If there was ever a food category that evoke’s strong emotions, it’s chocolate. So allow me to tread carefully on the subject of chocolate as a headache trigger.
First, there is no one food that triggers headaches among people who experience headache disorders. In fact, probably every food out there could be a trigger for someone. Tracking food triggers can help you identify the food item that may be triggering your headaches.
When it comes to chocolate specifically, two double-blinded clinical studies (those in which neither the researcher nor the subject knows who is getting the chocolate or the placebo) have been conducted on the subject of headache and chocolate. The first found that chocolate is rarely a cause of headaches.1 The other found no association at all between chocolate and headaches.2
“Chocolate is tricky because there is good evidence to suggest that, with chocolate, patients may get a premonition to a migraine a day or two before in the form of a food craving,” says Frederick G. Freitag, DO, FAHS, medical director at Baylor University Medical Center’s Comprehensive Headache Center and member of the National Headache Foundation’s board of directors. If that food craving is chocolate, and the person then gets a headache after consuming the chocolate, then if it makes sense that the person will think chocolate triggered the headache. But the reality is that the headache was likely already on its way before the chocolate was consumed.
Even if chocolate is an unlikely headache trigger, keep in mind that chocolate does contain some caffeine (especially dark chocolate) and some similarly acting chemicals (such as theobromines) that may mimic caffeine’s action in sensitive people.
Bottom line: For most people with headaches, chocolate is safe in moderate amounts.
Leslee Carver, RD, MSPH, LDN, is clinical nutrition manager at Saint Joseph Hospital, Provena Health-Resurrection Health Care in Chicago.
References:
1. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry.
2. Cephalalgia.
