A little known cause of food craving during your period is food allergies and food sensitivities. Food allergies are actually different than food sensitivities, whereby food allergies can cause anaphylactic reactions such as the throat closing up and difficulty breathing that can lead to death.

Food sensitivities on the other hand are symptoms that occur from agglutination or clumping reactions that occur inside the bloodstream once a food protein meets the immune system. The clumping reactions can then be sent via the blood to the joints to cause joint pains, to the head to cause headaches, and to the pancreas to cause cravings. The reactions can literally affect every part of the body, so odd sensations you feel may be related to food reactions.

Food sensitivities are definitely part of the reason why you do crave sweets, carbs, spicy foods, salt, milk, pickles, red meat, junk foods, alcohol, and chocolate. Once you start eating foods you are sensitive to, then the reactions compound themselves and it may take a few days for you to get over the reaction. This means that for four days, you could have food reactions. The reactions could be compounded when you have hormonal fluctuations during your period.

So if you have food cravings and are wondering why do I crave chocolate on my period, or have craving before my period, consider that it’s partly due to food sensitivities.

The next question to ask though is what to do about them and how do you know you even have them. Here’s a step-by-step process of what to do if you suspect them:

1. Order an ALCAT test online. You don’t need a doctor to do this and can do it yourself. Medical tests are now available to anyone who wants them without a doctor. The companies that provide the tests usually have medical doctors on staff to ask questions about your results.

2. Once you find out about your results, eliminate the foods that are causing the sensitivities. It takes 4 days for a food reaction to clear the body, so give yourself a good 60 day period where you are free of all food reactions. Most likely, you will see that you have the foods you crave during your period on the list.

3. During the 60 days, see which of your cravings disappear.

4. Then go to the root of the cause and start cleansing your body with a colon cleanse and liver cleanse. This means you’ll use a combination of herbs for the colon such as cascara sagrada, aloe vera, turkey rhubarb, senna, fennel and mint. For the liver, you will use a combination of herbs such as milk thistle, Oregon grape root, berberine (from goldenseal), artichoke, and boldo to cleanse. Always follow the instructions on the label for these.

5. Food sensitivities can be cleared out of the body – and with them go the cravings. But it does take some time so you have to give your body some time to heal.

Another thing to remember is that food sensitivities can be caused by not enough vitamins and minerals or a poor nutritional status. Thus, it’s important for you to take your supplements. If you’re on a period vitamin, you might decide to take a double dose for a week or two. Don’t be afraid of overdosing – most people are so low in nutrients that toxicity is never even a concern.

For example, if you’re low in vitamin D, taking 50,000 IU daily instead of 2000 IU won’t create toxicity for several months. If you’re low in iron, it will take at least three months to build up the level of iron in the blood. This doesn’t mean going hog wild and taking a whole bottle of iron or other supplements but doubling a dosage of your period vitamin isn’t going to lead you to the grave.

Of course, it’s always best to check with a doctor or clinical nutritionist, but as a home remedy, you can double your period vitamin.

It’s not normal to crave foods during your period. Find out the reason and then learn how to stop the cravings during your period.