Per the advice of my neurologist, I am avoiding foods that are common migraine triggers. I’m doing a hybrid of the National Headache Foundation’s “low tyramine diet” and the guidelines from David Buchholz’ book Heal Your Headache. Both are authorities in the migraine field, yet their dietary recommendations are slightly different. Buchholz’ is a little more restrictive, so I lean towards the NHF version.
Experts believe that about 25% of migraine sufferers have food triggers. I’ve heard some argue that this percentage is too low to justify including dietary modifications amongst the standard migraine prevention recommendations. Having spent over 20 years searching for a cause or a cure for this pain that plagues me, 1 in 4 sounds like pretty good odds to me. And since I’ve adjusted my diet, I’ve seen a significant reduction in the severity of my headaches (though I should note that this was one of several changes made simultaneously). If you are truly suffering, then it certainly doesn’t hurt to try. You can still eat well, though it does take planning, time and potentially substantial changes to your eating habits.
Here are the foods that are to be avoided because they are potential migraine trigger foods. (What you will find is that you cannot consume processed or prepared items.)
Meat/fish: Aged, dried, cured, fermented, salted, smoked or pickled (e.g. pepperoni, smoked salmon, hot dogs, lunch meat, ham, sausage, pate)
Acceptable meat/fish includes anything that is fresh and does not contain nitrates, nitrites or MSG
Dairy: Aged cheeses (e.g. cheddar, brie, swiss – basically most cheeses). Yogurt, sour cream and buttermilk should be limited to 1/2 cup per day (shoot, I’ll have to cut down on my sour cream intake).
Acceptable dairy includes farmers cheese, fromage blanc, fresh mozzarella, cream cheese, american, cottage, ricotta
Grains: Fresh baked yeast leavened products (e.g. bread, donuts, coffee cake, etc.)
Acceptable grains include day+ old yeast leavened products, all baking powder leavened products, and all grains cooked without yeast
Vegetables: Snow peas, fava beans, pickles, olives, raw onions. Buchholz says no onions at all, NHF says they’re okay if they’re cooked. No fermented soy products like miso, soy sauce or teriyaki sauce. Buchholz says no lentils or navy beans.
Acceptable vegetables include all veggies not noted above. Green onions, scallions, shallots and garlic are okay.
Fruits: Fruit preserved with sulfites. According to Buchholz, completely avoid citrus, avocado, banana, papaya, raspberries, passion fruit, figs, dates and red plums. NHF says they can be used in small quantities.
Acceptable fruits include dried fruits without preservatives, and all fruits not listed above.
Nuts and seeds: All nuts. NHF says all seeds; Buchholz says seeds are okay.
Beverages: Coffee and other caffeinated drinks (NHF says 1 cup/day is okay, Buchholz – and my neurologist – says to completely avoid. Many kinds of alcohol (all for me).
Other: Vinegar (except white distilled) and all products made with vinegar, like commercial salad dressings and mustard. All of the many forms of MSG which show up in most processed foods: yeast extract, hydrolyzed or autolyzed yeast, whey protein, soy protein, etc. Chocolate (use with caution according to the NHF)
You have some great recipes! It’s great to see another site dedicated to avoiding migraine triggers.
The reason that number is only 25% is because in the studies, they avoided each trigger one by one. If only one trigger is taken away, there are still others in the body to cause havoc, so of course it is only going to help a small percentage of people. If all triggers are removed at once, there aren’t any left in the body to cause problems. Then, they can be added back in one at a time to see which triggers are a problem. Also, a food trigger may not cause problems the same day it is eaten. It may not bother a person until two days later. Dr. Buchholz’s book explains how to reintroduce food triggers, and also explains why it is hard to recognize your own triggers and how to do so successfully.
I like your blog. I have visited several times. Thanks for sharing!
I have been on the “migraine diet” for about ten days and it is really helping me. I would really like a list of foods that I CAN have rather than a list of foods that I can’t have. Where can I find this? I appreciate your website. It’s a big help.
Connie – The items listed above in italics are those that you can eat.
my son was suspected of having a cow’s milk allergy
At 5 months old. His pediatric gastroenterologist put me
on a completely dairy-free diet while I was nursing him. It
was a very strict diet – milk, yogurt, butter, sour cream,
cheese, etc. I even had to read labels and avoid anything
containing whey or casein or lactase. I couldn’t even eat at
restaurants for 30 days to avoid any unknown contamination
with milk. It was really difficult at first but my baby was so sick
that I would have done anything for him so I truly stuck to the
diet 100%. After about two weeks on the diet, I noticed that I was no longer getting migraines! I used to get them 2 or 3 times a week! I have been completely cow’s milk free for about five months now and I’ve only had two migraines. Both of them occurred after eating out at a restaurant. Also, both times it was the next day, not the day of! Anyway, maybe you should give it a try and see if it works for you, too. I have since read the book ‘tHe China Study’ which was recommended by same doctor and the author does mention research pointing to casein as being responsible for migraines. I’d be very curious to see if this diet works on any other migraine sufferer!