What Not To Eat When You Have Menstrual Cramps?

There are certain foods that you shouldn’t eat when you have menstrual cramps as theses can aggravate menstrual cramps.

Sugary Foods. Sugary food can aggravate menstrual cramps by promoting inflammation and insulin resistance in the body, so you should not eat sugary foods.¹ With insulin resistance your body find it hard to get the glucose inside your cells, thus, there is a high glucose and insulin level in the body. This can cause more inflammation in your body and worsen your menstrual cramps. Avoid cakes, candies, ice creams and deserts. Have more fruits and vegetables instead of those.

Refined Foods. Refines food such as white rice, bread, flour and cereals are simple carbohydrates.² These produce sugar when broken down. These can cause drastic changes in your blood sugar suddenly and it can lead to inflammation in the body. Therefore, it is best not to eat refined food, replace it with complex carbohydrates such as red rice, whole grain flour, cereals.

Salty Food. Some women complain they have bloating and discomfort in their abdomen with periods. This can be due to water retention and with low salt intake this bloating and discomfort goes away.³ So, do not eat chips, fries, canned food, and added salt food items during menstrual cramps.

Saturated Fats. It is shown that saturated fats cause inflammation in your body.⁴ Having more saturated food during menstrual period can aggravate your pain. Saturated fats have more arachidonic acid and these produce more prostaglandins in the body. Prostaglandins induce inflammation and contract the uterus more which gives rise to menstrual cramps. Food that have saturated food are mainly meat, dairy products and processed meat.

Processed Food. Processed food contains trans fats also known as hydrogenated oils. Processed food, junk food, packed deserts and fries has lots of trans fats. You should avoid consuming these foods. These fats cause inflammation in the body and worsen your menstrual pain more.

Dairy Products. Dairy products like milk, cheese, butter, ice cream contains more arachidonic acid and omega-6 fatty acids which can produce more prostaglandins and make your menstrual cramps worsen.⁵ Do not eat dairy products during the menstrual period and have other substitutes for those.

Carbonated Drinks. Carbonated drinks or fizzy drinks like sodas can worsen your menstrual cramps. It also contains lots of sugar and cause bloating. It is best not to have any fizzy drinks.

Alcohol. Liver metabolizes and detoxifies estrogen. Estrogen causes heave bleeding, sore breasts, bloating and moodiness. It is important to detoxify estrogen as quickly as possible. If you are a heavy drinker your liver might be already damaged, this slows the detoxification of estrogen and causing more symptoms during menstruation.⁶

Coffee. Coffee can increase your estrogen levels and aggravate your menstrual cramps. Do not drink coffee beverages, and food with high amounts of coffee.

There are certain foods that you should not eat when you have menstrual cramps as theses can aggravate menstrual cramps. Avoid sugary food, refined food, salty food, saturated fats, processed food, dairy products, carbonated drinks, alcohol and coffee. Sugary food can aggravate menstrual cramps by promoting inflammation and insulin resistance in the body. Refined food produce sugar when broken down. These can cause drastic changes in your blood sugar suddenly and it can lead to inflammation in the body. Salty food induces bloating in the stomach. Saturated fats, trans fats and dairy products cause increase production of prostaglandins in the body, which aggravates the pain. Coffee and alcohol affect the estrogen metabolization, which worsen the menstrual symptoms.

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Also Read:

• Causes of Menstrual Cramps or Period Pains & its Treatment
• Can Cinnamon Help Reduce Menstrual Cramps & Heavy Bleeding?
• How Long Do Menstrual Cramps Last?