Pickled and fermented foods
Food is transformed during fermentation by a chemical reaction between sugar and bacteria or yeast, which produces beneficial probiotics. Foods and drinks that have undergone fermentation include:
- Kefir — a fermented milk drink
- Kimchi — a popular Korean food made with seasoned and fermented veggies like cabbage and radishes
- Miso — a traditional Japanese seasoning made from fermented soybeans
- Kombucha — fermented tea
- Yogurt — milk sugar, known as lactose, that is fermented by a type of culture that produces lactic acid
Unfortunately, pickled and fermented foods, such as aged cheeses, can have a lot of tyramine in them. Tyramine-related headaches show quickly and intensely within a half-hour of digestion of tyramine-containing foods, according to the author of an article in N1-Headache, headache medicine, and women's health specialist Anne MacGregor, MD. This is in contrast to some migraine sufferers' reports of several hours or within a 24-hour period. But if fermented foods and beverages end up not being for you, don’t despair — you can still reap many of their benefits by taking a probiotic supplement.
