Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Hershey’s Chocolate Kisses, Kit Kat bars, hot chocolate, truffles, dark chocolate bars with cherries, and chocolate covered protein bars – many women eat these when craving chocolate before or during their period.

Why Do I Get Cravings Before My Period

The problem is that craving food before your period is a nutritional issue. It isn’t normal to crave foods unless you are hungry. But if you are craving sugar, sweets, red meat, spicy foods, salt, junk food, milk and dairy products, alcohol, peanut butter, vinegar, and carbohydrates, it’s a sign that you are missing vitamins and minerals, not a sign of your weakness.

How to Stop Food Cravings

You’d be amazed about how many women have addressed their nutritional needs and then rarely had cravings for chocolates and other foods afterwards. Sure, it wasn’t overnight, but within a few months, these women weren’t run by cravings during their period and before. They had wondered how to stop PMS craving, and yet when they started eating a better diet and took multivitamins and minerals such as the period vitamins, the cravings slowly and surely stopped.

Is It Normal to Get Cravings Before Your Period?

Cravings for different foods are not normal. They show you that you have dietary imbalances or nutritional deficiencies. You probably know this already, as you simply have to think about how your appetite was as a child. You weren’t driven by cravings but rather by hunger.

In the brain is an area called the satiety center. This area is controlled by protein in the meal, fat, and nutrients. Protein, fat and nutrients shut off the signals that tell you to keep looking for more food. On the other hand, carbohydrates increase the signals that tell you to keep eating. The entire process of satiety is also influenced by hormones such as glucagon and insulin as well as cortisol.

How to Control Cravings

One of the primary herbs that may be used for stopping cravings is Gymnema sylvestris. This herb is a favorite of many alternative medicine practitioners because it can stop a craving attack within a few minutes. The dosage is one to two capsules daily; that’s all that is needed.

Cravings can also be a result of low blood sugar levels. This condition is regulated by two minerals and one vitamin – zinc, chromium and niacin. The dosages of these nutrients are listed here in a chart –

• 50-75 mg zinc daily

• 200-500 mcg chromium

• 50-100 mg niacin

One of the reasons why you crave different foods is because you may be low in any or all of these three nutrients for blood sugar regulation. They all participate in the Glucose Tolerance Factor Protein complex, which keeps your blood sugar levels in the normal zone even though you may be hungry.

Herbal Remedies for PMS Cravings

Other herbs that can help stop cravings are ones usually included in a pancreas cleanse: cedar berry, uva ursi leaf, licorice root, mullein, cayenne pepper and goldenseal root. You can’t select one or a few of these herbs and expect them to work better than the entire combination as herbal cleanses are for the purpose of supporting the entire organ. Generally two caps are taken twice daily.

You can stop those PMS cravings, which really are not normal. Just make up a plan for yourself, give your body enough time to change (a few months), and stick to the plan.