The PMS Diet (recommended for more than just PMS symptoms):
- Limit consumption of refined sugar (5 T/day), salt (3 g/day), red meat (3 oz/day), alcohol (1 oz/day), coffee, tea, and chocolate.
- Limit tobacco use.
- Limit intake of protein to 1g per kg of body weight per day.*
- Rely more on fish, poultry, whole grains, and legumes as sources of protein and less on red meat and dairy products.
- Limit intake of dairy products to 2 servings/day.
- Limit intake of fats, mainly saturated and cooked, to less than 20% of calories from fat.
- Increase intake of complex carbs to 60-70% of calories.
- Increase intake of leafy green veggies, legumes, whole grains and cereals.
- Increase intake of cis-linoleic-acid-containing foods (safflower oil is an excellent source). 1-2 T/day of unheated, unrefined oil on your salad, for example.
One thing I don't think I get enough of is vitamin B, specifically B6. I've added that to my nutrient tracker on SparkPeople, so we'll see how much I get from my diet and prenatal vitamins. But if I don't get enough, I may add that as a supplement, though I don't see a need to add the others she recommends, at least not while I'm on the prenatals and eating plenty of fruits, vegetables, and complex carbs. They seem to provide adequate amounts of the vitamins I currently need, except for B6 (and maybe B12).
So there are a couple things I need to change to conform to the diet above. I need to eat a little less fat (I'm currently limiting it to 30%), more fiber, more complex carbs. So I'm off to adjust my settings on SparkPeople to reflect that.
