips & pretzels. We want to shift this mindset and think of snacks as being “mini meals” that are used to fill nutrient gaps via extra fiber, healthy fats, protein, and phytonutrients (from bright colored fruits & vegetables).

Do I need to snack?

Before reaching for a snack, ask yourself the following things:

Are you actually hungry, or are you just eating out of habit? Think of a hunger scale that goes from 0 to 10, where 0 is ravenous hunger and 10 is so full you need to unbutton your pants. To avoid cravings and overeating, it is helpful to try and keep your hunger rating between 3-7 throughout the day. This is going to require some experimentation for you to find what combinations of foods work best for you (hint: it’s going to be hard to stay in this range without the proper balance of macronutrients).
If you are hungry, is it because you didn’t eat enough protein and fat at breakfast or lunch? Eating pure carbohydrate (such as a breakfast of plain oatmeal + fruit + orange juice) is a sure way to be hungry and have food cravings throughout the day. Try experimenting with different food combinations and make note of how satisfied you feel afterwards.

Should certain women avoid snacking?

You are the expert of your own body and are the only one who knows exactly what your body needs.

Some women with severe insulin resistance might do better eating 3 balanced meals per day with no snacks in between because this will give their insulin levels more time to be lower throughout the day. Getting to a point where you only eat 3 meals per day with no snacks can be challenging and might take time (for reasons listed above as well as the food cravings that come along with insulin resistant PCOS). To comfortably avoid eating snacks when you have PCOS requires careful planning and inclusion of healthy fats, proteins, and bright colored plant foods at each meal. We give ideas for balanced meals in our Foundational Meal Plan. The goal certainly isn’t for you to eat a super low calorie diet and feel hungry all day. Eating adequate calories, fat, and vitamins/minerals is actually essential to proper hormone production.

Snacks to avoid.

Avoid snacking on simple “naked” carbohydrates. For example: plain crackers, chips, popcorn, and pretzels generally don’t contain much protein, fat, or fiber. These snacks aren’t going to fill you up so you will be more likely to overeat or start searching for another snack an hour later. You might also gravitate towards eating plain fruits or vegetables for a snack because it seems like the “healthy” thing to do, but even eating produce by itself likely won’t be a satisfying snack in the absence of protein and fat. Read below for a better way to handle this.

Best snacks for PCOS

The best snacks for PCOS will check a few different boxes:

Complex carbohydrates (fiber)
Protein
Healthy fat
Bonus points for including a bright colored fruit or vegetable or Omega-3 fatty acids (such as walnuts, flax, chia, or sardines).
They are filling enough to tide you over comfortably for 2-4 hours

In summary, snacks for women with PCOS:

Shouldn’t include simple “naked” carbohydrates
Should include a combination of complex carbohydrates (fiber), protein, and fat to keep blood sugar (and thus insulin) from spiking.
Should help fill nutrient gaps and include anti-inflammatory and gut-health promoting foods like bright colored fruits/vegetables and nuts/seeds when possible
Should be eaten after assessing hunger.