Monday, August 12, 2013

Dietary Instructions for patients with Histamine Intolerance

I have found soooo many low histamine charts/diets on the internet and they all contradict each other. Trying to figure out what you can eat can make your head spin. There are more lists out there that say what you CAN'T eat than what you CAN.

If you would like an extensive list regarding a list of foods and if they are severely incompatible, incompatible, slightly incompatible or compatible. I have included the link in the next paragraph. Please be advised that everyone reacts differently, and while chocolate or spinach may not affect one person it could completely rip somebody a new ass. So still be aware that you could have a reaction even if the list states "compatible". So far the only thing on this list I feel they got "wrong", are potatoes. On most every other list, nightshades are restricted so I found it odd that they were listed as compatible on this list. I instantly get malaise to the point where I just completely nod off instantly once I sit down. I also get slight itching on my upper eyelid. If I am religiously taking my Zyrtec and Zantac, I do not have full blown swelling just slight itching. So I tend to stay away from potatoes unless I get a huge craving for olive oil potato chips (love them!).

You can find the complete list here. You will need to scroll down on this page until you see a box divided into 3 portions and click on "English". Don't freak out this website is mostly in German, they are trying to translate it. This will bring up a PDF of the entire list that you can print out for your convenience.

However, I have taken it upon myself to save you from having to comb through everything that you CAN'T eat and will break it down as what you can eat below:

DAIRY PRODUCTS: Cottage cheese, mozzarella, milk, cream cheese
(I've eaten all of these except the cream cheese, and have not had any issues at all)

MEAT: Beef, chicken, turkey and duck.
(I've eaten only beef and chicken so far with no problems, however I DO NOT eat left overs of meat ever unless I freeze it immediately after cooking and then warm it up later and if I do that I will take an extra vitamin C or take my second pill of Zyrtec at the time I ingest the left over frozen meat)

STARCH: Cornflakes (all natural no additives), Hemp seeds, Oats, Potato, Quinoa, Rice, Rice crispies (no additives), rice noodles, sweet potato.
(Like I said earlier the potatoes jack me up pretty good and if I wasn't actively on Zyrtec my eyes would swell shut, so try that at your own risk you may do fine. All other starches listed I've not had a problem with.)

VEGGIES: Asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, carrot, celery, cauliflower, cucumber, fennel, garlic, green beans, lettuce, napa cabbage, parsnip, sweet pepper (NOT BELL PEPPERS).
(I've done well on all of these veggies I highly recommend organic on all of them. One veggie they don't mention is kale. I love kale and can also eat it without a problem.)

FRUIT: Apple, blueberries, coconut, melons (NO WATERMELON though).
(If you're a fruit lover you will obviously see you're screwed here as there isn't much of a selection. However if you suffer from Candida you don't want to be eating fruit anyways. These are low sugar fruits anyhow. I eat green apples myself. Again, choose organic when and if you can.)

OTHERS: Almonds, olive oil, basil, chives, parsley, sage, dried herbs (no more than 6 months old), honey, maple syrup, stevia, mineral water, tap water, peppermint tea, rooibos tea, cream of tartar, ascorbic acid, citric acid.

(These "others" can be a bitch because if you like to bake you cannot use baking powder or baking soda. However a baking powder alternative would be cream of tartar or ascorbic acid which is powdered vitamin c.)

Please be aware that there are other items under each category above that you CAN eat the ones I listed are the basic ones that most people enjoy, or basically what I enjoy lol. So still take a close look at the chart as you will find a few other "can's" on there.

Coconut oil is not mentioned anywhere, however I do fine with it also. I can ingest very small amounts of no no foods once I know my histamine bucket is low or under control. I've done this without the use of my Zyrtec and Zantac and had no problems. However, now I won't do anything like that with out my ZZ's lol. It appears my "balls" have shrunk in the last two months and I no longer take chances with my swellings.

If you happen to be a bit over weight you will lose weight eating the low histamine diet because everything you have to eat is FRESH, fresh veggies, fresh fruit. Nothing canned, boxed or processed so that would be an "up" to eating like this. If you're already in excellent shape and eat clean it will piss you off because you can't enjoy those "cheat days" of chocolate and enjoy Aunt May's pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving, unless of course you drug up on the ZZ's or pop a few Histame pills. I'll be going over in the next post about Histame and if it's right for you.

Until next time, keep your chin up and know that your healing is coming along, albeit slow, but still coming along :)


20 comments:

  1. Hi Dani! So do you think it is safe to eat items marked as ok on histamine intolerance lists when healing your gut and you get no reactions from it? For example I read some where that corn is ok and I seem to be fine when I eat it or even gluten-free rice and corn pasta. Another example is I eat these home made lavash crisps made from unbleached flour because I read that it is ok the eat that as well or breads and pastries as long as they don't contain yeast (I don't do this much anyway). Also when you say you cut out grains what exactly does that consist of? Are you cutting out rice too? I appreciate your thoughts on this :-)

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  2. Yes, I cut out all grains rice included. The reason being is that all grains cause inflammation in the body. Since inflammation was a big culprit in getting those holes in our intestinal wall to begin with you don't want to be adding fuel to the fire because any kind of help you are doing with the enzymes is just coming undone with the high inflammatory foods (grains). So quit today and stay away from them until you've healed enough to start incorporating them back into your diet, if at all. (I basically eat a super low grain diet now). I also am gluten free but always have been. Regarding corn I don't eat it or anything that has it in it because of GMO's. Also like I mentioned in the above entry, these lists are very crazy and can drive one crazy because they do all contradict each other. So since every BODY is different from anothers I would suggest sticking to whatever list you have and just seeing if it does ok with your body. If it doesn't consider that "ok" item listed as full of shit and stay away from it. It's basically a big science experiment with your body. I'm not sure of your exact symptoms or what your episodes are as far as swelling (if any) but you may also be interested in looking into mast cell disorder. Keep me posted on your journey to wellness!

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  3. Great point, I will cut grains and corn too. Fortunately I am able to eat potatoes so I guess I will stick with that. Your awesome, thank you!

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  4. Hi Dani. Thanks so much for this post. My husband is struggling with this right now, we believe. I'm trying to stock up on foods he can eat. Can you give me an example of a sweet pepper that's not a bell pepper? I always thought they were the same thing.

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    1. Hi Kellie thank you for visiting! Sorry to hear about your husband. I thought the same thing initially regarding the whole sweet pepper thing lol so don't feel bad. Sweet peppers will the red, yellow and orange colored peppers. My local Publix grocery carries an actual bag of them assorted in mini size. These are the ones I like to use but of course you can buy the larger ones as well. These actually were my main staple for my daily intake as I was down to only about 10 foods I could eat back when I was sick. That's why I incorporated them in many of my recipes. If you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask and I wish him good health!

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    2. Ooooooooohhhhhh! We've always called them all bell peppers, no matter the color. That's perfect then since we're not a fan of the green ones anyway. We've ordered all the supplements and are planning to follow your plan. Hoping it will work because, as you know I'm sure, it is becoming not only a physical issue but emotional as well. I just want to get him back to being himself again. We can't thank you enough for taking the time to lay out what worked for you. And thank you for still being available and willing to answer questions. We're so grateful that we found your site.

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    3. Hi Kellie, yes I know exactly what you mean by emotional I hated being sick and felt "weird" like I would envy anyone who could eat whatever they wanted it made me so sad to feel like an oddball out. You lose all your interest in food and feel scared to even eat a bite for fear you will have a reaction. NOT FUN. I'm glad you have found my blog helpful as this makes me feel so good to help people and hopefully get them well again. It's a long road but worth it. Please just remember to have him follow the enzyme instructions I listed carefully because as I noted he WILL GET extremely sick if he doesn't start out with half a pill and then build up from there. If he goes balls out the die off will be a nightmare and he will want to die it's NOT fun to experience die off at all. Nausea and vertigo is something I'd like to never experience again. LOL.....If he does in fact have histamine intolerance this regimen will definitely help. Please note that the zyrtec and zantac combo is just a band aid while he's healing with the enzymes. Once he is healed he can get off of the combo. I personally found it necessary for the zyrtec especially before working out as exercise exacerbates histamine production. So zyrtec was like my teddy bear if you will lol. Thank you so much for your kind words as well I'm just glad I could put together a blog that has straight forward information and pretty much everything in one place for people to view so they're not all over the web for months trying to piece together a bunch of shit! Keep me updated on his road to recovery I wish you both health and happiness!

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  6. I am so glad to have found this blog. I have been on the candida diet for 3 months after going through major episodes of vertigo and years of suffering with yeast infections. The first month of the diet things went great (great if I don't account for the horrible die-off), but in the last two months things just deteriorated and bowel movements were back to less than regular. I am still itchy all over and dizzy. When talking to my integrative medicine practitioner she suggested I may be suffering from this histamine intolerance. I also know I have leaky gut, and she recommended the GAPS diet, but I can't do GAPS with a hystamine issue. I'll take some of your recommendations and will try to get the histamines under control before I ca get started on a modified GAPS. BTW...the candida diet caused my thiroid and adrenal glands to exhaust themselves, increasing my fatigue even more. Thanks for taking the time to document your journey!

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    1. Hi thank you for visiting hint.gs! I've read extensively on how the GAPS diet cannot be done for HI peeps. It's like a catch 22 huh? I know I didn't want to mess with even the modified version of this because, well, I can be a bit lazy especially when it comes to having to make special meals. I'm a short order cook as it is in my house making everyone separate dishes almost nightly. So i wanted something easier for me. I honestly hope you try the supplements as I have them lined out I am confident you will begin to feel much better. It really just seems everything contradicts the other (GAP diet included) making it so very hard and to say the least frustrating for those suffering from HI. The more research I do on leaky gut the more I am convinced that the majority of people actually have it as well as HI to some extent, they just don't know it. Sadly, some people just think the way they feel is "normal" they don't even know they have health issues because they've never in their lives actually felt "good", so if they don't know what good feels like they have no idea that their sick...make sense? How often do you hear people say how tired they are and they can't think straight anymore? It's just they don't have the swellings to light a fire under their asses to say hey, there's something wrong here. Is that a good thing? Who knows I mean if they don't know the difference between being healthy and unhealthy then I'm sure they don't care. Keep me posted and I wish you well!

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  7. So as I mentioned to you before I have been religiously following your advice on supplements and diet including cutting grains. However ever since I have been just eating fresh meat, fruit & veggies I am now constantly bloated! I have tried several things to relieve it like taking an extra Digest Gold, I tried Beano, drinking more water, even some creative yoga poses, lol! Usually doing some cardio or eating brown rice would help me in the past, but I am not eating rice and cardio has not helped. I do workout regularly even though it is not advised with this condition and my tummy is usually pretty flat due to this. Any tips on how I can stop looking like I am "with child"? :-)

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    1. As with anyone eating a high amount of veggies especially cabbage WILL get very gassy. More ruffage equals more gas unfortunately. Also I'm not sure which veggies and which meats you are eating so they may be high in histamine or it may be the way you are preparing them. Are you eating your meat ASAP after cooking? Are you eating your veggies ASAP after cooking? Allowing foods to sit even for 15 minutes or so before eating they start breaking down and causing histamine release. I'm sure you've researched enough to know that you cannot eat left over meats so I'm sure that's not the problem here. Perhaps you are more sensitive to the meats or veggies you're eating and may need to completely cut out those certain meats/veggies. You may only be able to handle chicken as beef is, at times. hard for me to digest in general even now that I'm healed and prior to having my illness beef was EXTREMELY hard for me to break down. It's a hit or miss with me some days it doesn't bother me and some days it does. I believe the proteins in beef are larger and therefore are harder for the body to break down and digest. So try not eating beef at all for a few days and see if that helps. In addition you may want to ingest smaller portions per meal. Like eat 6 meals a day but very small meals. Perhaps eating 3 larger meals is too hard for your body to handle right now. You may also want to look into taking additional probiotics. I take mine before bed and not during the day. Lastly, what types of fruits are you eating? All fruits contain sugar and that could be the culprit. Bacteria in the gut love sugars :/. I hope you get to feeling better.

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  8. I totally agree with smaller meals, I do notice I get the bucket overflow feeling if I eat a bigger meal even if it is low histamine I am guess because the histamine your body produces while digesting (if I am right, you taught me well!). I dont seem to have a problem with meat and no I do not dare eat any that isnt freshly cooked, I used to freeze leftovers but now I just portion everything out and cook what I need. I experimented with eating leftover veggies and I dont have any issues there although I know it is not advised. I have roasted a huge amount of veggies on many occasions and ate them the day after and still was fine, may be because I am getting better though. I am also very careful to not ANY veggies that are high histamine so I dont think it is that either. I really do think the food combining you mentioned in your other post matches what symptoms are. I would love to take more probiotics but they are so dang expensive & I run out so quickly! Anyway thanks again for your insight, it is always so helpful!

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  9. Hey Dani! I don't see the link you refer to in this blog post to take us to the German HIT list. If you still have it can you share it with me. I did find a Swedish list that looks pretty comprehensive. Alison Vickery over in Australia offers a free list that looks really in depth too.

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    1. It's in the third paragraph down the word "here" is highlighted and takes you to the page . :)

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    2. Ok thanks I see it now. Silly me. I found this site before but I got confused trying to look at it. Good to know the Germans are well versed in this health condition.

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  10. Thank you for this, Dani. Following a low histamine diet for about 6 days now and in the first two my son no longer needed his inhaler that he's needed throughout the day for the past month since the start of his usual asthma trigger, a cold. This has never happened without a trip to the doctor and a course of oral steroids. We're pretty pumped and hope to spread the word about histamines in relation to asthma. We feel it's the missing, hidden link that is easy to overlook and that no md has ever mentioned in the 6 years since he's been diagnosed. It's people like you who are getting the word out. I'll also throw out that we've been including lots of pomegranate seeds throughout that time and I think it's been very helpful as an antihistamine. In his case we're also omitting sulfite-containing foods such as onions and garlic but will attempt to introduce them back in at a later date. Thank you so, so much!

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    1. Thanks so much Diane for your comment so glad to hear that he's getting better!! Good to know about pomegranate too, thanks so much for sharing that! Keep me posted!!

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  11. Be careful with anticholinergic antihistamines as they are link to dementia and Alzheimer's.

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  12. Be careful with anticholinergic antihistamines as they are link to dementia and Alzheimer's.

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