If you experience migraines often, and just can’t seem to get to the bottom of what is causing your symptoms, a food sensitivity may be to blame. While there are some very common food triggers when it comes to making migraines worse (wine and aged cheese,) more research is coming out on how the body reacts to foods one is sensitive to. The body may not react the same way it does to a standard food allergy, but instead, leads to digestive health symptoms, and things like migraines.

The onset of symptoms after consuming a food you have a sensitivity to maybe also be delayed which can make pinpointing the food intolerance challenging. The good news is that studies have shown that avoiding the foods that some has developed IgG antibodies to can help alleviate migraine symptoms. (1)

So, how do you go about finding out what foods you are sensitive to?

How to Uncover Food Sensitivities

One way to uncover potential food sensitivities is to start an elimination diet. Start by eliminating the foods you think you may be sensitive to, and keep them out of your diet for at least two weeks. After two weeks of avoiding these foods, add one food back in at a time, and wait to see if you notice any reactions. If you do, you will want to keep this food out of your diet long term

There are also at home food sensitivity tests you can order that will tell you exactly what you may be reacting to.

If you are a chronic migraine sufferer, it may not be a bad idea to do a little detective work to see if you can pinpoint which foods are making your symptoms worse. Start by eliminating some of the more well-known culprits like dairy, gluten, and soy, and see if you can determine which foods are potentially making your migraine symptoms worse.