I Ate a Trigger Food!

I ate a migraine trigger food: how long before a headache will hit? If you have never spoken those words aloud, chances are you have thought them if you know your personal migraine headache trigger foods.

I ate a migraine trigger food isn’t the whole story, though. Most migraine headaches occur for no apparent reason. Migraine headaches usually result from an interaction of factors that you may or may not recognize.

The trigger food you eat today may give you a migraine headache because you are also experiencing stress. On another day, the same trigger food may not give you a migraine headache. Some women get a migraine headache if they drink red wine and are having a period, but when the two are not combined, they experience no migraine.

Is It Really a Trigger Food?

Many people do blame foods as triggers, but foods are not thought to be common triggers. If you keep a food diary, and believe a certain food is a trigger, test it. See if you always get migraine headache after eating that food. If so, cut out that food entirely, and see if you still have migraine headache.

There are lists of so-called trigger foods, but never assume any specific food on the list is a trigger food for you. The very assumption can make it so, since our minds can take suggestions quite literally. It is better to assume you have no trigger foods for migraine headache.

How Long Before a Headache Will Hit?

But getting back to our question. I ate a migraine trigger food: how long before a headache will hit?

If the food you ate normally triggers a migraine headache in you, you can expect a migraine, but the time lapse varies from one individual to the next. How quickly your migraine headache will hit depends on several things.

1. A trigger food might seem to bring on an instant migraine headache.
2. A trigger food might cause a migraine headache only when combined with another trigger, as described above.
3. If a trigger food is going to cause a migraine headache, it will usually do so within 6 hours. However, trigger foods sometimes result in a migraine headache 2 days later.

Possible Trigger Foods

The following foods may or may not cause a migraine headache for you. If you remove them from your diet as a test, do so for only a few weeks. Keep an accurate diary, and discuss it with your physician.

* anchovies
* avocados
* bananas
* beans (some) broad, Italian, lentil, lima, peas, and soy
* beer caffeine in any form
* champagne cheeses (aged)
* chocolate
* dairy products
* MSG (monosodium glutamate)
* Nuts including peanuts / peanut butter
* processed / dried meat
* red wine
* sauerkraut
* soups, canned or packaged
* sourdough breads
* vermouth
* yeast

Tip: Most items on the list are highly processed or manufactured food products. Eating fresh produce and preparing your meals “from scratch” is often the best way to prevent migraine headache food triggers.