Tender boobs, swollen fingers and face, a bloated tummy: these are all symptoms of pre-menstrual bloating.
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Can you relate to any of these?
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Pre-menstrual bloating can be caused by a number of things:
- Already low progesterone dropping even further in the run up to the next period
- Eating too many salty foods
- Not drinking enough water
- Not eating enough fibrous foods
- Chronic constipation (we should be ideally pooping everyday!)
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Adding in different fruits, vegetables and nuts & seeds can help reduce all the types of pre-menstrual bloating to a more manageable level.
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Increase Water Intake
🚰 Drinking more water can help (add a squeeze of lemon or lime to boost its effectiveness), as can eating fruits & veg with a high water content, like cucumbers, celery and cantaloupe.
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Increase Daily Fibre Intake
🥬 Increasing your daily fibre intake can do wonders.
The current UK recommendation is about 30g of fibre a day for adults. Fibrous vegetables and fruit such as leafy greens, beetroot, pears and artichokes are a lovely way to get more fibre in.
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Increase Potassium Intake
🌰 Potassium is a mineral that when depleted, is associated with sodium retention and bloating.
An easy way to add more potassium is to eat more bananas!
These powerhouses have around 422mg of potassium in a medium sized banana, which is about 12% of the UK daily recommended intake!
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How do you deal with bloating before your period? Tell me in the comments below 👇🏽
Le’Nise Brothers is a registered nutritionist, mBANT, women’s health, hormone and menstrual cycle coach, founder of Eat Love Move and host of the Period Story Podcast.
Le’Nise works primarily with women who feel like they’re being ruled by their sugar cravings, mood swings and hormonal acne & bloating.
They want to get to grips with heavy, missing, irregular & painful periods, fibroids, PMS, PCOS, endometriosis, post-natal depletion and perimenopause.
Her mission is for women to understand and embrace their hormones & menstrual cycle!
