Beyond individual foods, the overall quality of your diet and your metabolic health matter.

Healthier eating patterns, fewer severe attacks

• Women with migraine who ate more healthfully had less frequent and less severe attacks ^1,2.
• A diet rich in fruits, vegetables and whole foods, similar to the DASH eating plan, has been linked to lower migraine severity ³.
• Healthy eating and lifestyle habits are associated with fewer headache days ⁴.
• People whose diets and lifestyles favored antioxidants were less likely to report severe headache or migraine ⁵.

Salt

Interestingly, in a large US survey, higher sodium intake was associated with lower odds of migraine ⁶. This does not mean you should eat more salt, especially if you have high blood pressure, but very low salt intake is not automatically helpful.

Body weight

Obesity is associated with a higher risk of migraine and of migraine becoming chronic ^7,8. Lifestyle factors like physical inactivity and smoking are also linked to more headache ⁹. Fat tissue is metabolically active and can promote inflammation, which may add to the migraine bucket ¹⁰.

A plant-forward approach

A study of a low-fat, plant-based diet with an elimination phase found reductions in migraine pain ¹¹. Dr. Harcourt’s guidelines emphasize “eating the rainbow”: lots of fresh vegetables, quality proteins and healthy fats. See The Mastering Migraine Diet.

Research cited on this page

1. Hajjarzadeh S, Mahdavi R, Shalilahmadi D, et al. The association of dietary patterns with migraine attack frequency in migrainous women. Nutr Neurosci. 2020;23(9):724-730. PubMed 30489231 · DOI
2. Hajjarzadeh S, Nikniaz Z, Shalilahmadi D, et al. Comparison of Diet Quality Between Women With Chronic and Episodic Migraine. Headache. 2019;59(8):1221-1228. PubMed 31453643 · DOI
3. Mirzababaei A, Khorsha F, Togha M, et al. Associations between adherence to dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH) diet and migraine headache severity and duration among women. Nutr Neurosci. 2020;23(5):335-342. PubMed 30064351 · DOI
4. Altamura C, Botti G, Paolucci M, et al. Promoting healthy eating can help preventing migraine: a real-life preliminary study. Neurol Sci. 2018;39(Suppl 1):155-156. PubMed 29904842 · DOI
5. Geng D, Liu H, Wang H, et al. Association between Oxidative Balance Score and Severe Headache or Migraine among American Adults A Cross-Section Study. Curr Neurovasc Res. 2024;21(2):139-147. PubMed 38323611 · DOI
6. Pogoda JM, Gross NB, Arakaki X, et al. Severe Headache or Migraine History is Inversely Correlated With Dietary Sodium Intake: NHANES 1999-2004. Headache. 2016;56(4):688-98. PubMed 27016121 · DOI
7. Huang Q, Liang X, Wang S, et al. Association between Body Mass Index and Migraine: A Survey of Adult Population in China. Behav Neurol. 2018;2018:6585734. PubMed 29849812 · DOI
8. Su M, Yu S. Chronic migraine: A process of dysmodulation and sensitization. Mol Pain. 2018;14:1744806918767697. PubMed 29642749 · DOI
9. Hagen K, Åsberg AN, Stovner L, et al. Lifestyle factors and risk of migraine and tension-type headache. Follow-up data from the Nord-Trøndelag Health Surveys 1995-1997 and 2006-2008. Cephalalgia. 2018;38(13):1919-1926. PubMed 29517305 · DOI
10. Gazerani P. A Bidirectional View of Migraine and Diet Relationship. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2021;17:435-451. PubMed 33603381 · DOI
11. Bunner AE, Agarwal U, Gonzales JF, et al. Nutrition intervention for migraine: a randomized crossover trial. J Headache Pain. 2014;15(1):69. PubMed 25339342 · DOI