PMS: NUTRITIONAL DEFICIENCIES
There is plenty of research to support a link between poor eating habits and PMS. The main problems are thought to be caused by shortages of:
• vitamins, particularly B-group vitamins
• minerals such as magnesium and zinc
• essential fatty adds
LACK of essential fatty acids. Essential fatty acids (EFAS) are not fats, like butter, nor adds like those you might have used in school chemistry
lessons. They are more like vitamins (in fad they were called vitamin F when they were first discovered), EFAS are vital for good health and, because our bodies cannot make them, we have to obtain them from our food.
EFAS belong to a group of polyunsaturated fatty adds (PUFAS for short), PUFAS have several roles’ in the body inducting:
• forming part of the membrane that surrounds every cell in the body 15
• providing energy
• maintaining body temperature
• insulating the nerves
In the case of PMS it’s thought that the effect on prostaglandin production is the root of the problem.
There are several types of prostaglandin (scientists believe there are many more that have not yet been discovered). They are involved in a range of processes from blood dotting, lowering blood pressure, causing the womb to contract, and protecting against stomach ulcers.
In the brain a shortage of prostaglandins is thought to lead to low levels of the body’s natural tranquillizers, the endorphins – hence the symptoms of anxiety reported by some women with PMS.
The most important source of EFAS in the diet are meats, dairy products, oily fish, seafoods such as shrimps and prawns, and green leafy vegetables.
The story is further complicated by the fact that there are two forms of linoleic add. One of them – the cis form – is more easily used by the body than the other – the trans form.
The natural state of most PUFAS is in the this form. But during heating or the process of Tiydrogenation’ (as, for example, in the manufacture of low fat’ spreads) the molecule may become changed into the trans form.
For the body, trying to use the trans form is rather like trying to put a left shoe on your right foot. It looks similar but the ‘fif is wrong.
In effect the trans forms are useless as the body cannot convert them and they prevent the body from using cis forms as they block the spaces in the cells where the chemical conversions take place. If s rather like the battle for space between adrenalin and progesterone.
Since some processed foods such as soft margarines and vegetable cooking oils (particularly those that contain hydrogenated oils) may contain up to 50 per cent trans-fatty adds there is real concern that EFA deficiency is widespread.
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