I was 17 when I had my first migraine. For several hours I felt sick, dizzy, oddly distanced from my surroundings. Then came the pain: a relentless, all-encompassing stabbing just behind my right eye. My mother, a lifelong sufferer, promptly issued me with a series of nutritional instructions: avoid red wine, cheese and chocolate; go easy on oranges. I obey these – with the occasional chocolate-related exception – to this day, and the effects are tangible: one gulp of mulled wine, even a taste of red-wine gravy, and I'm in bed for three days.
Which is why I'm following Channel 4's new health programme, The Food Hospital, with particular interest. The eight-part series, which kicked off last Tuesday, aims to show the importance of diet in managing even some of the most serious health conditions – and in some cases, proving that dietary changes can be a viable alternative to drugs.
Patients undergo consultations with three photogenic experts – dietitian Lucy Jones; Dr Gio Miletto, a GP; and consultant bariatric surgeon Shaw Somers – who together come up with a nutritional plan of action. Twelve weeks later, the patients return to measure the impact it has had on their health.
This has its faults – the "hospital" itself, all plate-glass and pine, could easily convince channel-surfers that they have landed on an episode of Grand Designs; and a little too much Embarrassing Bodies-esque relish is taken in some consultations. But the premise is timely: our interest in food and health is at an all-time high. The charity Allergy UK believes that up to 45% of people in Britain have some sort of food intolerance, and each week brings a new food-related headline covering everything from common complaints (cranberry juice to ease cystitis; health-giving "superfoods") to life-threatening disease (Steve Jobs reportedly drank carrot juice in an attempt to beat pancreatic cancer).
Much of this should be treated with suspicion: a multimillion-pound industry has grown around food-allergy testing, and a 2008 survey by Which? concluded that many expensive intolerance tests were "not medically proven".
It's difficult to naviagte the conflicting, even misleading, information – so to watch The Food Hospital's experts do so is fascinating. And the results are sometimes staggering. In the first episode, 24-year-old Lauren, whose hirsutism (due to polycystic ovary syndrome) has rendered her a virtual recluse, sees her symptoms alleviated, and her confidence so improved that she puts on a swimsuit and visits her local pool. Chris, who has type-2 diabetes, follows a strict diet, and his blood sugar level returns to normal.
We also meet seven-year-old Harvey, who is suffering from terrible migraines up to five times a week. His first consultation is heartbreaking – his mother shows Miletto a picture Harvey has drawn of himself with his head cut off, beneath the words "I want to be killed." But after observing dietary changes suggested by Jones, Harvey has had just two headaches, and no full-blown migraines.
The opportunity to see whether Jones's recommendations could have a similar impact for me is too good to miss. Jones can't offer a detailed consultation – that would require a referral from my GP – but she's happy to talk me through the changes that could prove beneficial (these are also outlined, along with nutritional suggestions for many conditions, in a recipe book that accompanies the series).
Several of her recommendations tally with my own experience. "The most recent research," Jones says, "suggests that 'amines' – chemicals found in foods such as cheese, chocolate, wine and beer – can act as a migraine trigger."
Coffee, fatty foods, and anything containing additives (especially processed meats and MSG – farewell Chinese takeaways) are also potential culprits. Avoiding fast food and ready meals and upping my protein intake could make a difference.
None of the GPs and neurologists I have seen over the years has prescribed anything similar, so I give it a go. Ideally I would remove one foodstuff a week over 12 weeks, and keep a food diary. I don't have that long, so I remove the food I can most easily live without, such as bacon, ham, white bread, cakes and biscuits. Instead I eat platefuls of protein (eggs, pulses, fresh meat) and make suggested recipes such as homemade hummus and salsa with wholegrain crackers and crudites.
As bad luck would have it, I have a migraine on the first day, so am forced to medicate; but the attack does seem to pass quickly, and I don't get another the rest of the week. I don't miss the foods I've eliminated (though I do slip up once with a kebab) – and, most significantly, I feel more in control of a condition that so often seems to be controlling me.
That, to my mind, is the key benefit of using food as medicine – as long as it is done in consultation with a doctor or dietitian who can help you cut through the nutritional misinformation, you can actually do something to take charge of your own health.
Jones agrees. "Nutrition is very much an emerging science," she says, "It allows people to take some responsibility for their own health, and that is invaluable."
The Food Hospital is on Channel 4 on Tuesdays at 8pm. The Food Hospital: Simple Delicious Recipes for a Healthy Life is out on Michael Joseph on 10 November, priced £16.99
