Foods to avoid during headache

Whether you suffer from primary headaches such as migraines, tension headaches or cluster headaches, or secondary headaches l like headaches from arthritis or jaw pain, all headaches have an inner or outer trigger. Some of these triggers are tobacco, various foods, stress, environment and some can even be your hormones.

Have you noticed that you often get a headache after consuming certain foods? For instance, chocolate, and alcohol are known to trigger headaches in some people. Vascular headaches are often caused by dietary triggers. Here’s a list of a few foods that may be causing headaches.

Red wine and other alcoholic beverages
Aged cheese
Ice creams and cold drinks
Soy sauce and MSG

Red wine and other alcoholic beverages

Not many know that sulfites are used to preserve red wine. Sulfites are on the list of food triggers that cause headaches. Not only that, alcohol leads to increased blood flow to your brain and this can result in dehydration. This in turn can give some people a headache. If you are prone to cluster headaches, consuming alcohol will put you at a greater risk of having headaches.

Aged cheese

Cheese that has been around for a while is also a well-known food trigger. But what causes aged cheese to give people a headache? The culprit may be a substance called tyramine that is formed when the proteins in cheese break down over time. To put it simply, the older a slab of cheese is, the more tyramine it has. If you believe that cheese is causing you headaches, you might want to stay away from Swiss, Blue Cheese, Gouda, Cheddar and Parmesan.

Ice creams and cold drinks

Some people experience a stabbing pain in their head after eating an ice cream or drinking something cold. But this reaction of their body is not to the ice cream or cold drink itself, but to the cold they catch after they’ve had these foods! The only solution to these kinds of headaches is to either have the ice cream slowly or consume the cold drink when it’s closer to room temperature.

Soy sauce and MSG

Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) is not only found in soy sauce, but it is also used as a food additive in several other foods. MSG is known to cause diarrhea, cramps and a searing headache in a few people. This is especially true for individuals who suffer from migraines. Soy sauce can cause headaches because of the MSG in it and also its salt content which tends to lead to dehydration and thereafter, a headache.