This Is Why You Crave Chocolate on Your Period

I started my period this month and I found myself craving chocolate, which is strange, considering I don’t normally care for chocolate.

I noticed these sweet cravings were often chalked up to “being hormonal”, but what does that mean? Don’t you ever wonder what actually happens to our hormones during our cycles? And is hormonal change the culprit for our desire to eat chocolate?

There are four phases of our cycle:

1. Menstruation (days 1–5)

2. Follicular Phase (days 6–14)

3. Ovulation (days 15–19)

4. Luteal Phase (days 20–28)

*These phases vary in length from person-to-person.

Effects of Sex Hormones on Appetite

Hormones likely play a significant role in regulating appetite and food cravings. Estrogen, for example, can inhibit or decrease appetite, while progesterone may increase it.

During the follicular phase estrogen levels rise and then rapidly drop around ovulation. Progesterone, on the other hand, remains low during ovulation and rises during the luteal phase.

About half of American women, who link cravings with their period, report experiencing cravings around ovulation or the onset of our mensuration.

Wait, what?!

We see no change in our progesterone levels from menstruation to ovulation. So can it really be the cause of our sweet cravings and increased appetite?

There is still not enough evidence to support that hormonal changes play a role in our cravings. So let’s take a look at some other plausible explanations.

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So if our sex hormones aren’t causing chocolate cravings, what is?

One study suggests that U.S. culture might be the cause of chocolate cravings around our periods. This study recognized that our hormonal changes are not lining up with reported chocolate cravings. So they wanted to see if American culture plays a role.

What they found is that foreign-born women were significantly less likely to link chocolate cravings with menstruation.

“Findings support our hypothesis that exposure to U.S. culture and the ‘thin ideal’ of female beauty create the perception that desires for seemingly ‘taboo’ foods like chocolate must be justified with socially acceptable excuses like menstruation or premenstrual syndrome (PMS)” (Hormes et al.).

Cravings are a dominant discussion in health media in the States. With diet culture demonizing “unhealthy” foods such as chocolate and other sweets, some women may see it as a treat to be limited. Therefore feeling the need to justify when they eat it, creates an unhealthy reward system.

Another article, following 259 women, showed an increased risk for cravings is associated with higher levels of inflammatory markers in our bodies!

So if you think of chocolate or sweets as a comfort food, that offers a soothing effect. You may be more likely to crave sweets when experiencing inflammation in the body.

Ultimately, more research still needs to be done to draw a definitive conclusion as to why women crave chocolate around their period. Current evidence points to our psychological or cultural relationship with chocolate as a driver of moderate or severe cravings around menstruation.

It is important to build a healthy relationship with the foods we crave so we do not have to be in pain to justify eating them! If it is chocolate you crave, consider introducing various forms of chocolate into your diet during different phases of your cycle! If you are struggling with your chocolate cravings, try seeking out the support of a registered dietitian!

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