Your PCOS Diet -- What if You Are a Vegetarian for Spiritual Reasons?

Our research indicates that if you are a strict vegetarian, you may have greater difficulty in gaining the upper hand over PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome). However, we recognize that there may be spiritual issues involved.

I (Dr. Nancy Dunne) have been privileged to know quite a few long-term vegetarians, people of deep social conscience and committed to values like sustainability and global health.

But after a couple decades of malnourishment they find their energy levels generally insufficient. They become very occupied with their personal health challenges and find it difficult to contribute broadly.

This is of course my own experience and I would not claim it is unfailingly universal among long term vegetarians- however, in my practice, in America, this is a common outcome after years of devotion to non-meat eating.

Some of the folks I work with are committed to a religious or spiritual system that forbids animal food. Over many years now we have worked with diet and supplements to help them maintain their health.

Our conclusion every time is that they have accepted a different degree of health; they expect and tolerate more frequent upper respiratory infections every winter for instance, and longer recovery periods. They understand their reduced energy levels and foggy thinking are related to their food choices.

Once we take away the mystery of why they feel the way they do, they are satisfied they are doing their best in all chosen arenas. It is worth it to them to sacrifice certain elements of physical health for their spiritual commitment.

For those who are not committed to a particular spiritual path, but have an idea that it may be somehow wrong to be part of the death of animals for food, I invite you to consider the following: there is a natural food chain that humans are a part of.

We are animals ourselves, and we are as well, as far as we can tell, unique in our ability to think and feel and make adaptations and choices. I wonder if refusing to eat animals for food is not in some way defining them as lesser beings. Literally, that is, as nothing more than an inferior life form that we are graciously allowing to live or not according to our intellectual, chosen philosophy.

If we have the understanding there is not a hierarchal, up/down relationship between humans and our food animals but rather a relationship of profound mutuality; if we can relate to the spirit of the animal as it were, apart from its physical body, then our respect as expressed in how we support the animal’s life, and our gratitude for its death in service to our life, has meaning.

A respectful relationship that includes continual awareness and gratitude, that includes a commitment to eating just-enough, that is not gluttonous or wasteful, can be a worthy spiritual practice.

If your concern is for the well-being of all animals as well as the whole environment, the global economy and equal rights and the best use of the human imagination and intellect, consider a serious commitment to a practice of awareness, of respect and gratitude for the animals you eat.

Consider the discipline of regular attention and consciousness of what some would consider the sacred relationship between us. We eat them, and some of them sometimes eat us.

Pausing with each meal to be aware of this gratitude is a discipline that requires real efforts and raises a consistent sensitivity and alertness that is then carried through many other activities and choices. “Saying grace” can be a meaningful and health enhancing custom to incorporate into daily life.

Simply not eating animals may not change the circumstances of the vast majority of food animals. If you choose not to eat meat, possibly a few less animals will be processed through the industrial food system over your life time.

However, I believe that a commitment to the life-long well being of everyone -- food animals and humans -- means you may have a level of activism in your shopping and food choices that is more likely to have real impact on the whole environment.

You might budget your grocery money so you can afford to buy your meat from growers who raise and process the animal food with conscious concern for the animals as well as the Earth.

You can arrange your shopping priorities so that you financially support the segment of the food industry with values closest to you own. You make it possible for small, often family-based farming and ranching enterprises to continue to exist, and you eat what’s best for you.

You are well nourished, energetic and thinking clearly, which means you are more likely to be able to be part of creative solutions for the environmental and spiritual welfare of the planet, as well as your personal health.

If you have PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), and if you are a strict vegetarian, we propose that you re-examine your views and see if you can find a way to maintain your spirituality while broadening your diet to include some animal foods.

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