Are high-histamine foods giving you allergy symptoms like itchy skin, runny nose, and watery eyes?
If you have ever had an allergic reaction, you’re familiar with the annoying symptoms that come with a change in seasons or a shedding cat in the room. As soon as the body detects an allergen, the cells release a compound called histamines. Sneezing, itching, and watery eyes are just three common ways the histamines try to push allergens out of your system. But what if your diet is giving you allergy symptoms?
Do you Have a Histamine Intolerance?
Your intestines produce two enzymes, DAO and HNMT, which are responsible for breaking down histamines. If you consume a high-histamine diet or suffer from gastrointestinal diseases like celiac disease, Crohn disease, or ulcerative colitis, you may not be properly producing the DAO enzymes needed to break down histamines.
This build up of histamines in the body can lead to a histamine intolerance. According to The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, approximately 1% of the population has a histamine intolerance, and 80% of them are middle-aged.
It’s important to note, you won’t develop a histamine intolerance from allergic reactions to pollen, pets, dust, or dander. A histamine intolerence will only develop from the histamines you consume through food.
Symptoms of Histamine Intolerance
- Headache
- Rash, hives, and itchy skin
- Wheezing
- Runny nose
- Watery eyes
- Swelling of face, hands, or lips
- Painful menstrual cramps
The Top Six High-Histamine Foods
High-Histamine foods tend to be aged, highly processed, smoked, cured, or fermented. Stick to fresh or frozen meat, seafood, and vegetables when following a low-histamine diet.
1. Sardines
If following a low-histamine diet, limit your intake of canned, dried, or salted seafood, such as sardines, mackerel, tuna, and anchovies.
2. Aged Cheese
Many different kinds of cheese are high in histamines, but aged cheese tend to be even higher. Fresh dairy products such as cream and cottage cheese are lower in histamines.
3. Champagne
Fermented foods are very high in histamines, this includes alcohol like champagne and wine. Champagne contains 670mg of histamines per liter.
4. Sauerkraut
Another fermented food to eliminate if you have a histamine intolerance is sauerkraut, which contains 229mg of histamines per kilogram. Though it can be good for gut health, it may be pushing you passed your histamine threshold.
5. Leftovers
Food that needs to be reheated like leftovers or even meal-prep containers from our meal-prep course can be high in histamines. If testing for a histamine intolerance, try preparing fresh meals or meal prepping for only a couple days at a time.
6. Aged Meats
Aged meats like salami make a great keto snack, but are high in histamines, so eliminate when following a low-histamine diet. Salami can contain up to 654mg of histamines per kilogram.
Know Your Histamine Threshold
Try a low-histamine diet and if you are frequently experiencing allergy symptoms. If you find your symptoms lessen, then experiment with different foods until you know what your histamine threshold is. You may only need to cut out your daily piece of aged cheese to stay within your histamine threshold, so find what works for you.
Low-Histamine Keto Recipes
- Keto Butter Chicken
- Oven Roasted Turkey Breast and Gravy
- One-Pan Chicken Thighs
- Low-Carb Dinner Rolls
- Sugar-Free Breakfast Cookies
Histamines and Gut Health
Histamine intolerance may be a sign you need to improve your gut health since a healthy gut will produce the enzymes you need to properly break down histamines. Bloating, gas, discomfort, pain, anxiety, and acne are just a few signs you may have an intestinal disorder such as SIBO, IBS. Talk to your healthcare professional about improving your gut health.
Written by
Megha Barot
Megha has always been a passionate cook, but she took this to a new level after starting her keo journey in 2015. She loves creating new recipes and producing educational content for KetoConnect, which she co-founded in 2016 with Matt. Her passion for healthy eating and personal development continues to thrive. She's the proud mom of two awesome kids.
I am 9 weeks into Keto and my body is attacking the ink from my 5 year old tattoo! It is raised and extremely itchy. I am going to try eliminating aged cheese that I have been snacking on. Thanks for the info!
The link to the High-Histamine foods table in the section about Sardines isn’t working. I thought you might like to know. I also trying to find info on the amounts of histamine in foods. Do you still avoid High-histamine foods? Thanks 🙂
4 trips to the ER and 7 Epipens to figure out my keto diet was causing the issues. Now it is time to find recipes that lets me keep loosing weight without the histamines spikes even my allergist was unaware of this correlation thanks for the great info =)
I was at emergency twice for allergic reaction to my keto diet. All high histamine foods, nuts, tomatoes, cheese, shellfish. Got swollen lips then hives then all over body rash. 6 days of suffering so far.
Several of the recipes linked to in this article as “Low-Histamine Keto Recipes” actually contain high-histamine or histamine-releasing ingredients like cinnamon, lemon, eggs and tomato paste.
I’m not sure why saurkraut
(fermented) would be bad if improving your gut health would help produce the enzymes to break down histamines from food then sauerkraut would actually be good to eat, improving gut health. Even if it is high in histamines, it provides the enzymes to deal with them by being a probiotic living food. Plus I think cabbage is a prebiotic food, introducing good bacteria to your gut by fermentation and cabbage full of fiber for the bacteria to eat.
Saurkraut is not bad. Id definitely is great for gut health, but those sensitive to histamines may want to limit them to lessen possible symptoms.
amanda@travismail.com
Tara, I thought that too but let me tell
You I had the worst reaction to saukraut one summer before I knew I was histamine intolerant. I was on a vacation to Hawaii when a lot who we were with were getting sick. Instead of buying probiotics to help my gut and improve immunity to save money I bought sauerkraut. Each day I got sicker and sicker I felt like I had the worst flu ever I even went to the ER I didn’t have a fever but I was non stop shaking soooo bad I felt like I was going to die. I basically missedout on everything fun on the Trip. Got home went off all the kraut and all my symptoms went away. Only later did I realize what I did wrong. The only thing I did different was take sauerkraut a few times a day for my entire trip.
On papaer, that makes sense. In reality it’s not as black and white. It can compound the problem, making it into a rather dangerous affair. Symptoms get quite severe if the gut is compromised. The article has not covered parasites, dysbiosis and other causes of histamine intolerance. Then, eating a low histamine diet is not the cure. Anita tee and Jasmine over at factvsfitness and healinghistamine have the best approaches on the net.
Vinegar is the boogeyman here–all types of vinegar contain histamines, but in varying amounts. It all depends on what YOU PERSONALLY can tolerate. And it ain’t just vinegar–just about every commonly known vinegar substitute is useless tio us (other types of vinegar, lemon juice, etc.). Many of us end up going the ascorbic acid/water route to make our own “vinegar” to use in salad dressings and the like.
Thank you so much I have been getting a few of those since I started me to was just thinking of coming off.
Thanks for this information! Yet another reason to improve gut health, something I’ve been aiming at for the last little while. Really appreciate your attention to this problem.