Supporting Your Partner With Endometriosis Through Food: Foods We Enjoy

After ripping away all of your favourite foods in my last article, let me help you rebuild your appetite and inspire you with the foods and meals we tend towards when my partner's endo is angry.

As I wrote in the last article, I am not a nutritionist, nor claim to have any particular expertise on the subject of how food affects endometriosis. The following tips and suggestions are based on observations and research my partner and I have made and carried out ourselves, and they do really work for her. This, however, does not guarantee it will work for you. Try them out, see how they make you or your partner feel. Only you will know if they help.

Endo-friendly foods

Greens

An oldie but a goodie – we always try to have plenty of greens on our plate. Greens, whether its spinach, kale, spring greens, chard, have plenty of well-documented health benefits, and are also low in sugar and free from many of the other things that seem to trigger my partner’s endo pain.

Mushrooms

Mushrooms are a great source of many nutrients, and also pretty harmless to my partner. They add a rich umami-flavour, and soak up all the flavours of whatever you are cooking. Not to mention that mushrooms such as chaga and turkey tail are starting to show promising results when treating various illnesses and diseases.

Tumeric

A great anti-inflammatory ingredient is turmeric, and we use it whenever we can. It, of course, lends itself to curries, but turmeric milk is also a delicious way to enjoy it. Another part of this family, that also shows anti-inflammatory properties, is ginger.

Nuts

Nuts are full of protein and fats – you know this. They add excitement and flavour to a dish, and help get that full and satisfied feeling. Walnuts, pecans, pistachios, there so many, and even more ways to include them in your cooking. Another way to get that full and satisfied feeling is fats from things like coconut milk and avocado.

Meal ideas

So, what does this look (and taste) like, in reality? We’ll now let’s have a look at some of the meals we make and how we put this in to action. What follows are not recipes, just ideas and inspiration for you to start thinking about what you could make.

Noodle-less noodles

Noodle soups, ramen of various descriptions, are a great simple meal that ticks all the boxes and avoids the foods we want to avoid. It easy to replace the noodles with, black bean noodles or spiralized vegetables, and then pack out the bowl with greens, nuts, tofu, mushrooms, whatever you want.

Curries

Curries are also super versatile and can be tailored to avoid a lot of trigger foods. Chickpeas curries, lots of wilted greens, anti-inflammatory turmeric and ginger. If you want to have rice with it, try a cauliflower ‘rice’. In fact, Asian foods in general are really great because they often don’t include dairy and the grain are easy to replace. Just be careful about the sugar to add to curries or broths.

Buddha bowls

Buddha Bowls basically represent a combination of grains, beans, fats and vegetables. These can easily be tailored to avoid grain, and be more packed with beans, greens and nuts. White bean mash, grilled aubergine, sautéed kale... you get the idea.

Other ideas

And aside from the meals I can easily name under group headings, there plenty of food to be explored. We particularly like aubergine stuffed with nuts and herb and greens, served with hummus or muhammara, or mushroom based sausages with greens and gravy.

There’s a long list of foods we eat, and it only grows as we get more interested. The restrictions that are put upon you by trying this endo-sympathetic diet force you to be creative, to engage with the food you put in your body, and find new recipes and ingredients you didn’t know about. Whether eating like this helps you or not, that can’t be a bad thing.