When a migraine hits, the right foods can ease nausea, stabilize your blood sugar, and avoid making the pain worse, while the wrong ones can intensify symptoms or drag out an attack. What you eat between migraines matters just as much, since certain dietary patterns can reduce how often they occur. Here’s what to reach for and what to skip.
Eat Something Simple and Soon
Dropping blood sugar is one of the most reliable migraine triggers, and it can also make an existing attack worse. The National Headache Foundation recommends eating every three to four hours to keep blood sugar steady. During a migraine, you probably won’t feel like eating a full meal, but getting something small into your system helps.
Focus on slow-digesting carbohydrates: whole grain toast, oatmeal, lentils, beans, or berries. These break down gradually and prevent the blood sugar spikes and crashes that can amplify head pain. Avoid sugary snacks or white bread, which spike your glucose quickly and then drop it just as fast. A small bowl of oatmeal with a handful of blueberries is a solid choice during an active migraine because it’s bland enough for a queasy stomach while still providing sustained energy.
Ginger for Nausea
Nausea is one of the most disabling parts of a migraine, and it makes eating anything feel impossible. Ginger has solid clinical backing here. A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials found that ginger significantly reduced the incidence of nausea and vomiting during migraine attacks, with as little as 400 mg of ginger extract also improving pain and functional ability.
You don’t need a supplement. Fresh ginger sliced into hot water makes a simple tea. Grating a thumbnail-sized piece into warm water with a little honey gives you a drinkable option even when your stomach is rebelling. Candied ginger or ginger chews work too, though watch for high sugar content.
Hydrate, but Think Beyond Plain Water
Dehydration is a well-known migraine trigger, and sodium plays a more specific role than most people realize. Research from USC found that during a migraine, sodium levels in the cerebrospinal fluid (the liquid surrounding your brain and spinal cord) are elevated, even when blood sodium levels are normal. The brain’s ability to balance sodium appears to be disrupted in people who get migraines.
This doesn’t mean you should load up on salt. It means that hydration matters more than just drinking water. A broth-based soup, coconut water, or water with a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon can help your body absorb fluid more effectively than plain water alone. During an attack, sipping warm broth also has the advantage of being easy on your stomach.
Foods That Make Migraines Worse
Certain compounds in food are well-documented migraine triggers, and eating them during an attack is likely to make things worse. The main culprits are tyramine, nitrites, sulfites, and MSG.
- Aged cheese is one of the most common triggers. The older and sharper the cheese, the higher its tyramine content. This includes cheddar, brie, parmesan, blue cheese, and anything that’s been sitting in your fridge getting stronger.
- Processed meats like hot dogs, salami, pepperoni, bacon, beef jerky, and deli meats preserved with nitrites or nitrates are frequent offenders.
- Fermented and pickled foods including sauerkraut, kimchi, miso, tempeh, and soy sauce (which often contains MSG) can trigger or worsen symptoms.
- Certain fruits are surprisingly problematic. Bananas, dried fruits like raisins (high in both tyramine and sulfites), avocados, figs, dates, and any overripe fruit can be triggers.
- Yogurt, sour cream, and buttermilk also contain enough tyramine to be worth avoiding during an active migraine.
Pizza is a particularly bad choice during a migraine because it combines aged cheese, processed meat, and often MSG in one dish. If you’re mid-attack and someone offers to order food for you, steer them toward plain rice, toast, or a simple chicken broth instead.
The Caffeine Question
Caffeine is both a migraine treatment and a migraine trigger, depending on how much you consume and how regularly. At doses around 100 to 130 mg (roughly one strong cup of coffee), caffeine provides a small but measurable pain-relieving benefit. It’s one of the active ingredients in several over-the-counter migraine medications for this reason.
The problem comes with overconsumption or inconsistency. Chronic high caffeine intake has been linked to chronic migraine patterns, and skipping your usual coffee can trigger a withdrawal headache that’s hard to distinguish from a migraine. If you normally drink coffee, having a small cup during a migraine may help. If you don’t normally drink it, a migraine attack isn’t the time to start. One cup is the ceiling during an attack.
Omega-3s for Fewer Migraines Over Time
What you eat between migraines can change how often they happen. A study funded by the National Institutes of Health found that people who increased their intake of omega-3 fatty acids (the kind found in salmon, sardines, mackerel, and other fatty fish) while reducing omega-6 fatty acids (found in vegetable oils like corn, soybean, and sunflower oil) had fewer headache days per month, fewer hours of headache overall, and less time spent in moderate-to-severe pain.
The typical modern diet is heavy on omega-6 and light on omega-3, which creates a pro-inflammatory balance in the body. Shifting that ratio doesn’t require a dramatic overhaul. Eating fatty fish two to three times a week, cooking with olive oil instead of vegetable oil, and snacking on walnuts or flaxseeds rather than chips fried in seed oils makes a meaningful difference over weeks and months. This isn’t a quick fix for your current migraine, but it’s one of the most evidence-backed dietary strategies for reducing future attacks.
Magnesium-Rich Foods
Magnesium deficiency is common in people with migraines, and the American Migraine Foundation recognizes magnesium supplementation at 400 to 600 mg daily as a preventive strategy. But food sources of magnesium are worth building into your regular diet as well. Dark leafy greens (spinach, Swiss chard), pumpkin seeds, almonds, black beans, and dark chocolate (70% cacao or higher) are all concentrated sources.
During an active migraine, a handful of pumpkin seeds or a small square of dark chocolate won’t resolve the attack, but consistently eating magnesium-rich foods helps keep your baseline levels where they need to be. Many people with migraines are chronically low without realizing it.
A Simple Migraine-Day Meal Plan
When you’re in pain and nauseous, decision-making feels impossible. Having a default plan helps. Here’s what a migraine day can look like:
- First thing: Ginger tea with a small piece of plain toast or a few crackers. This settles your stomach enough to eat more later.
- When you can manage more: Oatmeal with berries, or plain rice with a soft-boiled egg. Both are bland, easy to digest, and provide steady energy.
- Throughout the day: Warm bone broth or chicken broth, sipped slowly. This handles hydration, sodium, and a small amount of protein all at once.
- If your appetite returns: Baked salmon with steamed vegetables and brown rice gives you omega-3s, magnesium from the greens, and complex carbohydrates.
The pattern is simple: bland, whole foods, nothing aged or fermented, no processed meat, steady small portions rather than one large meal. Keep ginger tea and broth stocked so you don’t have to think about it when an attack starts.