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Migraine Free Diet, Red Wine, and a Cookbook Giveaway!

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Is a migraine free diet really possible?  As with many things related to migraine, the answer is yes and no!

The good news is that many people actually have found their very own migraine free diet.  That means that they have tracked down a food or some foods or a type of food that seemed to be triggering the majority (or all) of their migraine attacks.  When they cut it/them from their diet, they found that their migraine attacks drastically decreased or disappeared.

The problem is that everyone is different.  One person may find that bananas trigger migraine attacks, another may have no problem with them (or even find that their healthier with more bananas!).

Recently a study was done on a typical migraine trigger – red wine.  The study chose people who believed that red wine had triggered attacks in the past.

Migraine free diets and red wine

Each participant drank a half a bottle of a different type of red wine at least four days apart.

The result?  A few didn’t have a single attack (12%).  About half had attacks on at least two occasions.

Why didn’t more attacks occur?  For one thing, few triggers are going to cause problems all the time.  It’s probably more a matter of going over the line – too many triggers adding up.

But in this case, researchers also found that some red wines were worse than others.  Prime offenders?  Tannat and Malbec wines – possibly because of the higher tannin content. (see below for more on tannins)

This just illustrates again how tricky it can be to find a truly migraine free diet.

However, here are some migraine diets and other tips that have helped people in the past.  Take a look, then see below for information on the cookbook giveaway!

Now, what you’ve all been waiting for!  I know many of you have some great migraine-fighting recipes.  Now’s your chance to help migraineurs around the world – share your recipe!  It’s easy!

Just find a recipe that at the very least avoids the most common migraine triggers.  Make it healthy, easy and fun!  And share it with us here – Share your Migraine-Fighting Recipe!

If you want to get really fancy, you can even upload a picture or two of the finished product!

If you’ve shared a really great recipe, you might just find yourself the owner of a free migraine cookbook!

Once we have 10-20 recipes, I’ll take a look for one that really stands out from the crowd.

And who knows?  If the recipes keep coming in, I might just give away some more cookbooks!

So go ahead – check out the details here!

Migraine triggers: The Onion

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Onion - a migraine trigger?

If onion is a trigger for you, how in the world do you stay away from it?

Recently I was flipping through an ethnic cookbook, and found that almost every recipe contained onion.  For many people, onion contributes to that next migraine attack.  If you want to cook but are being confronted by an onion on every page of your cookbook, here are some ways to fight back:

  • Reduce:  You may find that having only a small percentage of onion in your food isn’t a problem.  What I’ve done is cut the amount of onion in the recipe in half.  If there was a lot of onion, you can sometimes replace what you take out by adding a little more of the other vegetables in the recipe.
  • Replace (option 1):  There are actually a lot of "onion-like" vegetables that you can use in the place of the onion.  One popular and easy choice is garlic (though depending on the recipe you may want to use less garlic than you would have used onion).  But there are other things more like onions that you may be able to use.  Though many people find onion to be a trigger, far fewer seem to have problems with leeks, scallions (spring onions) and shallots.  Try using these in your recipes instead of onion.
    Leeks
    Leeks    		 Scallion
    Scallion    		 Shallots
    Shallots
  • Replace (option 2):  You could flavour your food with Asafoetida.  Asafoetida is sold as a powder, and when cooked in a recipe adds a flavour similar to onion.
    Asafoetida Powder
    Asafoetida Powder

     It has added benefits, because it is believed to help with digestion, and helps to lessen gas from things like beans and lentils.  If you live in the Middle East or India, you shouldn’t have trouble finding it.  If you don’t, you may be able to find asafetida in an Indian market, or with the ethnic foods in your grocery store.  Often people who are alergic to onion will use asafetida.

  • Avoid:  Of course, you can avoid onion altogether.  Some people find that raw onions are a problem, but cooked onions are all right.  Many recipes really just use onion as extra flavour – most of the time you can simply take it out and the recipe will still work fine.

Do you find onion to be a trigger?  What have you done to solve the problem?

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Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of each article, and to point you to further sources of information. However, this site is for informational purposes only and should never replace a visit to your doctor.