Hello, this is Monica Reinagal, the nutrition diva, happy new year. We are going to jump right into 2016 with a great listener question.

Cho writes, PMS has always been a huge issue for me,

but last month for the first time in my life, it wasn't.

In the last month, I'd also stopped eating meat due to environmental concerns.

I've never heard of meat causing mood swings, but is it possible that the hormones in

meat could contribute to hormone imbalances.

Cho's question is such a great example of how the scientific process works.

It starts with an observation.

In this case, Cho noticed an improvement in It starts with an observation.

In this case, Cho noticed an improvement in her PMS symptoms.

She then noticed a correlation.

The improvement in her symptoms coincided with the elimination of meat from her diet, and this led

her to form a perfectly valid hypothesis.

Perhaps hormones in meat were contributing to her hormone-related symptoms.

Unfortunately, all too many people would stop their inquiry right there and start promoting this as an established fact.

Hormones and meat cause PMS.

But that is not where the scientific process stops.

The next step is to start looking for data that either confirm or rule out your hypothesis.

So thanks so much for sending your question show.

I'm glad to help you take this thought process to the next level. Animals that are raised for meat are sometimes treated with

steroid hormones and those would include testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone

what we think of as the sex hormones and And these are used to promote their growth and shorten the time it takes them to reach maturity.

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