What kinds of foods trigger your headaches?

[Gifted Gourmet]

There are a variety of foods, and even alcohol, which have been picked as the culprits behind many people's headaches ...

Too much coffee: The caffeine in coffee is a double-edged sword: A cup of strong coffee can nip a headache in the bud, but too much can trigger pounding headaches, especially in sensitive people. What’s more, you can get headaches not only from too much caffeine, but also from caffeine withdrawal.

Chinese fried rice: Aji-no-moto, also known as Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) is a flavour enhancer commonly used in Chinese cuisine. In sensitive people, MSG can provoke the release of chemicals in the body that are implicated in headaches.

Nitrites, used as a preservative and colour enhancer in cured meats, are another culprit. Even foods in their natural state may contain chemicals that set off headaches in some people. One such chemical is tyramine, and it’s found in both natural and processed foods, including chocolate, aged cheeses, chicken liver, vinegar, soya sauce, sour cream and cottage cheese.

article from the Statesman

So, if you get food-induced headaches, what are your "trigger foods"? Do you sometimes eat things with these foods in them, not visible, and have predictable results? How do you handle this if eating at a friend's home?

[jsolomon]

Really cheap chocolate, probably faux, like in Nestle Crunch bars.

Migraine every time.

[FistFullaRoux]

Besides the brain-freeze headaches, the only thing I've found is Aspartame (Nutra-sweet). One Diet Coke, and I'm done for 24 hours.

[andiesenji]

Chocolate. But not cocoa, even the very strong or "black" cocoas do not produce the same effect.

I have a very low threshold. I can take a tiny nibble of choclate (I use bittersweet and need to guage how much sweetener to add to the recipe to even it out) with no problem but half an ounce seems to be my limit.

[Susan G]

When we were first dating, I didn't know my (now-husband) was subject to migraines. The picnic basket was: red wine, aged cheeses, salami. Well, that date didn't go very well..............

I've also noticed that skipping meals can trigger a migraine in spouse.

[lilyspence]

Aspartame does it to me, too. I never had migraines, or headaches for that matter, until a few years ago. By eliminating aspartame, I eliminated the problem. I work in a brain injury program, and most of our doctors suggest to patients that they avoid it as well. It seems to have a nasty effect on a lot of people.

[viva]

Too much caffeine without enough water and/or food to absorb it. I can drink several cans of Diet Coke, but if I don't drink any water, or do it on an empty stomach, guaranteed migraine.

Very unhappily for me - an increasing migraine cause is red wine. I can have a small glass with food, but any more than that is doom. I've had to learn to appreciate whites and rosés a little more.

Weird migraine cure: a few sips of real Coke, Doritos, Advil on an empty stomach. There's something in those Doritos preservatives and truckloads of sodium that works like a charm. Pepsi doesn't work at all.

[Anna N]

Champagne... but only the expensive stuff - hence no headaches for many years!

[FL Heat]

Red wines. So next time someone orders a white that doesn't seem to really "go" with dinner, be merciful in your judgement!

Diana

[hannnah]

Much of the above - aspartame, large amounts of MSG, and red wine. Although, if I already have a garden variety headache, wine of any color will turn it into a migraine pretty quickly. I also get the dreaded caffeine withdrawal headaches if I don't have at least a cup of tea by 3pm or so. No problems with chocolate, meats, or aged cheeses, fortunately.

[irodguy]

Large amounts of corn like several baskets of chips etc. I get a sinus headache due to allergies.

[nice_guy1812]

Too much caffeine on an empty stomach does it for me sometimes. Also skipping meals often gives me a headache.

[tryska]

nutrasweet, caffeine withdrawal and wine.

[Mabelline]

OK, time for something frothy and frivolous---cooking for my SIL gives me a gigantic headache!

[fifi]

I just don't get headaches. I never have. If I have a headache, there is something else wrong, like coming down with flu. And I don't have any food allergies that I know of. But there is one thing that has given me a blinding headache for several hours about three or four times. The only common trigger I could figure out was white wine, German only. Weird. The clincher was the last time it happened. I had been avoiding German whites because of my suspicions. Then, I was helping my sister prepare for a big party. She was serving a local wine shop's private label stuff and she asked me to taste it to see what I thought. I had one small mouthful of the white. Four hours later and I was in pain and went home. I had assumed that it would be from California. We called the shop the next day... Yep... German.

[PoetsGirl]

A vodka cranberry will give me a headache every time; and if I don't get my coffee, which never happens.

[Mabelline]

Ah, jeez, fifi, I remember reading something about an additive in German Whites over a year ago in Gourmet or Bon Appetit. Sorry I can't help more than that.

[jgarner53]

Well, aside from mixing alcohols (margarita, followed by wine, followed by something else...), the only thing I know of that gives me a headache is dehydration.

My other headaches are muscle tension, and nothing (and I DO mean nothing) seems to get rid of them except time.

[cdh]

Cinnamon. I get headaches and nausea from overindulgence in cinnamon. It just gives me a hangover a few hours after I ingest too much of it.

Once, in elementary school, I came into contact with pure cinnamon oil, and it turned me bright red and made me hot and sweaty and gave me a headache just from a small amount of it... so I'm guessing there's some sort of allergy going on.

[Daddy-A]

For me it's raw onions. Doesn't matter if they're red, white, walla walla ... raw onions do me in. What's odd is that if they're cooked I'm fine.

DA

[daniellewiley]

Besides the brain-freeze headaches, the only thing I've found is Aspartame (Nutra-sweet). One Diet Coke, and I'm done for 24 hours.

Same problem here, but it's with ALL artificial sweeteners. My friend is a doctor of Chinese medicine, and she muscle tested me for a bunch of foods. Apparently I have an emotional allergy to artificial sweeteners.

[daniellewiley]

Weird migraine cure: a few sips of real Coke, Doritos, Advil on an empty stomach. There's something in those Doritos preservatives and truckloads of sodium that works like a charm. Pepsi doesn't work at all.

Back when I was getting a ton of migraines, my fall back cure was a very large dirty martini. Worked every time.

[Hest88]

Star anise. I never connected my love of Chinese roast duck and duck wings with my headaches a few hours later until I read somewhere that star anise is a common trigger. Duh!

Hasn't stopped me from eating them, though. Just means I have the Excedrin handy.

[Mottmott]

I have some of the triggers mentioned above, especially the red wine and luckily not the chocolate or coffee. But one of the worst triggers for me has nothing to do with food: the weather. When a storm is coming in, the barometric shift can trigger one. I can avoid red wine, but haven't figured out what to do about the weather.

I'd like to pass on a couple palliatives for the pain. I can't take the new migraine meds, reaction, etc., so I'm stuck with folklore.

A couple work for me:

1. I run hands in the hotest water I can without scalding myself (and if possible, feet, too, water pooling around them in the tub). It gives some relief from the acute pain.

2. When hot water's not available, you can press hard on the web between your thumb and index finger. Not as good as the water, but sometimes you do what you can.

3. (haven't tried this because water treatment works for me) I'm told that breathing in a paper bag, which makes you rebreath your expelled breath, helps.

Oh, and if you can get your MD to prescribe pain killers, take them before you do the water treatment and you can sometimes relieve the pain long enough to get to sleep.