What are your Food Triggers

Hello, I have migraines 2-5 days per week, every week. I am 25 years old and I've been getting them for 12 years now. I have recently discovered that eating foods with the coloring red #40 in them increases my chance of getting a migraine within the next 8 hours or so to near 100%. Also, when I eat this coloring the migraine is especially painful. Since completely cutting out anything with red #40 in my diet, the pain of my migraines has decreased significantly to the point that I know FOR SURE if I accidentally ate something with the coloring just from the amount pain I'm feeling.

However, the number of migraines I'm getting has not seemed to drop at all, only the pain. Another discouraging thing; I have never once seen red #40 on any of those long lists of possible food triggers for migraines. I am of the opinion that people who have one migraine trigger in common likely share other triggers in common.

Therefore, please tell me if you have noticed anything with red #40 in it giving you migraines and please tell me any and all food triggers for you. I'm talking about stuff you are at least 90% sure gives you a migraine, not stuff your doctor told you causes migraines and you simply believed! I hate all that crap about "stop eating cheese, alcohol, caffeine, chocolate, meat, and anything else delicious" nonsense.

Seiane, that's great that you have found at least one thing that you know is a major trigger for you. That you are still getting migraines though indicates there are probably some others. And they are different for everyone. So all those things you listed are triggers for at least some portion of people, but not others.

The only way to know for sure what yours are is to do an elimination diet. You start out with only a few things and then gradually add one thing at a time until you hit a problem, then you know what that the additional trigger(s) are. There is more info online about this approach.

The only FOOD related triggers I have are aspartame (Nutra-sweet) and too much citrus. I can eat an orange now and then, bu not too often.

I'd much rather take one thing out at a time and see if it helps, rather than suffer through eating nothing delicious for months just to discover something that could have been easy, like MSG or whatnot. No need to lecture me on the fact that chocolate or cheese probably do cause migraines for some people. I'm saying I'm not going to just believe that I need to stop eating all those things since they are on some ridiculously long list of migraine trigger foods! Especially since a huge trigger for me, red #40, has never been on any of those lists. In other words, I do NOT trust a list like that. That's why I asked for personal experiences with food triggers. I could go look at that list or instructions for an elimination diet any time I want to.

I have heard MSG and aspartame fairly often so perhaps I will try cutting one of those out next. I already have an issue with sucralose - if I eat or drink enough of it, my teeth become painfully temperature sensitive for at least a week.

We often find on this forum, that each of us reacts differently to medicines (and their side effects) and to food and other M triggers.
However, this list of triggers, that you mention, is true for many of us. I react to practically all these the mentioned on such long, long list. And more.

Many of the triggers developed gradually over the years. I was fine with some foods at one time, then for no reason, I began to react badly. So over the years I had to add to this list and now this list is quite long for me.

I have also found that by beeing strict about not eating these foods I was able to reduce number of M bouts quite considerably. I know this makes my life rather difficult, and often no fun, but frankly for me no food, however nice, is worth getting another M.

There are of course also other chemical ,and environmental M triggers, such a smells, and weather some of them we can avoid, some we cannot. But I am doing my best not to use any scented cleaning materials at home, or buy scented flowers (which BTW I love) and to avoid places which are stuffy, or smelly (even if it is a pleasant smell).

Only last week I was looking after my grandchildren, when my d-i-l was at work, and I was beginning to have a M, then I realised that she had a room freshener, very pretty little sticks in natural oils.

The scent was delicate and quite pleasant ,but my head was getting worse, so in the end I had to put it in the cupboard under the stairs. I told her where it was, when she returned. She was horrified and apologised (she is always very nice and always careful with things that affects my health). She was saying that the oils are natural, so she did not think they would affect me. I told her not to worry, I am always discovering new things that affect me. MY head tells me soon enough.

BTW one of the last food triggers I discovered were bananas, which I love. Recently I got fed up, and after years of avoiding them I had a banana, and sure enough I got another M. IT was not worth it. So yes I choose to be careful, but we can all do what we feel is right for us, we are all individuals.

Hmm I was thinking about that earlier, because I am sure that I did not get all these migraines from red #40 when I was younger. It's in most all junks foods which of course I loved as a teenager but I was only getting a few migraines per month, so this trigger must have developed. Kind of depressing to think that I will probably react to more things as I get older! Does anyone react to yellow #5 or #6? I have a friend at work who claims that she gets migraines from "orange food coloring" (which is made from FD&C yellows), but when I asked her how many migraines she was getting she said two in the past six months which is obviously not comparable to me.

I have tried all the migraine preventatives on the market currently, so I'm moving on now to vitamin supplements. I am currently taking B2 which seems to have helped but only slightly. What supplements are helping you guys out with preventing migraines?

seaine, my migraine history goes back 43 years. after figuring out the MSG connection 13-14 years ago, they are fewer and less severe, yet i still have them. environmental chemicals and perfumes are among my long list of "triggers". each of us is so unique in our responses. it took me oh, about 25 years to figure out the chemical connection. and when one's pain comes 8-12 hours AFTER the exposure, it's even harder to pinpoint, as you know.

it's terrific you have identified one major thing to avoid. msg is more problematic, as it's in multitudes of supermarket foods under different names. yes, there are AT LEAST 40 or 50 other names for the same killer (for some of us) substance.

therefore, my strategy has been to not consume ANY food chemicals. i can't avoid the ones that aren't listed, like produce that has been washed in sulfites or other preservatives which don't have to be identified on labels. also, i can't afford to buy only organic food, but do use organically produced eggs and the "dirty dozen" produce list, at the very least.

i realize you are far too young to be so restrictive in your dietary planning. it is very hard to eat out with friends . but for me, the way i eat is definitely very worth it. you could, perhaps, print a list of the MSG euphemisms to take with you, and avoid those in what you buy for cooking at home.

we are glad you found us here, and hope you can find more useful ideas for lessening your pain. i wish i could tell you that supplements have helped me, but i have not been so fortunate. and believe me, i've tried every single thing ever invented, by the truckload! yet, these substances do help some people, without a doubt. dianne

Seaine wrote:...Does anyone react to yellow #5 or #6? I have a friend at work who claims that she gets migraines from "orange food coloring" (which is made from FD&C yellows), but when I asked her how many migraines she was getting she said two in the past six months which is obviously not comparable to me

My brother has trouble with the mix of dyes that make doritos and orange soda orange. I think it's mostly yellow #5, but it's not a migraine trigger for him, it flares the hyperactivity he's always struggled with. It was really bad as a child, like send him to run laps around the house bad, but he still struggles in his 30s. I know it's not quite the same, but I figured that any stories of people with dye issues could help. He got the food issues and I got the migraines.

Seine,

I agree that the elimination diet sounds like a pain to do. But the fact is those long lists come from the actual experiences of real people. Zomigman recently posted a detailed description of food related triggers on this site you may want to look at. Additives in bacon and sausage were big for him.

Personally I have not found any food or beverage triggers for myself, other than red wine. Food dies and processed meats, bananas, caffeine, chocolate all seem to have no effect. Poor sleep, air travel and hormones are triggers for me. We are all different in this regard.

I do take supplements and have had very good success with them. I currently take 400 mg of magnesium, 5000 mg of vitamin D, and 200 mg bio-identical progesterone. My headache frequency went from 80% down to 20% with very few severere migraines on this program. So not perfect, but certainly much improved, which none of the preventative meds did for me.

Has anybody heard of tuna and yogart being a trigger?

re: tuna and yogurt. a tuna reaction was the very first food-thing i figured out, years ago. it's because of the "hydrolyzed vegetable broth", which is an MSG name. there are a few brands (usually found in health-food stores) which have as ingredients, tuna, water, salt.

yogurt is on many migraine-trigger lists. i suspect it's because of all the chemical crap in the flavored ones. if one isn't allergic to dairy, one could try a good brand that has no pectin or citric acid (both MSG components) and has just milk, the bacterial cultures, and nothing else.

you can add your own fruit and flavors. nonfat dry milk powder (added to make it thicker) is problematic for some. again, it's the way these things are processed that make the glutamate float around causing havoc in the brain. :-( dianne

Is spinach a well known trigger?

I think I will try the MSG one next for sure; I have heard that one as a food trigger the most often. Red #40 eliminated many junk foods anyways so I might as well cut some more crap out! Other known triggers for me are being sick, taking pain meds like Aspirin and then withdrawing, loud constant noise (when I worked in a dog kennel), exposure to allergens like latex or bee stings. There must be more obviously since I am still getting so many migraines.

I forgot to mention alcohol is also a trigger, except for some vodkas and rums which have less sulfer added than other types. I have never heard of spinach or yogurt being a trigger before.

Sara79 wrote:My brother has trouble with the mix of dyes that make doritos and orange soda orange. I think it's mostly yellow #5, but it's not a migraine trigger for him, it flares the hyperactivity he's always struggled with. It was really bad as a child, like send him to run laps around the house bad, but he still struggles in his 30s. I know it's not quite the same, but I figured that any stories of people with dye issues could help. He got the food issues and I got the migraines.

That is so ironic because when I look up red #40 all I can find about it is that it makes some kids hyperactive, yet it causes migraines for me and I never had any hyperactive issues. But the yellow #5 makes your brother hyperactive, and that's the one that is supposed to give people migraines! Maybe I will pay extra attention to anything with yellow #5 in it, although honestly many of those foods also have red #40 so I have cut them out anyways.

Migrainegirl wrote:I do take supplements and have had very good success with them. I currently take 400 mg of magnesium, 5000 mg of vitamin D, and 200 mg bio-identical progesterone. My headache frequency went from 80% down to 20% with very few severere migraines on this program. So not perfect, but certainly much improved, which none of the preventative meds did for me.

Which type of magnesium, and did you start lower than 400mg originally? Any problems with the digestive side effects? I briefly tried magnesium but the pills were dyed red so obviously that did not help me.. it was before I figured out the red dye trigger! I will have to try again with a different brand.

Seaine wrote:Hmm I was thinking about that earlier, because I am sure that I did not get all these migraines from red #40 when I was younger. It's in most all junks foods which of course I loved as a teenager but I was only getting a few migraines per month, so this trigger must have developed. Kind of depressing to think that I will probably react to more things as I get older! Does anyone react to yellow #5 or #6? I have a friend at work who claims that she gets migraines from "orange food coloring" (which is made from FD&C yellows).....

I have tried all the migraine preventatives on the market currently, so I'm moving on now to vitamin supplements. I am currently taking B2 which seems to have helped but only slightly. What supplements are helping you guys out with preventing migraines?

To answer the first bit. I react to orange dye. I noticed this when I worked at a popular fast food restaurant with golden arches. I tried some of the brightly colored orange drink and saw the most fascinating light show I have ever saw. I was then unable to give the right amount of change to customers as I was unable to put numbers together in my head or see them in proper order. I even had problems talking! Then the pain set in!

I also react to other things. Mostly food preservatives, MSG, fake sugars, and some other things. If I don't cook it with my two hands. I don't eat it. If I have to buy it. I inspect the label and the ingredients have to be as natural and as close to what I could have made with my two hands as possible!

I do take a natural migraine preventative. I take feverfew. My doctor suggested me to take it. I take it along with the medication I am prescribed. I find the feverfew has helped. It takes a month to start helping, and I started it about 6 weeks ago, so I am just starting to feel the benefits now. I did read somewhere that oil of oregano would help a migraine headache. I bought a bottle and followed the instructions. I did not receive relief from my migraine headache, but received an even worse one than I had in the first place. I did learn that what is right for one person is not right for another. I now just ask my doctor if she has any great ideas instead of just looking them up online and trying them out! Oil of Oregano is great for lots of stuff though and worth keeping around!

Seaine wrote:

Sara79 wrote:My brother has trouble with the mix of dyes that make doritos and orange soda orange. I think it's mostly yellow #5, but it's not a migraine trigger for him, it flares the hyperactivity he's always struggled with. It was really bad as a child, like send him to run laps around the house bad, but he still struggles in his 30s. I know it's not quite the same, but I figured that any stories of people with dye issues could help. He got the food issues and I got the migraines.

That is so ironic because when I look up red #40 all I can find about it is that it makes some kids hyperactive, yet it causes migraines for me and I never had any hyperactive issues. But the yellow #5 makes your brother hyperactive, and that's the one that is supposed to give people migraines! Maybe I will pay extra attention to anything with yellow #5 in it, although honestly many of those foods also have red #40 so I have cut them out anyways.

Migrainegirl wrote:I do take supplements and have had very good success with them. I currently take 400 mg of magnesium, 5000 mg of vitamin D, and 200 mg bio-identical progesterone. My headache frequency went from 80% down to 20% with very few severere migraines on this program. So not perfect, but certainly much improved, which none of the preventative meds did for me.

Which type of magnesium, and did you start lower than 400mg originally? Any problems with the digestive side effects? I briefly tried magnesium but the pills were dyed red so obviously that did not help me.. it was before I figured out the red dye trigger! I will have to try again with a different brand.

It's weird, he has the hyperactivity and dye issues, and I've got the migraines, no dye issues, and I'm hypothyroid, so I run slow. All I know is cutting the orange from his diet, made him much easier to teach, which was a good thing, since his kindergarten teacher wanted my folks to look into medicating him. That wasn't happening, since I'm older than the Ritalin generation.

As for Magnesium...I've taken magnesium glycinate, and I found a nice type of it at Whole Foods. Its the KAL brand, here's a link to it: http://www.luckyvitamin.com/p-3602-kal-magnesium-glycinate-400-180-tablets I've never purchased it from here, but I thought that this might let you see the label and ingredients. To the best of my knowledge there are no dyes or and animal or grain based products in it. You will want to start slowly, if you take too more magnesium than you're used to, you will be stuck in the loo, so be careful or invest in a good book and some nice loo paper.

Thanks! I'll look for Magnesium Glycinate next time I go to the store and if it's not there I'll order that brand.

The magnesium I take is white. No dye involved. I order online from www.omega1000.com.
Seems to be good quality and reliable source.

I have not had problems from it. Some people report they can get very lose stools, but I have constipation anyway from other medications, so I've never had that difficulty. Best to try it to see.

I did get a bad case a diarrhea from Butterbur, but I think others have done ok with it.

Well it has been a week or two so I'm updating this thread with new info!

Did you guys know that red #40 does not have to be labelled on ingredient lists?? I found that out the hard way. Since my red #40 migraines are so much more severe than my regular migraines, I discovered that some pudding I had been eating must have red #40 in it after experiencing these headaches two days in a row and also eating the pudding both those days. The label says "color added" but not which ones. Now I will have to avoid all foods that only say "color added"!

I have made another horrifying discovery. I have psoriasis on my scalp and I use Nizoral shampoo which helps me immensly. Unfortunately, it also has red #40 in it. It's soaking directly into my head... that's probably almost as bad as eating it. I asked my pharmacy and they said all the different brands are dyed red! I will have to find some other medication.

Honestly, I have made no progress on discovering if MSG or artificial sweeteners give me migraines. I keep eating or drinking red #40 on accident, which sets me back 1-3 days with migraines.

The only food trigger I've been able to identify is soy milk. Even that I supposed I'd have to really track to be sure of it.
I think I'm not a huge believer in food triggers. I think lack of sleep or disruption of normal schedules, getting overly hungry, getting too much sun, hearing a load noise, etc. to be more obvious triggers.
I'd go so far as to say the evidence for food triggers is dubious.

Which type of magnesium, and did you start lower than 400mg originally? Any problems with the digestive side effects? I briefly tried magnesium but the pills were dyed red so obviously that did not help me.. it was before I figured out the red dye trigger! I will have to try again with a different brand.

The kind I take is from Natural Living which I order online (www.omega-1000.com). It has a combination of magnesium aspartate, magnesium glycinate, and magnesium gluconate. Pills are white (no dyes), 100 mg each. I really like this brand. I had previously been on one I got at the health food store, and it didn't seem to help any. Apparently the type of magnesium is important in terms of your bodies absorption.

400 mg is what my doctor told me to take. I do not have any digestive troubles with it. But the pain med I take tends to make me constipated anyway, so a little help in that direction is actually a good thing. But everyone is different. So start at a lower dose if you are concerned.

Hi everyone I'm posting an update to my topic now that I have additional info!

Since I stopped eating anything with red #40 in it, my migraines were much less painful and with much less nausea and emotional instability. In addition, my Frova would actually work much better. However, the frequency of my migraines was exactly the same!

I was able to identify more food triggers, with red #40 out of the picture. It turns out yellow #5 is also a cause for me. Not too surprising since it's already known to the scientific community to cause migraines and I already had an issue with a chemically similar color. Sodium nitrites, ie. pepperoni etc, were also giving me migraines. It has only been a week since I stopped eating all those, but I am convinced this is not premature since I have only had one migraine in the last five days, and it was very mild and disappeared a half hour after taking my Frova.

I really want to encourage everyone who has not looked at their food labels to start doing so now. I went a very long time being convinced that it was not my food giving me migraines but I was wrong. I also want to point out that all of the triggers I've found so far are additives.

I'm glad you have been able to help your migraines by identifying some of your food triggers.

Thanks for the encouragement on that as well. I have been on a low tyramine and avoiding as much glutamate as I can diet for about 3 weeks. So far I can't tell too much difference (especially as I am on the 3rd day of a migraine so not seeing much hope here), but I am going to keep on.

Maybe I am looking in the wrong places, but I have found that pretty much any prepared food, even stuff sold in the health food section, has glutamate in the form of things like soy lecithin. My partner is helping out by adopting the diet with me (for the most part) and learning to bake cookies and cakes (you know, the things we used to do!). I get a confused with the tyramime stuff -- so many different lists of what has it and what doesn't, so I just do the best I can.

I have never noticed food to be a trigger before, but perhaps in low doses it accumulates Not sure how that would work...

Good luck with finding remaining triggers.

Lynn

I found it very hard and to discover any food triggers (1) because I had migraines almost everyday, making it impossible to see that anything made a difference, and (2) because there was no one to one correlation, I could eat the same things and get a headache one day and not the next.

First I managed to reduce my overall migraine rate from 80% to about 30% by taking magnesium, vitamin D, and bio-identical progesterone. This was a big help, but the remaining headaches stubbornly persisted. I could track some to plane travel and some to my cycle or loud noise, but that did not account for all of them.

I could not see any connections with what I ate. It wasn't until recently that I kept a detailed food diary for 5 months. I then went through and listed what I ate and created a tally of headache days versus non headache days for each item. I could then compare the frequency of headaches with each food item against the overall frequency of headaches to see what made a difference statistically. So for example, I found my probability of a headache was 60% on days I had lemonade and 46 % on days I had bacon or sausage. Both statistically higher than my 30% overall rate. Other foods (orange juice, chocolate, etc..) were not statistically higher than 30% so they are ruled out as triggers.

The results really surprised me. If I had not done this I would have never realized that the additives in sausage or bacon were a problem. Because at least half the time it didn't lead to a headache. So you may want to try this. You may find triggers you didn't know you had.

Welcome you to our site.
About food triggers - I have found that once you have a trigger it does not matter how much, or how little of the food trigger you eat. If it is a trigger for you it can set off a migraine.

MSG (monosodium glutamate) is particulary nasty in this respect. The same can be true about alcohol, cheeses, chocolate etc. BTW did you know that the green salad is always washed in a diluted chlorine for supermarkets.
I use to get terrible migraines after eating a (healthy?!) salad until I read what supermarkets do to it to keep it fresh. This is particulary true about salad in those little plastic sealed bags.

Soy, or any soy products like a soy sauce and Chinese food is quite deadly for me, so I will not touch anything that contains soy, or soya products. And it is true it is often added in coating to some pills etc.
Also aspartame, which is usead as a sugar replacement in many diet/slimming foods and drinks. It is really bad trigger for most many migraneurs

Some otherwise healthy natural foods contain MSG in natural form and soya is one of them.

Not all products, however natural, are healthy for all people. Soya is an excellent source of protein for non-migraneurs vegetarians and vegansn, but for migraneurs it is definitely a health hazard.

Reading all the labels on ready prepared foods and sauces in supermarkets and other shops takes sometime more time then preparing a delicius meal with simple basic ingredients at home.
The simple home made food is not only more healthy but helps to loose weight. You can also choose how much fat, salt and sugar you add.

Over the years I discovered more and more food triggers, but since I stopped eating them, I have reduced the frequency of my migraines considearbly, so it is worth trying. Sadly I am also sensitive to other triggers which I cannot avoid others such as the weather which at the moment is terrible making my life a misery.

It is true that it might take a little time for your body to get rid of all the effects of a food trigger, so you are wise not to get discouraged by the first try, Lynn. It is also not unusual to get 3 days migraine. Mine often last for 5 days.

Thanks Mini and Migrainegirl for the encouragement.

I have been keeping track of symptoms and medications so if I end up in rebound headache territory I will have a record to look at but I hadn't been tracking food, just changing the diet and I have stopped drinking any caffeinated beverages.

I will now try keeping a food diary as well.

soy... hmmmm... I switched to soy milk about 5 months ago but maybe I need to cut that out and go back to milk.

I didn't know that about lettuce in the supermarket. I try to grow my own lettuce (not very successfully) but I will make sure to note if the lettuce I eat is supermarket or home grown.

I have been taking Vitamin D (I was pretty low last time it hit me and this time not as low) and magnesium for the last 5 weeks, but not really noticing much difference.

Re menopause / perimenopause -- I am 47 -- my migraines have never seemed to be associated with my period. In such a case, is it still possible that it could be related to perimenopause? My GP seemed to think no unless it had a relationship with my period.

I don't think I am having hot flashes (hard to tell sometimes with migraine symptoms) and she seemed to think that and irregular periods was required to be in perimenopause. Is it really that cut and dried?

Also, my GP was saying that I couldn't take any hormone replacements because I have migraines. She didn't say why but perhaps because of stroke risk? (I should have asked). However, it sounds like that may not be so. How do I get evidence that it might be okay? How do I know if my hormones are low?

I'm still having status migrainosus in my 6th week. the really bad headache has gone but I can't walk more than a 50 or 100 feet or my legs seize up and I can't walk and still have some dizziness though less than before but I am getting headaches daily, with them needing a triptan probably 3 times a week, which works 2/3 of the time.

No pain killers seem to help so reduced to hot packs, cold packs, tiger balm, meditating and deep breathing.

I'm back at work but only 3.5 days per week and really struggling to do that. I can't do much around the house, thank goodness for my partner being understanding and supportive. I only have so much sick leave and this time I am less able to work than in last year's bout of 5 months.

I'm seeing a new neurologist in mid-December (earliest appointment). I'm seeing my current neurologist at end October. Not really sure what to ask for. He says "He's not having much luck" with me.

I tried Topamax and I was allergic to it. I have tried Deseril (destroyed my sleep after a few months), Tolerade, Amitryptiline (too tired), Sandomigran (gave me headaches!) -- none helped. I'm only taking Verapamil and I don't feel very hopeful that anything will work for me to get me out of this.

I don't even know why it stopped last time, just suddenly it did, then 3 weeks of no headache, then 6 months of daily minor headaches, and then the status thing again. I do try to stay positive and be as proactive as a can, but I am worn down at the moment. If this particular migraine headache ends up lasting 5 days that will be good as would only have two more days left.

Sorry for the ramblings, I guess I am struggling.

Thanks.

Lynn