Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T16:01:52.277Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Food craving, mood and the menstrual cycle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

John Bancroft ,
Ann Cook  and
Lynn Williamson
John Bancroft*
Affiliation:
MRC Reproductive Biology Unit, 37 Chalmers Street, Edinburgh
Ann Cook
Affiliation:
MRC Reproductive Biology Unit, 37 Chalmers Street, Edinburgh
Lynn Williamson
Affiliation:
MRC Reproductive Biology Unit, 37 Chalmers Street, Edinburgh
*
1 Address for correspondence: Dr John Bancroft, MRC Reproductive Biology Unit, 37 Chalmers Street, Edinburgh EH3 9EW.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

Seventy-six women, with a mean age of 35–7 years, who reported premenstrual craving for sweet foods in a retrospective questionnaire, were assessed prospectively with a pre- and postmenstrual eating questionnaire and daily ratings of craving, mood, irritability and breast tenderness over two menstrual cycles.

In 72 % of these women a perimenstrual pattern of food craving was confirmed. In 13 % this craving was confined to the menstrual phase. There was no consistent association between food craving and mood change, either in timing or severity. Women with more severe mood change did not report more severe craving. There was also no association between food craving and cyclical breast tenderness. Perimenstrual food craving, therefore, appears to be a cyclical phenomenon in its own right, of uncertain aetiology and worthy of further study.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , November 1988 , pp. 855 - 860
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bancroft, J. & Bäckström, T. (1985). Premenstrual syndrome. Clinical Endocrinology 22, 313–336.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohen, I. T., Sherwin, B. B. & Fleming, A. S. (1987). Food cravings, mood and the menstrual cycle. Hormones and Behavior 21, 457–470.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dalvit, S. P. (1981). The effect of the menstrual cycle on patterns of food intake. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 34, 1811–1815.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dalvit-McPhillips, S. P. (1983). The effect of the human menstruation cycle on the nutrient intake. Physiology and Behaviour 31, 209–212.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gladis, M. M. & Walsh, B. T. (1987). Premenstrual exacerbation of binge eating in bulimia. American Journal of Psychiatry 144, 1592–1595.Google ScholarPubMed
Hargrove, J. T. & Abraham, G. E. (1982). The incidence of premenstrual tension in a gynaecological clinic. Journal of Reproductive Medicine 2, 721–724.Google Scholar
Henderson, M. & Freeman, C. P. L. (1987). A self-rating scale for bulimia – the ‘BITE’. British Journal of Psychiatry 150, 18–24.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huon, G. F. & Brown, L. B. (1984). Bulimia: the emergence of a syndrome. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 18, 113–126.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pliner, P. & Fleming, A. S. (1983). Food intake, body weight and sweetness preferences over the menstrual cycle in humans. Psychology and Behavior 30, 663–666.Google ScholarPubMed
Reid, R. L., Greenaway-Coates, A. & Habin, P. M. (1986). Oral glucose tolerance during the menstrual cycle in normal women with alleged premenstrual hypoglycemic attacks: effects of naloxone. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 62, 1167–1172.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sanders, D., Warner, P., Bäckström, T. & Bancroft, J. (1983). Mood, sexuality, hormones and the menstrual cycle. I. Changes in mood and physical state: description of subjects and method. Psychosomatic Medicine 45, 487–507.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wade, G. N. (1976). Sex hormones, regulatory behaviours and body weight. In Advances in the Study of Behaviour 6. (ed. Rosenblatt, J. S.Hinde, R. A.Shaw, E. and Beer, C.), pp. 201–278. Academic Press: New York.Google Scholar
Warner, P. & Bancroft, J. (1988). In preparation.Google Scholar
Yim, G. K. W. & Lowy, M. T. (1984). Opioids, feeding and anorexias. Federation Proceedings 43, 2893–2897.Google ScholarPubMed