Having a period is a lot like being a gladiator. Between the blood, sweat, and tears—and the relentless feeling of being punched in the stomach—many of us are desperate enough to try anything just to get some relief, even if that means fighting a lion.
Plenty of unconventional solutions have sprung up as a result, from the ill-advised and frightening (please don’t scoop out your period) to the innocuous and accessible—like seed cycling, or, more recently, the period steak theory.
The last of this list refers to a popular belief on social media: that eating a steak on or around the start of your period will offset the iron lost through menstruation, resulting in fewer cramps from beginning to end. Its supporters sing its praises, and say that it’s more appealing than taking a supplement. But how well does it hold up to science? We chatted with health experts to find out what, if anything, enjoying a hearty period steak can do for you.
First things first: There’s not enough iron in steak to replace what we lose—and we don’t absorb it right away anyway.
The average 2.5-ounce steak contains roughly two to three milligrams of heme iron (the type derived from animal food sources), but the average person who menstruates loses 14 to 30 milligrams of iron per cycle. Unless you’re eating one or more steaks a day—for a week!—it’s unlikely that partaking will do much to offset what you lose, Galya Bigman, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology and public health at University of Maryland School of Medicine, tells SELF.
On the other hand, some research shows that those with low flows may lose as little as 0.87 milligrams in a cycle, in which case it’s possible that one steak could cover the difference. “So yes, it can make a dent but it probably depends on the person,” Lindsay Malone, MS, RD, LD, an instructor in the department of nutrition at Case Western Reserve University, tells SELF.
But even then, the way we absorb and store iron wouldn’t allow for such an instant fix: We only absorb about 25% of dietary heme iron. In other words, iron stores aren’t easy to replenish—it can take anywhere from 24 to 30 weeks to bounce back after something like a blood donation or heavy menstruation. “It’s important to remember that iron status, like many nutrients, reflects intake over weeks to months, not a single meal,” Malone explains. “One steak can contribute, but what you are eating the rest of the month also matters.”
