Adapting to a change in diet to help endometriosis

Tips and advice to help you adapt to diet changes to help reduce your endometriosis symptoms

There is lots of advice about diet and nutrition to help with endometriosis, but how do you adapt to a new way of eating ?  This article gives you advice about how to get started and gradually introduce new diet changes.


Adapting to a diet for endometriosis


Taking on diet changes and altering old eating habits will take you a while to adjust and be able to get used to the changes, but it will soon become a new good habit.  You may need to gradually restock your food cupboards with some of the basic ingredients which you can find details of here. 

Don't worry about the ingredients for the diet being totally different or hard to get.  Many of the ingredients are easy to find but you may simply not be using them right now. 

You may be required to learn some new cooking techniques, like working with a food processor, making juices and smoothies, and being organised and getting used to the process of bulk cooking – bulk cooking is a great idea as it allows you to have extra ready cooked meals in your freezer to use on days you are feeling bad and do not feel like cooking. Soups, casseroles and stews are ideal for bulk cooking and freezing.

One requirement you may need to pursue is where you will be doing your shopping to get hold of any slightly new or different ingredients.  This is especially true if you are going to go organic which is highly advised if you can afford it. This is where the internet comes into its own.  Most supermarkets have online stores and you can browse their website to see if they stock what you are looking for.  There are also specialist online food suppliers who offer such items as organic herbs, and spices, herb teas etc.

Even Amazon has a pantry section.  The beauty of these online suppliers is that you can get home delivery which saves you time and more importantly energy. Some days with endometriosis, you just don’t have the energy or you are in too much pain to go grocery shopping, then these online services can be a godsend.

The trick with changing to a new diet is not to do it all at once.  It will be too challenging to do all the changes in one go, especially if you have to change many of your store cupboard ingredients.  

If you have been eating a lot of sugar you may go through a detox if you stop all at once, and it would be a good idea to wean yourself off your sugar habit.  This article here written by a fellow endo warrior has tips on how she got off her sugar habit. To change to the new diet, it really will be easier to do a little at a time and gradually adapt to the changes.  Maybe set yourself tangible, weekly targets. 

You may be surprised to learn that many of your old favourite recipes can be easily adapted with a few ingredient changes or substitutes once you have learned what the really nasty ingredients are that trigger off your symptoms. This article here has quite a lot of feedback from other women who have mentioned that specific foods can trigger off a really bad endometriosis flare. 

You may also be surprised to learn that other members of the family actually enjoy the recipes you are cooking to help with your endometriosis. I have had feedback from a number of women whose husband or boyfriends have joined them in their diet changes and have really enjoyed the dishes they are now eating - and some have even mentioned that they actually feel healthier, Well there's a surprise!


Download the Shopping list for the endometriosis diet - which includes a selection of recipes to help get you started:






Here is an example - a timetable to change to a new eating regime:

Week one - start by doing one simple change - changing your hot drinks and change over to healthy options like herb teas. Now is the time to also start keeping a diary to include - your symptoms, medications taken, supplements taken, monthly cycle, and your daily dietary intake.  

Week two - maybe change your lunch-time habit of having a wheat-based sandwich every day (if that is what you were doing) - change over to a healthy alternative, like buying gluten-free bread from your health store and adding some healthy dips and salads. And soup is always a good standby any day of the week. You can also bulk up any soups with a few spoonfuls of chia seeds which will add extra bulk, but most importantly will add extra nutrition.

 Week three - be brave and chuck out all those nasty ingredients from your cupboards and restock with safer alternatives (or better still, give them to someone who could use them - I had waste) – you even need to get rid of those bad oils you may have been using and buy healthier options. This article here gives you advice on the best oils to use when you are dealing with endometriosis.

 Week four - start to write up some simple meal plans, building in time-tables for your periods so you can plan what to cook in advance to get you through rough times. This will be a learning curve as you are still getting used to the changes in your eating habits. Some women find it can be rather tricky getting rid of gluten in their diet and can can take many months to finally get gluten out of their diet. But the payback for many has seen a noticeable reduction in symptoms.

 Week five - gradually build up your new diet regime to include all meals based on the principles of an anti-inflammatory diet.  Start collecting recipes for different meal ideas – there is a basic collection of endo-friendly recipes HERE

 Week six - continue building this new regime.  Do not worry about lapses, you are only human.   In a few weeks’ time you will be able to detect what really upsets your system when you have a relapse - and don't forget to keep up with your symptoms diary.  I think wheat and coffee will knock your system side-ways if you have had a few weeks off and then try them again - it does for a lot of women

 At around week ten - give yourself a huge treat - go for a lovely therapeutic massage if you can afford it.  If you can’t afford a trained masseur, then maybe a friend who has a natural touch could give you one.    Whatever you do, don’t throw in the towel.  The benefits will not come over night, but they will come.   Believe me, many women have had huge benefits from changing their diet and have had a noticeable reduction in their endometriosis symptoms.

 

Endometriosis diet snack ideasSnack ideas with endometriosis



Resources to help you make the changes:

All the links here open a new window so you won't loose your place.

  - For a list of the basic ingredients to have in your store cupboard read HERE

  - For help which alternative ingredients to use for sugar, milk and wheat flour you will find advice HERE

  - Many with endo have found by getting rid of gluten in their diet they have really good results and reduced their symptoms.  You need to watch out for hidden sources of gluten which you can read about HERE

  - There is a good diet/recipe book from endo-resolved which covers just about all your needs to get you started on the diet with drinks, soups, main dishes, spicy dishes, curries, sweets, baking, cakes, dips and spreads – over 250 recipes, which will give you a good kick-start – details are HERE

  - Don’t forget to check out your local health food store as they will be a good starting place for many items you will be looking for.  Find out if there is a weekly organic-box scheme near where you live so you can get a regular supply of organic veggies and fruit when it’s in season.

  - It is strongly advised to change you cooking equipment if you are using items like non-stick pans, cookware made of Teflon and aluminium pans. My favourite saucepans are the stainless-steel pans with the copper insert in the bottom as they maintain heat better and are safer to cook with. Cast iron is another option and you get the benefit of added iron in your food that comes from the pans, but they are rather heavy.

  - If you have got a birthday coming up ask for a good quality food processor which will help to take the hard work out of the prep with some  recipes that require blitzing of ingredients like pate's, spread, and smoothies. Also, a juicer is another nice pressie to get – you can then juice up those fruit and veggies and get the benefits of all the vital nutrients.

  - Just take one step at a time and if you get overwhelmed about changing your eating habits, you can always get advice from others on places like Facebook endometriosis groups or endometriosis forums.

  - And I will say this one more time - Don't forget to keep a diary - then you will start to learn exactly what is going on and exactly what is affecting your symptoms. 

 

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About the Author

Hi, I am Carolyn Levett, the Founder here at endo-resolved - I am an Integrative Health Coach having studied nutrition, naturopathy and aromatherapy as well as being a published author of three endometriosis books. I used to suffer from severe endometriosis and was fortunate to be able to regained my health and recover from this disease with the support of nutrition, natural therapies and lots of determination.

My motivation is to help other women with endometriosis to heal their bodies so they may start to overcome this awful disease without having to totally rely on toxic drugs and surgeries which can cause further damage  -  with healing thoughts, Carolyn.



Reference:

https://www.healthline.com/health/endometriosis/endometriosis-diet

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321471.php

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6330594/