Foods to Avoid with PCOS/PMOS: What I Would Actually Limit

The foods to avoid with PCOS or PMOS are the ones that spike your insulin or add to inflammation: added sugar, sweet drinks and desserts, and processed and deep-fried food. Bananas, potatoes, rice, eggs and red meat all keep their place on your plate.

Whether dairy, gluten and coffee need to go as well depends on your root cause. My free root cause quiz tells you which of the four you are working with: Insulin-Resistant, Adrenal, Post-Pill or Inflammatory.

My PCOS/PMOS foods-to-avoid list

These are the worst foods for PCOS or PMOS, and the ones I would cut back first:

• sweet drinks, meaning sodas, energy drinks, flavoured milks and mixers;
• added sugar and dessert foods, including “healthy” treats made with dates, agave or coconut sugar;
• commercial cookies, cakes and pastries, margarine, chocolate bars, and packaged snacks like potato chips;
• deep-fried food and processed meats like ham and salami;
• alcohol beyond two to three drinks a week, and any at all while you are trying to conceive or pregnant, or if you take metformin;
• and, depending on your root cause, dairy, gluten and caffeine.

If you have Insulin-Resistant PCOS, cut the sweet drinks, added sugar and desserts out completely for four weeks while your blood sugar and insulin levels reset. It isn't forever. With Adrenal, Post-Pill or Inflammatory PCOS, you can likely get away with a small serve of dessert once or twice a week, as long as you are exercising regularly.

Cutting foods out can leave you feeling deprived and make your changes harder to stick with, so I only want you removing one when it will truly make a big difference to your symptoms. The international guideline finds no single diet composition better than another and says care should reflect each woman's preferences and goals (Teede et al. 2023). The move to the PMOS name recognizes a wider endocrine and metabolic condition (Teede et al. 2026).

Sugar tops my list because of that metabolic side. Insulin resistance affects at least 80% of women with PCOS, meaning your body has to send out more and more insulin to bring your blood sugar down. High insulin triggers your ovaries to produce more testosterone, worsening your symptoms and making it harder to lose weight. In a review of 10 randomised trials, women with PCOS on low-GI diets, built on foods that raise blood sugar slowly, had modestly lower total testosterone (Kazemi et al. 2021).

Carbs themselves are not the enemy. Women with PCOS need them to ovulate, which is why I never tell my clients to cut carbs out completely, even with severe insulin resistance. Keep them out of breakfast, which should be high in protein, and build lunch and dinner with my PCOS Plate Method: a quarter of your plate protein, a quarter gentle starch like rice or potato, half non-starchy vegetables, and a serve of healthy fat.

Are bananas bad for PCOS?

No. You can eat bananas when you have PCOS or PMOS, even with insulin resistance! A serve of fruit once or twice a day is perfectly okay, as long as you pair it with protein or a healthy fat.

In the international glycemic-index tables, fruit is usually low GI (Atkinson et al. 2021).

Pairing is what makes a banana PCOS-friendly. Fat and protein are absorbed more slowly, so they blunt the rise in your blood sugar, meaning your body doesn't need to release as much insulin. Try a banana with some almond or peanut butter.

If you have Insulin-Resistant PCOS, count a banana as the starch in your meal: leave the rice out of dinner and have the banana after it, or have half a serve of each. Whatever your type, keep bananas out of breakfast. A banana smoothie was my old favourite breakfast, and within an hour or two of drinking it I was starving. Berries and the other low-sugar fruits are the ones for that meal.

Are potatoes or white rice bad for PCOS?

No. Rice and potatoes are what I call gentle starch, and I want you eating a portion with lunch and dinner. The same goes for sweet potato, pumpkin and corn.

Make them the starch quarter of your plate, with protein and a healthy fat beside them. Paired that way, gentle carbs don't lead to insulin resistance. Just leave them out of breakfast. In the same international tables (Atkinson et al. 2021), rice and potato GI values span a wide range, depending on the variety and how they are prepared.

When I first started healing my PCOS, I was terrified of potatoes. I would skip the rice or potato at dinner, then binge on a “healthy” dessert made with dates or agave syrup. Now I include some potato or rice in my dinner, and a cup of spearmint tea and a square of 85% dark chocolate is all the dessert I need.

Are eggs good or bad for PCOS?

Eggs are good for PCOS. They are a great source of protein and one of the easiest ways to build the high-protein breakfast I want you eating every morning.

Aim for 30 to 40 grams of protein at breakfast, with non-starchy vegetables and some healthy fat. It keeps your blood sugar stable and you full for three to four hours. One egg has around seven grams of protein, so rather than eating five, have three eggs (21 grams) with some smoked salmon or a chicken sausage on a bed of greens, or with a protein smoothie on the side.

Is dairy bad for PCOS?

It depends on your root cause. Dairy tends to raise insulin, so if you have Insulin-Resistant PCOS, or acne is one of your major symptoms whatever your type, avoid all dairy except butter and ghee while you heal your insulin levels. If you really want cheese, a small amount of hard cheese has less impact on your insulin.

With Inflammatory or Post-Pill PCOS, the problem is A1 casein, a protein in cow's milk that can stimulate your immune system and lead to inflammation. Swap cow's dairy for sheep and goat milk products, which contain mostly A2 protein. Butter and ghee are fine too, because they are almost all fat. With Adrenal PCOS, sheep and goat products and hard cow's milk cheeses like cheddar and parmesan are a great choice, and a little yoghurt is likely okay if acne and digestion aren't big issues for you.

If you are cutting back, there are good swaps: I love almond milk in my morning smoothie, cashew cheese on crackers and coconut yoghurt with fruit as a snack. Check your protein powder and bars too, and swap whey for pea, collagen or egg white protein. I designed FloFit Protein from pea, pumpkin seed and chia seed protein, dairy-free and soy-free, because I wasn't happy with anything on the market.

For acne, the problem is IGF-1, a growth hormone in milk, and milk's branched-chain amino acids. Both spike insulin, which increases testosterone from your ovaries and, in turn, the oil in your skin, causing blocked pores. Across 14 observational studies of children, teenagers and young adults, higher dairy intake went with higher odds of acne (Juhl et al. 2018). If acne is your main reason for looking at dairy, my hormonal acne diet goes through the rest of the food changes for your skin.

Do gluten and soy need to go?

Gluten does if you have Inflammatory PCOS, hypothyroidism or an autoimmune condition. Soy doesn't: tofu is a great vegetarian protein.

Before you cut gluten for any reason, ask your doctor to test for coeliac disease while you are still eating it: the test only works on a gluten-containing diet, and gut symptoms from gluten can be its first sign. In any of those cases, remove gluten for three months and observe the difference, and if you can, measure your inflammatory markers and thyroid levels before and after. If your symptoms or results improve, stay gluten-free. If gluten gives you gut, brain or skin symptoms like bloating, IBS, headaches, foggy thinking or eczema, cut right back on it for three months too, then add it back in slowly and watch for symptoms.

Otherwise, you are likely okay to keep enjoying gluten in moderation. If you are following my Insulin-Resistant PCOS plan, you will be eating far fewer processed carbs anyway, so your diet will naturally be lower in gluten.

Tofu is low in starch and high in protein, which is why it is the one legume I allow in the PCOS Repair Breakfast. Choose organic, non-GMO tofu to avoid the potentially endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the sprays used on soy crops. A small randomized trial of soy isoflavone supplements reported favorable changes in some metabolic and hormonal markers (Jamilian and Asemi 2016).

What about coffee and energy drinks?

Coffee is one of my biggest vices, so I know this is the last thing you want to hear. If you have Adrenal PCOS, reducing or removing caffeine is an important part of healing: caffeine increases cortisol and adrenaline, and more stress hormones means more DHEAS, the androgen your adrenal glands make, and worse symptoms.

Some Cysters are more sensitive to caffeine than others. If coffee makes you anxious, or you can't have it after a certain time of day without it keeping you up, you are better off cutting caffeine out for three to six months while your adrenals heal. If not, you might get away with one cup a day: one espresso shot or a small regular coffee, not a triple shot or a Grande! Go slow to avoid withdrawals, dropping one cup a week and replacing it with decaf or green tea.

With Insulin-Resistant, Post-Pill or Inflammatory PCOS, there is a little more flexibility. Put your core treatment first, and once you are following it confidently and noticing improvements, a few months from now, try reducing or removing caffeine and observe the difference.

Energy drinks are not interchangeable with coffee. They may combine large caffeine doses with added sugar and other stimulants, which is why they sit beside sodas at the top of my list.

Is red meat bad for PCOS?

No, red meat is not bad for PCOS. A steak, pork chop or beef mince is an animal protein, high in protein with almost no carbohydrate, which is why meat, fish, chicken and eggs are the proteins I want on a quarter of your plate at lunch and dinner.

Bacon, sausages, hot dogs, and many deli meats are processed meats. Steak, pork loin, and ordinary minced or ground beef are not the same category. Bacon or a chicken sausage with your eggs still counts toward your breakfast protein, but keep processed meats like ham, salami and hot dogs to a minimum, especially if you have Inflammatory PCOS.

Quality matters as much as quantity. Choose organic or grass-fed meat where you can, and keep it to that quarter of your plate.

Seed oils are not trans fats

They are different fats, but both belong on my list of processed fats to keep to a minimum, especially if you have Inflammatory PCOS. Trans fats hide in margarine and commercial cookies, cakes and pastries. Seed oils are vegetable oils like canola, soybean, corn and sunflower oil.

World Health Organization guidance recommends reducing trans-fat intake. Common seed oils are largely unsaturated fats and are not interchangeable with trans fat.

Deep-fried takeaway, fries and battered food go on the same list. They are low in nutrients and high in inflammatory compounds, and they tend to bring sugar and refined carbs that feed insulin resistance. For cooking, olive oil, avocado oil and ghee are best.

When removing a food actually makes sense

Removing a food is worth it when your root cause calls for it:

1. Insulin-Resistant PCOS: added sugar, sweet drinks and desserts for four weeks, and all dairy except butter and ghee while you heal your insulin levels. 2. Inflammatory PCOS: gluten for three months, and cow's dairy swapped for sheep and goat. 3. Post-Pill PCOS: cow's dairy for at least three months. 4. Adrenal PCOS: caffeine, down to one small cup a day, or out for three to six months if you are sensitive to it.

Change one thing at a time so you don't get overwhelmed, give it the full four weeks or three months, and watch what happens to your symptoms. If they improve, keep going. If nothing changes, bring the food back in slowly and see how you feel.

If cutting foods out starts to make you anxious about eating, stop there. I would rather you put your energy into the core treatment for your root cause than follow any food list perfectly.

Not sure of your root cause yet? Start with my free root cause quiz, then let The PCOS Repair Protocol take you through the full food plan for your type, from the PCOS Repair Breakfast to the Plate Method.