The Headache Prevention Cookbook: Eating Right to Prevent Migraines and Other Headaches
Food can'tcureheadaches, but avoiding certain foods may prevent  them, according to author David R. Marks, medical director of the New England  Center for Headache. Some foods commonly trigger headaches in some people. If  you're a headache sufferer, eliminating those foods from your diet is a sensible  second step towards managing headaches. (The first step is to see your doctor to  determine if there is some underlying condition that is causing the  headaches.)The key is to go on an elimination diet that avoids trigger foods such as most  cheeses, chocolate, nuts, certain meats, preservatives, artificial sweeteners,  MSG, caffeine, beans, out-of-the-oven yeast products (e.g., pizza, yeast breads,  doughnuts), alcohol (especially red wine), ice cream, olive oil, and many, many  more. If you were left to your own devices to figure out what's left after  eliminating all these foods, you'd probably give up within a day. But Laura  Marks has done the work for you, putting together 100 recipes that contain none  (whew!) of the forbidden foods.The Headache Prevention Cookbook's  recipes aren't bland or boring. They include Hearty  Potato-Mushroom Frittata, Crepes with Spinach and Cheese Filling, Eggplant  "Caviar," Corn and Carrot Chowder, Linguine with White Clam Sauce, Garlic  Chicken, Cornish Hens and Wild Rice with Apricot Sauce, Asian Ginger Beef with  Broccoli, Seafood Curry, and Angel Food-Strawberry Delight.The authors suggest that you follow this diet, using their recipes and others  you create yourself, for at least two months, and see if your headaches go away.  Then gradually reintroduce the foods you avoided, one per week, so you can track  which foods are your personal headache triggers. Once you've figured that out,  avoiding those foods permanently can be your ticket to a headache-free future.--Joan Price