QC: Feed Your Battle: A Dietitian's Guide to Endometriosis-Friendly Eating

Sarah Rae, a registered dietitian specializing in endometriosis and fertility nutrition, shares evidence-based strategies to help manage endometriosis symptoms through diet. She debunks nutrition myths and offers practical approaches to meal planning that focus on nourishment rather than restriction.

• Start with small steps when transitioning to an endometriosis-friendly diet 
• Most women need around 2000 calories daily, especially if active
• Include protein at every meal and snack for muscle function, blood sugar regulation, and hormone support
• Add colorful produce to your meals, using frozen or cooked options if fresh isn't accessible
• Create meal planning systems with protein rotations and consistent frameworks to reduce decision fatigue
• Consider meal delivery kits during busy life seasons for nutritionally balanced options
• Working with a dietitian can provide personalized meal planning assistance

Send your questions by using the link in the description, emailing contact@endobattery.com, or visiting the endobattery.com contact page.

Chapters

• 0:00 Endometriosis Diet Questions
• 1:35 Transitioning to Endo-Friendly Eating
• 3:49 Practical Meal Planning Tips
• 7:14 Conclusion and Contact Information

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Have you ever wondered what diets would be helpful for both endometriosis and PCOS, or are they different? Are there conflicts of interest when you talk about diet with PCOS and endometriosis, and is intermittent fasting something that you should even consider when you have endometriosis? Is it helpful or is it harmful? Registered dietitian Sarah Rae is here to cut through the noise and help bring clarity to these very things. Stick around Life moves fast and so should the answers to your biggest questions. Welcome to EndoBattery's Quick Connect, your direct line to expert insights. Short, powerful and right to the point. You send in the questions, I bring in the experts and in just five minutes you get the knowledge you need. No long episodes, no extra time needed, and just remember expert opinions shared here are for general information and not for personalized medical advice. Always consult your provider for your case-specific guidance. Got a question? Send it in and let's quickly get you the answers. I'm your host, alanaana, and it's time to connect.

Speaker 1: 1:09

Today we're joined by Sarah Ray from Pacific Northwest Endometriosis Nutrition. She's a registered dietitian specializing in endometriosis and fertility nutrition. She's here to cut through the noise and share real, evidence-based strategies to help you fuel your body without the confusion. Let's dive in. What's the best way to transition to an endometriosis-friendly diet without feeling overwhelmed.

Speaker 2: 1:35

Taking small steps. So I would kind of take a step back and look at the areas where you're finding challenges. So if it's most of the time I see people are not eating enough and not getting enough nutrients in and then maybe they feel really guilty because they're having cravings or going for kind of quick processed foods later in the day or they feel like they just shouldn't eat and then they feel really tired and crummy. So step one I would say make sure you're eating enough. Most women need around 2000 calories a day, especially if they're active, so that what we've been told as teenagers and growing up that you need only 12 to 1500 calories a day Most people are not going to feel well at that. So make sure you're eating enough, make sure you're getting enough protein. So once we kind of get that food frequency up, making sure you're getting protein at every meal and snack so that you have enough to support your muscle function, your blood sugar levels and your hormones, we're getting enough to replete that inflammatory process that's happening.

Speaker 2: 2:39

That goes a long way for people. And then try to crowd your plate with lots of color. So challenge yourself kind of, once you've had those steps in, to get a variety of produce in and if it doesn't feel accessible to buy a lot of fresh fruits and veggies and go to the farmer's market, frozen produce is also fine to incorporate. Or if you're really struggling with how that feels on your gut, cooking your produce is also fine. So doing roasted things or mixing your veggies into your spaghetti sauce, things like that, just adding a little bit as we go. And then, once you've kind of done that, like I said before, a lot of the processed types of inflammatory foods which I would say is mainly just like sugar I don't put dairy on there. That's helpful with getting calcium and things like that but those processed starchy types of foods that we need to limit for most health conditions, we'll kind of start to crowd out when we're getting enough protein and fiber and vegetables and nutrients in.

Speaker 1: 3:39

With that. Are there specific meal prep or grocery shopping tips that can make following that endometriosis diet easier, or a way of changing your eating easier? Because it's not necessarily specific to endometriosis diet, it's just changing your eating to benefit you better.

Speaker 2: 3:54

Yes. So there's a few different things that you can do. So one thing is kind of trying to find a pattern, and this doesn't have to be. We think about like kind of the white diet, where we have like potatoes, meat, vegetable, like everything is separate, but picking those components and trying to add them to every meal, even if they're mixed. So if you are in a culture where there's a lot of curries or mixed dishes and kind of everything is thrown together, trying to make sure that you always pick a protein, a carbohydrate source, a fiber source, and whether you're cooking that in a healthy fat or you're adding avocado or something to the top of that, that is sort of your like puzzle that you're wanting to put together With meal planning. It can be helpful if you have maybe a set rotation of proteins that you're choosing throughout the week and then you kind of play with that. So maybe you have chicken on Mondays and one week you do like a lemon garlic chicken and then the next week you do like a Mexican spice chicken and the next week maybe you make that into a chicken soup, but like Monday is always chicken day and then you can kind of like rotate three or four recipes throughout the month and save them so that next time you're trying to meal plan you kind of already have that ready to go. So maybe you know Monday is chicken day and Tuesday and Thursday are fish day and you rotate out your vegetables every week, but maybe you always do the same spices on them if that's what you like, and then maybe we have a red meat day where we're getting a lot of good micronutrients and iron from that. So maybe one week that's ground beef, maybe one week that is like a stew or a pot roast or something. But trying to make it easy so that it's like okay, I know I need to just find a vegetable to go with this dish and save your recipes either on a Pinterest board or a notebook, or there's different apps that will do that for you. That can just make it really easy, where you're not having to do a lot of thought around it. And then, depending on the season in your life, sometimes those meal delivery kits can be really helpful. There are several of them now that are really focused on getting enough produce and protein in and somebody thinks of the recipes for you and you just need to make sure you choose your meals and have them delivered.

Speaker 2: 6:16

I'm in a season in my life where, you know, I have a new baby. I don't really have time to cook lunch, so I will order double so that when I cook dinner I have lunch for the next day, or I have two dinners ready and that's kind of ready to go. And if you are on a plant-based diet, there's some really great plant-based ones I think thistle is one of them that are also focused on getting enough protein around that, so there's some really great things ready to go. In my practice I have a meal planning app that I will use with patients. I know there's a lot of dietitians who use that kind of service, so they may not hand you just like follow this here's your grocery list. But I will do meal planning with clients where we sit down and look at recipe books or I will send them some recipes every week. So a dietitian can be a really great resource to use as well. If you just like feel overwhelmed, there's different people out there who will help with that.

Speaker 1: 7:14

That's a wrap for this quick connect. I hope today's insights helped you move forward with more clarity and confidence. Do you have more questions? Keep them coming, send them in and I'll bring you the expert answers. You can send them in by using the link in the top of the description of this podcast episode or by emailing contact at endobatterycom or visiting the endobatterycom contact page. Until next time, keep feeling empowered through knowledge.