Many suspected food triggers are actually part of the prodrome — the hours before an attack, when cravings are common. The triggers with the strongest support are skipped meals, dehydration, irregular sleep and alcohol. A diary that records timing is more useful than a general avoidance list.
The prodrome problem
Migraine attacks begin hours before the pain, with a phase involving mood change, yawning, neck stiffness and food cravings — frequently for chocolate or something sweet.
Someone who eats chocolate and then has an attack reasonably concludes that chocolate caused it. The sequence is usually the reverse: the attack had already started, and the craving was one of its first symptoms.
This has been demonstrated experimentally, and it means a long list of avoided foods often reflects a misread sequence rather than a set of real triggers.
Is this what is happening to you?The two-minute check further down asks four questions and shows the result immediately. No email, no call.
Take the 2-minute checkTriggers that hold up
These have more consistent support than most of the food list.
- Skipped or delayed meals — among the most reliable triggers of all
- Dehydration, which is easy to correct and frequently overlooked
- Irregular sleep — both too little and too much, and weekend lie-ins are a classic
- Alcohol, particularly red wine, with an effect that is fairly consistent
- Caffeine withdrawal, which is why weekend migraines are so common in regular coffee drinkers
- Hormonal cycling, which is why migraine is more common in women and often tracks the cycle
2-minute check
Why are you so tired?
Four questions. Fatigue nearly always has a findable cause.
How much do you sleep, and how well?
Any hair fall, breathlessness on stairs, or heavy periods?
Do you crash in the afternoon?
Any low mood or difficulty concentrating?
No obvious driver from these answers
If it persists, thyroid, ferritin and vitamin D are the sensible first tests.
There are likely contributors here
Ferritin, thyroid and vitamin D between them explain most persistent fatigue.
Several contributors appear to be present
This is worth testing properly rather than pushing through. All three common causes are treatable.
This check is an indication, not a diagnosis. It does not replace medical advice.
Keeping a diary that is actually useful
Record the time of the attack, what was eaten in the twenty-four hours before, sleep, cycle day, stress and hydration. Timing is the important part — without it you cannot distinguish a trigger from a prodrome symptom.
Look for patterns over two to three months rather than drawing conclusions from single events. Most people find fewer real triggers than they expected, and the ones they find are usually behavioural rather than dietary.
What nutrition contributes
Magnesium has reasonable evidence in migraine prevention, and riboflavin and coenzyme Q10 have some support. Doses used in trials are above what food provides, which makes them a matter for your doctor.
What food does reliably is remove the two most consistent triggers: eat at regular intervals and stay hydrated. It is unglamorous advice and it outperforms most elimination diets.
Migraine that changes in pattern, that begins after fifty, or that comes with neurological symptoms needs medical assessment rather than a diary.
In short
Questions we are asked
Should I avoid cheese and chocolate?
Only if your own diary shows a consistent pattern with sufficient lead time to rule out the prodrome. A blanket restriction based on a general list usually removes food for no benefit.
Does caffeine help or cause migraine?
Both. It can relieve an acute attack and regular use produces withdrawal headaches. A consistent daily amount is usually easier to manage than varying it.
Reading about it is the easy part.The assessment turns this into your own numbers — free, with a free first consultation, and no figure quoted that we cannot substantiate.
Start my free assessmentConditions this relates to
Recipes that put this into practice
Roasted chana trail mix
For the four o’clock crash, where most days come apart.
See the recipe →Potassium-rich kachumber
Most blood pressure advice stops at salt. Potassium is the half nobody mentions.
See the recipe →Magnesium-rich everyday meals
Magnesium sits behind sleep, migraine and muscle cramp. Most of it is already in your kitchen.
See the recipe →Related reading
Salt, potassium and blood pressure
Most of the sodium in an Indian diet is not in the salt shaker.
Read →The gut and the brain are on one line
Symptoms worsened by stress are not imagined symptoms.
Read →Menopause: what actually changes, and what to do about it
It is not that you are doing less. The rules changed.
Read →References
- International Headache Society — International Classification of Headache Disorders.
- Indian Academy of Neurology — guidelines for the management of migraine.
- [Further references to be completed by the medical review panel.]
This article is general health information, written by a clinical nutritionist and reviewed by a doctor. It is not a diagnosis and it does not replace advice from your own clinician. Never change prescribed medication on the basis of what you read here.