Migraine Food Triggers: How to Avoid Them

As any seasoned migrainer will tell you, they can list the migraine food triggers that send them off into a headache.

Alcohol

For me, alcohol is the winner. And I mean just about all forms including most wines, beer and mixed drinks. (Hey, the good news is..I will never be an alcoholic. The pain is just not worth it!)

Funnily enough, when I was young, I thought a horrible pounding headache with nausea and vomiting just after drinking an alchoholic drink, was normal! Hmm.. With alcohol, the most common culprit is red wine. Generally, the dryer and redder the wine, the bigger the risk for migraine attack. This is due to the amount of tannins in red wine.

Caffeine

What about caffeine? Well, caffeine by itself doesn't cause a migraine, but if you have chronic severe migraines, all caffeine does is make them worse. It irritates nerve tissue (that would be your brain!) and over time reves up headaches.

Caffeine and how it hurts your headaches.

Chocolate

Let's talk about the MYTH OF CHOCOLATE causing headaches. Not really true. Nope. Nada. Zip.

One recent study suggested that since chocolate contains copper, it may increase copper levels and then trigger a migraine. However, you would have to eat a LOT of it not just a few pieces to cause a headache.

So what's going on?

Migraines have a pro-dromal phase where you "feel" something is coming one. During this time certain parts of the brain are firing off and one of them can stimulate food cravings, particularly sugar or sweets. Well we all loovve chocolate, right? Then after eating it, the headache always follows.

migraine phases

Hence the assumption, chocolate causes headaches. So next time, recognize this, it may be the beginning of a migraine phase. Still doesn't give you or me permission to eat a pound of the stuff but you get the idea.

This article discusses the facts more and is from the University of Pittsburgh. No evidence chocolate causes headaches.

Additional Migraine Food Triggers

Nuts, aged cheeses, foods containing nitrates (bacon and lunch meats), smoked foods.Some patients tell me onions are a trigger, as are packaged foods with lots of chemicals.

Some recent studies are now looking at the effects of gluten or wheat products in the diet and migraine.

Aspartame (artificial sweetener) is also known to trigger migraines as is the ever famous MSG a food taste inhancer. This is found in many salad bars, oriental restaurants and even seasonings you buy in the store!

Try to identify those foods that are a trigger through keeping a diary..then avoid them. Sort of under the old adage of: if it hurts when you do that..don't do that.

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