There are a whole bunch of factors that help to control our food intake, but as people with uterus we should add one more to the list – where we are at in our menstrual cycles! Yup, results from past research has shown that hormones related to the menstrual cycle play a role in the ups and downs of our food intake. Generally, scientists have seen that food intake is lower in the first half of our cycles (i.e., Phase One and Two) compared with the second bit ( i.e., Phases Four and Five). This has often been attributed to the presence of estrogen hormones, without progesterone, in the earlier parts of our cycle. But… we know that estrogen doesn’t really hit center stage till Phase Two, so what should we expect before that in Phase One?
Well, scientists from the Harvard Medical School looked into this when they investigated how the brains of nine healthy people with menstrual cycles respond to seeing food in Phase One versus Phase Two.They also checked to see if there were different responses depending on if they had eaten beforehand or not.
Despite the small number of people included in the study, the researchers noted that the part of our brains responsible for determining how good a food looks as well as the part of the brain that lets us know we are satisfied responded differently to seeing food in Phase One than in Phase Two! High estrogen is thought to change the way our brains process how we see food, making it not as appealing, even when we “should be hungry” and thus causing a reduced appetite. So when we are hungry in Phase One, food just seems more appealing and we aren’t getting the same cues of feeling satisfied as we do in Phase Two. Brains are cool.
So what does this mean? The way we look at food – and how yummy it looks – is going to change depending on where we are at in our cycles. It can be helpful to note that when we are on our periods at the start of our cycle food can look extra good… especially when we haven’t eaten in a while… and that’s totally normal.
Science, Feminism, and Love.
Alonso-Alonso, M., Ziemke, F., Magkos, F et al., (2011). Brain responses to food images during the early and late follicular phase of the menstrual cycle in healthy young women: relation to fasting and feeding. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 94(2), 377–384.
