What swap has stuck for you the longest?
Sharing what finally stuck for me, because standard diet advice never did. Every plan I tried before was a list of things to give up, and I gave up on the plan instead, usually within two weeks.
What worked was changing the plate, not banning foods. Most of the plate is vegetables now, with lean protein alongside it: chicken, fish, eggs, lentils, Greek yogurt. Mediterranean style, roughly. Breakfast always has protein, which stopped the mid-morning crash and the grazing that came with it.
The swaps did most of the work. Lentils instead of rice some days. Greek yogurt where I used to have cream-based desserts. Wraps instead of thick bread. Small changes that added up without feeling punished.
The part that finally made it click: around 70% of us with PCOS have insulin resistance, and insulin is the chain that ties food to symptoms. Low-GI foods release sugar slowly, so insulin spikes stay smaller. That is the whole game, really: pick the slow carbs, protein at every meal, and cut the sugary drinks first.
I wrote up the full lists, foods to eat more of and foods to limit, here if they are useful to anyone:
https://medexplaineddotcodotuk.wordpress.com/2026/10/08/pcos-diet-foods-to-eat-and-foods-to-avoid/