I’m currently working on a nutrition plan for a one-on-one PCOS nutrition and wellness client who is a busy MBA student. She lives on campus in a dorm room with limited cooking options and is often just short on time. In addition to providing her with personalized meal plans, I’m providing her with good options for when she just needs to grab something quickly or when she wants to meet up with friends for a quick lunch.
I realized that this would be useful information to share more broadly, so I decided to write up the options here as well. I hope you find this information helpful! If you’ve got a favorite PCOS-friendly option that I’ve missed, please include it in the comments below!
I also want to note that while I try to eat PCOS-friendly foods most of the time, about once or twice a week, I’ll enjoy a meal out with friends and just order whatever looks most delicious. Our health is determined by what we do most of the time, but there is room for choices being made simply because they bring us joy.
The options included below are intended as good options for those who eat out regularly, not as the only options you should ever choose at these locations.
Okay… on to the list!
PCOS-friendly options from Chipotle (and other mexican restaurants)
Mexican restaurants are one of my favorite PCOS-friendly options. They pretty much always have a salad option that you can load up with delicious toppings while still consuming a blood-sugar friendly meal.
My top suggestion would be:
Salad with:
Your choice of protein (carne asada, steak, carnitas, chicken, barbacoa)
Skip the rice (rice is a high glycemic index/load carb option that is not ideal for those with PCOS)
Black or pinto beans (beans are great lower glycemic index sources of carbs as well as soluble fiber)
Fajita veggies
Toppings of your choice, including guacamole (a great source of healthy fat!), any of their salsa options, cheese (if you and dairy get along), sour cream (again if you and dairy get along)
I’d suggest skipping or going light on their salad dressing because it’s pretty high in sugar and our bodies absorb liquid sugar really quickly. Blood sugar spikes cause insulin spikes, which worsen PCOS symptoms.
Taco salad and tacos with corn tortillas are decent PCOS-friendly options at places like Chipotle. Skip the rice and flour tortillas! But definitely add avocado or guacamole!
My second suggestion would be:
Tacos with:
Crispy corn tortilla (corn tortillas, both crispy and soft, have a lower glycemic index than flour tortillas, which will help keep blood sugar more stable)
Your choice of protein (carne asada, steak, carnitas, chicken, barbacoa)
Black or pinto beans (beans are great lower glycemic index sources of carbs as well as soluble fiber)
Fajita veggies
Romaine lettuce
Toppings of your choice, including guacamole (a great source of healthy fat!), any of their salsa options, cheese (if you and dairy get along), sour cream (again if you and dairy get along)
PCOS-friendly options from Panera
Panera has three great salad options that include protein, lots of veggies, and healthy fats:
Green Goddess Cobb Salad with Chicken with apple or seasonal fruit cup side
Greek Salad with chicken added, and with an apple or seasonal fruit cup side
Southwest Caesar Salad with Chicken with apple or seasonal fruit cup side
I’d skip the sandwiches at Panera because all of their bread options are high glycemic load options.
Their warm bowls are preferable to the sandwiches because they use a blend of brown rice and quinoa. Quinoa is a great PCOS-friendly carb source, but brown rice has a high glycemic load and can derail blood sugar. If you opt for a bowl, you might consider just not eating some of the rice/quinoa mix to lessen the total glycemic load of the meal. Of the bowl options, the Mediterranean Bowl with Chicken would be my pick because it’s got a good protein source, veggies, and healthy fats.
PCOS-Friendly options from chick-fil-A
I’ll admit that I didn’t really think Chick-fil-a would have anything PCOS-friendly, but they do!
My top picks include:
Grilled chicken nuggets with zesty buffalo sauce or garden herb ranch sauce (their lowest sugar sauce options) and paired with the kale crunch side.
Market salad with grilled fillet - I’d skip the harvest nut granola and sub in avocado lime ranch dressing, creamy salsa dressing, garden herb ranch dressing, or light Italian dressing for the zesty apple cider dressing to lower the sugar content.
PCOS-Friendly Options from subway
Subway salads used to be a quick go-to travel option, and now they’ve upped their game to add No Bready Bowls to their menu!
My top options are:
Grilled chicken No Bready Bowl (or rotisserie style chicken or tuna) with
Cheese if you and dairy get along
all the veggie toppings
oil and vinegar (the best option to avoid sugary dressings)
smashed avocado (healthy fats are always a good option!)
pcos-Friendly Options from burgerFi
Most burger places, as you’ll read below, are not super PCOS-friendly. They have limited menus that include burgers and fries, neither of which are so great for PCOS. BurgerFi has burger bowls, including a cheeseburger bowl, so you can enjoy a cheeseburger-esque meal without the bun and without having to feel like a weirdo ordering a burger with a lettuce wrap or without a bun (not that you should feel like a weirdo, but… sometimes I feel that way!).
pcos-friendly options from in-and-Out/Five guys/etc.
Burger places are a little tricky. Some have gluten-free buns, and I definitely enjoy a burger on a gluten-free bun on occasion.
However… as a frequent meal option, gluten-free buns are really no better than wheat buns in terms of blood sugar.
If you’re headed to a burger place, I’d check to see if they have a lettuce wrap option (In-and-Out and Shake Shack do!). That’s going to be your best bet. If they don’t, I’d just be prepared to eat it with a fork and knife and toss the bun. I’d recommend adding as many veggies toppings as they’ve got, cheese if you eat dairy, and maybe even splurging for a slice of bacon on top.
For sides, if French fries are your only option (and they often are!), I’d suggest skipping a side unless it’s a special treat. If they offer a side salad option, you can pile your burger and toppings on the side salad and make a burger salad out of it.
Sadly, a burger and fries is a less-than-PCOS-friendly option. You should totally enjoy it on occasion, but it’s probably best avoided as a staple of your diet.
PCOS-friendly options from starbucks
Let’s talk beverages to start! If I had to provide only a single piece of nutrition advice for PCOS it would be to avoid drinking sugar. This includes naturally occurring fruit sugar, honey, maple syrup, agave, coconut sugar, and plain old white sugar. Our bodies absorb liquid sugar very quickly, which spikes blood sugar, and thus insulin, and worsens all of our PCOS symptoms. Looking at my own continuous glucose monitor data, as well as data from various clients, I’ve seen time and time again, that liquid sugar affects blood sugar more than anything else. And most Starbucks beverages contain a LOT of sugar! As a treat every so often, this is totally cool! As your daily morning beverage, it’s probably not ideal.
My favorite PCOS-friendly Starbucks beverages are:
Coffee or Americano with cream (no sugar at all!)
Coffee or Americano with half and half (milk has a decent amount of naturally occurring sugar, so half and half is a slightly less preferred than cream, but still a good option)
Latte with whole milk (A tall latte with any kind of dairy milk contains 14 g of naturally-occurring sugar. The fat in whole milk helps to slow the absorption of that sugar and lessen the possible blood sugar spike.) or almond milk (only 8 g of sugar!)
Starbucks is actually my go-to airport spot for easy snacks to throw in my bag for the flight.
Our coffee habits can be a contributor to PCOS symptoms. My #1 tip for PCOS is to avoid drinking sugar (in any form - honey, maple syrup, white sugar, coconut sugar, agave, etc.), which means sugary coffee beverages are best saved as special treats every so often.
My top suggestions are:
Eggs and cheddar protein box - I skip the muesli bread and use the peanut butter on the apple slices (such a good combo!). The cheese and eggs provide good sources of protein and some nutritious fat. Both apples and grapes are low glycemic load items, so they’re good sources of carbs that won’t wreak havoc on my blood sugar when paired with protein and fat.
Note - Their other protein boxes contain dried fruit, which have moderate to high glycemic load. I generally avoid snacking on dried fruit.
String cheese - If you’re not sensitive to dairy, string cheese is a great snack and easy to pack, not to mention fun to eat. Pair this with the buttered popcorn listed next, and you’ve got a solid, blood-sugar friendly snack.
Starbucks buttered popcorn - I generally recommend avoiding “naked carbs” aka carbs eaten without a source of protein, fat, and/or fiber, but popcorn is a food that tends to work well for most people. Popcorn itself has a decent amount of fiber, the carbs in popcorn are more complex carbohydrates, and when topped with butter, a good source of fat, popcorn is usually pretty blood-sugar friendly, and thus PCOS-friendly.
Turkey Jerky - This one is only #4 because I’ve noticed that jerky with added sugar can cause substantial blood sugar spikes. This option is still far preferable to a sugary coffee beverage or one of their sugary pastries, but probably not as good as the options listed above for at least some people.
General rules of thumb
The best meal options include a protein source, veggies, and a healthy fat source (avocado, olives, olive oil, nuts, seeds, and even cheese are good options).
The best low glycemic load carb options, ranked in order, include:
All legumes (beans, peas, lentils, chickpeas)
Black wild rice (rarely served in restaurants, but maybe someday you’ll see it!)
Quinoa
Boiled sweet potatoes - this would include mashed sweet potatoes, but make sure they haven’t added sugar or maple syrup, which is common.
White potatoes are a very common side item and are commonly blood sugar kryptonite for people. Mashed potatoes have a lower glycemic load than baked potatoes and potatoes that have been allowed to cool down to room temperature have a lower glycemic load than freshly cooked potatoes (the starches change forms in the cooling process).
So if you’re going for a potato side, I’d recommend choosing mashed potatoes, and eating them last so they’ve had time to cool down. Eating them last also allows the rest of your meal to enter your stomach first, which will slow the digestion of the potatoes and help keep blood sugar more stable.
As noted above for Chipotle, corn tortillas are better options than flour tortillas.
A lot of options that we deem as healthy are actually not so great. Common examples include:
Yogurt with granola, fruit, and honey
Wraps with flour tortillas
Really any kind of sandwich on most commercially available breads
Bagels
Smoothies
Acai bowls
All of these have high glycemic loads that are not ideal to eat on a regular basis if you have insulin resistance, and if you have PCOS, you very likely have insulin resistance.
Take home points
A lot of common restaurants have great PCOS-friendly options!
Focus on protein, veggies, and healthy fats.
Choose lower glycemic load carbohydrates when possible.
Every so often, eat whatever the heck you want, just because it’s delicious.