Last updated on January 17th, 2023 at 02:38 pm
Can eating too much cause headaches? Over-indulgence is a common cause of diet related headaches. Keep reading to learn more about the phenomenon…
Eating and enjoying food is one of the few true pleasures of life. As much as humans like eating, and innovating new dishes to enjoy and keep vibrancy, it can sometimes also cause distressing effects.
Headaches caused by food are very common and can quickly spoil your day.A lot of people have noticed that eating too much food causes a headache, particularly heavy foods rich in gluten.
A lot others have noticed that this pain can be bearable ordinarily, but quickly increases when they eat certain specific foods. If this occurs frequently, the individual facing these symptoms would need to consult a physician or doctor to ensure everything is alright.
In other cases, understanding the root cause of the headache, will help prevent it. If this resonates with you, keep on reading to find what can trigger headaches, and how to resolve them.
Can I Get a Headache After Eating Too Much?
Eating too much can cause a headache for some people, as can eating dairy. Alternatively, eating too much of a certain food can also have the same effect. For example, some people get a headache if they eat too much cheese.
There are various types of headaches including:
- Migraines.
- Food Allergy/ Intolerance
- Reactive Hypoglycemia
- Injury to the Jaw
- Brain Freeze
Before taking precautions to cure the headaches, it is essential to identify the type of headache. A brain freeze for example happens when a person consumes too much cold food like ice creams very quickly, however, this type of pain usually goes away as quickly as it sets in.
If a person seems to be experiencing a sharp headache or elevated headache after consumption of certain foods, it must be noted. This would indicate either an allergy or intolerance to that food item, or that food is a migraine trigger.
Dizzy and Headache After Eating – What’s the Cause?
Headaches and dizziness after eating can be caused due to various reasons. Consumption of very heavy or oily foods is one of the most common reasons for this.
Certain foods can also trigger this feeling. For example, caffeine containing food and beverages often lead to a feeling of nausea, dizziness and headaches.
Some of the main issues causing these symptoms after eating include:
- Postprandial hypotension
- Non-diabetic hypoglycemia
- Dietary allergens
Dietary allergens or triggers simply refers to the food items like nuts, pickles, alcohol, etc. which trigger these symptoms.
If an individual experiences these symptoms along with a feeling of fainting, chest pains, or lack of consciousness, they must contact a doctor.
I get a Headache after Eating Oily Food – Remedy?
Oily foods are notorious for causing headaches after consumption. People who consume a lot of oily food will often find themselves battling a nasty headache.
Oily foods are one of the fastest migraine causing foods. People who experience migraines will often find oily foods to be triggering their misery.
Ignoring these and continuing with unhealthy lifestyles would only worsen the condition. Thus, individuals need to carefully notice repetitive symptoms and make the necessary changes for a healthier life.
When looking for remedies for this issue, the simple answer is to avoid oily foods. Regulate how much oil is used in cooking, refrain from eating deep fried dishes.
The high caloric content of oily food items leads to the causation of headaches. One can also cut out as much oil as possible.
Drinking enough water, rather than carbonated drinks to flush out toxins is also important in combating headaches that are caused by oily foods. Adopting healthy lifestyle choices is essential to maintaining a suffering free body.
Avoidance of very oily products is the only immediate remedy for fixing a headache caused by oily foods. In the long run, including a healthy exercise regimen, monitoring one’s water intake, and eating healthy goes a long way.
Can Milk cause Headaches
Dairy products including milk are one of the most widely known migraine triggering foods. Since these are consumed quite often, they are after caffeine and chocolates, a leading trigger for migraine.
Additionally, a lot of individuals are lactose intolerant but unaware of it. In a lot of countries, lactose intolerance is not even understood.
As such, people continue to consume milk thereby continually experiencing distressing symptoms.
In these cases, a person can experience extreme gassiness, which in turn can cause headaches and nausea. Failure to address the issue, and taking necessary precautions like cutting out milk and dairy products can lead to worsening of the issue.
Thus, it is important to note if milk causes headaches or worsens them and stop consuming it. Regulating consumption to remove it either altogether, or at least refraining from its consumption when a person is already suffering a headache.
Why Do I Get a Hunger Headache Even After Eating?
Hunger headaches are often really annoying, and these occur because the body needs a certain amount of calories to function normally. Lack of sufficient calories can lead to a headache.
Hunger headaches are perhaps one of the easiest types of headaches to remedy. All you need is to get some food in your stomach, however, watching what you eat is important even at this junction.
A lot of people feel an almost immediate relief after consuming food when they suffer from hunger headaches. However, a lot of people also do not see a quick betterment, and wonder what is wrong.
Hunger headaches can continue for a while after one has consumed food. This is because the body needs some time to process the food and turn it into the calories that it requires to function normally.
What is the Cause of a Headache After Eating Spicy Food?
Spicy food triggers headaches and migraines for a lot of individuals. While there has been no direct link found between spicy foods and headaches, there can be indirect causes.
Certain spices, for example, can be allergens for certain people which can thus cause a headache. The intolerance for certain spices commonly found or used in preparing spicy foods can trigger migraines easily even if used in small quantities.
Alternatively, in some cases, a person may not be averse to spicy food or spices, but to the food item in which the spices are used. For example, if a person gets headaches from consuming Tofu, then a spicy preparation of this ingredient or any other preparation would lead to a headache.
In such cases, the spiciness of the food is not the problem, instead, the hero ingredient of the dish is the culprit. Any ingredient used in a recipe can trigger a headache for different people.
Why do I get a headache after eating meat?
A lot of individuals feel extreme headaches after the consumption of meat. For starters, red meat is quite unhealthy when consumed regularly.
To increase protein intake, white meat, eggs, and plant based options must be chosen. Meat contains a lot of fat which is known for causing headaches upon excessive intake.
Additionally, a lot of people are not completely tolerant of meat and meat based products. However, because they usually only suffer mild symptoms like headaches, this often goes unnoticed.
If a person notices that they get a headache after eating meat, they need to curb or regulate its intake. One very effective method is to regulate its cooking style. Do not drench your piece of meat in oil and butter.
Find other cooking methods that would make it safe to consume without adding on the extra calories. Excessive calories can not only be detrimental in the long run, but even annoying and harmful immediately by triggering headaches.
Individuals for whom meat is a trigger food for migraine or otherwise, must avoid its consumption as far as possible. This is the only sure shot way of avoiding headaches after eating meat.
Will I Get a Headache Immediately After Eating Sugar?
Headaches after eating sugary foods are quite a common occurrence. Consumption of food that is high in sugar causes a very quick spick in blood sugar level, which can cause headaches.
As quickly as the blood sugar levels spike, they also shoot down extremely quickly and sharply. These steep fluctuations have a strong effect in terms of reactive hypoglycemia.
This causes a person to feel light headed or get a headache. However, how quickly this type of headache develops varies.
Some individuals experience an immediate occurrence of headache after consuming sugary foods. Other people experience the development of a headache up to 4 hours after consumption of the foods.
Is It Normal to Get a Headache After Eating Rice?
Rice can have a migraine causing effect on some people however it is very rare. If this happens, the cause can be an allergy to rice, certain types of rice, or to carbohydrates.
Additionally, diabetics or pre-diabetic individuals, or anyone suffering from reactive hypoglycemia can experience a headache after eating rice. This can occur up to 4 hours after eating rice.
Headaches caused as a result of this are not always long-lasting. However, it can take some time for the hypoglycemia to get better, thereby determining how long the headaches last.
