Migraines and Food

A tough time falling asleep

Waking up in the middle of the night

That energy dip in the middle of the day

And those cravings we all fall prey to…

These are all possible signs your body is having a tough time dealing with blood sugar spikes and drops.

But since we all succumb to those primal urges built into our system that make us need food now…

How about we find healthy replacements that don’t hurt us as much as the vending machines, packaged products or fast food stores?

This case study found “that the implementation of the dietary regimen successfully reduced the need for headache-related pain medication by at least 70% when compared to pre-treatment levels”

Before we get started these are some great guidelines:

– Avoid all cheap oils like vegetable oil

– Remember to soak your nuts to remove the antinutrients they have in them and make them more digestible

– The key here is keeping carbohydrate full foods low, this includes grains and fruits even dried fruits

– Always drink water first and foremost when hungry because thirst is often mistaken as hunger right up until kidney failure

– Use raw ingredients not bleached, roasted, fried, candy coated etc.(They add to the body’s load of stress)

– Dried fruits are higher in carbohydrates so intake needs to be monitored

– Nuts and seeds are higher in proteins and fats which makes them ideal for maintaining blood sugar as simple snacks

– Use exercise to deplete the sugars in your muscles so that the sugars in your body have somewhere to go instead of creating fat and hurting the brain

So let’s get going.

Remember, as I always recommend reminding yourself…

Listen to your body and what it says about individual foods and their proportions.

1. Power Balls

 Power balls are super easy and can basically be made with any nuts, seeds or dried fruits.

The key is keeping simple carbohydrates low and having a fair amount of proteins and fat for long smooth energy while still providing nutrients.

The principle is simple, you take chewy sticky ones and combine them with dry pieces of others.

Sometimes a food processor works, other times just chopping up and mashing works great.

My favourite is:

– Dates

– Cocoa/Cacao powder or paste

– Hemp seeds

– Chia seeds

– Cashews

– Vanilla extract

Seed the dates and mash them up.(Use only enough to give a small amount of sweetness to the balls as too many dates make for a high sugar snack)

Soak the cashews for 6-8 hours to make them softer and more digestible by the body.

Soak the chia seeds for an hour with barely enough water so that they swell up a little and release their jelly.

Chop up cashews, mix the vanilla and chia together then mix in the date mush, hemp seeds and cashews.

Mix well and roll into bite size balls.

Top with some cocoa powder or you can melt raw cocoa paste into the recipe itself.(Covering in coconut flakes works great too for an evening snack without the burst of energy of cocoa)

Other options to include are:

Macadamia nuts, almonds, almond butter, hazelnuts, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, pine nuts, poppy seeds, brazil nuts, walnuts, pecans, coffee beans(careful)

2. Trail Mix

 This is a no brainer.

Head over to a good organic sourced nuts, seeds and dried fruits store and mix and match to taste.

The best thing to do here is to “feel” what your body needs.

Feel a yes and feel a no to different nuts and seeds.

Just be careful with too many dried fruits as they are high in sugar and we tend to have a higher craving towards them because of it.

My favourite mix right now is:

Cashews, goji berries, golden berries, cacao nibs, green raisins(they aren’t covered in cheap oils) and pumpkin seeds

It’s inexpensive and easy to make your own healthy versions of, just watch for overdoing the dried fruit.

If you’re getting tired after them, change up the ratios.

3. Apple Pie Filling

I love this recipe and originally found it in the book Spot On Nutrition by Andrew Johnston.

It’s fairly simple but does require some cooking.

It completely makes up for it in taste.

Ingredients are:

– Apples(green are lowest in sugar)

– Coconut oil

– Great lakes gelatin

– Stevia

– Cinnamon

Options depending on your sensitivities(and tastes) include butter and honey/maple syrup

I don’t use any amounts in these recipes because I typically go by taste and they are tough to mess up.

Plus if you do mess them up it’s a great reason to make another batch and eat them both.

I start by coring and peeling the apples, saving the peels on the side of my baking tin since I don’t like them mixed in with the meat of the apple but love to eat the peels in this recipe.

Next I cut up or grate the apple in the tin and in a separate pot I melt down the coconut oil and mix with the cinnamon(I use a lot of cinnamon), honey, maple syrup and stevia.

Pour them over the apple and pop them into the oven.

When the apples start to release their juices I pour the great lakes gelatin into the tin and mix it all together so the gelatin gets into the whole dish while keeping the peels in one section as they have a different texture.

I usually let it bake until it’s juicy but not too soft as I like some crunch to my apples.

Once cooled this can be refrigerated for a delicious bite size jello snack that is absolutely full of nutrients.

The cinnamon, coconut oil and gelatin help regulate the sugars from the apples and sweetener but it is still a good idea to use a minimal amount of sugars in this unless you are training hard and your muscles need them.

4. Chia Seed Pudding

I love this pudding!

It goes great with so many different nuts, seeds, berries and fruits.

But of course we want to keep blood sugar stable to give us that nice smooth hummm of energy throughout the day.

The base of this is really simple.

It’s just chia seeds with water or a nut milk.

Lately my bodies loving cashews so I simply soak the cashews for 6-8 hours or overnight, then blend them with some water and bam you have cashew milk.

Some people strain out the bits of cashew but I just blend it more and love the nuttiness and nutrients.

Also if I want straight cashew milk I just add a little stevia, honey and vanilla extract to the blender and you have a delicious drink in minutes.

But back to the recipe.

Take some chia seeds and mix them with a little water.

They will swell up and release a gooey jelly like substance.

The more water the more they will swell up to a certain point after which it will just become more watery.

I usually let them sit in this water for about 1-3 hours depending on what i’m doing but it’s also possible to just throw the milk in with the chia seeds and some berries, pop them into a good glass tupperware(not plastic) and take with you to go.

But that’s really it.

Just the chia seeds with water(or milk) makes a pudding, then based on your taste buds and desires you can add more to it.

My favourite mix right now is:

– Cashew milk

– Chia seeds

– Blueberries

– Cocoa paste

– Stevia

– Honey

– Cinnamon

– Vanilla Extract

I make the cashew milk, add vanilla, cinnamon, honey and stevia and blend.

Then take that mix and stir in chia seeds and let sit for 1-3 hours.

Throw in a few blueberries and you’re done!

5. Sardines and avocado

 This recipe like most of the others came from my laziness and desire for a quick snack that keeps my body happy and satisfies my mouth.

Ingredients:

– Ripe avocado

– BPA free wild canned fish

– Lemon

– Sea salt/celtic salt/himalayan salt

– Pepper

Just mash up the avocado, and fish together.

Right now I really like wild pink salmon and herring fillets.

Then give it a squirt of lemon and add salt and pepper to taste.

It takes a minute or two and adding the lemon to the avocado keeps it from getting dark so it can stay for longer.

Again, notice the theme here, everything is a mix of protein and fat with a little bit of carbs to keep our tongue happy.

Just focus on healthy sourcing of the foods like making sure you get wild and organic ingredients.

6. Nut butter and apples(or celery)

Do I have to say more?

Its an old snack with a new spin on it because we have a huge influx of different nut butters in the last few years.

Of course you can always go with the healthier and more inexpensive route.

Simply buy your own nuts wholesale, soak them for a few hours and dry, then throw them into a food processor until it turns them into butter.

But the recipe is simple.

Slice up some apples or cut up some celery sticks and dip them in your nut butter of choice.

Takes seconds to make and really puts a damper on cravings.

7. Coconut oil(or MCT oil)

This is a more recent method of maintaining our brains functioning and not spiking blood sugar.

MCT(medium chain triglyceride) oil is basically coconut oil since coconut oil has tons of medium chain triglycerides.

These are fatty acids that are very easily absorbed by the body that actually provide a fuel source for the brain.

Some people eat the oils straight(I only like coconut oil if it’s cool) or just add it to a food or drink.

MCT oil is often added to coffee to take the edge off the coffee and give it a longer smoother “burn.”

Just grab and go!

8. Homemade Chocolate

 This is near and dear to my heart as a huge foodie and chocoholic.

What we are doing here is taking the raw ingredients that chocolate is made from(cacao) and melting it down with our favourite ingredients, then letting it cool in the fridge or really harden up in the freezer.

Ingredients:

– Raw cacao paste

– Cacao butter

– Coconut cream(the hard one not can)

– Coconut oil

– Vanilla axtract

– Sweeten with (Honey, stevia, maple syrup, blackstrap molasses)

– Toppings to test include: Anything you can cover in chocolate

Now it is important to note that raw cacao paste is very strong. It’s like coffee and because of this we want to dilute it down and mix it with other things like cacao butter, coconut cream and coconut oil.

The other main ingredients are to sweeten and provide more layers of flavor.

Then of course just add whatever topping you like.

So you take a little pot, and melt together the top 4 ingredients, feeling and testing for ratios.

I usually find a tablespoon of cacao paste is good for 2 tablespoons of coconut oil, a teaspoon of coconut cream and 2 tablespoons of cacao butter.

Once they are melted, let them cool a little bit and add whatever sweetener you have on hand.

I usually grab a muffin tin and add toppings in the individual trays of whatever I have available which can include:

– Peppermint oil

– Hemp seeds

– Mullberries

– Puffed grains

– Protein powder or collagen

– Walnuts

– Hazelnuts

Stir it a little in each individual tray and pop it into the fridge if you like it soft or freezer if you want it hard.

The key with this one is experimenting around and finding your own mix of flavors that satisfies you but with the base ingredients it creates a steady supply of energy and beats those cravings because of the chocolatey goodness.

9. Berries

 It’s hard to pass up berries.

We evolved with them and have eaten them for thousands if not millions of years.

They are amazing sources of nutrients and depending on the kind are actually very slow sources of carbohydrates.

This means they give our body energy and nutrients but wont give us so much that our body has to compensate and cause a fatigue rollercoaster we usually experience when eating poor processed foods.

Obviously, wild and organic or biodynamic sources of berries are the best.

It’s simple just grab them and go or add them to some of the recipes above.

Blueberry, raspberry and blackberry are safe bets but strawberry can be high in sugar content because of all of our agricultural hybridization techniques that just want more flavor.

10. Avocado Pudding

 Another delicious go to when you have a chocolate craving.

I haven’t experimented with a vanilla or berry pudding with avocado but it may be possible.

The key here is to use ripe avocados.

It’s simple, just blend the avocados with your sweeteners and flavours of choice.

Use a nut milk, nut butter or coconut milk/cream for more rich fat and slower sugar spikes.

My favourite recipe right now is:

– Avocado

– Coconut cream

– Cashew milk

– Honey

– Maple syrup

– Stevia

– Vanilla Extract

– Cacao Paste

Melt down and mix all of the ingredients except avocado, dont boil them!

Then simply peel the avocados and pop them into a blender or food processor, add the melted mix and blend to desired texture.

You can eat warm or cool and serve.

It goes great with berries added in.

And that’s it!

It’s simple and easy and studies show just how important it is for our brains to get steady energy without the spikes that are caused by most processed foods.

Surprised you were never educated about maintaining blood sugar by your healthcare provider?

It is a key factor in healing our brains and guts so that migraines cant stay around.

Check out our 10 steps to migraine health program to learn how much more you could be doing to heal right now!

We all want to eat well so that we can extend our lives and the quality of them.

But often times it can seem like we are eating really healthy but still experiencing migraines and as we now know, food is one of the biggest causes of neurological stress.

I suffered from terrible, gut wrenching, make me hide in a dark room and grip a bucket migraines, but after changing what I was eating(and a few other things) they went away and I’ve been migraine free for over 5 years now.

In this article I am going to talk about what you can do if you feel like you are eating healthy but your migraines just won’t stop.

If we eat a meal and feel tired, get cravings, get jittery, start yawning or feel brain fog, we are not eating right.

The way we know we are eating the right foods at the right times in the right proportions is that we go from a slight dip in our energy before the meal to a smooth and steady transition to energy again.

No dips, no cravings, no mess.

1. Manipulate Macronutrients

This is the biggest factor in post meal energy.

Our body is always asking for varying ratios of our macronutrients and we can understand these as proportions.

Macronutrients are the big categories our food falls into like protein, fat and carbohydrates.

If we eat a meal and feel tired, chances are our meal proportions were off during that meal and likely the last few meals too.

Now, we can fall into different categories depending on our ancestry because a norwegian’s ancestors have distinctly different needs than a zimbabweans.

In the north there was little to no sources of carbohydrates in the winter because the ground froze so they had to depend on proteins and fats from animal sources…

Near the equator there was consistent vegetation all year long providing carbohydrates so animal sources weren’t as necessary.

The extremes end up with a 90/10 ratio either way.

So you could be 90% animal foods and 10% plant foods in the north…

Or you could be 90% plant foods and 10% animal foods near the equator.

But those are the extremes.

Often times our needs end up changing throughout the day.

Where my morning meal may be best suited toward steady clean sources of energy with proteins and fats, my evening meal may have some more carbohydrates to help my body’s cortisol levels drop so that I can sleep easy.

If I am training hard my body does much better with more animal foods.

If im sedentary then it loves vegetables.

During the winter, warming slow cooked foods help me function at a much higher level…

And during the summer, fruits keep me cool.

Seeing the play here?

It’s very real and our body is constantly asking for changes.

Don’t make everything the same and switch it up based on your needs.

Often times I find sedentary people eating too many refined sources of carbohydrates which cause huge problems because the body doesn’t know what to do with it all, this leads to the brain getting an overload of sugar and subsequent spikes and crashes while the body tries to re-regulate itself.

Que the fatigue and cravings…

2. Deal with GI issues

If you are eating a “clean diet“, do you still experience bloating, burping, gas, indigestion, reflux etc.?

It’s important to understand that it’s no longer just about what we eat.

It’s also about what we absorb.

Our body:

Digests -> absorbs -> assimilates and eliminates food

When it’s functioning properly.

If we are having GI issues with a good diet then there are deeper pieces of the puzzle to look at and these most likely aren’t working right.

Some deeper issues include:

• Parasites and funguses

• Digestive strength

• Stress load

• Hormonal imbalance

• Physical impingements etc.

Go for a deeper dive and look at yourself and your life objectively. Because everything in your body and its functioning is connected.

If we are experiencing an overload in one area, it can spill over into everything else.

Assess these areas:

• Daily chemical intake

• Variety of movement

• Trauma

• Relationships

• Social life

• Joy

• Health

• Career

• Creativity

• Finances

• Education

• Home environment

• Spirituality

Check out this video on great foods for some GI issues

3. Is the food digesting?

If we are digesting our food properly then our digestion goes like this:

– First and foremost we think of the food and our digestive juices start forming

– Our mouth salivates and we make sure we chew our food thoroughly to break it down into liquid because our body only absorbs liquids

– Food enters our stomach where if we are healthy, our stomach secretes hydrochloric acid and the pH in the stomach drops very very low, enough to further break down the food

– Our stomach releases its contents into our intestines and bile gets secreted to neutralize the acidic pH and release enzymes like lipase(fat digesting), protease(protein digesting), amylase(carbohydrate digesting)

– Then this broken down food that should be liquid at this point moves through the intestines where it gets further broken down into the building blocks of life

– Proteins -> amino acids

– Carbohydrates -> sugar

– Fats -> fatty acids

– As it moves through our intestines the massive amount of bacteria we have breaks it down further, creates vitamins for us to use and assists with the absorption process of those nutrients

But each piece in this process can go wrong.

If it does, we are set up for gastrointestinal issues and indigestion.

Some problems include:

– Not connecting to the food so digestive juices are delayed which often happens when we are rushing through life

– Not chewing food causing large food particles to enter our digestion making their break down difficult

– Not having enough stomach acid because of high levels of stress, infections, medications, not being present with the food etc.

– Lack of digestive enzymes and bile to neutralize pH because of a weak digestive system from a number of stressors

– Imbalance of bacteria which cause the formation of waste, overgrowth, infections, indigestion of food, creation of gas etc.

Digestion is everything and health begins in the gut.

Our gut health is directly proportional to our head health and its crucial we take care of our digestion and fix these steps along the way so that food provides nutrients for us instead of more problems to deal with.

4. Double check it’s actually “clean”

There are 5 extremely important ingredients that can be hidden inside food and can turn it from a healthy food, to a head banger.

But of course at the end of the day, the foods your body is asking for is individual to you.

These 5 are:

– Hydrogenated oils

– Food additives

– Food preservatives

– Empty carbohydrates

– Processed meats and meat products

Hydrogenated oils are everywhere.

If you have a packaged food and the ingredients lists a type of oil, it’s likely hydrogenated.

The problem is these hydrogenated oils are absolutely poisonous for our physiology and especially our brains.

With headaches we need to be very weary of sources of fat because our brain is mostly fat so any time we eat these sources we don’t want our body substituting our tissues with toxic building blocks.

They are one of the biggest causes of GI distress and inflammation across the board.

Next there is food additives and preservatives.

When we think of our brain health we also need to think of our gut health because anything that will compromise the gut, get through it, and into circulation, can get into the brain.

Additives and preservatives like sodium benzoate cause our body to say no way.

They can aggravate our gut, creating immune and inflammatory responses and push up the total stress load(trigger level) on our bodies.

For common food additives and preservatives to avoid click here.

Then of course we hit the empty carbohydrates.

This is most commonly present in processed and packaged food, and ingredients like high fructose corn syrup are notorious for it.

They cause our blood sugar to go up, but without nutrient complexes.

Nutrient complexes are where macronutrients like carbohydrates are bound to all the other nutrients like vitamins, minerals, enzymes, cofactors etc.

For example, when we eat a strawberry, we are eating strawberry cells which contain sugar but the cell is so much more than just sugar and comes with millions of different nutrients we need.

Processed meats and meat derivatives are usually conventionally raised and this means it was not fed well, it did not have a good life and the problems that it has had will transfer through into its meat.

For example, if we feel sad we can feel it head to toe.

Not only do we feel the effects of it but every cell in our body will suffer because of it. Painful emotions release chemicals like cortisol that have harmful effects on every cell in our bodies and  this makes for very sick meat products.

Make sure you know where your meat is coming from.

5. Experiment with intermittent fasting/ changing meal times

One of the most common reports I get is that a patient is just not hungry in the morning so it’s hard for them to start off with breakfast being the biggest meal(which it should be for a dozen different reasons).

But it’s usually that they are also eating very very late at night and throwing off their circadian rhythms(day/night cycles).

This is really hard on the body and will destroy digestive ability.

Our body needs sleep to: rest, recover and repair.

Not to digest food.

Avoid eating late unless you have blood sugar issues in which case you need to have a nutritionist guide you on what to eat so that you can sleep sound and recover your blood sugars variability.

One of the best ways to improve digestion, heal hormones, stabilize blood sugar and activate the cleaning up processes of the body is intermittent fasting.

An intermittent fast is basically a mini fast.

The standard is fasting 16 hours and eating 8 hours a day.

This means only water for the 16 hours and during the 8 hours you fit in all your meals to make sure you get enough nutrients and calories.

But again, experimenting with meal times is important and ideally you would start off your 8 hour eating cycle first thing in the morning when you wake up.

Giving your body this 16 hour break from digestion helps heal up any problems you’ve developed over the years.

6. Get Tested

“Current research in parasite books says that approximately 90% of the world population has an active parasite infection”(Link)

This is everyone, not just third world countries like many people believe.

Now I’ve mentioned parasites a few times but this is highly underrated and almost every single patient I’ve tested has a gut imbalance, whether that be a pathogen or just dysbiosis(imbalanced good:bad gut bacteria ratio).

The way we can understand this simply is that when our body gets weak, when we don’t have proper hygiene, when we are highly stressed or put into foreign situations that our body isn’t adapted to like tropical vacations…

We can succumb to these tiny tiny organisms taking over our gut and becoming harmful.

This will kill our digestive capacity and any healthy food we eat will feed them instead of us.

If you have trouble with digestion or unexplainable illnesses and are told by specialists that you are fine then I suggest getting tested.

A regular doctor will usually not run the right labs so I recommend a functional medicine practitioner or naturopath.

Get tested.

7. Hone your other foundations

Now I’ve talked about the foundation principles before in an article here.

Without having them running at least half decently, our body will be under so much stress that it won’t be able to digest properly.

Each of the foundation principles is a staple in how our body functions so that it can maintain itself.

If you are eating clean and still having issues digesting then make sure the others are running at full capacity.

It can often take a while to reprogram patterns that we’ve been using for years especially things like breathing into our chest.

But consistent practise of them will create a cascade of beneficial reactions that are so much more powerful than just adding a supplement or changing a drug.

For example breathing is not just necessary for oxygen delivery but also CO2 delivery because we need them both to survive.

Breathing is also necessary for our organ function because it acts like a massage for them which without they wouldn’t clean themselves out properly.

Breathing is also a huge lymphatic pump. Our lymphatic system is like the waste management system of our body but it doesn’t have a pump like our blood does with our heart.

Where we have 3L of blood, we have 10L of lymph in our body. But this fluid relies on muscular contractions and the expansion of our diaphragm through breathing to be pumped.

Not only that but breathing also activates digestive and relaxing receptors if we do it right, or stress and anxiety receptors if we do it wrong.

All of these things can be improved if we breath right and this is just one example of how strong the foundation principles are for health.

If you want to know more about the foundation principles start the 10 steps program that has a dedicated module in week 7 for the foundation principles.

You can click here for the 10 steps program.

Eating a great diet is the absolute foundation for migraine and headache health.

Just the simple removal of food we are sensitive to from our diet has been shown in studies to provide near 100% improvement.

This is the basis for my new guide that is currently in its pre-release.

The food triggers guide is a one stop guide to clear up the confusion around food triggers.

In the guide I go into depth about:

– What causes food triggers

– How to heal your food triggers

– The most successful studies with food on headaches

– Gut healing basics

Get on the pre-release list here to be notified before everyone else when it comes out.

Click here to join the list.

Looking for a simple pyramid that lays out what foods to eat and what foods to avoid? Check out the migraineur food pyramid here.