Finding information on Histamine Intolerance (HIT) has been really rough. I can find information on Chronic Urticaria which suggests a low histamine diet but does not require such a strict dietary regiment. As I find web sites, blogs, research papers and more, I will post them here. This is what I have found so far:
Histamine Restricted diet from the International Chronic Urticaria Society http://www.urticaria.thunderworksinc.com/pages/lowhistamine.htm
A great introduction to HIT and Histaminosis
http://nucleusbooks.tumblr.com/HistamineIntoleranceHistaminosis
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition- Histamine and Histamine Intolerance
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/85/5/1185.full.pdf+html
Food. We need to eat and my first panic was..what do I eat now? I was already strictly excluding gluten, dairy and soy so the Paleo diet was a perfect match. What the HIT diet requires is way beyond paleolithic eating. Searching for lists of diet restrictions comes up with a list of citrus fruits, dairy, gluten, soys and other foods to avoid but not a list of why or how bad they are. This list has most foods rated from 0 to 3. 0 means contains no histamine, 3 means high levels. It also lists foods that are histamine liberators..foods that release more histamines in your body. For my purposes, I am only eating off of the 0 list for 1 month in an attempt to reset my son's body. Considering pollen season is around the corner, this is great for any allergy sufferer as well.
Great list of foods- Print this out and keep it with you when you shop or eat out. http://www.histaminintoleranz.ch/download/SIGHI-FoodCompatibilityList_HIT(EN).pdf
The difference about cooking for a HIT diet vs a Paleo diet is that for HIT, slow cooking is the enemy. With the Paleo diet there are great recipes for slow cooked ox tail, pulled pork, chicken thighs in the crock pot...with the HIT diet, time is not your friend. The longer an animal spends waiting for consumption, the higher the histamine count. For example, a fish that has just been caught and cleaned has little to no histamine. By the time it reaches your store, sits in waiting for your spice cabinet, then hits the plate....loads of histamine. The same goes for canned goods. To beat this, buy fresh and freeze until use. I like to buy the bags of individually frozen fishies. These are usually caught, cleaned and packaged in no time and delivered frozen to a big box store near you. As for land critters, well, local is better anyway. I have switched to buying our beef and pork from a local grower. He raises the beautiful bovine on green pastures then when their is is up.....straight from the slaughter house to the freezer. I buy it from him and keep it frozen until use. I also no longer get to slow cook or use my crock pot for daily help. You can still cook large batches of things but instead of keeping leftovers in the refrigerator, freeze individual serving sizes.
Now that you have a list of foods to avoid, what do you do with all the food in your cupboards? I took everything out of our cupboards and put it in bags. I keep those in the garage for a while until I know the limits of the food restrictions. Once we are settled into having fewer problems, I will try re-introducing some foods a little at a time. If I realize that I simply cannot use a product, I find someone to donate it to. Before we realized that we had to go gluten free I had stocked up on pasta. Two grocery bags of pasta and pasta sauce found a new home that week. Canned food is generally bad, even if it is a food that you should be able to eat. Pickled, canned, jarred, preservative filled items are out. Thing fresh..fresh...fresh.
The refrigerator houses so many bad foods for the histamine intolerant. Get rid of the ketchup, the mustard the deli meat, smoked/cured meats, citrus fruits, leftovers etc. Once your kitchen of clean of all the food you can't eat you can stock it with foods you can eat. This helps avoid the depressing moment when you open a door looking for food and stand ten minutes staring in depression at things you can't have. Don't forget the tea/coffee/soda cabinet. Black and green tea are out along with all colas and coffee.
Beyond the check list, here is a great list of basics:
Avoid or reduce eating:
Histamine Restricted diet from the International Chronic Urticaria Society http://www.urticaria.thunderworksinc.com/pages/lowhistamine.htm
A great introduction to HIT and Histaminosis
http://nucleusbooks.tumblr.com/HistamineIntoleranceHistaminosis
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition- Histamine and Histamine Intolerance
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/85/5/1185.full.pdf+html
So what can I eat?
Food. We need to eat and my first panic was..what do I eat now? I was already strictly excluding gluten, dairy and soy so the Paleo diet was a perfect match. What the HIT diet requires is way beyond paleolithic eating. Searching for lists of diet restrictions comes up with a list of citrus fruits, dairy, gluten, soys and other foods to avoid but not a list of why or how bad they are. This list has most foods rated from 0 to 3. 0 means contains no histamine, 3 means high levels. It also lists foods that are histamine liberators..foods that release more histamines in your body. For my purposes, I am only eating off of the 0 list for 1 month in an attempt to reset my son's body. Considering pollen season is around the corner, this is great for any allergy sufferer as well.
Great list of foods- Print this out and keep it with you when you shop or eat out. http://www.histaminintoleranz.ch/download/SIGHI-FoodCompatibilityList_HIT(EN).pdf
Fresh is best.
The difference about cooking for a HIT diet vs a Paleo diet is that for HIT, slow cooking is the enemy. With the Paleo diet there are great recipes for slow cooked ox tail, pulled pork, chicken thighs in the crock pot...with the HIT diet, time is not your friend. The longer an animal spends waiting for consumption, the higher the histamine count. For example, a fish that has just been caught and cleaned has little to no histamine. By the time it reaches your store, sits in waiting for your spice cabinet, then hits the plate....loads of histamine. The same goes for canned goods. To beat this, buy fresh and freeze until use. I like to buy the bags of individually frozen fishies. These are usually caught, cleaned and packaged in no time and delivered frozen to a big box store near you. As for land critters, well, local is better anyway. I have switched to buying our beef and pork from a local grower. He raises the beautiful bovine on green pastures then when their is is up.....straight from the slaughter house to the freezer. I buy it from him and keep it frozen until use. I also no longer get to slow cook or use my crock pot for daily help. You can still cook large batches of things but instead of keeping leftovers in the refrigerator, freeze individual serving sizes. Cleaning house.
Now that you have a list of foods to avoid, what do you do with all the food in your cupboards? I took everything out of our cupboards and put it in bags. I keep those in the garage for a while until I know the limits of the food restrictions. Once we are settled into having fewer problems, I will try re-introducing some foods a little at a time. If I realize that I simply cannot use a product, I find someone to donate it to. Before we realized that we had to go gluten free I had stocked up on pasta. Two grocery bags of pasta and pasta sauce found a new home that week. Canned food is generally bad, even if it is a food that you should be able to eat. Pickled, canned, jarred, preservative filled items are out. Thing fresh..fresh...fresh.
The refrigerator houses so many bad foods for the histamine intolerant. Get rid of the ketchup, the mustard the deli meat, smoked/cured meats, citrus fruits, leftovers etc. Once your kitchen of clean of all the food you can't eat you can stock it with foods you can eat. This helps avoid the depressing moment when you open a door looking for food and stand ten minutes staring in depression at things you can't have. Don't forget the tea/coffee/soda cabinet. Black and green tea are out along with all colas and coffee.
Beyond the check list, here is a great list of basics:
Avoid or reduce eating:
- canned foods and ready meals
- ripened and fermented foods
- only buy and eat fresh products
- don't let foods sit outside the refrigerator – especially meat products
Low histamine level foods:
- Fresh meat (cooled, frozen or fresh)
- Freshly caught fish
- Chicken (skinned and fresh)
- Egg yolk
- Fresh fruits -avoid oranges and tomatoes until you know your threshold
- Fresh vegetables
- Grains – corn and rice are safe but avoid gluten and lentils
- Fresh pasteurized milk and milk products
High histamine level foods:
- Alcohol
- Pickled or canned foods – sauerkrauts
- Matured cheeses
- Smoked meat products – salami, ham, sausages….
- Shellfish
- Beans – chickpeas, soy beans, peanuts
- Nuts – walnuts, cashew nuts, macadamia
- Chocolates and other cocoa based products
- Most citric fruits
- Wheat based products- gluten in general
- Vinegar
- Ready meals
- Salty snacks, sweets with preservatives and artificial coloring
Histamine liberators:
- Most citric fruits – kiwi, lemon, lime, pineapple, plums…
- Cocoa and chocolate
- Nuts
- Papaya
- Beans- soy family
- Tomatoes
- Wheat germ
- Additives – benzoate, sulphites, nitrites, glutamate, food dyes
Diamine Oxidase (DAO) blockers:
- Alcohol
- Black tea
- Energy drinks
- Green tea
- Mate tea
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