https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1TNTYE3OjU
Irregular Cycles
Women should be experiencing a menstrual cycle once a month. A clear sign that there is an underlying problem is when a woman has more or fewer cycles than one each month. Along with this sign, there are others including hormonal acne, cramping, mood swings, and more. Luckily, the foods you eat can directly impact your menstrual cycle. You will want to avoid certain foods while incorporating others rich in vitamins and minerals such as zinc and iron. During a cycle, you lose minerals, so it is important to be consuming these essential ones.
Bonus Tip
Our office’s philosophy is to not guess, but test. We offer different hormone tests to understand your cycles on a deeper level. While helping symptoms and regularity is important through what we eat, sometimes we need to dive deeper to understand the imbalance. An imbalance of hormones will directly affect your adrenals. Our hormone tests also check which hormones the adrenals are outputting. We check to see if your adrenals are crashing or low in certain hormones, or higher in certain hormones. If fatigue and mood swings are your main symptoms, this would be your next step after eating the following foods.
6 Foods That Assist Your Menstrual Cycle
1. (AVOIDING) Sugar
Many women tend to consume sugar during their periods. Whether it is candy, dessert, cereals, or other foods, it feeds the inflammation and pain. If you experience intense cramping, swelling, or bloating then sugar is only making these symptoms worse. Women should only be eating 20 grams of sugar daily. Avoid sugars at all costs.
2. Red Meat
We understand not everyone is a meat-eater, but red meat contains iron and zinc, to restore these levels during a cycle. This is an easy food to add to breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
3. Lentils + Beans
For those who do not eat meat, lentils and kidney beans also have a high amount of iron. These can be eaten before, during, or after a cycle. Incorporate lentils or beans into each meal throughout the day to balance out the mineral loss.
4. Seafood
If you are a pescatarian or eat any sort of meat, shellfish and clams have higher amounts of iron. Clams in particular have one of the highest amounts of iron for seafood with around 25mg of iron per 3 ounces serving. That alone meets the recommended amount to be eating daily.
5. Dark Chocolate
You should only consume 90-100% pure dark chocolate, none with added sugar. Only have dark chocolate in small amounts, but use this food to satisfy sugar cravings. Dark chocolate not only contains iron, but also magnesium which is also another crucial mineral for cycles.