Food should be delicious, fun, rewarding, and bring people together. So how do we prepare tasty meals without the buzzkill of an “endometriosis diet” that nitpicks micronutrients, blood sugar, or dietary triggers?

I believe the best way to start is getting YOU in the kitchen, because making whole foods meals from scratch will be the foundation of just about every endo-diet out there, no matter what your unique one looks like. Your goal is to eat a wide variety of whole, unprocessed foods most of the time, and feel like your food choices are building you up (rather than holding you back).

Learning this will take time and patience as many of you may need to learn how to cook meals mostly from scratch, impart flavor through herbs and spices, and stock an incredible pantry that makes the process inviting. Helping these habits stick will be the difference between enjoying your new dietary plan and forcing yourself to endure it (which isn’t a healthy habit, but a mental prison). Over time what you’ll find instead is the joy in cooking. Here are some steps to get you started.

The best way to start is really to prepare your kitchen and pantry well. Below I dive into a little more detail of what types of foods you want to see out at the grocery store or farmers market (depending on your access and budget), as well as a free printable endometriosis diet grocery list, you will find it at the end of this post!

Endometriosis Grocery List: Preparing Your Pantry

Being well-stocked is the absolute key to success when it comes to cooking whole, unprocessed foods. If you don’t have the ingredients, you can’t make the food, and you will instead open a box of whatever cereal you stashed away for moments like this. If that happens a few times as you’re learning, no big deal. If you realize you do this often throughout the week, it’s time to be better prepared.

Here are some of the basic ingredients I recommend you have available.

Fresh produce:

The foundation of any endo-supporting diet is really fresh produce, with an overarching emphasis on the varieties lower in starches and sugars. Shop accordingly: fresh produce should take up the majority of space in your shopping cart. If you have access to a local farmers’ market, shop there. Local produce has more nutrients and forces variety into the diet (as food availability flows with the seasons).

If finances are a problem, farmers’ markets also allow you the opportunity to make friends with growers who may be willing to sell you “ugly” produce that is still very tasty at a discounted price. Bulk stores like Costco offer great options as well, at a fraction of the cost (that easily makes up for yearly membership fee). If you can afford it, prioritize organic.

Because of the perishable nature of fresh produce, you’ll have to get in the habit of shopping weekly for these food staples. If you don’t have access to fresh produce, frozen or canned will suffice.

Quality Protein:

Getting enough quality protein is important for healing from inflammation. If you can afford it, purchase 100 percent grass-fed, or organic. Focus on collagen-rich cuts, organ meats, meat on the bone (with skin on), and bone broths. Luckily, because these cuts are often less prioritized (mostly because they require longer cooking times to make them melt in the mouth) they are usually the cheapest cuts—so it’s a win-win. If you shy away from the unique flavor of organ meats, I recommend you try “hiding” them in meat mixes.

My favorite is a mix of equal parts ground beef, bacon, liver, and heart. Put together in a food processor and pulse until the mix resembled ground beef. Season accordingly, and use in chili, tacos, or plain old burgers for a secret nutrient infusion that even your kids won’t notice (of course, if you’re extra squeamish, start with 1–2 tbsp of liver in this mix and increase as you feel ready).

If you’re unsure of red meat and endometriosis, let me put your fears to rest here.

Seafood:

For omega 3’s seek out cold-water fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel, or herring. Canned anchovies make salad dressings delicious, while canned salmon and sardines are a tasty, fast, and often affordable option for salads or sandwiches. Oysters are a wonderful source of iron and zinc and are made more affordable if you find smoked and tinned varieties. Because of ocean pollution and overfishing, we need to be careful of larger mercury-accruing species such as swordfish, shark, and large tuna.

Eggs:

Eggs are a nutritional powerhouse and such an easy protein to incorporate! But because egg intolerances are on the rise, deciding if they’re a trigger for you in a factor to consider.

As long as you tolerate eggs, seek out 100% pastured eggs, which means the chickens are kept on pasture like grass-fed cows are. You will often find these types of eggs at farmers’ markets, although they are available in grocery stores as well (such as the Vital Farms brand). The more sun, bugs, and grass a hen gets, the more nutrient-dense the egg, which is why egg yolks from free-roaming hens are a much deeper shade of yellow or even orange (thanks to the increased levels of vitamin A) compared to the eggs from hens kept indoors and fed grain (which have pale-yellow yolks). If you can’t afford pastured or organic, conventional eggs are still a good source of nutrients and protein, so do your best to stock what’s in your means without self-judgment.

If you’re curious about eggs being inflammatory, make sure to read this.

Fats:

Cook with fats that fare well under high heat, such as organic coconut oil, avocado oil, sustainably harvested palm oil, grass-fed butter, or ghee. Lightly sauté with olive oil, or drizzle it on salads. Pour cold-pressed nut and seed oils such as flax or pumpkin on salads, veggies, or even in smoothies. I recommend having 3 to 4 varieties and rotating among them. Please, do not be afraid of fat.

Beans and grains:

If you like beans and grains, the best way to purchase them is dry so that you can soak and sprout them at home (to dissolve phytates). Plus, it’s more affordable. Soaking before you cook is not hard, it just takes forethought and thus will be a new habit to fold in if you feel best eating these foods. Ask yourself each evening if you plan on eating grains or beans the following day, and if so soak them overnight to dissolve some of the phytates. (Of course, if you want to use cans in the meantime while you get into the groove of soaking and cooking, by all means, do so.)

Switch up your varieties regularly rather than, say, always buying black beans and white rice. Consider teff, amaranth, oats, buckwheat, lentils, black-eyed peas, garbanzo beans, kidney beans, and more. I recommend these foods as a side addition to your meals rather than making up the bulk of it, since they are often high in starch.

Nuts, seeds, and nut butter:

Like beans and grains, nuts and seeds have phytates in them so require soaking to release nutrients for absorption. Luckily there are many more brands that sell pre-soaked and dried options of both whole nuts and seeds, as well as nut butters. Seek out brands that say “sprouted.” You can also make them at home by purchasing nuts raw (sunflower seeds, almonds, cashews, Brazil nuts, macadamias, etc.), soaking them for 8 to 24 hours, and then dehydrating them at a low temperature (around 115 degrees) until crispy. If your oven doesn’t go that low, place it on the lowest setting possible and stir frequently until crisp. Let cool and store in airtight jars.

Remember to eat nuts and seeds in moderation (limit them to 1/4 cup per day). If you find yourself constantly craving oily nuts or peanut butter, it may signal a fatty-acid deficiency—try eating more cold-water fatty fish, avocados, and/or cooking with more fats.

Pantry staples:

These include bottled, canned, and other options that allow you to make your food taste great! Consider a variety of vinegars, including apple cider, balsamic, and white wine. Jarred tomato paste, whole or diced tomatoes, or pasta sauce is helpful for quick meals. Look for tomato products in glass jars if possible, since more BPA can be leeched from canned varieties due to the acidic nature of tomatoes.

For baking, consider a few staples to start with, such as tapioca flour as a thickener/starch, plus any baking flours you may need to replace wheat flour. I personally like oat or teff flour. There are some excellent new gluten-free flour blends on the market that make it easy to replace wheat flour in all your favorite recipes. Baking soda, baking powder, chia seeds, dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips, and 100 percent pure vanilla extract will be required for many baking recipes, so it makes sense to have these on hand if you’re an avid baker.

Flavor requires spices, but buying more than 1 or 2 at a time can get pricey. If you’re budgeting, I recommend purchasing what you need for one recipe at a time and slowly building up your spice rack. Always have unrefined sea salt and black pepper on hand.

Honey and maple syrup are great sweeteners for baking and other recipes. Coconut sugar works well as a placement for table sugar. Please remember that just because these options are healthier than refined table sugar (as in they contain more nutrients), they still spike blood sugar, so keep use to a minimum.

Shopping Tips

If you’re new to whole foods cooking (i.e. cooking from scratch, in your kitchen, without bags and boxes of premade ingredients), take a breath. I have faith you can do this. Here are some tips:

1) Start with breakfast: Rather than changing your WHOLE life around, just start with one meal at a time. I prefer breakfast since it sets you up for the entire day of blood sugar regulation. Mess up this meal (with Poptarts, for example), and you’ll play hunger-catch-up for the rest of the day.

2) Be okay with flubs: Mess up dinner? It’s okay, believe me, I’ve made some awful meals in my past too! Heck, I still do. Giveyourself grace, you’re not Betty Crocker and learning to cook can take time.

3) Play around with your food intolerances: You may have some SERIOUS food intolerances without realizing it, which could be a reason some diet formats don’t work for you (at least for now). If you feel worse, rather than better, after trying a whole foods approach, consider gluten, dairy, or egg allergies. If you feel worse eating a lot of veggies, consider low FODMAP for a bit to see if it helps. Consider the process of finding the right dietary strategy for you just that: a process. Don’t give up after a week!

4) If you’re scared of new flavors aim to buy different varieties of produce you know you like: If you’re not ready to eat radicchio and sardines, but you know you like cauliflower and beef, stick with what you know while sampling different varieties. For example, try purple or yellow cauliflower or mix some ground liver or heart instead into your ground beef. There are hundreds of different varieties of tomatoes, apples, broccoli, etc at the farmers market to help this process become easier.

Printable Endometriosis Diet Grocery List

If you’re looking for a guide to get started, here is the grocery and pantry stocking list from my book, Heal Endo. It’s a rough guide to get you started creating your own “whole foods kitchen” so that you’re prepped and ready for meal creation!

If you’re interested in even more specifics, you can check out my book The 4-Week Endometriosis Diet Plan, which includes anti-inflammatory, blood sugar balancing recipes and a dialed, 4-week plan to get you cooking (and eating) better.

Of course if you want the science behind it all make sure to check out my new book, Heal Endo: An Anti-Inflammatory Approach to Healing from Endometriosis, which is a deep dive into what endometriosis is, how it develops, and a better path forward.

Happy Cooking!

Katie Edmonds