Hello and

this week's topic was your host Monica Reinagle

and this week's topic was suggested by a listener who wrote,

when it's that time of the month,

I feel like my stomach is a bottomless pit.

I can just eat and eat and eat,

and I also crave sweets.

Is this normal?

Well, in a word, yes, it is very common

to experience an increase in appetite or cravings for certain foods just before or during your period. But how much of this is biological or physiological and how much of it is in our heads?

After all, the idea that getting one's period causes an

uncontrollable desire for chocolate or other sweets is so heavily reinforced in

our society that it could easily become sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy. in our

force,

it could easily become sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If we believe that we are victims of forces beyond our control,

it kind of gives us an excuse to abandon our usual self-restraint or maybe to justify our excesses.

But while it may be subject to a certain amount of exaggeration in the popular culture, this phenomenon is not entirely

imagined. Levels of the hormone progesterone rise in the second half of the menstrual cycle leading up to the onset of menstruation.

This hormone triggers changes in the uterus that will allow it to support a pregnancy,

and it is also known to have an appetite stimulating effect.

Non-human animals who are presumably immune to cultural messaging tend to eat more and to favor more calorie diet. to maybe this is the body's way of preparing for the extra energy demands that would accompany

...