On Period Hunger

Why do I feel gaslit when I read articles about period hunger — specifically when the articles equate “cravings” and “hunger”?

People know there’s a difference, right?

Cravings are wanting something that would be nice to have. It would make you happy. It would scratch the itch. The wanted food would be satisfying, but, in the end, not biologically necessary to satiate you.

Hunger is that empty feeling in your stomach when your body is telling you need food.

They seem pretty distinct, from this human’s standpoint.

So why does every period article tell women not to overeat on their period?

Did we forget? Did we think we had permission because we feel shitty? Are our cravings overwhelming our objective fullness? Are we powerless in the hands of an angry, bloody, bitchy goddess?

I suspected not.

The days before my period, I’m so hungry. I recognize irrationally so. I stock up on almonds. I try to have bananas around to prevent cramps. I make a lot of peanut butter toasts in between meals. I actively get tired of eating, but I’m not necessarily craving junk. I’m just purely hungry.

So why do I have to be told to ignore that in the name of weight maintenance?

Is it not real? Should I ignore my body? Is it leading me astray for its own selfish get-her-fat-to-make-babies purposes?

Or might I actually need a bit more food during this time?

For the record, in case anyone doubted this, women are not trying to become fat. Body positivity has not made anyone thrilled about gaining weight. No one celebrates the pounds they put on, even if they’re recovering from an eating disorder, even if the weight is healthy and necessary, even if it is critical to their very survival. Even BBW who celebrate their bodies (as they should and have every right to do) have done a lot of work to get to that place of self-love, and may still struggle with it at times. Large bodies are marginalized, visibly and invisibly, in too many ways to make being big and loving yourself anything other than an uphill battle. Even with the highest self-esteem, you will encounter obstacles. Especially if you are a woman.

So no, women did not forget weight gain was a possibility when their period started. They did not find themselves immune to this human function. Fat-shaming is real, and pervasive, and too loud even in its subtlest forms for any woman to be oblivious to its existence.

Women may experience cravings leading up to and during their period, which is scientifically proven to be normal, and they are allowed to deal with those cravings as they see fit. But, they may also experience valid hunger as a result of their cycle. And biologically, I don’t find it wise to ignore that.

Are we so fatphobic that we need to gaslight women into believing their own body’s feeling of hunger is invalid? That cravings for unhealthy food lead to weight gain and therefore period hunger is bad, when cravings and hunger are not even the same thing? Remember you could get fat. Don’t fill up on junk. What you want is not what society needs. After all, we’re the ones that have to look at you.

When you start bleeding from your crotch, you lose all sensibility after all. You forget how weight gain works. You forget your biggest body horror fear that’s haunted you since puberty. Your concern to fill your belly undoes all the years of social conditioning to be a certain way, and look a certain way. You need these period articles to infantilize you, to remind you. Remember, you could get fat.

As if even a menstrual headache would allow us to forget.