Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

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It is suggested that d-chiro inositol is beneficial for PCOS, and may help increase insulin sensivity (see links below).

D-chiro is expensive (best price I found was $2/day for 1200mg/day, which is an effective dose from one of the linked studies below).

However, d-chiro is found in high concentration in buckhweat farinetta. Buckwheat farinetta is a "fine granulation of mixture of aleurone layer of hulled seed and seed embryo, the richest parts of seed." Buckwheat farinetta is cheaper, about $1.4/serving of a comparative dose. Additionally, it is a real food, so for the $1.4 dollars/day, I will actually consume calories. The question become, are those calories beneficial?

How would you compare the nonpecuniary costs and benefits of buckwheat farinetta? Considerations 1. As real food, perhaps d-chiro will be be more bioavailable in food form. 2. Also contains zinc, iron, manganese, copper, magnesium, potassium (amounts not specified) 3. Must contain phytates, which may mitigate absorption of minerals. And perhaps even d-chiro (thoughts?) 4. High in PUFA's (I store in freezer) (10 grams fat per effective dosage serving, 2 of which are saturated, perhaps rest are PUFA's). I do not consume other industrial seed oils. 5. 39 gram carbohydrates, (12 are fiber, 4 are sugar). I am comfortable with this amount of carbohydrate in my diet as it is my primary daily carbohydrate source. I do however often combine this with 1 small banana, for an additional 23 carbohydrates. This is generally my post-workout meal. I don't have terrible blood-sugar management despite PCOS, and I think the protein/fat w/ the buckwheat helps. 6. 35 grams of protein/serving. Hey, I like protein, but maybe this a lot? Perhaps great post workout. 7. May reduce estrogen (a problem w/ pcos, may also lower cholesterol- take that how you will) 8. It's difficult to actually get the 100 grams in required to get the effective dose. Perhaps I don't need quite that high of a dose though? The 400 calories here may crowd out other beneficial food in my diet.

I don't think it would be beneficial to consume whole groats given the glycemic/carbohydrate load and the shear amount necessary to get sufficient d-chiro. I am

Additional questions: The buckwheat farinetta comes pre-milled, so if you soak it, you can't cast off the water without losing the farinetta itself (unlike an entire groat).

My intuition is to go with the "food" and supplement when I don't workout (to make room for the carb-load) or have the time to cook.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10219066 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11117673 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15251831

flag	asked Mar 19 2012 at 15:29 PaleoGal 177●5

	This isn't really an answer, but I wanted to share that I have mild PCOS and found that DCI cleared up my acne and stopped my hairloss. I eliminated all other supplements and am going to start DCI again to make sure (too pricey to keep without knowing) it was the thing that did it. I know that it took a few months, and that it took a month after I quit for symptoms to reappear...my period has become more regular with just paleo, though. – Blossom1 Aug 1 at 1:45
	ok, published my recipe here, scroll down a bit to avoid the blah blah blah generally aimed at my non-paleo smart acquaintances and celiac groups : disasterkitchen.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/… – arugula Aug 1 at 14:08

Happy Now · Answer 1 · 2012-07-31 20:53:20Z UTC

I started by buying cheap NOW brand inositol powder, and then taking a separate D supplement. The recommendations I saw for an effective dose of inositol were for multiple teaspoons per day, so I didn't want to spend a ton of money on it. I agree, the combined d-pinitol product is crazy expensive ($80+ from the source I saw), and since it is derived from buckwheat, you are probably better off just eating the buckwheat.

Then, I did some poking around the interwebs and found out that heart, I think beef and lamb had the most, but chicken was still pretty good are packed full of inositol, and started adding diced beef heart to my chili, sauteing lamb or beef heart thinly sliced, and making chicken heart kabobs. I love the taste and texture, it is just like hot dogs, without all the weird chemical stuff.

arugula · Answer 2 · 2012-07-31 16:15:20Z UTC

My understanding, which may be incorrect, is that soaking a grain/seed in an acidic medium breaks down the phytate by activating phytase and therefore you don't have to throw off the soaking medium. It's not just that the phytate is leached off but it is changed and phosphorous and other bound up minerals are released and are now in that soaking medium. Particularly some fermentation - get some yogurt in there and soak for 24 hours - will also somewhat breakdown lectins, etc... http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2010/05/traditional-preparation-methods-improve.html

It seems that even gluten can be broken down via fermentation: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1542356510009870 but as a celiac, I find this only interesting in a theoretical way and don't recommend eating wheat.

So back to buckwheat. I love the stuff and after having been strictly "no grain, no flours" for some time have added a bit back in for some of the same benefits as you're looking at. I soak the flour for at least 12 hours in the water and yogurt for the recipe (pancake/waffles.) I have to run but I'll post the link to my recipe when I get it up in the next day or two. I promised to share it with some other fermenters/soakers.

lc875 · Answer 3 · 2012-10-11 21:21:47Z UTC

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I am also curious on whether it is better to eat the buckwheat farinetta or to take the supplement, given all the reasoning you listed above. PaleoGal, what did you end up deciding? How has it turned out? Blossom1, what brand supplement did you find worked for you?

answered Oct 11 at 21:21

lc875
445●1●6

I finally ended up going with the supplement. It was a pain to make so-so pancakes on a regular basis, so I would skip some days and wouldn't regularly get my d-chiro in. I'm on a number of supplements now, but I do have regular periods, not sure what I can attribute that too, but I assumed d-chiro is playing a role. – PaleoGal Oct 12 at 13:18

Buckwheat/d-chiro/pcos whole foods vs. supplements

3 Answers