Avoid endo pain by eating less of these...

Here to reduce your endo pain naturally? Join me as I explore the intricate relationship between estrogen dominance, inflammation, and certain types of fats, such as palmitic acid, which quite likely make things worse. You'll hear where things are at between endometriosis and red meat, alcohol, caffeine, and even environmental disruptors like pesticides and BPA. While some people with endometriosis find relief by cutting out certain foods like gluten and soy due to their potential inflammatory effects, you'll figure out if this is something YOU need to do, and how to go about it.

Are you on the lookout for a FODMAP dietitian near you? Here's a list of who specialises in this area.

TIMESTAMPS
01:29 Total fat, saturated fat and palmitic acid...and where to find them
04:39 Meat and endo
05:57 Alcohol and caffeine, not so bad?
07:27 EDC's - what, where, who?
09:32 FODMAPs, gluten & soy - do you need to level up?

OTHER FREEBIES
- Endo bloat: 12 top tips to deflate
- Eat More Plants: recipe book

On the DIY train but want some more support? I created these for you - take what you need:

🤰🏽Preparing for Pregnancy Pack - The 3 Essentials for Pregnancy Success

🥰 10 Ways to Feel Wildly More Supported on Your Fertility Journey

👌🏼25 Simple Things to Curb Your Cravings with PCOS

💃 Beat Your Endo Belly


Tired of all the confusing nutrition advice on TikTok and ready to get what YOU need?

✅ Book your FREE 15-min support sesh




Will you leave me a rating or review? Pretty please with a cherry on top?

I'm also on Insta at ohgoodness_nutrition. Drop by with a wave and let's be friends.

Email me love notes, questions, or comments at hannah@ognutrition.co.nz

Oh Goodness! Nutrition is an evidence-based dietitian practice. However, given the general nature of the content presented on this podcast, it can not replace individualised medical advice. Get yo'self a professional (psst, lik...

Transcript

[00:00:00] Welcome back to another episode of the I'm Thinking of Having a Baby podcast. I'm your host, Hannah Eriksen, owner and fertility dietitian at Oh Goodness! Nutrition. This podcast is all about harnessing the power of food and the nutrients they contain so you can get pregnant faster. No matter if you're planning, pursuing, or praying for a pregnancy, focusing on your diet in this phase will not only prepare your body to grow a baby, but it can also improve the quality of the eggs you release each month, increase the chance of an egg meeting a sperm and help that fertilize egg to make a home in your uterus. And if you struggle with underlying health conditions that can affect fertility, the effect of food on your symptoms: pelvic pain, menstrual irregularity can be mindblowing. Small changes, but a big difference. If this is your first time listening in welcome. We're in the midst of chatting about endometriosis. What foods can reduce chronic pelvic [00:01:00] pain, how to beat bloating, which is so common with endo. Today, though, we're adding to it and covering the avoid list. 

[00:01:07] What foods make your endo pain worse? All in the hope that you can be well on your way to experiencing less pelvic pain. Woohoo that's what we're about. A quick recap. Endometriosis is driven by a nasty combination of both estrogen dominance and inflammation. For more light listening, I have links in the show notes for you. 

[00:01:29] Of course the foods to avoid with endo play into either or both of these nasties. From the research that's been done, we are pretty confident that high fat diets release an endotoxin from intestinal bacteria called lipopolysaccharide or LPS into the blood, which causes an immune response and corresponding inflammation. 

[00:01:51] High fat diets can also drive more inflammatory pathways in the body, shown by elevated levels of a number of inflammatory biomarkers. But [00:02:00] when we study the effects of total fat and its relationship to endometriosis, the outcomes are mixed. Some studies say total fat eaten has no effect. One study found a positive effect and a few found a link between total fat intake and higher endometriosis risk. In all it's too unclear to say definitively that the total amount of fat in a person's diet is linked with endo. And we know there are plenty of healthy fats that can reduce inflammation. So we need to break it down further and look at specific types of fats if we're going to make any changes to how we eat. 

[00:02:34] You've heard of saturated fat, right? It's fat that tends to be solid at room temperature and occurs in mostly animal products. Think butter, lard, cheese, milk, and in some plant foods like coconut oil, palm oil. 

[00:02:48] One of the main saturated fats is palmitic acid. It's the one that's found in the greatest concentrations in packaged and processed foods. Saturated fats cause these [00:03:00] endotoxins or the LPS to be released. They promote inflammatory pathways in the body, and it's been suggested that palmitic acid increases the amount of estrogen in the body. 

[00:03:10] A meta analysis, which if you aren't a research nerd, it's the highest quality of evidence when looking at stuff like this. Show that there is a significant relationship between eating foods containing saturated fat and risk of endometriosis and especially palmitic acid seems to be the biggest baddie. 

[00:03:27] So what exactly are the foods I should be avoiding with endo when it comes to saturated fat. Based on this evidence, I would be looking for ways to have less butter. Or food's made with butter, like pastries and baking. Leaner cuts of meat and choosing lower fat dairy milk and cheese, coconut oil and avoiding processed foods that usually use Palm oil, which is called vegetable oil or vegetable fat on most labels. 

[00:03:53] A note on the dairy. This one is a little bit unique. So unlike butter, which is pretty much all fat, [00:04:00] milk and cheese also really great sources of protein and calcium. Other research has shown they are beneficial in fertility and weight management. So if you have endo and you don't consume a lot of dairy, regular fat dairy is okay, but see your dietician for specific recommendations and definitely listen to the previous episode where I explained the goodness of dairy for endo. 

[00:04:23] But on that note, things we cheekily would consider a dairy like ice cream, sour cream, cream cheese. Okay. They are again, mostly fat. And so reducing the overall quantity of those would do us favors in helping us reduce our endo pain too. 

[00:04:39] Studies have also found a link between red meat and endometriosis. And one study, those who ate more than two servings of red meat a day had a 56% higher risk of endometriosis then those who had red meat less than once a week. Now hear me out. I'm not suggesting that you go meatless. If you have red meat a couple of times a day, [00:05:00] or if your serving size of meat is more than your Palm size, then consider reducing it to one time a day, or just sticking to a Palm size of meat at a time. Or if you eat meat every day, but once a day, then replacing red meat with another form of protein, a couple of times a week is a reasonable next step. Of course, if you don't eat lots of red meat to begin with, you can tick off this box and move on. 

[00:05:23] Processed meat is another one to consider reducing for the well-established knowledge that it promotes inflammation. So avoiding bacon, ham, salami, chorizo. It's a good idea if you have endo. And of course, when I say avoid, I'm not saying you can never eat bacon again. How mean would that be? But again, once you know that reducing it will mean less endo pain, you give it a go, right? 

[00:05:44] It's all about frequency and quantity. Having a small amount once a month or on special occasions is very different from having it weekly and, or going on a bacon bender. Plus it's not really a protein it's just high in fat and lots of salt.

[00:05:57] Higher alcohol consumption [00:06:00] is linked to higher estrogen levels and lower progesterone and alcohol is also a well-established driver of inflammation. But when looking at a recent meta analysis, moderate alcohol drinking was borderline associated with increased risk of endometriosis, but not enough to be significant. 

[00:06:20] Because of its other health impacts, keeping alcohol consumption to a minimum is still a good idea though. Interestingly the same study found that women with endometriosis were less likely to drink than those who didn't have it suggesting that you already knew alcohol wasn't great for you. 

[00:06:36] Another recent meta analysis, looking at the effect of caffeine on the risk of endometriosis showed no significance compared to no or little caffeine drinkers. However high caffeine consumption, which is greater than 300 milligrams a day, had an increased risk overall. While the authors concluded that caffeine consumption doesn't appear to be connected to endometriosis risk [00:07:00] 300 milligrams is not very much. One cafe style, double shot cappuccino could just about get you there. If you add an Earl gray tea to a day, you'd be tipping the caffeine scales. All this to say it's not strictly on the avoid list, just like your alcohol, as there's not enough evidence to say for sure that it's related to endometriosis pain. 

[00:07:17] If it's been a nagging thought in the back of your mind to reduce your caffeine intake. Consider this your invitation. It definitely can not do you any harm. 

[00:07:27] All right, EDCs: endocrine disrupting chemicals like pesticides and BPA. Okay, you're right. These aren't really foods and we definitely don't go out of our way to eat pesticides like we might pastries, but environmental toxins have been shown to exacerbate endo and therefore pain. Pesticides and BPA are two examples of endocrine disrupting chemicals. There are others, but these are two that have been studied and found links between them and endo. 

[00:07:54] There are many ways that you can avoid these two compounds, knowing where to find them is one thing. [00:08:00] BPA is found coating aluminum cans, like your canned food; plastics, like your drinking bottles; it's found in memory foam, on shopping receipts, corrugated cardboard, and it's got a number seven on the recycling icon. 

[00:08:14] Fortunately, and you'll be relieved to hear this, BPA does not accumulate in the body. It's got a half-life of about two hours. Reducing general exposure is a great step. 

[00:08:26] Buying organic produce is one way to deal with pesticides. Although I'm hesitant to recommend that everyone buy organic because the cost is an already prohibitive factor for some. And the level of organic is variable. Washing your fruits, peeling your veg.... Although an extra step and time taker, it can help reduce your exposure to pesticides. 

[00:08:48] Honestly. You can go down a rabbit hole here and get thoroughly paranoid about all of the chemicals that are disrupting your hormones. I certainly felt that when I was researching it. So you need to take the steps that are fair and reasonable for [00:09:00] you to do. 

[00:09:02] The foods I've included already will benefit anyone with endometriosis. Now there are going to be some that I list soon, but they're not universally applicable to everybody with endo. I'm going to talk about FODMAPs, gluten, and soy. And the reason these are not universal is there is evidence some people with endo benefit from removing them, but others don't find any benefit at all. And from a health perspective, unless you absolutely need to cut them out then I don't recommend you do, and I'll share why. 

[00:09:32] FODMAPs. Is that acronym stands for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols. It's a lot and their components in certain foods, predominantly fruits and veg though, some grains and artificial sweeteners. 

[00:09:46] And they can exacerbate IBS type symptoms. And we know that IBS is quite common in those with endo. For some, reducing the amount of FODMAPs in their diet in a systematic way, with the goal [00:10:00] to replace everything that was eliminated for a time, can work wonders to reduce pain. 

[00:10:05] If you have tried this and it's not quite worked for you, attempting the FODMAP diet with a dietitian is the next step, if you haven't done it under supervision already. Because doing it with supervision is super important. And I cannot understate this. I'll share a link to FODMAP trained dietitians in the show notes so you can find one in your neighborhood. 

[00:10:24] In terms of gluten: gluten-free products they're not healthier. And in fact, they tend to have lower levels of dietary fiber than the glutinous counterparts. We know dietary fiber is essential for a healthy gut, and the control of excess estrogen. But for some people with endometriosis, gluten is inflammatory and it does cause a response. Removing it from their diet, some people with endo find it makes a world of difference. If you trial it, and say four weeks without any gluten, and you don't notice any difference in your pain, then don't cut it out.

[00:10:53] Soy is an interesting one because it contains phytoestrogens. They are plant forms of estrogen that [00:11:00] can weakly bind estrogen receptors. And on the surface, this might sound bad. Cause more estrogen is what compounds endo in the first place. However, the research mostly shows that soy products are fine. Unless you're having really large amounts and you have crazy endo pain. In the instance reducing your overall soy intake is the next step to notice if you see any improvements in pain. So if you currently don't have a lot of soy, you don't need to reduce it. But if you having quite a lot and your pain is significant, then think about how you can swap it out for non soy products. 

[00:11:33] Because the key thing, when it comes to avoiding certain foods is to replace them with better alternatives. We always go for an alternative. Some can be better, but some can be worse. And if you don't already have one, this is exactly the legwork a dietician can do for you. They will calculate how much you're having, how much you should have and give you tons of strategies for how to make the change, replacing the item you're removing with things that are shown to make you feel better and have less [00:12:00] pain. And if you haven't already definitely give the previous episode a listen. Because that will show you what to sub in. 

[00:12:06] It goes without saying that the information I've covered here is not personalized advice. Some of us like to DIY things. And I hope you've found some pointers and support in listening. If at any point you've tried things and have a hard time being consistent, or if you feel like your diet is too restricted, I invite you to talk to a dietitian to rediscover what deliciousness you can safely resume. 

[00:12:29] The way I work is by asking you a million questions, developing a plan for less pain. And providing you with all the tools to make it a reality in your life. This begins with a meal plan, but it finishes with you learning what your body needs, how to do it, and you actually wanting to do it. I set you up so that even when I'm not around, you're able to continue. 

[00:12:49] Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. 

[00:12:52] Go ahead and stalk me on my website, ognutrition.co.nz, or on Instagram at [00:13:00] ohgoodness_nutrition. I can't wait to meet you.