What is a Food Headache?

Headaches are as common as a cold and nobody is immune against getting headaches.

Headaches can, in lay-person’s terms be described as a pain in the region of the head or even the neck area. The brain tissue itself is not sensitive to pain as it does not have any pain receptors. The pain is caused by the disturbance of the pain-sensitive structures around the brain.

People get headaches for many reasons – sinus infection, a hangover, tension, etc. – but headaches are also caused by food or drinks.

Allergic headaches may be the mild kind that is often accompanied by a stuffy or running nose or a feeling of pressure in the sinuses. Or they may be pounding headaches that make you really want to get away from it all. At worst, food allergy can cause migraine, a particularly painful type of headache that usually affects only one side of the head and may be accompanied by dizziness, nausea and oversensitivity to light and sound.

Notorious headache foods include wine, nuts – and the big culprit chocolate. Some people can diagnose their chocolate headache easily. They eat a chocolate bar and within 20 minutes they begin to feel stuffed up and headachy.  

In other cases, the headache is not so easily connected with what was consumed and therefore triggered the headache. A new white wine may contain smaller quantities of allergenic products than an aged, red Cabernet with various other vintages of wine, sherries, ports, cordials, whiskeys and brandies. The same is true of nuts. 

A person may have white wine with salted almonds for cocktails and later feel on top of the world, but be felled with a splitting headache after an apparently similar cocktail menu of sherry and cashew nuts.

In some instances people do not even realise the headache is caused by some food allergy. The best is that when you are pestered by splitting headaches for no apparent reason shortly after consuming some food or drinks, consult with your doctor.

By Hendrik DB de Villiers