Women who eat plenty of green, leafy vegetables cut their risk of premenstrual syndrome by 40 percent, researchers find.

Scientists studied non-heme iron found in plant foods and found that women who got the most iron from food had the lowest chance of developing PMS. They believe this is because iron is involved in the production of serotonin, a chemical that helps regulate mood.. PMS is a collection of various symptoms that a woman can experience 2 weeks before her period.. These include mood swings, increased irritability, loss of interest in sex, soreness of the mammary glands, the appearance of swelling. In a study involving 3,025 women, scientists set out to find out how what we eat is associated with the development of PMS.. It should be noted that all women who became participants in the study did not complain about PMS before the start of the experiment.. Volunteers completed food diaries for 10 years. During this time, PMS was diagnosed in 1057 women, and 1968 women did not show symptoms of PMS.. The researchers, who published their findings in the American Journal of Epidemiology, note that women who had enough non-heme iron in their diets were less likely to develop PMS.. According to the author of the study, Dr. Elizabeth Bretore-Johnson, women need to consume a little more than 20 mg of iron per day per day, but remember that the upper limit is 45 mg of iron per day, unless otherwise recommended by a doctor.. After all, excessive iron intake can have adverse health effects, in particular, lead to the development of hemochromatosis (a disease characterized by impaired iron metabolism in the body). In the most severe cases, diabetes, liver cancer, arthritis, and heart failure can develop.. Basically, non-heme iron is found in plant foods: greens, legumes, apples, red peppers, buckwheat, cherries, molasses, dried fruits.

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