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Guide to Low-Histamine Cooking and Food Preparation

June 11, 2021 (Last Updated: August 19, 2023)
Guide to a Low Histamine Diet, Cooking and Food Preparation

Are you on a journey to lower your histamine bucket and are confused about what steps to take in your everyday food preparation process?

I have been on this journey and learned some tips and tricks along the way. So I am sharing the most basic information about cooking low-histamine recipes and a low-histamine diet. You will also find some of my low-histamine recipes at the end of the article.

If you want to know more about my journey to lower histamine and more about histamine intolerance in general, please check my previous article: My Experience with Histamine Intolerance, Diet, and Everything Beyond.

If, by any chance, you think you will be miserable eating a low-histamine diet, I would like to encourage you. From my experience, having this ‘problem’ to fix helped me diversify my diet, discover new foods, and learn healthier ways of preparing food.

Histamine Food Lists

You won’t find a detailed list of low and high-histamine foods in this article. I don’t do that because I concluded that we are all experiencing symptoms differently, and most often than not, these lists are very subjective. I don’t want to scare you away from foods that are healthy and you might tolerate very well.

There are, however, some general rules and situations where amounts of histamine in food can be scientifically measured, especially when it comes to animal protein. To my knowledge, right now we can only accurately detect high histamine levels in things like rotten foods, for example.

It’s important to understand that food affects histamine in the body differently. According to the Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance (SIGHI), there are five groups of foods that affect histamine levels:

  1. Histamine-containing foods – like certain types of meats, cheeses, and fermented foods.
  2. Other biogenic amines – like some fruits and legumes, hence why you find them on high histamine lists
  3. Histamine liberators – like alcohol, nuts, shellfish, cacao, bananas, citrus, tomatoes
  4. Diamine oxidase (DAO enzyme) inhibitors – alcohol, particular medication
  5. Increase in intestinal permeability – like hot spices, alcohol, and I would add lectins here

On the other hand, you will have foods that have anti-inflammatory and anti-histamine properties. Sometimes these properties exist in the same food that is considered high histamine. Confusing much?

IMPORTANT REMINDER: Histamines are good for us, they are important neurotransmitters that help many vital functions. It’s only excess histamine that we are looking to clear.

My favorite approach how to naturally reduce histamine

So if you really have to eliminate everything, there is not much left to eat. My favorite approach to lowering histamine from food is one I learned from Jasmina at HealingHistamine.com: prepare and combine foods smartly so you don’t end up with all five groups in the same meal. And always pair those foods with others from the anti-inflammatory, natural anti-histamine category.

If you are confused and want to keep it simple and feel comfortable following a low histamine list, you can do it but make sure it is just temporary. Eliminating many healthy foods from your diet permanently can do more harm than good in the long run.

I did eliminate everything for a while, but I wouldn’t do it the same way again. I didn’t know better, and I was scared of allergic reactions to food, which didn’t exactly help me.

Low histamine diet: general rules

These rules apply mainly for DAO enzyme degradation disorder. The approach will start with these rules for mast cell activation disorder but will be more complex. 

We are all different, and our histamine intolerance’s root cause and context are probably different, so we will not experience everything the same. 

Stress, trauma, hormonal imbalances, and nutrient deficiency have an essential impact on your experience with histamine intolerance and reaction to certain foods. 

Look not only to reduce histamines but to reduce inflammation in your body. Histamine and other stressors are better tolerated when the inflammation bucket is empty or not overflowing.

The above is why sometimes, instead of eliminating high histamine foods, it’s better to look at one food in a context. For example, raspberries are considered high histamine, but they are also a source of quercetin, which has anti-inflammatory, anti-histamine properties. I actually felt perfect when eating raspberries, even if they are on most high histamine lists.

Dose and context make the poison.

Sometimes is not that you can’t eat certain foods, but that you should have just a tiny quantity, not every day, and paired with foods that have anti-inflammatory and anti-histamine properties.

Also, if you are on vacation, relaxed, or enjoying a meal with loved ones, the food will affect you differently than if you are stressed, eating on the go, or having negative thoughts about the food you are eating.

Work with a physician to correctly identify the root cause of your problem and work on it from a holistic perspective.

Cooking low histamine recipes: food groups

Animal Protein

The general requirement for animal protein is FRESHNESS. Most histamine poisoning cases happen from rotten food or canned animal protein, especially fish.

Also, the QUALITY MATTERS. Choose producers that grow animals in humane, natural ways rather than the industrial way. For beef, we are looking for grass-fed, grass-finished. For chicken, we are looking for pasture-raised. And for fish, we are looking for wild-caught. However, sustainability is an issue that you need to assess before buying fish. 

Choose FRESH meat and fresh foods from a TRUSTED producer.

FROZEN meat is ok as long as you trust the producer that FLASH-FROZE the meat and the cold chain were not interrupted.

THAWING should be made in cold water, in the original package, as it is faster. That’s why it is better to get smaller pieces of meat, and this applies to fish too. 

SLOW COOKING should be avoided. Use a fast COOKING method instead. 

PRESSURE COOKING is a great way to prepare harder pieces of meat that otherwise would need a slow and long cooking method. A pressure cooker will be your best friend for low histamine cooking. An Instant Pot is great, but even a manual pressure cooker works. I even cook meat and chicken straight from the freezer.

MARINATING should be avoided. 

LEFTOVERS should be avoided, unless frozen immediately and thawed and reheated with a fast method, like straight from frozen in a pan or the oven.

Souper Cubes

FREEZING stops the histamine triggering bacteria from forming. My favorite ways of freezing food are with Souper Cubes. You can buy the Souper Cubes here.

Take out a frozen cube, warm it up in the microwave, on the stove, or bake in the oven. Warm your food up the way that works best for you!

Meat (chicken, beef, lamb, pork, etc)

  • Meat is generally safe to eat if very fresh or flash-frozen
  • Matured, dry-aged, cured, marinated, smoked meat products are usually high in histamine (i.e. sausages, salami, smoked bacon)
  • Ground / finely chopped meat is usually high-histamine unless prepared at home and cooked immediately
  • Organs/offals are considered high histamine. However, they are also very nutrient-dense and might help with histamine degradation (histamine blockers are made from pork kidneys)

Eggs

  • Eggs are generally considered low risk for people with histamine intolerance if they are fresh, cooked, and of good quality. Look for pasture-raised, omega-3 eggs. 
  • Eat only cooked eggs and make sure the egg white is always thoroughly cooked (that’s where the protein, so the amines, are).
  • Duck eggs are considered safer than chicken eggs by some groups. 

While I reintroduced most of the foods in this article, I still don’t feel comfortable with eating raw eggs, like in mayonnaise. Even if I only use the yolk to make mayo at home, I still feel some of the raw egg white can contaminate the rest of the ingredients.

Fish, seafood, crustaceans, shellfish

  • The only two accepted ways to eat fish safely when dealing with histamine intolerance is freshly caught (i.e. straight from the fisherman, cleaned and prepared immediately). From my experience, good restaurants next to water bodies that have the fish of the day freshly caught are safe.
  • If you find a trusted supplier of wild-caught, sustainable fish that was cleaned and flash-frozen immediately, you might be able to handle it well. In this case, thawing should be done in cold water and cooking immediately. No leftovers. 
  • Canned fish is very high in histamine. 
  • Other types of processed fish like smoked, marinated or pickled are high in histamine. 
  • Shellfish are usually considered high histamine. 

Personal note: I used to love having seafood/shellfish and a glass of red wine in restaurants, and I could feel it on the spot that something was wrong when combining the two. In fact, I started to notice symptoms of histamine intolerance when eating (I didn’t know what they were at the time).

Dairy products

  • Look for milk products that are grass-fed and organic, from cows that produce A2 casein milk, goat, sheep, buffalo milk (only those types of products considered well-tolerated, see below)
  • Cream cheese, mascarpone, butter, mozzarella are considered to be well tolerated (see the pattern, the less protein, the better, as amines form on protein)
  • Raw milk is considered low risk by Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance but is high in histamine as per the Spanish Society of DAO deficiency. One more reason to always experiment with how these apply to your own situation and not take any low or high histamine food list as a bible. 
  • Matured, aged cheeses, blue cheeses, are considered high histamine. 
  • Fermented cheese products such as yogurt and kefir are moderately risky and probably depend on your individual circumstances. 

As a side note, I felt that it was helpful to eliminate dairy altogether for me. In general, that will be helpful for people who, aside from their DAO deficiency, are intolerant/sensitive to lactose or casein. 

HOW you wonder? Whatever reduces inflammation in your body reduces the amount of stress your body has to handle. When the stress/inflammation bucket is LOW, histamines from outside sources are better tolerated.

Cereals, flour, pastry, sweet treats

Since we are on a platform here that is gluten-free, lectin-free and sugar-free, we are talking about flour, grains, and sweets that are Plant Paradox approved. Check more about the plant paradox program in this article: The Plant Paradox, How to Reduce Chronic Inflammation and Improve Your Health.

In general, nut flour is to be avoided, but cassava, tapioca, teff (see my article ‘All About Teff’ for more information on this popular grain), sorghum, sweet potato flour, millet are considered low histamine. Coconut and chestnut flour should be well tolerated.

Sourdough and yeast pastry and bread products can possibly be high histamine, but it still depends on the context, what they are paired with, how much, etc.

Fruits, nuts, and seeds

Citrus fruits are considered high in histamine, as well as raspberries, strawberries, and kiwi. Again, I think it depends a lot on the context. Fruits have to be fresh, organic, not overripe.

Coconut products – coconut flour, flakes, water, and oil are generally considered very well tolerated. My favorite snack during my total elimination diet was fresh coconut meat.

Walnuts, cashews and peanuts (the former two are not plant paradox compliant anyway) are on the high histamine list. Macadamia nuts and chestnuts are well tolerated. Some lists exclude all nuts, so it has to be tested on a personal level.

Sesame seeds are on some high histamine lists, while Nigella Sativa seeds are considered to have anti-histamine properties.

Fermented Foods

Unfortunately, fermented foods are high in histamine and not well tolerated when dealing with histamine intolerance. The level of intolerance will vary from case to case, and you can assess that personally.

Before eliminating everything fermented, look at how much, how often, and in what combinations you consume fermented foods.

Examples of fermented foods are sauerkraut or other fermented veggies, vinegar, soy or tempeh products, olives. Balsamic vinegar is exceptionally high in histamine, while apple cider vinegar and white vinegar can be tolerated in small quantities.

Fermented sauces, yeast extracts, and probiotics are high in histamine. As a side note, there are probiotics specially formulated to help with histamine degradation.

Vegetables and fruits

Mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach, eggplant, avocado, and citrus are generally considered high in histamine. While these can be eliminated for a short period of time, please assess how they affect you personally. As mentioned previously, dose and context matter.

Spices

The world of spices is confusing and I think tolerance is very personal and related to context. I would start with using only fresh aromatics and herbs for a while and then expand to dry spices and powders.

Fresh herbs for low histamine cooking

The problem with dry spices and powders is that they can contain mold, which can make you react, even if the spice per se is not high in histamines. Make sure you buy from trusted sources, good quality spices.

Curry, cumin, cinnamon, are on high histamine lists. I have added all of them back into my diet, but I’m careful not to overdo it.

Beverages

Alcohol and fermented drinks are high-histamine. The tea landscape is confusing, and I don’t react well to most teas. My favorite teas are fresh ginger tea, lemon balm and tulsi and they seem to work well for me. In fact, I think all three have powerful anti-inflammatory and anti-histamine properties.

Anti-histamine foods and drinks

While I will not provide a list, I wanted to bring to your attention a few ingredients that can help to clear excess histamine when on a low-histamine diet. From my knowledge and experience, these are powerful natural anti-histamines:

  • Nigella seeds and oil, also called black cumin
  • Rosemarinic acid
  • Perilla oil (which contains rosemarinic acid)
  • Pomegranate (arils and peels extract)
  • Ginger
  • Tulsi or holy basil
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Good quality salt
  • Water
  • Vegetables such as asparagus, fennel, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, garlic, ginger, dandelion greens, fresh artichokes, root vegetables, sweet potatoes, yams, fresh herbs, and more
  • Fresh coconut is a great low-histamine snack, and coconut oil and coconut milk are generally considered safe.

Low histamine cooking, methods, and tools

As mentioned above, make sure you don’t add additional stress to your body, as that can trigger more inflammation that can aggravate your histamine intolerance. This means avoiding endocrine disruptors and toxic compounds that your cooking methods and tools can release.

  • Don’t use nonstick cooking tools
  • Use stainless steel, ceramic coated, and enameled pots and pans – make sure they are not scratched.
  • Don’t use nonstick and aluminum baking pans, replace them with glass, ceramic, cast iron, or stainless steel.
  • Avoid browning and burning food, use clean methods such as sauteing, braising, steaming, boiling, baking at low to medium temperatures.
  • For food that usually takes time to cook, use fast cooking tools such as a pressure cooker.
  • Avoid slow cooking methods and smoking.
  • Remove plastic containers and replace them with glass containers.
  • When eating out, stick to simple side dishes like grilled or boiled asparagus, broccoli, baked sweet potato. For protein choose freshly wild-caught fish or steak.

Emergency anti-histamine help

Supplements, in general, should address your individual deficiencies and needs, which you will know if you work with a doctor and get the necessary tests to identify and work on the root cause of your histamine intolerance.

Fortunately, a few supplements can help when you don’t control how much histamine you get from food. My favorite histamine intolerance supplements are:

HistaAid

HistaAid from Quicksilver Scientific. This fast-acting blend of flavonoids, vitamin C, and DIM is designed to offer support for seasonal sufferers. Buy HistaAid from Quicksilver Scientific here.

Histamine Block

Histamine Block is a lifesaver, especially in situations when you can’t control the level of histamines in foods. This is not a long-term treatment, just a relief for one single meal. A good supplement for a low histamine diet. You can buy Histamine Block from Seeking Health here.

Histamine Block Plus

This is a more complex version of the above Histamine Block. Histamine Block Plus from Seeking Health.

My favorite histamine food compatibility list

The compatibility list compiled by the Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, which is updated regularly, is my favorite. It is very complex and helpful when you have a question about a particular ingredient or food item.

Take it with bio-individuality in mind though, as we all react differently to different things at other times in our journey. Plus, the list doesn’t consider dose, context, and food combinations in real life.

Are the recipes on this website low in histamine?

Some are, and some aren’t. I started my low histamine journey in April 2019, so since then, I’ve been creating mainly recipes that are on the low histamine spectrum.

However, most of them are not labeled low histamine because I feel there is no clear line regarding the content of histamine levels in food, as mentioned in the guide above.

What is low histamine for me may not be for you and I didn’t want to confuse anyone. But I always follow the low histamine rules about purchasing, preparing, cooking and storing food.

When I’m writing this post, more than two years later after my first histamine intolerance episode, I have reintroduced most of the foods on the high histamine lists. But, I am careful with dose and context.

If I’m in a super relaxed situation, like on vacation or having a good time with friends, I let myself go more. If I feel I’m stressed, I’m more careful.

What I haven’t reintroduced is alcohol, shellfish with minor exceptions, and canned fish. I also gave up all dairy in my elimination phase and I realized I feel much better without it, so now, I don’t eat dairy with rare exceptions like some butter, yogurt, and mascarpone.

And back to recipes, a lot of my recipes created in the past two years can be part of a low histamine diet, some with minor modifications.

Also, my book – The Living Well Without Lectins Cookbook – has quite a few low histamine recipes, plus they are all lectin-free, gluten-free and sugar-free (a few images with low histamine recipes in the book, below).

Low histamine recipes

You will find the links to some of my low-histamine recipes and meal ideas below:

Comments or questions

I hope this guide to cooking low-histamine recipes and a low-histamine diet was useful. Please leave a comment below if you have any questions.

And please remember this is not medical advice. Work with a trained medical professional to identify the root cause of your histamine intolerance.

*This post contains affiliated links, which means I get a small commission if you choose to purchase something via one of my links, at no extra cost to you.

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9 Comments

  • Reply
    Roger Barton
    April 20, 2022 at 7:50 am

    Thankyou Claudia. I will certainly let you know anything I find.

  • Reply
    Roger Barton
    April 19, 2022 at 9:29 am

    Dear Claudia,
    I’ve found your website to be very helpful, thank you.
    Since 1979 I have had a serious allergy to benzoic acid and all its derivatives (ie. anything with a benzene ring provokes a reaction). Generally, I have managed to control this allergy very well, but following experiencing more intractable reactions and symptoms over the last six months, investigations revealed that I now also have histamine intolerance and/or MCAS. I have accumulated a huge amount of relevant information, from medical papers to dietary advice, and, like you, I’ve found the Swiss SIGH food list to be the most comprehensive. (It has to be said that there is a lot of contradictory information on the web regarding histamine intolerance).
    I have been using microwave ovens since they were first introduced in the UK in 1970, for preparing appropriate foods, always with excellent results. I have been exploring the best ways to prepare and cook foods for a low histamine diet. I’ve found information about roasting, grilling, steaming, boiling, and frying, (see ‘Effect of Different Cooking Methods on Histamine Levels in Selected Food ‘, Annals of Dermatology Vol. 29, No. 6, 2017). However, I’ve not found any answer to the question “does microwave cooking reduce histamine levels in the food”? Microwaves work by agitating water molecules at 2450Hz, turning it into steam at very high temperature. I’m tempted to assume that microwaving has a similar effect to steaming and boiling (namely, reducing the histamine content or leaving it unchanged), but I would prefer a definitive answer. Do you have any information on this topic?

    • Reply
      Claudia
      April 19, 2022 at 11:50 am

      Hi Roger! Wow, I had no idea about the effects of microwaving on histamine levels in food. But I’ll keep this in mind and try to find some resources myself. If you end up finding something definitive, please write back, I would love to know. Thank you so much for sharing xx

      • Reply
        Gay
        May 18, 2022 at 1:53 pm

        Please.. I have home canned meat for yrs.. if I get meat and poultry right away and put it in the jars and pressure can will it be low histamine ??

        • Reply
          Claudia
          May 18, 2022 at 3:00 pm

          Probably not. Canned protein is high in histamine (this is measurable, not just a claim). Probably the best way to find out is to get one of your cans to a lab that can measure histamine levels. Then you know for sure.

          • Loriann
            January 15, 2023 at 2:39 pm

            Hi Claudia, I am surprised to hear you let the meat cool before freezing. I usually freeze right away, I thought when you leave it out , it becomes high histamine??? Is hemp protein powder high histamine? I also have salicylate intolerance, there are a lot of overlapping symptoms with histamine intolerance. Right now I am doing a low salicylate, low histamine diet. Also, is red lentil flour high histamine? I have some pasta I would like to try, made from red lentil flour. Appreciate your help. Thank you Lori

          • Claudia
            January 16, 2023 at 2:04 am

            Hi Lori! I never put warm food in the freezer. It would not take longer than 20 minutes for meat to cool down, and honestly, that would not make a big difference in histamine levels. The idea is not to eat leftover animal protein, which has been sitting around for hours to days. Hemp is not considered high in histamine. Lentils are considered by some high histamine, but Healing Histamine uses them a lot in her low-histamine cooking. I don’t eat lentils that are not pressure cooked (because of lectins) and lentil pasta will probably go to mush if pressure cooked. Take all these histamine lists and guidelines with a grain of salt, it’s individual and it depends on the ROOT cause of your histamine intolerance. I hope this helps and you get to find and heal the ROOT cause so you don’t have to worry that much about histmine levels in food.

  • Reply
    robin
    September 10, 2021 at 2:52 pm

    Love your cookbook 🙂 I am also histamine intolerant. I’m having trouble cooling food and then freezing what containers should i be using? glass will shatter due to rapid temperature changes Are cubes and stasher bags appropriate from just cooked to storage in the freezer?

    • Reply
      Claudia
      September 11, 2021 at 1:40 pm

      Hi Robin, thank you so much xx. I never froze anything that was still hot. I let the food cool down completely and then I freeze it in SouperCubes, Stasher Bags, or whatever else I have on hand, even glass containers. But I never put warm food in the freezer. xx

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