Some diet/supps questions

[rainbowflower]

Has anyone taken Vitamin B6 to help regulate cycles/to encourage cycles to resume when BF? If so, how much did you take? How long did it take to have an effect?

Has anyone done the French diet and also taken supps? If so, which?

I notice that the French diet says to avoid magnesium, why is this? and why does the other diet encourage magnesium supplements?
(and if magnesium is allowed, that would mean that I could avoid the supplement and eat British chocolate instead which has a higher milk content and is also a good source of magnesium - the only reason the French diet says not to have it)
If anyone can link me to some studies I'd love to read them

If you are taking calcium supplements, does this mean you don't have to drink as much milk on either diet?

[TTC5]

I would never replace diet through food with supps, I would continue having milk etc for the calcium even if taking supps

[rainbowflower]

I'd probably still drink some milk anyway, but I'm sure I read on here that supps can be preferable to some things because it contains less of other nutrients... unless maybe it's some of the hormones and things in milk that make the diet work in the first place!

[atomic sagebrush]

Has anyone taken Vitamin B6 to help regulate cycles/to encourage cycles to resume when BF? If so, how much did you take? How long did it take to have an effect?

Has anyone done the French diet and also taken supps? If so, which?

I notice that the French diet says to avoid magnesium, why is this? and why does the other diet encourage magnesium supplements?
(and if magnesium is allowed, that would mean that I could avoid the supplement and eat British chocolate instead which has a higher milk content and is also a good source of magnesium - the only reason the French diet says not to have it)
If anyone can link me to some studies I'd love to read them

If you are taking calcium supplements, does this mean you don't have to drink as much milk on either diet?

1) Yes, I took a combo of 100 mg B6 and vitex AF-O to restore my cycles when I was BFing and losing weight on the girl diet. It worked in 2 months. I conceived a boy though.

2)The French Diet DOESN'T say to avoid magnesium. You want magnesium in the French diet. I'm looking at the French Diet right now and it says 300 mg of Magnesium supps a day in addition to mag through diet.

3)Choc is not a good idea on the girl diet. Traditionally because it blocks calcium absorption, but the Low Everything diet that I recommend also has chocolate as a no-no because chocolate contains antioxidants that may sway blue. (White choc is ok on the Low Everything diet for an occasional treat though)

4)The only study we have available that supports the FGD is the Dutch study and that is in the Paid-For studies section (but it's a pretty indepth study!!). Most of the studies that were done that are mentioned in the FGD book are very old and I haven't been able to find them online. You may also be interested in reading the Oxford Study, which in some ways supports the FGD and in other ways does not. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2602810/

5)You don't need to drink/eat as much dairy if you are taking calcium. Your intake of calcium should be 1200-1800 mg, diet and supps combined. I personally think it's best to get the majority of your calcium through supps rather than massive intake of dairy products because they are loaded with calories, sodium, potassium, protein, Vit. D (may raise testosterone) and unless you choose skim products, fat.

[atomic sagebrush]

I'd probably still drink some milk anyway, but I'm sure I read on here that supps can be preferable to some things because it contains less of other nutrients... unless maybe it's some of the hormones and things in milk that make the diet work in the first place!

That is another excellent point - honestly, we don't totally KNOW why the FGD works. The speculation is that it's the cal-mag, but it could be another element of dairy...cow's milk, even untreated, raw cow's milk, is chock full of hormones because the cows themselves are producing these hormones in their bodies.

Most cow's milk that is sold in stores may contain antibiotic residue (would sway blue) and some cows are treated with estrogens to make them produce more milk. Without going into mind-numbing details, the effect of some of these hormones on the human body may be to raise blood sugar levels and hormones in milk has been speculated as one reason why diabetes and obesity rates are skyrocketing. Not exactly what you would want for a pink sway.

[zanacal]

I have no idea whether this question is silly or not - but would those same hormones be present in a woman breastfeeding her own (human!) child too?!

[atomic sagebrush]

Yes, but the difference is that those are normal levels of hormones that your body is producing alongside producing other hormones and it is all (usually) kept in balance with the other hormones. The cow's milk is giving you extra hormones your body didn't make, doesn't want or need, and has to get rid of somehow.