Old Wives Tales....and Eggs

[tachi77]

I have a bit of a stupid question here. I was brought up believing that eggs are very bad for you when you have your period. My mom, grandmother and greatmother used to give me the biggest lecture when I was young (9 yrs old) everytime I used to eat eggs or seafood and had my period...I grew up thinking that when you grew old you smell bad (that's what they used to say to me!). Anybody heard of such a thing?

My grandma used to feed me avocado sandwiches the wholetime! Over the years I have shared this with some female friends and they thought it was hilarious!! nevertheless being on Atkins now and being that time of the month I am a bit wary of eating eggs (even though I have been having them for breakkie for the last 3 days!).

[DianaO]

Never heard of such a thing!! I eat eggs and fish all the time!!

[MaryToU]

That is a new one to me! I wonder how such a silly theory got started in the first place. Not that would be interesting.

[scorpio381]

I'm 52 years old and have never heard that before in my life. Sounds like an old wives tale that got out of hand! lol

[4beans4me]

Wow, those are new one's to me. :lol:

[Hilary M]

My goofy grandma has come up with some whopper old wives tales in her time, but I've never heard this one! I sure wouldn't worry about it. On Atkins, you're probably going to stink anyway as a result of ketosis! :lol:

[MaggieP]

Wow, that is a new one! Did they ever say why, or did they just leave it at "don't eat them?"

Just when you think you've heard everything...

[twinky]

I remember my mom wouldn't let us girls help her preserve strawberries if it was that time of the month, she said it would spoil the strawberries.
Sooooooo sneaky me from there on I always had my period when the strawberries came home to be canned or jammed or freezed HEHE :lol:

[MyJourney]

wow I couldnt even find that one on an internet search. First time I have ever heard it and I eat eggs all through my TOM

[LadyBelle]

Jus tout of curiosity, are your mother and grandmother a specific culture? I know some think of women as unclean when they are having thier period and have quite a few tales about it.

I've never heard the egg one. It seems to me you need extra protien at that time. Maybe it's the sulfer in them they thought?

[Missie]

I remember my mom wouldn't let us girls help her preserve strawberries if it was that time of the month, she said it would spoil the strawberries.
Sooooooo sneaky me from there on I always had my period when the strawberries came home to be canned or jammed or freezed HEHE :lol:


ROFLMAO...... We really think alike! I'da done the same- really surprised your mom didn't notice.


Missie

[NOGAINHERE]

New to me too? I've never heard of such a thing???

[patricia52]

I used to know a girl who'd married a French man. He taught her to make mayonnaise, because his mother made him make the mayonnaise for the family when she had her period. She (the French MIL) said the mayonnaise would be spoiled if she tried to make it during her period.

[JayceeMn]

That is some amazing TOM information!
Maybe some brillant woman of old invented these things to give themselves a day off! But, the egg thing tosses me for a loop!

[Birddog]

I never heard that one. Ladybelle might be on to something, maybe it's a culture issue. ;)

[adukart]

The only thing I found on the web is about endometriosis:


http://www.healthphone.com/consump_english/a_healing_center/womens_health/endometriosis.htm

"(c) Life style
1. Scratching should be avoided; during acute onset, the affected part should not be bathed in hot water.
2. Refrain from eating seafood, eggs, beef, mutton, chicken and pungent food.
3. Alcohol and soft drinks should be avoided as well. "

[Marillia]

I've heard about mayonnaise and TOM before, but I can't say that I've ever heard anything about eggs.

The notion of women being unclean during that time could play into the notion of preserves not turning out right, but I can't understand where it could play into eating eggs. 0_o

[Fridaylove]

Maybe it comes a bit from the French Wives tale about the spoiling the mayonaise, to if you eat eggs while on your period....(I don't remember what you wrote would happen).

[cmcole]

Possible origins of theory (http://www.waldorfhomeschoolers.com/menstruation.htm)

It is because the lifestyle improvements involved, although simple, are quite a change from most modern women's habits of living and eating. No drugs or even nutritional supplements are required, but what is essential is the adoption of what health writer Leslie Kenton calls a "high raw way of eating".

In practice this means that each meal contains more fresh, raw foods than cooked or processed foods; that animal product foods are eliminated altogether, along with salt, sugar, alcohol, refined fats and oils, most condiments, artificial additives and stimulating beverages. Many people say that they "would rather die than give up all that tasty stuff!" And indeed they will -- after living years in increasingly poorer health, through menstruation and menopausal "symptoms", and often ending with heart disease and cancer.

If you are a young woman and not yet experiencing the uncomfortable and worrying signs of hormone imbalance that increasingly plague women from the mid-thirties on, then you may baulk at making such as change. But think back to when you were a teenager, just after experiencing your first period - did you say, as so many do, "I'd do anything if I could get rid of these periods!" Certainly older women who have found out about the connection between diet and menstruation often say, "If I'd known this as a girl, I'd surely have changed - but I don't have the determination and drive now." They are literally worn out by decades of "the Curse", drained of health, vitality and enthusiasm. Some of these women are probably thinking, "It's not long until menopause - I'll put up with it all a bit longer, then it'll be over." Unfortunately, only the bleeding will be over, often after years of miserably irregular menstruation. And the related signs of ill health soon become so dramatic they can't be ignored: osteoporosis, cysts and tumors, and rapid ageing among them. At this point, older women may once again feel motivated to improve their lot, even if it does involve big lifestyle changes.

. . .

"Experiments on animals have conclusively shown that the frequency of ovulation, and consequently estrus (corresponding to menstruation in humans), is a DIRECT function of diet. Over-feeding, especially on protein foods (and of the wrong kind of protein), has the tendency to accelerate (stimulate) the growth and bursting of the Graafian follicles [which produce the eggs] by creating an excess of follicular fluid. In women this results in menstrual discharge.... Undomesticated animals do NOT menstruate.... But under conditions of domestication or captivity, these sexual periods become more frequent, and the genital congestion attending them becomes more intense, until it finally manifests as a menstrual hemorrhage. It is now agreed by most observers that the cause of menstruation among domesticated animals is the food they receive at the hands of man. In other words, after the non-menstruating animal is captured, the pro-estrum becomes transformed into a bloody flow as a result of unnatural foods and artificial conditions of living." (2:37)

blah, blah, blah

[tachi77]

LOL I feel so silly! Well I was born in El Salvador, Central America. I migrated to Australia when I was 12 years old. My mom always told me that you 'smell kindda bad and fishy' when you got older. I just figured that maybe the eggs make the blood stink or somethin' ; it kindda made sense but then again it didn't ! I was so young I believed anything they said!

[LadyBelle]

cmcole - Do you have any idea on a date for that article? It jsut seems to come form the era when things like menapause, menstration and so on were considered evil and punishment.

Is it jsut me or does that article also sound like it's promoting anorexia for the purpose of not menstrating?

[caverjen]

Is it just me or does that article also sound like it's promoting anorexia for the purpose of not menstrating?

Uh...yeah... pretty bizarre to me. Eat a diet deficient in protein and calories so that you lose sufficient body mass so as not to be able to reproduce. Not my favorite form of birth control :rolleyes: BTW, I experimented with that in high school anyway. Got down to 107# and still got my period so I started eating again.

Jen

[black57]

When I first started having TOM my mom told me that you should never bathe or wash your hair while menstruating. Now, that would sure cause one to smell bad at any age. There are many old wives tales attached to menstruation. A menstruating woman should never touch a plant or it will die. Who are these Old Wives?

[doreen T]

LOL I feel so silly! Well I was born in El Salvador, Central America. I migrated to Australia when I was 12 years old. My mom always told me that you 'smell kindda bad and fishy' when you got older. I just figured that maybe the eggs make the blood stink or somethin' ; it kindda made sense but then again it didn't ! I was so young I believed anything they said!
Actually, that's not silly at all.

Some people lack a certain liver enzyme which normally metabolizes trimethylamine, a by-product of choline .. the active nutrient in lecithin, and also abundant in eggs (as well as fish and soy). The result is a fishy body odor which may worsen around the time of the menstrual period. The condition is called trimethylaminuria, and there's more information about it here (http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arc99/5_15_99/bob2.htm).

There's some evidence it may be genetic, meaning it could tend to run in families. If that's the case, it would make sense for a mother who had this problem to admonish her daughter to not eat eggs during her menses. Then the daughter would pass the advice on to HER daughter and so on, till several generations later, nobody remembers the reason why, it's just what your mother or grandmother told you to do :daze:


Doreen