Mindful Menstruation—Eating Your Way To A Better Period
By Molly Rapozo, Lifestyle Editor
If you haven’t read this installment of Mindful Menstruation, read it for a quick overview and then come back to us—we’re getting into diet today.
Eating well supports all functions of the body—you’ve heard it one billion times but I’m going to say it again: food is like gas for your car, it’s the fuel that keeps you going. What you put into your body, just as what kind of gas you put into your car, determines how it’s going to function and sustain itself.
There are a lot of ways to take this, as there are a lot of different ways to fuel a car, but the point is: eat how you want to fuel your body. If you’re looking to support the health of your menstrual cycle, here’s a start.
Let’s begin with the ovulatory phase, as it’s easiest to eat for if you aren’t trying to get pregnant. There are a lot of ways to support the ovulation phase if you are trying to get pregnant, but for the purpose of this article, we will assume you aren’t.
Ovulation is easiest to handle because your energy levels are way up. Without being tired and sluggish, there’s no need to support your body with heavy amounts of carbs. The main focus at this point is to take care of excess estrogen and balance out estrogen and progesterone—this will help to keep your energy at a stable level and minimize bloating.
Eating a lot of cruciferous vegetables like brussel sprouts, kale, broccoli and cabbage—those dark, crunchy and leafy greens—are a great way to do this. You can balance and flush out excess estrogen with these greens because they contain a lot of anti-inflammatory and detoxifying properties that metabolize extra estrogen.
Following the ovulatory phase is the luteal phase, which is when pesky cravings rear their ugly heads. At this point in time, your body is naturally turning back inward, meaning that you probably want to be alone with copious amounts of sugary snacks.
To combat cravings, it’s often suggested that you load up on magnesium. Magnesium is wonderful for the body—it’ll help you sleep better and also up energy levels during the day. Extra sleep at night will help with mindlessly giving into cravings, as well as just make you feel better in general.
You can find magnesium in foods like avocado, dark chocolate, bananas, spinach and those dark leafy greens mentioned before. If you’re having trouble with magnesium, even with a well-rounded diet, you can safely absorb a little extra with Epsom salts. Taking a bath and relaxing during this phase is a good idea, anyway.
Another way to help curb cravings, while actually giving into them, is to add sweetness with natural sweeteners. Honey, dates and maple syrup are all sugary but in a natural form—much better than the refined sugars that lurk in most processed foods. If you’re craving baked goods, try making your own version with a natural sweetener instead of sugar. Treat yourself to berries––nature’s candy––if you’re craving other sweets.
Moving into the week of your period, the menstrual phase is when you really want to hunker down and eat cooked meals with lots of fiber, magnesium, vitamin C and iron.
Iron absorption naturally increases during the menstrual cycle, but that doesn’t mean you can’t eat more to help out with the loss of blood. Lack of iron is responsible for moodiness and fatigue, which you really don’t want to add onto this week if you can help it, right?
Increasing fish and red meat—if you’re a meat-eater—plus green vegetables, lentils, beans, nuts, seeds and grains during this week is crucial. All of these are packed with iron, plus they can be cooked into delicious, warming and comforting meals, which are truly necessary.
Vitamin C is equally important during this week, as higher consumption of this vitamin actually supports the absorption of iron. Eat all the citrus you can—add clementines to a salad, lemon to dressing or into your water and maybe get some grapefruit in at breakfast. The key is to eat vitamin C while you’re consuming those foods packed with iron—it only aids absorption if they’re eaten together.
The best part of your period? Eat all the damn chocolate—but only if it’s really dark and also: everything in moderation.
Dark chocolate—70% cocoa or above—is awesome. Truly incredible. It’s loaded with iron and magnesium—yes, we’re bringing magnesium back up because it’s that incredible. Magnesium, during this phase, will not only help you sleep better and keep those cravings at bay, but it also has the ability to relieve cramps.
Keeping a good level of magnesium in the body relaxes your muscles—meaning it relaxes your uterus, which is hard at work contracting to shed its lining, giving you cramps. There are several conditions and complications that truly make cramps excruciating—something that probably won’t be helped with just upping your daily dose of magnesium. But, for discomforting-but-not-debilitating cramps, magnesium can surely help out.
Post-menstruation, during the follicular phase, eating protein and fats is key to helping balance hormone levels back out. At this point, your estrogen and progesterone levels are on the rise after being at their lowest point during the cycle, and therefore, are a little out of whack. But, this rise in hormones also means you’re likely feeling like you have more energy and more mental alertness.
Protein and fats will support this uptick in energy and brain activity, as well as support you if you’re getting back into your normal, high-impact workout schedule. Fish, eggs, cheese and butter are great if you’re not vegan or vegetarian. If you fall into one of those categories: maybe opt for chia seeds, oils—such as olive or coconut—and nuts. Of course, meat-eaters should be getting those in, too.
As I’ve said before, this is merely a guide if you feel like something is just a little off, especially during the week of your period. Your hormones are fluctuating all month long and your diet can play a big role in either helping that issue out or making it worse.
This is not an answer for everything, and certainly not an answer for those bigger issues such as endometriosis and PCOS. Those might be outside the realm of diet, in which case you should see a doctor for treatment options.
That being said, if your period is mostly just uncomfortable, taking a look at what you’re consuming can help out big time. Being mindful of what’s going in will affect how your body reacts to all the changes happening phase to phase, cycle to cycle.