Dietary Management
The Migraine Elimination Diet
Diet and lifestyle play a large role in triggering migraine headaches. Dietary counselling focuses on detailed monitoring and avoidance of foods known to trigger migraines. It has been well established that migraine headaches can be triggered off in individuals prone to migraine headaches by certain so called ” migraine triggers”. Many of these triggers are foods and beverages such as cheese, alcohol, and caffeine containing substances.
One way of managing your migraine headaches is to avoid particular foods that are rich in certain chemicals known to trigger off migraine headaches. The Migraine Elimination Diet is a comprehensive list of such foods.
It is recommended that you begin with the total elimination of the following foods for two months. If you observe a decrease in the frequency or severity of your headaches, slowly reintroduce foods one at a time and observe the effect. If you find that your headaches eliminate that food from your diet and continue to reintroduce foods. Permanently eliminate the foods that have been identified as your migraine triggers, such as:
- Chocolate
- Canned figs
- Nuts
- Peanut Butter
- Onions
- Pizza
- Sour Cream
- Yogurt
- Herring
- Chicken Livers
- Avocado
- Nutrasweet
- Diet drinks
- Vinegar
- Pork
- Monosodium glutamate (MSG) found in some Chinese food
- Ripened Cheese (Cheddar, Gruyere, Brie, Camembert, etc.)
- Cheese that are permissible are: American, Cottage, Cream and Velveeta
- Hot fresh breads, raised coffeecakes and doughnuts (due to activated yeast)
- Pods of broad beans (lima, navy and pea pods)
- Citrus fruits (no more than one orange or one glass of orange juice per day)
- Bananas, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries
- Tea, coffee, cola beverages, apple juice (avoid excessive amounts)
- Fermented sausage (bologna, salami, pepperoni, summer sausages and hot dogs)
- Alcoholic beverages, especially red wine