Each year, more and more Americans become diagnosed with unexplainable food allergies that seem to occur without warning.  We are told that this is “normal” and that your body is just allergic to that particular food.  However, as time goes on, more and more food allergies begin to pop up in those suffering.  This forces the individual to follow an extremely strict eating plan and always on the lookout for problematic foods.

Unfortunately, many will live their lives constantly wondering when the next new food allergy will occur.  With that said, there may be a possible solution for these individuals who suffer day in and day out from constant food allergies and intolerance’s. 

Below you will find an in depth write up of why we believe that many food allergies are actually a sign of a histamine intolerance.  Also, we will explain how fungal overgrowth’s such as candida can contribute to intolerance’s to histamine in the body.

What is Histamine Intolerance?

Histamine intolerance’s is simply when the body becomes extremely sensitive to the compound histamine.  It’s important to understand that all healthy body’s produce histamine in order to carry out several different biological functions in the body.  In fact, histamine is necessary in order for the immune system to respond and operate correctly, assists in the formation of stomach acid, and plays an integral role in the health of the nervous system.

Unfortunately, those with histamine intolerance typically have excess histamine in the body that the body is unable to properly detox.  When this occurs, there are several different symptoms that often result.  Below is a small list of symptoms that are closely related to histamine intolerance in the body.

• Rash After Eating
• Random Occurrence of Small Bumps
• Brain Fog
• Hyperactivity
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Fatigue
• Bursts of Energy Followed by Crash
• Itchy Skin

Since histamine plays a role in our nervous system, many symptoms related to histamine intolerance can manifest as mental and not just physical.  In fact, it’s not uncommon for an individual to have extreme anxiety or feelings of worry and fear after the onset of a histamine reaction in the body.

If you suffer from any these symptoms, and you also suffer from several new food allergies that seem to have occurred out of the blue, you may be histamine intolerant.

What Causes Histamine Intolerance?

For the record, many who suffer from histamine intolerance never suffered from such problems when they were younger.  Typically, histamine intolerance’s takes several years to develop and symptoms can be extremely subtle in the beginning.  For example, sneezing after eating a problematic food is an indication that an individual may be suffering from mild histamine intolerance and that particular food is triggering a small reaction.

However, overtime, these symptoms can intensify to the point where you get severe reactions to certain foods.  With this said, the question still remains, what causes histamine intolerance?

In all of our research, and through extensive self-testing on both ourselves and others, we have come to the conclusion that histamine intolerance is without question related to the gut.  This is because the majority of the population whether they know it or not, suffer from a gut dsybosis and several bacterial and fungal overgrowth’s such as candida.

Through the years, we have come to realize just how important maintaining a balanced and healthy gut microbiome is to overall health.  In fact, research has confirmed that candida actually triggers the release of histamine from mast cells in the body (1)(2).  When this occurs, the body becomes overwhelmed with this compound and the immune system begins to become over stimulated.

Furthermore, another study proved that candida can negatively affect the mucosal barrier in the gut which can open the door to becoming hypersensitive to certain foods and developing several different food allergies (3).

Mast Cells and Histamine Intolerance

Mast cells and histamine intolerance typically go hand and hand.  This is because mast cells are responsible for the release of histamine in the body.  When the body is healthy, mast cells will only release histamine when necessary.  For example, since histamine plays an extremely important role in the immune system, mast cells will release histamine when trying to fight off a pathogen.

Those with fungal overgrowth’s such as candida are constantly releasing histamine into the body since it views the candida as a threat.  Unfortunately, until a proper diet is put into place and the growth of candida is inhibited, mast cells will continue to release excess amounts of histamine in the body, despite the negative side effects it may be causing to the individual.

Foods that Can Trigger a Histamine Reaction

If you’ve discovered that you’re histamine intolerant do yourself a favor and pat yourself on the back because the majority of individuals never can fully come to this realization.  With that said, now that you know what is truly going in your body, you can take the necessary steps in order to heal. 

However, before we go into these steps, let’s first look at foods that will typically produce a histamine reaction in the body.  Many of these foods are extremely healthy and nutrient dense but unfortunately contain high amounts of histamine.  Again, when the body is functioning properly, histamine in food is not a problem.

With that said, below is a small list of foods that are high in histamine and will typically cause a negative reaction in the body.

• Long Cooked Bone Broths
• Fermented Foods
• Fish
• Aged Cheese
• Aged Meat
• Leftovers
• Avocados
• Bananas
• Dried Fruit
• Canned Foods

These foods may need to be eliminated from the diet for a short time until symptoms clear.  After a month of being symptom free these foods can slowly be added back into the diet one at a time.  This will allow you to gauge exactly how you may react to the particular food.

The Best Diet for Histamine Intolerance

In our experience, the diet that will be most beneficial for combating histamine intolerance in the body is one that inhibits the growth of candida and supports the gut microbiome.  For those interested, be sure to go to our candida diet protocol page which lays out an in depth eating plan for ridding the body of candida and correcting the gut microbiome.

Also, diet should be based on high quality organic animal foods.  This means all sugar and high carbohydrate foods need to be removed from the diet.  Animal foods contain everything the body needs in order to repair and contains ZERO sugar.  Once the gut microbiome is balanced, starchy foods can be consumed in moderation, but sugar can never be consumed if you wish to remain healthy.

It’s important to understand that sugar is the perfect fuel source for candida.  In fact, candida has an alcohol metabolism where it actually will ferment sugars in the gut and produce over 70 different toxic byproducts.  Typically, it’s the excess amounts of sugar and starchy carbohydrates which caused the candida overgrowth in the first place.

Again, for a more detailed explanation on what we believe is the best diet for candida and histamine intolerance, be sure to our protocol page.  Also, our Crush Candida Recipe Cook Book can be excellent for anyone new to this style of eating and can help ease the transition by providing delicious and mouthwatering recipes!

Copper and Vitamin B6

There is ongoing research that shows that those with histamine intolerance may suffer from a copper and vitamin B6 deficiency.  In fact, deficiencies in copper and vitamin B6 can cause dysfunction in mast cells (4)(5).  That being said, we do not recommend you supplement with synthetic isolates in order to raise copper and B6 levels in the body.

Instead, we recommend you eat high quality animal organs such as liver, heart, and kidneys.  Animal organs are the richest source of copper in the world.  They also contain high amounts of B-vitamins, including vitamin B6.  Furthermore, many animal foods naturally contain high amounts copper and B6 despite not being organs.

Those who try and obtain these nutrients from plant foods will most likely fail.  This is because these nutrients are bound to anti-nutrients in all plant foods and can hinder absorption.  In fact, many anti-nutrients found in plant foods such as phytates can irritate the gut lining and cause inflammation.

For those still on the fence about consuming animal organs, you can also try a desiccated beef liver supplement.  Desiccated beef liver is simply liver that has undergone a drying process and can be taken in either pill or powder form.  Raw extra virgin cod liver oil is also an excellent option.