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Review
. 2025 Mar 19:15598276251327923.
doi: 10.1177/15598276251327923. Online ahead of print.

Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies: Culinary and Lifestyle Medicine for PCOS and Preconception Health

Olivia Thomas  1 , Rashmi Kudesia  2
Affiliations
Review

Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies: Culinary and Lifestyle Medicine for PCOS and Preconception Health

Olivia Thomas et al. Am J Lifestyle Med. .

Abstract

Purpose of the Research: Women's reproductive health issues represent a major source of burden to quality of life, productivity, and health care cost, with uneven access to care. Foundational interventions based on lifestyle and food as medicine hold promise as one equitable way to improve individual and family health. In this paper, we summarize the lifestyle and culinary medicine approaches to two of the most common reproductive health diagnoses, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and infertility. Major findings: For women with PCOS and/or infertility, an overall healthy eating pattern, including a whole-food plant-based or Mediterranean diet, carries clear health benefits. Exercise is of benefit in the PCOS population, and likely so for infertility patients as well. Both diagnoses are risk factors for anxiety and/or depression, and so more attention to mental health and behavioral strategies is needed. Given these findings, the notion of lifestyle interventions holds promise, but studies are overall mixed. Conclusions: PCOS and infertility can respond well to lifestyle and culinary interventions. These approaches, currently underutilized, can be implemented widely with minimal cost, and can also improve obstetric, neonatal, and child health outcomes via epigenetic phenomena. More research is needed to elucidate the best target populations and delivery methods for such interventions.

Keywords: PCOS; culinary medicine; infertility; lifestyle medicine.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
A template to guide comprehensive LM/CM conversations in the clinical care of patients with PCOS.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
A template to guide comprehensive LM/CM conversations in the clinical care of patients with infertility.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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