Welcome to this month's article for The Monthly. Monthly subscribers received a delicious, clean snack to satisfy their PMS cravings during the month of April. Here’s some insight from our advisor Remi on why you tend to reach for something sweet...
Written by ladibug's holistic nutritionist, Remi Divine (@remirosenutrition)
It’s day 26 of your cycle, it’s somewhere around 9pm, and you’re standing in the kitchen holding a granola bar you specifically chose because the packaging said “lightly sweetened” and had a leaf on it. It feels like the responsible option, so you eat it. Immediately, you want another one.
Sound familiar?
Here’s the thing: you’re not lacking willpower, and your body isn’t betraying you.
Your cravings are a direct response to the real hormonal and biochemical shifts happening in your body during the luteal phase (the two weeks before your period). And understanding what’s driving them changes everything. Because what your body needs and what your mind wants aren’t always the same thing.
So, yes, we’ll break down the why’s and the how’s — but more importantly, let’s talk about the what-to-do-about-it’s.
Why Your Cravings Spike Before Your Period
When we talk about hormones and cravings, estrogen and progesterone tend to get all the attention — and sure, they’re part of the picture. But they’re not actually the ones driving you to the kitchen at 9pm.
One of the underdiscussed drivers of your PMS symptoms is serotonin, which dips alongside estrogen as your body prepares for menstruation. Often, this leaves women feeling anxious, irritable, or mentally drained before their period begins. But sugar can provide a quick boost of serotonin to lift your mood — and your brain remembers this.
Hence, the cravings!
But it goes deeper than that. Insulin sensitivity shifts during this phase of your cycle as well, making blood sugar less stable. The result is that crashes hit harder, recovery is slower, and that “I need something sweet right now” feeling becomes genuinely hard to override — because your body actually needs more stable energy.
Magnesium depletion can also be a factor — levels often run low in the luteal phase, and low magnesium is specifically linked to chocolate cravings.
And all of this can lead to disrupted sleep, which raises cortisol, worsens fatigue, and pushes your brain toward fast fuel. By the time all these factors compound, the craving isn’t a polite suggestion. It’s pretty much a demand.
What Happens When You Feed Those Cravings Refined Sugar
The cravings themselves are not the problem.
But relying heavily on refined sugar — especially ultra-processed “health” snacks marketed as better-for-you options — can often intensify the very PMS symptoms you’re trying to ease.
- Mood swings amplify. The blood sugar spike-and-crash cycle mimics and intensifies the hormonal mood fluctuations already happening in the luteal phase. The irritability or tears that feel completely “out of nowhere” may have arrived right after a blood sugar crash.
- Bloating and water retention worsen. High-sugar foods — especially combined with sodium — increase fluid retention and puffiness that many people are already dealing with pre-period.
- Cramps may intensify. Sugar contributes to inflammation, and PMS cramps are an inflammatory process. Over time, a high-sugar diet in the luteal phase can make cramps more severe.
- The cravings get louder. Every spike trains your brain to expect another one. This is a feedback loop, not a personal failing.
The Label Trap: How “Healthy” Packaging Works Against You
The luteal-phase shopper is, genuinely, a marketing target. Brands have learned that in the days before their periods, women are actively looking for something that feels good but won’t leave them feeling bad about themselves.
They use wellness-coded design — earth tones, the word “balance,” a leaf, kraft paper, “nourish” in the product name — to signal healthy values without providing any nutritional guarantee. And when it comes to misleading labels, here are some of the worst offenders:
- "All-Natural” — This one sounds incredibly reassuring, but it’s mostly marketing language. There’s actually no strict FDA definition for “natural” on most packaged foods, which means the term can be used very loosely. Even high-fructose corn syrup has been argued as “natural” in legal settings.
- “Made with Real Fruit” — Usually this just means some amount of real fruit exists somewhere in the product. That could be fruit puree, concentrate, or a very small amount added for flavor — while the majority of the product is still made up of sugar, syrups, or refined starches.
- “No Added Sugar” — This one trips a lot of people up. It simply means table sugar wasn’t added during processing. But ingredients like fruit juice concentrate, date syrup, honey, or maple syrup can still be used, and they behave the same way once in your body.
- “Lightly Sweetened” / “Less Sugar” — These phrases sound meaningful, but they’re not very regulated. “Less sugar” compared to what exactly? Often there’s no context given, and the product may still contain plenty of added sweeteners.
- “Clean” — Probably one of the vaguest wellness terms out there. It creates a healthy feeling, but it has no official definition in the food world. One company’s version of “clean” may look completely different from another’s.
- “Sugar-Free” — This doesn’t always mean blood sugar-friendly. Many sugar-free products replace sugar with sugar alcohols or artificial sweeteners instead, which can cause bloating, digestive discomfort, or leave some people craving even more sweets afterward.
- The only place truth lives on a food package is the ingredients list and the nutrition panel. Everything on the front is advertising.
One practical rule to carry with you: if any form of sugar appears in the first three ingredients (under any of its 60+ names), it’s functionally a dessert, regardless of what’s on the front of the box.
If you want to go deeper on reading nutrition labels, my Introduction to Food Labels eBook breaks everything down in plain language — it’s a solid companion for navigating the snack aisle any time of month, not just the luteal phase.
What to Actually Reach For Instead
This isn’t about eliminating cravings or being “perfect.” It’s about working with what your body is actually asking for so that you feel better afterward. A few principles that hold up in the luteal phase:
- Pair it, don’t fight it. If you want chocolate, have it — but with almonds, nut butter, or something with fat and protein alongside it. A piece of dark chocolate with a handful of almonds lands completely differently in your body than a “lightly sweetened” chocolate-flavored bar. The craving gets met; the crash doesn’t follow.
- Lean into magnesium-rich foods. Dark chocolate (70% cacao or higher), pumpkin seeds, leafy greens, and bananas are all solid luteal-phase foods. They address part of what your brain is actually signaling for, not just the sugar hit.
- Hydrate before you snack. Thirst genuinely mimics sugar cravings, and PMS-related bloating often makes people drink less water without realizing it. A glass of water first takes 60 seconds and is worth trying before reaching for anything.
- Read from the bottom up. Flip the package over and start with the ingredients list, not the front of the box.
The Cravings Are Information, Not Your Enemy
Cravings are your body’s way of signaling something it needs. The frustrating part is that the snack industry has gotten very good at intercepting that signal and offering something that looks like an answer but isn’t.
Once you understand what’s actually driving the craving, you stop being at its mercy. You can work with your cycle instead of being blindsided by it every month.
That’s really the whole point.