I Tried a Migraine Elimination Diet and This Is What Happened

I never would have realized what foods were triggers for me without giving my brain the chance to calm down.

Yogurt, parmesan… nuts?! My jaw practically dropped as I read through the list of foods to avoid on a migraine elimination diet.

At the time, I was newly diagnosed with chronic vestibular migraine, a type of migraine that can come with or without head pain but is mostly characterized by dizziness, vertigo, a false sense of movement, and derealization or depersonalization.

I was on preventive medication, taking all the supplements suggested by my neurologist, and even trying cognitive behavioral therapy, yet I still experienced daily migraine symptoms.

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Getting started with a migraine elimination diet

Because I was hoping to start a family soon, which meant I would need to wean off some of my migraine medication, I was looking at every natural treatment possible to try to gain control over my symptoms.

This is when I started researching diet as a factor in migraine treatment. There are a few different diets recommended for migraine, but a migraine elimination diet seemed to be the most popular for discovering personal food triggers.

The migraine diet I was going to try was developed by a doctor affiliated with a prominent academic medical center, so I figured there was some credibility to it, even if the list of foods didn’t make a lot of sense to me at the time.

The principals of a migraine elimination diet are pretty simple. Basically, you cut out foods that are found to be common migraine triggers for a few months until you feel better, or notice a significant reduction in migraine days. Then you begin to slowly add in foods again, one by one, testing for a few days to see if an attack is brought on.

Often this can be aided by using a journal or app to keep track of migraine days and help separate what could have been a trigger that day — weather, food, stress, or a combination of all three.

The challenge of incorporating a migraine elimination diet into everyday life

What I didn’t expect was how difficult it would be to incorporate the diet into my everyday life, especially when I was having daily symptoms. Back then, there were really no resources for migraine diet recipes, so I would have to analyze each recipe I used and think of substitutions that might work.

Meal planning was not just an option for organized weeks — but a necessity.

While I already considered myself a healthy eater, I found myself spending hours in the grocery store checking every label for hidden MSG and additives.

When fluorescent lights and crowds are two big migraine triggers for you, it’s a massive challenge to spend so much time in a grocery store. I often went armed with a big hat, earplugs, and my migraine glasses just to get through.

But I was committed, and I knew if I didn’t give this a fair shot that the process would just drag on longer than I needed it to. At that point, I would have probably given my left arm just to feel like I was walking on solid ground again.

Settling into a groove

The first month was a little bumpy, but as I found my favorite products and some reliable meals, I settled into a groove.

Freezer meals really helped me get through the high symptom days when I could barely stand. I would prep and freeze meatballs, soups, falafels, and enchiladas that could be reheated or thrown into a slow cooker. Using a pressure cooker allowed me to make stocks and broths quickly without having to worry about additives in store-bought varieties.

I began to fall in love with making creative substitutions and exploring ingredients that I would have typically never used, like lemongrass and sumac for adding citrus flavors.

Trusting the process

About 2 months into the elimination diet, I became very frustrated with my lack of progress. I had really committed to the diet and put so much time and effort into cooking — and I really missed my daily yogurt.

I had given up so much, yet hardly recognized a break in my daily dizziness. There was a moment when I decided this whole process wouldn’t work for me and that I must just not have any food triggers.

That evening, I made lamb with tzatziki sauce, which contains yogurt and is something not allowed on a migraine elimination diet due to fermentation. I figured if yogurt never noticeably gave me an issue before, it was probably OK to eat.

Within about an hour, I experienced a severe vertigo attack at the dinner table. Everything was swirling around me violently, and I shut my eyes as hard as I could to try to get it to stop.

Could it be that yogurt had been a trigger all along and I was only noticing it after fully eliminating everything? It was then that I decided to give the process a few more months to see where it took me.

It was about 4 months into my elimination diet that I started experiencing breaks in my daily dizziness. At the 6-month mark, I was actually having symptom-free days and felt comfortable enough to reintroduce foods to see which ones, if any, were personal triggers.

Walking on solid ground again

This is a process that truly takes hope and trust into account, otherwise it’s so easy to quit. To this day, I’m so thankful I didn’t.

Along the way, I learned how incredibly strong I was to be able to stick to this. Migraine may have robbed me of my career, but it couldn’t stop me from making a beautiful and delicious meal for my family.

Cooking gave me a sense of purpose and passion when most of my days felt incredibly defeating.

Another fascinating observation: My personal triggers didn’t end up being the common ones you hear about, like chocolate or deli meats. They were the things I used to eat almost daily, including yogurt, nuts, and caffeine.

I never would have realized these were triggers for me without giving my brain the chance to calm down on an elimination diet.

Even now, if I ever experience a flare in my migraine symptoms, I get a little more strict with my diet and turn back to the elimination principles. Thankfully, most of my days I’m walking on solid ground again. And (bonus!) I got to keep my left arm.

Article originally appeared on May 26, 2020 on Bezzy’s sister site, Healthline. Last medically reviewed on May 22, 2020.