Nitrates, Sodium, and Headaches.. OH MY!

So as you guessed from my last posts, we have recently moved and started a new fresh life style. Well one other thing we have tried to change or at least reduce is the nitrates and sodium intake we all had. We all know sodium is bad for your heart in large amounts but I had no idea what the other stuff did. Here is my story ;) You all know you love my stories :)

I get migraines. My mom gets migraines, my grandfather gets migraines.. kinda a family thing. I have had them for most of my life and they suck. Well thanks to genetics, Oldest gets them too. I was so upset when he got his first headache at 4. They were coming maybe every 6 to 8 months and would knock him out for a day. Terrible :( They were not getting much worse until recently. About a year ago they started getting bad and coming on monthly. Then when we moved they were almost once every 2 weeks!!! I took him to his pediatrician and they gave him meds that would help prevent them. BUT.. they made him very cranky and sleepy. He literally slept through a small fire thanks to a reading lamp ( that is a WHOLE different story) and that was the point I broke and said no more of this medication.

I was so upset because as soon as I took him off he had a migraine. I could not figure out what the deal was. He was eating all his normal foods ( this was before I cleaned everything up) and I was at a loss. Then came the AH HA moment...

 I was out with one of my running mamas and we were finishing up a 10k. I told her we should go get a glass of wine when we finish. She said she would LOVE to but cant drink wine. She was allergic, to a point, to the nitrates in the wine. It gave her terrible headaches. She said her son and daughter also cant eat a lot of processed meats because they will get headaches. UM WHAT????

So wait.. you are telling me that there is a possibility that all the bologna and hot dogs my kid eats that I FEED him could possibly be the culprits causing his headaches? Well like with the hippy farmer.. I will give this a try. OMG there is so much sodium in everything!!! This is going to prove to be a daunting task. First on the cuts, hot dogs. Oldest was so mad when I told him that, but he was OK with it when I told him that we were trying to get rid of the headaches. SO I started to buy low sodium lunch meat and dropped bologna totally. I also started to cut out MORE of the processed stuff because aside from dye it has loads of sodium.

Guess what? Oldest stopped having headaches. JUST LIKE THAT. One night I let him have a hot dog for dinner. I ended picking him up the next day from school with a migraine. I let him have one "bubba" frozen burger for dinner, guess who was sent home the next day with a migraine! Come to think of it.. now that we don't eat that stuff, I have not had a headache either. Huh....

So my point? Read everything that you are buying at the store! I have found a great brand of lunch meat by Hormel. Its in the paper boxes in the meat section. Its called Natural selection. It makes everything. Ham, turkey, bacon, pepperoni, hotdogs... everything he stopped eating. It is all low sodium and no nitrates in it aside from what happens in meat naturally. It is no more expensive then the other name brands, but it is about $1 more then Kroger and Publix brand lunch meat.  I have worked in the ham and the bacon and Oldest was so happy. Wait until I tell him about the hot dogs! He may have a freak out :)

It does not take too much extra time to make your own burgers, or in tonight's case, your own tater tots :) I will add some of the low sodium stuff to my favorites page :)