An irresistible desire to eat chocolate before menstruation, which is experienced by many women, is due not to biological causes, but cultural norms.

The results of a study conducted by psychologists from the University of New York (Albany), published in the journal PLOS ONE.

It is generally believed that crazy cravings for sweets in general and for chocolate in particular - an integral symptom of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and is due to either hormonal imbalance or nutritional deficiency. However, the data obtained by Julia Mormes (Julia M. Hormes) and Marta Nimets (Martha A. Niemiec), put this hypothesis in doubt.

Horms and Nimets interviewed 275 female students about how they undergo PMS, and about their relationship with chocolate. Girls came from 25 countries and had very different cultural backgrounds. Many of them confessed that from time to time they like to eat a chocolate-another, but not all associated this with the phases of the menstrual cycle. So, only 17% of female foreign students reported that they have an acute desire to eat chocolate just before the onset of monthly. While among American women of the second and third generations, 74%. At the same time, the more foreign women involved in American culture were involved, the harder they broke away from the roots, the more willing they tied their craving for chocolate with PMS.

This is not the first study showing that the connection between chocolate and PMS is just a cultural phenomenon. So, writes Health. com, according to a previous study on this topic, about an acute desire to eat chocolate before the onset of men reported only 28% of Spanish, and only 6% of Egyptians generally eat chocolate in their food.

"This does not mean that your thirst for chocolate just before the beginning of menstruation or on its first day is not real," says Horms. "It only means that its origins lie mainly in your head, and in the heads of others, and not in hormones or other physiological processes".

She noted that, writing off their desire for sweetness in physiology, women seem to take off responsibility and allow themselves to eat what is usually taboo on other days. "The more you try to stay away from any food, the stronger you want to eat it. And our cultural norms allow us to give ourselves slack in certain periods - before menstruation or during pregnancy. This is considered socially acceptable, "explained Horms. She urged women to establish healthier relationships with food and afford treats, including chocolate, any day of the month.

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