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The Migraine Diet

Understanding a migraine diet can help you choose which foods to eat and which to avoid. Food is certainly a trigger of migraines as many people have reported migraine attacks after eating something. Knowing which foods trigger migraine headaches can help you prevent them from starting up in the first place.

Migraine Diet: Foods to Avoid

Foods which are rich in tyramine have long been suspected of causing migraines. While not particularly unhealthy, tyramine can produces migraines for people that are sensitive to it. Knowing which foods are rich in tyramine can help you formulate a balanced diet. Tyramine is found in many foods with protein and increases in levels as food is aged or fermented.

Dairy products which are rich in tyramine such as aged cheese (cheddar, blue cheese, feta, etc.) can be triggers for a migraine. A migraine diet may allow for a few bites of cheese, but not greater than four ounces.

Cured meat such as sausages, hams and cured fish are also high in tyramine. It is best to stay away form these or limit servings to 4 ounces per meal. Vegetables like beans which are fermented such as miso, tofu or soy sauce and bean curd should also be avoided as much as possible.

Alcoholic beverages are also a migraine trigger. Beers, wines and mixed drinks can all cause migraines if consumed in excess of 2 bottles or glasses. Other beverages which contain caffeine may have differing effects on people. Overdose of caffeine as well as withdrawal from caffeine can cause migraines.

Chocolate and nuts may also be triggers. While they don’t contain tyramine, they do contribute to serotonin release. Serotonin does help in pain relief, but sudden production of serotonin during a period of low levels can cause constriction and dilation of blood vessels which does cause pain and migraines.

Migraine Diet: Foods To Take

A well balanced migraine diet involves mostly freshly prepared ingredients. This greatly reduces the amount of tyramine found in your food. Carbohydrates from whole grains are also very helpful in making up the food you should eat.

Use fresh and unprocessed meat as much as possible. Vegetables rich in minerals such as kale, broccoli and spinach have also been shown to reduce migraine frequencies.

You should also eat regularly as much as possible. Hunger and stress are some of the triggers associated with migraines. Having a good meal schedule can help you fight both of these triggers. Drink plenty of water as well to avoid getting dehydrated.

Keeping A Diary Of Your Migraine Diet

Different food can have different effects on people. While some foods may seem innocent and unassuming, they can cause migraines as well. A migraine diet doesn’t always disallow you from enjoying a meal. Rather, it teaches you what kind of food and how much of it can cause migraines. To help you along with your diet, make a log of the times you had migraines and what you were doing and eating at the time. This can help you link which foods cause you migraines. By living healthy and following a migraine diet, you will be able to prevent and avoid these painful attacks.

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What Causes Migraines?

What causes migraines still remains a mystery. Although we now know that several events can cause migraines, it is still uncertain why they do so. Migraines can be very painful and debilitating. Often they interrupt our daily functions and cause serious problems.

What Causes Migraines

While the root cause of migraines remains unknown, there have been many factors that have associated with migraines. These are usually external factors such as changes in weather, stress and foods. Internal causes such as hormonal imbalance and problems have also been known causes of migraines.

Migraines occur when blood vessels in the brain become inflamed or enlarged. This is due to irritation in the brain stem. The inflammation itself causes the pain and the throbbing sensation we often associate with migraine attacks.

The pain felt by migraines is often a throbbing sensation around the head or can also be pain located on one side. The pain can last for several hours, subsiding a little and peaking in different intervals. Migraines can also be accompanied by aura. This is when people start to see jagged lines or waves or colors in their field of vision. Some attacks also result in partial visual impairment or even loss of motor functions.

Food rich in tyrmaines is a likely culprit of what causes migraines. These foods are those that have been aged or fermented. Cheese, hams and other cured meat have been documented to trigger migraine headaches in many people. Chocolate and caffeine are also likely factors as to what causes migraines. While you can limit yourself to about 2 servings of these kinds of foods, it may be best to avoid them. Go for fresh options and fresh ingredients, and avoid preservatives and artificial flavoring such as MSG.

Stress, hunger, fatigue and dehydration are also causes of migraines. This is why changes in lifestyle to avoid stress and unhealthy habits help in avoiding getting migraines. Eat right, and drink plenty of water. Get regular rest and avoid staying up late at night.

Hormonal changes such as those naturally occurring in old age as well as pregnancy can also cause migraines. In these cases you can consult your doctor on what steps to take to avoid migraines.

Getting Help For Migraines

As we understand more about what causes migraines, we can also learn for ourselves how to avoid these triggers. You can make a log of the different times you had migraine attacks and what you were eating at that time. This way you can determine what caused the migraine.

A lifestyle change along with taking different medication can be your best defense against migraines. You can ask your doctor about preventive medicine such as anti-seizure and anti-depressants, this kind of medicine has been shown to be effective in preventing migraines.

Migraine medication such as aspirin and ibuprofen has also been very effective in treating migraines. They are used most often when the migraine attacks already occur.

Learn for yourself what causes migraines in your case so you can be better prepared to manage and altogether avoid getting these attacks.

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10 Thanksgiving Eating Tips





10 Thanksgiving Eating Tips

Thanksgiving Eating Tips

Thanksgiving and Christmas are my favorite eating days of the year, with Thanksgiving eating being the bigger one I think. Thanksgiving dinner is now only a couple of days away in Canada and the Turkeys and Hams have already been bought and are waiting to be eaten. This thanksgiving maybe you can be more careful about your eating and well being and I hope that looking at these tip will keep you feeling better the day after as you get to go on your post Thanksgiving day shopping spree.

Thanksgiving Eating Tips

1. Decide what you are going to eat each day in the morning before you start. Think about 3 meals and 3 snacks. No one says you can’t have a snack, then dinner a while later and then desert a while after that.

2. Get some exercise right after you get out of bed. This will help you focus on your fitness and make you aware of how your body feels that day.

3. Drink lots of water throughout Thanksgiving day starting in the morning. We all know how important it is to drink water and to stay hydrated. Also the Water will keep your body from feeling hungry throughout the day and let you feel a little fuller.

4. Eat a small breakfast to set up a slow eating day. Maybe some All Bran or something else filling would be good.

5. Again you should have a fairly small lunch. Thanksgiving eating may be a big eating day but you still need to keep eating a few meals to keep your metabolism up and to make sure that you are not too hungry when dinner comes around.

6. Try to have some kind of snack a couple hours before dinner and then a walk. This is your first real chance to make a difference in your eating for the day that may normally be bad. Try making something interesting and out of season. I love fruit salad so you could always make a fruit salad and have it over low fat frozen yogurt.

7. Eat everything at dinner but only small portions of each food. For Thanksgiving eating it is not the amount of food that matters but the trying of all of the foods at the table. Remember you can have leftovers for days in small servings as well.

8. Go for another walk if the weather is good. The worst thing to me is that after having a great Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner there is no energy outlet so you end up just sitting and almost falling asleep from the tryptophan in the turkey (actually all those carbs and fat…) and then you don’t want to get up at all. Why not instead take a little walk around the neighborhood?

9. Dessert. If at all possible try to make a dessert yourself as then you can be sure how good or bad it is for you. My wife is always the designated dessert person for family get togethers as she makes Thanksgiving eating stuff that is not quite as bad for you but always different and always really great tasting. One of the favorites these days is angel food cake with strawberries and Cool Whip

10. Try to keep things interesting for the evening by having an interactive game to play or have the kids put on a play. What you want to do after dinner and dessert is keep away from the regular habit of snacking even though you are full.

Thanksgiving Eating to Remember

Thanksgiving is a day that people always associate with a lot of Thanksgiving eating food and what i have in mind is not to have you starve yourself on thanksgiving but instead just make sure that you have a great day and eat some healthy snacks to keep yourself from eating too much heavy food and to feel a bit better about yourself the next day.


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