Fresh fruit is a great source of fibre and is packed with nutrients and antioxidants that support good health. In a hot climate like Australia, it’s also a wonderfully refreshing snack – who doesn’t love sinking their teeth into a juicy mango or enjoying a cold slice of watermelon after a dip in the pool?
A histamine allergy can complicate your fruit choices, though. Let’s take a look.
What is histamine?
Histamine is an important chemical that regulates numerous bodily functions, including regulating your sleep-wake cycle and supporting your cognitive function.
Histamine influences your body’s inflammatory response and initiates an immune response that helps you fight infection or recover from injuries.
Understanding histamine intolerance
Histamine becomes a problem when your levels get too high or you can’t break it down properly.
You may not realise it, but histamine is found in numerous foods and drinks. It’s usually broken down in your intestines by an enzyme called diamine oxidase (DAO) and, to a lesser extent, a second enzyme named histamine-N-methyltransferase (HNMT).
Many different things can affect the smooth working of those enzymes, including:
- Prescription medications, including some:
- Antibiotics
- Antidepressants
- Drugs to manage high blood pressure or an irregular heart rhythm
- Over-the-counter medications, including ibuprofen, aspirin and diclofenac
- High alcohol consumption
- Health conditions that affect the lining of your gut.
When your body can’t break down enough histamine as part of the digestive process, histamine levels may leak through the intestinal lining and enter the bloodstream. That can trigger allergy symptoms such as:
- Sneezing
- Runny nose
- Diarrhoea
- Headache
- Itchy skin
- Nausea
- Joint pain
- Anaphylaxis (in severe cases).
As more histamine accumulates in your body, your symptoms may worsen.
Your histamine bucket
You may find you can tolerate a certain amount of histamine but eventually, your ‘histamine bucket’ becomes full and you start to experience symptoms of histamine intolerance.
Many factors influence the capacity of your histamine bucket, including your:
- Genes
- Medications
- Diet
- Overall nutrition
- Environment
- Other allergies
A low histamine diet
If your histamine bucket fills up easily, it makes sense to limit the amount of histamine that goes into it in the first place.
A low histamine diet involves avoiding foods and drinks that:
- Release histamine into the body easily
- Block the production or effectiveness of DAO and HNMT enzymes.
Generally speaking, this means avoiding foods that are aged (like cheese or salami) or fermented (like yogurt).
Check out the
Swiss Interest Group on Histamine Intolerance’s
A low histamine diet is usually only recommended as a step towards identifying the foods that trigger your symptoms. It’s not a long-term treatment option because it’s hard to gain the nutrition you need as time goes on.
Low histamine fruit list
Certain fruits are known to be lower in histamine, meaning you may choose to focus on these. They include:
- Apples
- Apricots
- Dragonfruit
- Lychees
- Melons (except watermelon)
- Nectarines
- Peaches
- Persimmon
- Pomegranate
- Raisins
High histamine fruits
Fruits known to be higher in histamine include:
- Avocado
- Bananas
- Blackberries
- Blackcurrants
- Blueberries
- Grapes
- Grapefruit
- Guava
- Kiwi
- Lemons
- Limes
- Oranges
- Papaya / Pawpaw
- Pineapple
- Raspberries
- Strawberries
You may choose to avoid or limit your consumption of these fruits.
How can ImuPro help?
When you react to a mozzie bite, histamine leads to:
- Swelling by increasing blood flow and white blood cell count
- Itching by signalling the nerves around the bite.
Those reactions can happen quite quickly. But it’s a different story when you react to histamine in your diet. Your symptoms may not appear immediately but can build up over time. That makes it hard to pinpoint your food triggers.
ImuPro’s comprehensive tests enable you to identify foods that may trigger a delayed allergic reaction, including histamine intolerance, which we assess by measuring DAO levels. Try the:
- ImuPro Bundle, which tests 270 foods and histamine intolerance (symptoms often overlap)
- Histamine intolerance test, which measures DAO levels.
They say knowledge is power. Once you have the answers you’ve been seeking, you’re able to make informed decisions about which foods you eat. That helps to ease your symptoms and enables you to enjoy a better quality of life.
Not sure which test you need? Try our self-assessment quiz.
Disclaimer
*All information is general and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice.
References
- Cleveland Clinic, Histamine, https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/24854-histamine, [Accessed 11 December 2023]
- BBC Good Food, Low histamine diet, https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/what-low-histamine-diet, [Accessed 11 December 2023]
- Medical News Today, Which foods are high in histamine? https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322543#causes, [Accessed 11 December 2023]
- Swiss Interest Group on Histamine Intolerance, Food compatibility list, https://www.mastzellaktivierung.info/downloads/foodlist/21_FoodList_EN_alphabetic_withCateg.pdf, [Accessed 11 December 2023]