Headaches and Your Favorite Foods: Friends or Foes?

If you get headaches, we've got something in common. I’ve been getting them regularly since I was 7, migraines since age 12.

All sorts of things can bring them on. Weather, for one. With the heat, humidity, and storms spreading across the country lately, I’ve had a headache – ranging from mild annoyance to raging migraine – almost every day for the past two weeks.

But there are other things that can trigger them, too. And – as you probably guessed, given that I’m writing about it – food is a biggie. But, which foods?

Unfortunately, the answer isn’t so easy. 

Over the years, I’ve figured out what triggers my headaches and migraines, but the connections weren’t immediate. It took a long time before I learned to pay attention. 

Case in point…. When I was in my 20s, my friends and I decided to get together every Sunday to play football, or frisbee, or anything to get our post-college selves out in the fresh air and running around. Of course, we usually followed that by hanging out over pizza and a movie. And every Monday, I woke up with a headache. 

No, not that kind of headache. 

After far too long, I had a passing thought — could it be the cheese? At the time, I wasn’t really aware of the connection between headache and food, but it seemed worth a shot, so I tested it out over the next couple of weekends. No more Sunday pizza… no more Monday migraine! I was convinced. 

So began my first look into how what I ate made me feel.

More bad news to come. Red wine. Once I was paying attention, I figured that one out pretty quickly. It’s the sulfites, which are found in more places than you might think, as I soon discovered…. 

Not long after, I ate at a salad bar for lunch one day — almost instant headache. I couldn’t figure out why when it dawned on me how vibrant all the vegetables looked. The more I thought about it, the more likely it seemed that some sort of preservative had been added to make the veggies so uniformly beautiful. Turns out, at that time, it was common practice for restaurants to use a sulfite spray to keep produce looking good. (Though this practice was technically banned by the FDA, it still happens.)

Cheese and sulfites are two of my biggest triggers, but the list of potential triggers is long:

• Aged cheeses

• Alcohol and red wine

• Artificial sweetener

• Caffeine

• Chocolate

• Citrus fruits

• Cultured dairy, such as kefir

• Dried fruit

• Fermented foods, such as sauerkraut, kimchi, soy sauce, kombucha

• Gluten and baked goods made with yeast

• MSG, nitrates, nitrites, and other preservatives

• Nuts

• Processed meats like bacon, pepperoni, salami, etc.

• Smoked or cured meat, cheese, fish

• Soy products

• Processed foods

Now, there are definitely some foods on that list that you shouldn’t be eating, even if you don’t suffer from headaches – processed foods, processed meats, preservatives, and artificial sweeteners to name a few. But, unfortunately, there are also some very healthy foods on the list. Should you stop eating them, too?

NO! Not necessarily.

Remember that I said these were potential triggers. 

Because, here’s the thing… what sets off a headache in one person might not trigger one in another, so the waters are pretty muddy. 

Where it gets even muddier is with certain foods that have the potential to both help and hurt. 

Avocados and bananas are high in potassium, which has been shown to reduce headache pain. But, over-ripen them and they turn into possible triggers. 

That’s because they contain tyramine, a natural compound found in plants and animals. High levels – like you’ll find in aged cheese, citrus fruits, fermented foods, and processed meats – have been shown to trigger migraines. The more ripe a banana or avocado, the higher the tyramine, making this possible friend an instant foe.

There’s a similar dichotomy with nuts. While peanuts, almonds, and walnuts are high in tyramine, they’re also high in magnesium, which can reduce headaches. 

And, last but not least, chocolate. Although many people identify chocolate as a migraine trigger, there are some aspects of dark chocolate that may help. Cocoa is high in magnesium and has properties that can help lower blood pressure, both of which may help with migraines. It’s the flavanols that give chocolate some of its health benefits. The higher the cocoa content, the more flavanols it contains, so look for chocolate that is at least 70% cocoa. And remember that moderation is key. One small square is enough.

I hope you can see that reducing or eliminating headaches isn’t as simple as finding a list of foods to avoid on the internet and never eating them again. First of all, an elimination diet isn’t something to try on your own without professional guidance. Beyond that, the solution isn’t just a matter of what you give up. There are so many more things you can add to your diet and lifestyle that really will work.

If you don’t struggle with regular headaches or migraines, you’re very lucky. But, chances are, you know someone who does. If this email made you think of a person you care about, please pass it along to them. If you don’t need my help, maybe they do.