I cut this out of my diet – and had fewer migraine/headache attacks

That was the topic of our recent poll. It was an interesting one, to be sure! Let’s look at the results…

Well, first of all we can see that this was’t a vegetarian’s dream. “Meats” came in last – with only 2% of respondents saying that it helped to cut meats.

The two at the top were close – surprisingly, “Alcohol” came out #1. 21% said that cutting alcohol from their diets made a significant difference.

Alcohol is a tricky subject when it comes to headache and migraines. We have discussed some tips here: Wine, Beer, and Headache Tips. But we also discussed the continuing controversy in Wine & Headaches: Why We’re Still Confused.

#2, with 19% of the votes, was “Processed foods”. I don’t think that one will come as a big surprise to any of us. Processed foods are just full of landmines for migraine and headache patients.

Next came “Sugar”, at 12%. Maybe lower because fewer people have really tried to cut out sugar.

So between alcohol, processed foods, and sugar, we have covered 52% who have had significantly fewer attacks.

“Caffeine” came next, at 10%. Then tied were “Chocolate”, “Gluten” and “Bananas”. Close behind those were “Dairy” and “Cheese”. And then with a rather low success rate was “Grains” and “Meat”.

Of course this is a very unscientific poll, and doesn’t take into consideration a million things like – what combinations of the above work?

That being said, it tells me two things. First, it confirms the dangers of processed food, something we’ve probably known for a long time.

Second, it should make us take another look at alcohol and sugar in our diets. Check out Sugar and Migraines? for a look at one aspect of the link between the two.

How about some comments? Have any of these worked for you? Combinations? Something else? Let’s talk!