PCOS Muffins / PCOS Bread Recipe

**UPDATE: My PCOS did resolve itself naturally. I think that this PCOS bread helped but honestly I can’t be sure what the final fix was! I was also following this eating plan when my PCOS cleared up. I went on to get pregnant in the summer of 2013 and have a son who was born in April of 2014.**

I think I have mentioned this before, but I have PCOS (PolyCystic Ovarian Syndrome). There are a lot of different opinions and research floating around regarding treatment and causes. One of the possible treatments is adding DCI, or D-Chiro-Inositol, to your diet. I actually got the idea for this recipe from a coworker at a previous job, but there are also many variations online if you google for PCOS muffins. This buckwheat farinetta has a lot of DCI in it, and so does soy lecithin which is also in the recipe. I modified this recipe from a bunch that I found online, but it came out really well. I will be making it again because i’m almost out.

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl:

• 3 cups farinetta (order online HERE)
• 1/2 cup soy lecithin granules (amazon has it)
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2-4 tsp of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves or other “pumpkin pie” type spices – I used cinnamon
• 1/2 cup ground flaxseed/flaxmeal (optional, but good for Omega 3s) – I did not use this
• 2 tablespoons ground black sesame seeds (optional – I did add this, and I used this grinder)

Combine (separately) the wet ingredients + sweetener in a medium or small bowl:

• 2 mashed bananas (alternately, try pumpkin or applesauce?)
• 1 cup baking stevia (do not use sugar here – PCOS people are particularly sensitive to sugar – our insulin response is usually messed up)
• 3 medium organic eggs
• 1 cup of whole milk (could sub a non-dairy milk, or even water)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla or other extract

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 350F.
2. Combine the wet and dry ingredients by pouring the wet into the dry. You may add extra goodies like chocolate chips, nuts, etc… but I did not.
3. Spoon the batter either into muffin tins or a loaf pan (mine are circular and have ~1.5 inch high sides). My batter fit into 2 of the circular ones. The batter may or may not rise – mine did, but I read online that others didn’t – so fill accordingly.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 – 35 mins (check after 25).

This makes approximately 16 servings (each tin cut into 8 pieces). If you have 2-3 servings per day, that should be enough DCI to be effective. There are about 5200 grams of DCI in the whole batch. That means 325 grams in each 1/16th piece. Depending on your weight, have 2-3 per day (I think the study with DCI used 600 grams per day for smaller women).

***

I hope this helps someone! I really liked the muffins/bread. They definitely have an odd, “healthy” taste to them, but I like stuff like that. Try topping them with butter or cream cheese. Yum.