HYBRID EVENT: You can participate in person at Rome, Italy or Virtually from your home or work.
Ivana Sarac, Speaker at Nutrition Conferences
University of Belgrade, Serbia

Abstract:

Introduction: Many nutritional factors can influence - directly cause or make worse - various menstrual cycle disorders. This negative factors include: unhealthy dietary patterns, obesity, undernutrition, significant weight reduction, weight cycling and eating disorders. While obesity and unhealthy dietary patterns are associated with worsening of all characteristics of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), dietary restriction is often advised in women with this syndrome. On the other hand, restrictive eating, dieting, significant weight reduction, undernutrition are connected with development of functional hypogonadal oligo/amenorrhea (FHA). Therefore, both conditions can be connected with restrictive eating patterns.
The aim of study: To study restrictive dietary patterns in women with menstrual cycle disorders (PCOS and FHA), and to compare with healthy controls.
Methods: In 92 women with PCOS (aged 23.6 ± 3.7 years, BMI=22.6 ± 4.8 kg/m2), 27 women with FHA, (aged 23.3 ± 2.7 years, BMI=17.7 ± 2.3 kg/m2), and 62 control women –without menstrual cycle disorders (aged 23.6 ± 2.4 years, BMI=20.1 ± 2.9 kg/m2), the restrictive dietary patterns were examined. Anamnestic data on dietary patterns (meal number, frequency of certain food consumption, food avoidance score and healthy eating score), restrictive dietary regimes (dieting, weight cycling), cognitive restraint (modified Restraint Scale of Herman and Polivy), and eating disorders were collected.
Results: Women with PCOS had less frequent daily meals, compared with controls and FHA. Women with FHA had less frequent consumption of refined (“white”) cereal products, full fat dairy products, fatty sauces, condiments and salad dressings, pork meat, fried food, salty snacks, sugar-added soft drinks and fruit juices, compared with PCOS and controls, as well as sweets, compared with controls only. Women with PCOS also differed from controls regarding less frequent intake of full fat dairy products, fruit juices and alcohol. Regarding food avoidance, women with FHA more often reported cognitive avoidance of at least 1 type of food, particularly oils and animal fat, fried food, dairy products, sweets, bread, meat and eggs; in average 2.6 foods per person, much more than controls (0.6 foods per person) and PCOS (1.1 foods per person); additionally they had higher healthy eating score. Women with PCOS also had higher food avoidance score, compared with controls, particularly regarding intake of refined cereal products, animal fat, and eggs. Significant change in body weight (significant weight loss) preceded development of menstrual cycle disturbance in 81.5% of FHA women (and 17.2% of PCOS women), while after development of menstrual cycle disturbance, 39.8% of PCOS women (and 18.5% of FHA women) reported a significant increase in body weight. Both FHA and PCOS women reported higher rates of activities to reduce body weight, mainly though caloric restriction, compared with controls (in 70.4%, 77.2%, and 48.4% of subjects, respectively). Some of FHA women denied caloric reduction, despite very low body weight and food avoidance. At the moment of the examination, 48.6% of FHA and 36.1% of PCOS women were on restrictive diet (which was much higher than in controls, 6.5%). While the women with FHA were more on a continuous restrictive diet, compared with PCOS and controls, women with PCOS reported to be more time on discontinuous restrictive diets, and more often have shown weight cycling, compared with FHA and controls. On the cognitive Restraint scale, both FHA and PCOS women reported higher scores. Only in 3 women with FHA diagnosis of eating disorder was established before this examination, while after this examination, eating disorders were suspected in 15 women with FHA (65.2%), 8 women with  FHA (8.7%), and 2 control women (3.2%).
Conclusion: Women with both FHA and PCOS reported more restrictive eating patterns: food avoidance, dieting, and cognitive restraint, compared with healthy controls. While women with FHA more often reported continuous dieting, women with PCOS more often reported discontinuous dieting and weight cycling. Dieting (weight loss) preceded development of FHA, while increase in body weight appeared after PCOS developed, as a result of hormonal disbalance. Some women with FHA denied dieting, despite low body weight, and only after careful examination of food habits, food restraint and dieting were uncovered. Therefore, both PCOS and FHA women should be screened for unhealthy dietary patterns, disordered eating, cognitive restraint and dieting, and provided with proper nutritional counseling.

Biography:

Ivana Sarac studied Medicine at Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, and graduated in 1998. Then she entered her MSci postgraduate studies in Nutrition at the same institution, and finished it in 2004. In 2006 she also finished her medical specialization in Hygiene with medical ecology at Faculty of Medicine, University of Niš. She conducted her PhD studies in Diabetes and Metabolic Medicine at University of Surrey, UK, and obtained PhD degree in 2014. In 2016, she joined the Center of Excellence in Nutrition and Metabolism Research, at the Institute for Medical Research, University of Belgrade, as Research Associate.

Watsapp