Elimination Diet for Migraine
An elimination diet, also known as exclusion diet is a diagnostic procedure used to identify foods that an individual cannot consume without any adverse effects.
So, how exactly can you figure a Migraine elimination diet?
Food intolerances, allergies and sensitivities can be figured out through an elimination diet. Remove the food from your diet practices that you suspect that the body can’t tolerate well. Introduce those foods one at a time at a later period to check if the symptoms reappear.
There are two phases of an Elimination diet.
1. The Elimination Phase
2. The Reintroduction Phase
Here’ how you can practice an elimination diet. All dairy products may or may not trigger your migraine symptoms. To find out if including dairy in your diet will increase the symptoms try the elimination diet in the following manner.
Remove the dairy products that you suspect trigger your symptoms for a short period of time, typically 2–3 weeks. During this phase, you can determine if your symptoms are due to dairy or something else. Next is the reintroduction phase where you slowly bring eliminated foods back into your diet. Each dairy product should be introduced individually, over 2–3 days, while looking for symptoms like Nausea, throbbing pain, dizziness etc.
If you experience no symptoms during the period where you reintroduce a dairy product, you can assume that it is fine to eat and move on to the next product. If you experience any negative symptoms you have identified a trigger food and that should be eliminated from the diet. The entire process, including elimination, takes roughly 5–6 weeks.
In a similar way, you can find out each of the food products that cause you a trigger and start eliminating it from the diet.
The common foods that you can include in your elimination diet are the following.
Chocolate
MSG or Monosodium
glutamate
Processed Meat & Fish
Dairy
Alcohol
Caffeine
Soy products
Olives
Vegetables like onions, peas and sauerkraut
Fruits like Papayas, passion fruit, citrus fruits, dates & figs, raspberries, dried fruits etc.
Vinegar
Fermented foods like bread, bagels, sourdough, cakes and pastries
Aim to eat fresh natural whole foods. Avoid processed foods, cold & stale foods to maximum. When personal food triggers are determined, restricting the intake of these foods contributes to the prevention and minimization of migraine attacks.
Read more on Anger Management
Get to know more about a personalized wellness plan with a BE Mind Body Skin Comprehensive consult - MindBody Consult
