"safe" foods

After looking on the web and discovering most of my typical meals are migraine triggers I am at a loss as to what to eat
Has anyone discovered a list of safe foods that aren't migraine triggers?

Now there is a good question! What to eat?

I feel safe with an organic egg. It has protein to keep you going.
Any vegetable, as long as it is washed.

Angela

what do people eat for meals?

Well first off not everyone is triggered by every food on the list so you may be able to eat whatever you want!

I avoid chocolate, alcohol, nutrasweet and large quantities of hot dogs (please don't ask how I found that one out LOL)

You may want to keep a journal of what foods you eat and when you get your migraines to discover your food triggers. IE:

Monday:

Breakfast- 8:30am
*Cup of Orange Juice
*Scrambled Eggs w/ butter
Lunch- 12:30pm
*Hot Dog w/ mustard
*Bottled Water
Migraine 2:00pm
Pain Level: 7 (on a scale of 1-10 10 being worst pain possible)
Medication taken: Relpax at 2:15
Dinner- 5:30pm
*Pot Roast with Carrots, Potatos and Greens
*Apple Juice


After about a month or so go back and look at your journal to see a pattern of when you get your migraines after foods. See if there are common ingredients in the foods like MSG or onions, whatever is on that list that you read. If not, keep on going with your journal and in another month or so look at it again. If you keep on doing that and find no connections you can probably assume that you don't have food triggers. Maybe your triggers are environmental. Certain smells set me off immediately (burning foods on the stove, paint or stain..any industrial smells). Bright lights, stress, weather, my menstrual cycle and hormonal changes all set me off as well.

If you have done this and found all the foods to trigger your migraines I hear of a lot of people just cookin' everything from scratch. Buying from the veggies section in your grocery store and using organic everything. It gets pricey I'm sure but it's probably less than medication prices. I'm not a good cook so I'm not going to give recipies LOL, but I wish you luck and welcome to the forum!!

Having just picked up on Teri Roberts FB that food triggers only effect 13/17% of us.
Unless we have a fair idea that we are aort of that small sample, we might avoid another factor...stress,
By just eating whatever.
I cant find a damn thing that triggers mine. Not to say it isnt food, but diaries for years and not a clue.
PLUS I was told it can take 36 hours for some people to react....who can track that one, Sherlock Holmes...

like pen, i have kept diaries for years and years, without pinpointing any particular food or food group. when i'm exposed to a smelly environmental thing (perfume, cig. smoke, hot asphalt, etc) it takes 8-12 hours for my body to react.

some people say it takes 2-3 days, as pen said. i have no set regimen of meals, since i live alone and at age 70 can eat whatever i want! AS LONG AS IT HAS NO CHEMICAL INGREDIENTS. they are all triggers for me. and i do mean all.

msg is a huge component of most processed foods, even if it boldly states on the label "no msg added". there are about 100 different names for substances that turn into "free glutamate/msg" in the body. it's a very deceptive food industry we have.

as long as i eat everything with no unknown ingredients, i can avoid the killer kind of head pain. but i have head pain (notice, i refuse to call it an ACHE) 100% of the time now. i have a hard time eating out, or eating at someone's home. usually i just end up bringing my own food. it's a big drag, but better than the suffering i can guarantee will occur later! dianne

Each sufferer responds differently to foods. Each of us has his/her personal list of "no-no foods".
There are however, some foods that seem to be a commor trigger to most migraine sufferers.
They are:

chocolate
citrus fruits
aged cheese
alcholic drinks
sweeteners
onions
nuts

Also dairy products are a problem for many.

Personally, I can't have apples, citrus, wine, onions, chocolate and nuts. They trigger me migraine in 3/4 hours.

Bye

I don't have any "known" triggers, so I eat whatever I want. Alcohol, which can cause headaches even in people that don't get migraines, I'll sometimes take a triptan before bed. Works for me every time unless I wouldn't have gotten one in the first place. I don't drink mass quantities. In my case, I just do what I want and rely on my abortives. I can say that I live a pretty healthy lifestyle and eat healthy anyway. I have no idea why I get them.

If you think food is a trigger, just write down everything you eat and every time you get a migraine for a month or so and see if you can come up with a pattern. You might luck out. It is very confusing since there are a lot of other "triggers" such as weather, hormones, bright lights, etc. etc. You could keep a diary for years and not come up with an answer. Your trigger could be a combination of several things. Something such as chocolate could be a trigger but only when the weather changed drastically at the same time or your hormones fluctuated. The next week you could eat it and be fine. That is why I decided just to live normal. Let us know if you figure anything out. Good luck!

I am very sensitive to several foods, and further find that the list is a moving target. For example, up until a year ago I could tolerate (and loved! ) garlic. Now it is a terrible trigger for me.

Main food triggers are MSG, sodium nitrates(mostly in cured meats), soy, garlic, and hard aged cheeses. I discovered many of these by the "elimination diet" process. I basically keep my diet very simple and avoid processed foods whenever possible. It's really not that tough once you get into the groove of it, and is a pretty healthy way to eat. My biggest gripe is that I love to eat out - and when you tell the waiter that you cannot tolerate even a hint of garlic, soy, or MSG they end up suggesting the most boring thing on the menu.

Good luck finding your own solution!

Molly

As 95% of my migraines come on during the night, it is hard to determine where food might be involved.
I did vega testing and didnt get any warnings at all. A few cautions, mainly fruit!!
But this was an all round test, not aimed at migraine.

She said my pancreas was sluggish and if I could balance it, it would help the migraines.
Gave me some drops to try but I put them in a safe place and cant find them.
Fibro fog!!! or my age!!!!

Oatmeal is my go to food. I eat the old fashioned steel cut kind. You can even buy it pre-made in the frozen section of Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. It doesn't have any preservatives and it a great filling way to start the day. Since I can't eat sourdough bread anymore I've started eating French baguettes. I slice them up and put butter or other stuff on it. I try to stick to a few foods that I know I can eat. I've had to cut out some favorite foods like orange juice, limeade, bananas, any alcohol, sour cream, sourdough bread, chinese food, marinated meat, tofu or any other kind of soybean product, peanuts, peanuts butter, chocolate, most cheeses, pizza. The list goes on. But I've found that the more careful I am the better my head feels. I've been eating a lot of apples. I drink a lot of milk I eat a lot of cashews and american cheese. That's all I can think of right now. I've made myself hungry.