There are many different ways to have your period. For some people it comes every month like clockwork, while other people on certain types of birth control don't get it at all. Some people have a super heavy flow, while others barely spot. While there are some signs your period sends that can tell you something is off, however your period comes is natural. But Broadly recently pointed out that there are a cohort of vegan bloggers who think having a period is a sign of toxicity in your body.

Freelee the Banana Girl, a well-known vegan blogger, posted on her YouTube channel years ago that she stopped getting her period for nine months after following a raw, vegan diet. When it returned, Freelee said it was much lighter than before. Freelee interpreted this to mean that having a period is a sign of excess toxicity that needs to leave your body.

"I still believe that, largely, menstruation is toxicity leaving the body," she said in the video. "So a lot of people are having these heavy, heavy periods and painful periods because they have a toxic body or have a toxic diet."

Freelee said heavy periods are not natural, and that it's healthier to have a light flow. She continued to say people with heavy, painful periods should adopt a diet like hers (she's been known to eat up to 51 bananas per day). She's not the only one, as Broadly points out. Other bloggers also subscribe to a similar idea.

This, however, is not accurate. For those who have started menstruating, the absence of a period is called amenorrhea. According to the Mayo Clinic , natural amenorrhea occurs for reasons like pregnancy, breastfeeding and menopause, while taking certain medicines and using certain contraceptives can also cause it. Hormonal imbalances and problems with your reproductive organs can lead to amenorrhea, but being underweight, exercising too much or being under a lot of stress can also prompt your periods to stop. While amenorrhea is totally healthy and normal in situations like pregnancy or while you're using a contraceptive, Dr. Jackie Maybin, a clinical lecturer in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Edinburgh, told Broadly she doesn't advise changing your diet to alter your period.

"It's difficult to recommend a strict vegan diet without investigating hormone levels and endometrial health in these women," she said. "It's likely that the complete absence of periodsamenorrheaindicates that ovulation is not occurring and could have a significant negative impact on reproductive health."

But it's also important to note that Freelee's statements also perpetuate the idea that menstruation is somehow impure or unclean. We see this idea in action in many ways some casual and others very serious. We see it when people call periods "gross" or people who menstruate go to great lengths to hide their pads or tampons. We also see it when, in rural areas of Nepal, people who menstruate are shunned during their period because of the idea that it makes them unclean. Periods are, in fact, a natural occurrence that has nothing to do with your levels of so-called toxicity, but instead is an integral part of your menstrual cycle.

Read Broadly's full story here .

Related: A Nepali Teen on Her Period Died After Being Banished to a Hut

Read more from the original source:

These Vegan Bloggers Say Periods Are Toxic - TeenVogue.com