Have you noticed how your Tinnitus spikes or gets worse after you eat certain foods? Foods can certainly cause your Tinnitus to flare up. We give you information on the most common culprits when it comes to foods that trigger Tinnitus. You might even be consuming these on a daily basis, causing the ringing in your ears to flare up.
Worst Foods that Cause Your Tinnitus to Flare Up
1 Salty Foods (Deli Meats | Processed Foods | Fast Foods| Pickles)
Salt contains sodium. Excess sodium consumption will make your body hold water, water that will be used to wash out the sodium. The excess fluid retention then puts a strain on your heart, weakening the muscle. Chronic consumption of high levels of salt can increase blood pressure as the arteries become narrower. Your ears rely on a healthy blood pressure to receive nutrients and also to send toxins away. You can learn more about how salt increases your blood pressure here.
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Salt is just generally bad for your health. If you have Tinnitus, you have to be especially careful about how much you consume. The daily recommended upper limit is just 2300 mg of sodium. But, processed foods or fast foods contain ridiculous amounts of salt that can almost give you an entire day’s worth of salt intake in just one meal. Processed and fast foods contain high levels of salt because it allows the food to last longer on the shelf or in freezers.
Sneaky Salt (Recommended Daily Limit is 2300 mg)
- A 12 inch frozen pizza – 3140 mg
- Just two slices of bologna – 910 mg
- Two slices of American cheese – 512 mg
- One small pickled cucumber – 447 mg
- Canned tomato soup – 1110 mg
- Canned chicken and vegetable soup – 2140 mg
- 1 cup of marinara sauce – 566 mg
2 Sugar and Artificial Sweeteners
Excessive sugar or refined sugar products can cause a condition called hyperinsulinemia. This can then cause erratic blood pressure changes, blood vessel damage and also alter the composition of potassium and sodium in your ear fluids.
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And, sugar substitutes aren’t the answer either. Popular sugar substitutes like Equal or Nutrasweet use Aspartame that excites neurons. Constantly excited neurons can wither and die, over time. As you might already know, Tinnitus is not just a ear condition but also a brain condition. Aspartame also blocks a naturally produced appetite suppressant. In essence, you might be better off adding a couple of spoons of real sugar instead of taking an artificial sweetener that causes you to eat more, because your body doesn’t know it’s not hungry anymore!
We break down the connection between Tinnitus and sugar in a more detailed post. There, you will also find suggestions about safe sugar substitutes.
To preserve healthy brain function, avoid added sugars or foods that use added sugars as much as you can. And remember, sugar isn’t just sugar in the sugar form. Processed carbohydrates like pizza dough, bagels and even excessively carb or starch rich foods like rice and pasta are all high in sugars. Know what you are eating to limit sugar intake to healthy levels.
The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends that added sugar should be limited to just 100 calories a day. This equates to just 24 grams of sugar or 6 teaspoons. Some of us add that much just to our coffees and teas!
When buying foods, don’t just scan the labels for mentions of sugar. Sugar has many aliases. Some of the most common disguises they use are fructose, corn syrup, glucose, honey, maltose, syrup, molasses, maple syrup, agave nectar and raw sugar. Surprised to see honey on the list? Your body doesn’t differentiate between refined sugar and honey. It’s all sugar. Just that honey is more nutritious in how it offers some minerals and vitamins. It doesn’t mean you can drizzle it on liberally, thinking it is healthy!
3 Caffeine
Excessive caffeine can increase blood pressure. Increased blood pressure can, you guessed it, make your Tinnitus worse. Caffeine is a vasoconstrictor. It essentially narrows your blood vessels, causing blood pressure to spike. Research also indicates that caffeine also releases more adrenaline which in turn makes your heart pump harder.
You don’t have to get rid of your morning cup of Joe though. Several research studies have found that up to 400 mg of caffeine is ok or safe to consume in a day. That equates to about 4 eight ounce cups of coffee per day.
But, remember that soda, particularly diet variants, have caffeine in them too. Though they typically have about 1/3rd of the caffeine amount as their coffee beverage counterparts. But, it can all add up if you consume a lot of these beverages in a day. Chocolate too, particularly dark chocolate, has a fairly high amount of caffeine in them.
Even if you aren’t cutting out caffeine, try to eliminate caffeine intake after noon or early evening. Caffeine can interfere with sleep, particularly if you also have Tinnitus keeping you up at night. Speaking about sleep, here is a post with tips about sleeping with Tinnitus.
4 MSG or Flavor Enhancers
MSG is a very popular flavor enhancer. But, it is also excites your neurons. The next time you have a bag of chips, try to observe if your Tinnitus gets worse. It’s not just chips either. Popular foods rich in MSG include most fast food, seasoning blends like bouillon cubes or meat rubs, most frozen meals and processed deli meats or canned products. Popular condiments like mayonnaise, soy sauce, dressings and ketchup contains rather high amounts of MSG as well. Any form of instant noodles almost always has very high levels of MSG in them.
Like sugar, MSG is often disguised in nutrition labels. The FDA requires food manufactures to list MSG as an ingredient only if it is used in its free form. Because MSG gets a bad rep, food companies modify the way in which MSG is delivered, calling it by other names like hydrolyzed vegetable protein, plant protein or just vague terms like natural flavoring or spices.
5 Alcohol
Alcohol and your ears don’t mix well, especially if you a regular drinker. We wrote a whole post about alcohol and Tinnitus here. Remember the last time your head spun when you drank too much? That’s the sign that too much alcohol in your blood stream got into your ear fluid, causing vertigo.
Alcohol also causes unfavorable blood pressure changes, can shrink your brain’s auditory cortex, disrupt sleep and thereby increase stress and anxiety. It’s all very detrimental to your Tinnitus.
Also Read: Could your Thyroid be Affecting your Tinnitus?
6 Fatty Food
Fatty food are bad because it raises bad cholesterol or LDL levels. The problem with fatty food is compounded by the fact that foods rich in fats like processed foods, frozen or fast foods are often very low in good fats of HDL levels. Good fats can collect bad fats from accumulation sites and transport them to the liver for disposal.
A bad HDL/LDL ratio will lead to increased blood pressure and serious conditions like stroke or heart disease. Erratic blood pressure changes, a precursor to conditions like stroke and heart disease will slowly but surely affect your ear health, as less blood flows to your cochlea.
Here’s a study that confirms how excessive starch and fats can worsen Tinnitus.
Also Read: Can Vitamin B12 help you with your Tinnitus?
Certain types of medication, ear wax problems, loud noises, smoking or even jaw and teeth problems can cause your Tinnitus to get worse. Read more in this post that explains what makes Tinnitus worse.
