Jade Acupuncture Clinic

Foods to Avoid for those with Migraines

Beverages
Limit caffeine. Avoid coffee, tea, cocoa, and cola in excess of 2 cups per day. Avoid any sudden changes in the amount of caffeine consumed. Avoid alcoholic drinks.

Meat, Fish, Poultry
Avoid aged, canned, cured, or processed meats, canned or aged ham, pickled herring, salted dried fish, chicken liver, aged game, hot dogs, fermented sausage, bologna, salami, pepperoni, summer sausage, peanut butter, any meal prepared with meat tenderizer, soy sauce or yeast extracts. Avoid any food with nitrates or nitrites.

Dairy
Avoid cultured dairy such as buttermilk, sour cream, aged cheeses, or chocolate milk. Limit yogurt to ½ cup per day. Skim milk or 2% milk is acceptable.

Breads and Cereals
Avoid hot, fresh homemade yeast breads, bread and crackers with cheese.

Vegetables
Avoid pole or broad beans, lima beans, Italian beans, lentils, snow peas, fava beans, navy beans, pinto beans, pea pods, sauerkraut, garbanzo beans, onions except for flavoring, olives, pickles.

Fruits
Avoid avocados, figs, raisins, papaya, passion fruit, red plums, and limit banana to ½ per day.

Soups
Avoid canned soups, soup cubes, bouillon cubes, soup bases with autolyzed yeast or MSG. (It is necessary to read labels.)

Desserts
Avoid desserts with chocolate, such as cake, cookies, ice cream, and pudding.

Sweets
Avoid chocolate candy and chocolate syrup.

Miscellaneous
Avoid pizza, cheese sauces, soy sauce, monosodium glutamate (MSG), yeast, yeast extracts, brewer’s yeast, meat tenderizers, Accent, and seasoned salt. Frozen foods and TV dinners are often a source of MSG. Read the labels carefully. Snack items often contain MSG. Read the labels carefully. Avoid any pickled, preserved, or marinated foods.

It is recommended that a food dairy is kept. Not all of the above foods will be a migraine trigger for everyone, and some people may find that some foods not mentioned above will trigger migraines for them.

MSG can be listed on products with a variety of names.

Foods with the following should always be considered to be sources of MSG:
MSG, monosodium glutamate, monopotassium glutamate, glutamate, glutamic acid, vegetable protein extract, gelatin, hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP), hydrolyzed plant protein (HPP), autolyzed plant protein, sodium caseinate, calcium caseinate, textured protein, yeast extract, yeast food or nutrient, and autolyzed yeast.

Foods with the following often are a source of MSG:
Malted barley (flavor), natural flavors, flavors, flavoring, modified food starch, barley malt, malt extract or flavoring, maltodextrin, dextrose, dextrates, caramel flavoring (coloring), stock, broth, bouillon, rice syrup or brown rice syrup, reaction flavors, natural chicken, beef, or pork flavor seasonings, soy sauce or extract, soy protein, soy protein isolate or concentrate, cornstarch fructose (made from corn), flowing agents, lipolyzed butter fat, low or no fat items, corn syrup and corn syrup solids, high fructose corn syrup, citric acid (when processed from corn), milk powder, dry milk solids, carrageenan, whey protein or whey, whey protein isolate or concentrate, pectin, protease, protease enzymes, lecithin, annatto, spice, wheat, rice, corn, or oat protein, anything enriched or vitamin enriched, anything that is “protein fortified”, anything that is “enzyme modified”, anything that is “ultra-pasteurized”, anything that is fermented, gluten and gluten flour, algae, phytoplankton, sea vegetable, wheat or barley grass powders, protein fortified milk, gums (guar and vegetable), dough conditioners, yeast nutritients, protein powders (whey, soy, oat, rice), artifical flavor, wheat extract Senomyx.