The Headache Prevention Cookbook: Eating Right to Prevent Migraines and Other Headaches

Food can't cure headaches, but avoiding certain foods may prevent them, according to author David R. Marks, medical director of the New England Center for Headache. Some foods commonly trigger headaches in some people. If you're a headache sufferer, eliminating those foods from your diet is a sensible second step towards managing headaches. (The first step is to see your doctor to determine if there is some underlying condition that is causing the headaches.)

The key is to go on an elimination diet that avoids trigger foods such as most cheeses, chocolate, nuts, certain meats, preservatives, artificial sweeteners, MSG, caffeine, beans, out-of-the-oven yeast products (e.g., pizza, yeast breads, doughnuts), alcohol (especially red wine), ice cream, olive oil, and many, many more. If you were left to your own devices to figure out what's left after eliminating all these foods, you'd probably give up within a day. But Laura Marks has done the work for you, putting together 100 recipes that contain none (whew!) of the forbidden foods. The Headache Prevention Cookbook's recipes aren't bland or boring. They include Hearty Potato-Mushroom Frittata, Crepes with Spinach and Cheese Filling, Eggplant "Caviar," Corn and Carrot Chowder, Linguine with White Clam Sauce, Garlic Chicken, Cornish Hens and Wild Rice with Apricot Sauce, Asian Ginger Beef with Broccoli, Seafood Curry, and Angel Food-Strawberry Delight.

The authors suggest that you follow this diet, using their recipes and others you create yourself, for at least two months, and see if your headaches go away. Then gradually reintroduce the foods you avoided, one per week, so you can track which foods are your personal headache triggers. Once you've figured that out, avoiding those foods permanently can be your ticket to a headache-free future. --Joan Price