--- title: Do diets with whole grains reduce PMS symptoms in nurses? | Niyora description: Yes. Nurses who ate whole grains instead of refined grains showed clear reductions in general, mood, physical, and behavioural PMS symptoms compared to those url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/diets-enriched-with-whole-grains-reduce-premenstrual-syndrome-scores-in-nurses-2019/ --- - [Niyora](https://niyora.com/) - [Research](https://niyora.com/research/) - [Library](https://niyora.com/research/library/) - Do diets with whole grains reduce PMS symptoms in nurses? Randomised trial, 2019 # Do diets with whole grains reduce PMS symptoms in nurses? Yes. Nurses who ate whole grains instead of refined grains showed clear reductions in general, mood, physical, and behavioural PMS symptoms compared to those who continued their regular diet. Moderate study design 100 nurses with PMS ## What they did Parallel controlled clinical trial over 3 months. 100 nurses with PMS were randomly divided into an intervention group of 50 and a control group of 50. The intervention group replaced at least four daily servings of refined grains with whole grains, given as 120 g of whole flour bread daily. The control group continued eating grains as usual. ## What they found The intervention group showed significant decreases in general, mood, physical, and behavioural PMS symptoms compared to the control group. No specific percentages were given, but differences were clear between the groups. ## What it means for you Eating whole grains instead of refined grains can reduce PMS symptoms across multiple categories. The main limits are that the study only included nurses (which may not represent all women) and only 50 women were in each group. 100 nurses with PMS 120 grams whole flour bread daily 50 women in each group ## About the study Original title Diets enriched with whole grains reduce premenstrual syndrome scores in nurses: an open-label parallel randomised controlled trial Authors Esmaeilpour M, Ghasemian S, Alizadeh M Journal The British journal of nutrition Year 2019 Study design Randomised trial Participants 100 What was tested Daily consumption of whole grains, replacing refined grains (120 g whole flour bread daily) Open access Yes Read the paper [doi.org/10.1017/s0007114519000333](https://doi.org/10.1017/s0007114519000333) ## Topics [Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-pms/)[Diet and nutrition](https://niyora.com/research/topics/treatment-diet/)[Work and productivity](https://niyora.com/research/topics/life-area-work/) Research tells you what helps on average. Niyora helps on the day it hits. Calm down, see it another way, and decide what to say, with a PMS and PMDD app built by a doctor. ## Related studies Systematic review, 2025 Do nutritional interventions help with emotional symptoms of PMS? Systematic review, 2025 How common are PMS, PMDD, and painful periods in nursing students, and do they affect their schooling? Case-control study, 2014 How common is severe period pain and what causes it? Survey study, 2026 How do pain, sleep quality, and appetite change across the menstrual cycle? Case-control study, 2026 Does vitamin D help PMS symptoms? Systematic review, 2025 Do diet changes or supplements help PMS symptoms? Ask AI about this page Copy prompt ChatGPT ↗ Claude ↗ Perplexity ↗ Google AI Mode ↗ Grok ↗