Heading off Headaches
December 30, 2006 by admin
Filed under Diets and Dieting, How To, Misc.
Headaches accompany stress, illness and lack of sleep, all conditions that we’ve considered before at Healthbolt. In addition to these causes, research shows that common foods, called “trigger foods” may cue your headaches. If you suffer from frequent headaches or migraines, see your doctor. But you can also try eliminating the following common trigger foods from your diet, one item at a time, to discover whether you are one of the individuals inviting pain with each bite or swig:
- Red wine
- Caffeine
- MSG (a preservative in lots of packaged foods: read all labels!)
- Aspartame (I hate this, because I love diet pop with this stuff in it)
- Cured meats
- Aged cheese
- Nuts
- Sulfites (anti-oxidants sprayed on salad bars for freshness and also in wine)
- Alcohol
- Chocolate
- Ice cream
As far as those last two items are concerned, I’ll just have to deal with the headache!
The most surprising item on the list is some of the stuff that’s supposed to help you manage that headache. Because pain products like Anacin, Excedrin and Actifed contain “secret” ingredients causing allergic reactions for some of us, they may make that headache worse.
By the way, omega-three fatty acids in fish oil may be migraine preventatives (they may help lower heart disease, as well). If you want to avoid the whole mercury threat from eating real fish, you can swallow fish oil capsules. However, your body can’t use them as efficiently as it can real fish. And a quick warning for the uninitiated; fish oil capsules make some of us burp, and revisited fish oil does NOT taste great.
Remember the crucial caveat: follow directions when taking any vitamin, mineral or other food supplement.
Hate to be picky but MSG (monosodium glutamate) is a flavor enhancer, not a preservative. It can also be hidden in ingredients such as “natural flavorings” and “hydrolyzed protein.” Also beware other hidden ingredients – for example, a product may list “chicken stock” as an ingredient, but you have no way of knowing what the chicken stock’s ingredients are.
Mea culpa, YLDad–thanks for pointing out this error.