Study title and authors:
High dietary fiber and low saturated fat intake among oligomenorrheic undergraduates.
Snow RC, Schneider JL, Barbieri RL.
Department of Population Sciences, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115.
This paper can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2170167?dopt=Abstract
Oligomenorrhea is infrequent or light menstruation, with only four to nine periods in a year. Because they are ovulating less women with oligomenorrhea have a smaller chance of becoming pregnant.
This study evaluated the nutrient intake, in 35 eumenorrheic (normal menstruation), 11 mildly oligomenorrheic, and 10 oligomenorrheic nonathletic undergraduate women.
Oligomenorrheic women were found to consume significantly more dietary fiber
, crude fiber, and polyunsaturated fat, and significantly less saturated fat than women with normal menstruation.Snow concluded: "The data suggest that higher intake of fiber and lower intake of saturated fat may be associated with oligomenorrhea among otherwise healthy undergraduate nonathletic women".
and estradiol-17 beta (which is vital for reproductive and sexual functioning) were significantly lower in vegetarians than in omnivores.