Healthy eating tips during menstruation

There is no one-size-fits-all list of taboos during menstruation. The core principle is to "based on your own tolerance, give priority to supplementing iron and high-quality protein, and try to avoid irritating foods that can cause physical discomfort." All conclusions about "must eat/absolutely not eat" regardless of personal physique are just hooligans.

First of all, I have to talk about the most quarrelsome question: "Can I eat ice cream?" - there is really no standard answer to this question. The logic of modern medicine is that when the ice drink enters the esophagus and reaches the stomach, the temperature has already risen to almost body temperature, and it will not directly freeze to the uterus. As long as you do not have dysmenorrhea or diarrhea after eating it, you can eat it. But the view of traditional Chinese medicine is also reasonable: cold food will affect the movement of qi and blood. Girls who have cold body, dysmenorrhea, small menstrual flow and blood clots will most likely be in pain and unable to straighten up when exposed to ice. There are two situations among the girls I have met: Xiao Zhou in 1997 always ordered a cup of McFlurry every time she came to visit her aunt. She sipped it slowly for half an hour and had nothing to do. This happened for three or four years in a row. ； But even if Xiao Lin in the same company drinks room-temperature yogurt, the pain will cause him to take leave and lie down for half a day. There is really no need to copy other people's work. You can eat when you feel comfortable, and avoid when it hurts. It is much more useful than worrying about which school of thought is right.

Rather than worrying about whether to avoid cold or spicy foods, what you should actually pay more attention to are the nutrients that you may not eat enough. The average blood loss during menstruation is 20-60ml, and a girl with heavy blood loss may reach 80ml. Iron will be lost along with the blood. If it cannot be replenished for a long time, it is easy to develop iron deficiency anemia, making the whole person feel groggy and weak in the legs. To be honest, don’t be superstitious about brown sugar to replenish qi and blood. More than 96% of brown sugar is sucrose, and the iron content is pitiful. Drinking one cup will make you grow more flesh than the iron you supplement. I used to feel out of breath when I climbed two floors on the second day of my pregnancy. Then I started to deliberately eat more iron supplements three days before each visit: the iron content of 100g of braised pork liver is enough to make up for two days of loss. If you don’t like pork liver, you can eat some blood tofu, lean beef, or even spinach and scrambled eggs. If you don’t want to bother, it’s okay to take legal iron supplements. Most of the fatigue during that period has really disappeared. Together with eating more high-quality protein, including fish, shrimp, soy products, and milk, it can help you stabilize the depression caused by hormone fluctuations and prevent you from crying or losing your temper at the smallest things.

Oh, by the way, don’t believe the nonsense that “you won’t gain weight no matter what you eat during menstruation”. I just received a complaint from a fan last month, saying that she believed this statement. During her period, she ate hot pot and drank milk tea for three consecutive days, and she gained 4 pounds, and it took half a month to lose it. Objective data shows this: the basal metabolism during menstruation will only be 3%-5% higher than usual, which consumes almost half the calories of a cream cake. You will still gain weight if you eat it openly. There is no need to use this as an excuse to eat hazelnuts.

There is another pitfall that many people fall into: blindly following the trend of eating “menstruation-friendly foods”. For example, brown sugar ginger tea is indeed a warm drink for many girls, and it can relieve most of the dysmenorrhea. However, if you have a particularly heavy menstrual flow, or have uterine fibroids, drinking it will make your menstrual flow more heavy, prolong your menstrual period longer, and harm your health. Some people say that you should eat more durian during menstruation to activate blood circulation and remove blood stasis. Girls who are prone to getting angry may suffer from acne and constipation if they eat it. There is no "god" that is suitable for everyone. It's all a matter of honey to one and arsenic to another.

I now give advice on menstrual diet to friends around me, and I never make a long list of taboos. At most, I remind you with two words: If you get acne when eating spicy food, or it hurts when you drink ice, then just endure it during this period, and don’t wrong yourself too much at other times. It hurts so much that I want to drink something sweet. What if I order a cup of milk tea with full sugar? When you feel better emotionally, your physical discomfort will be much lessened. The price of sugar is really nothing.

In fact, to put it bluntly, the uterine period is a small fluctuation of the body once a month. There is no need to make it as if you are facing a powerful enemy, not daring to touch this or eat that. Pay more attention to your body's reactions. If you feel comfortable eating and feel better, it will be more effective than any secret recipe posted online.