People are more confused than ever about how to eat healthy. And for good reason! There’s a lot of conflicting information out there about food. Some healthy food trends we see today include:
Bone broth
Apple cider vinegar
Kombucha
Fermented foods
High-fat diets
Lectin-free diets
The bottom line is: Each body is biochemically unique. Eating “healthy” is not as simple as considering the nutritional value of a particular food.
A less-talked about topic among doctors and nutritionists is the role of histamines. The potential symptoms from having too much histamine in the body can make a significant difference in your health.
What is Histamine?
With 15 years of working with clients on their digestive and nutritional health, I can say histamine intolerances are quite common.
Histamine is a neurotransmitter that helps breakdown food in your stomach. It also plays a VERY important role in the immune system, as it alerts the body of any possible illnesses.
When we come in contact with a virus, bacteria, pollen or animal dander—histamine is released by the body to the site of contact. The histamine is trying to help the body deal with irritation caused by the foreign invader. However, the body actually experiences allergic symptoms as a result.
The body naturally produces histamines, but it’s important to know that they are also found in foods.
You may be wondering, “What’s the problem with histamines if they play an important role in the body?”
Some people have a hard time breaking down excess histamine—and if that’s the case, the body can experience an inflammatory response, similar to seasonal allergies.
A histamine intolerance can show up in many different ways.
Headaches
Skin Issues
Diarrhea and Constipation
Sleep Issues
Anxiety and Irritability
Here’s a little more of the science for you…
There are two enzymes in the body that reduce histamine: HMT and DAO. If there is a histamine issue, the failure of DAO doing its job is most likely to blame.
What gets in the way of DAO doing its job? The answer is mostly related to what we put in our bodies.
High-histamine foods, and prescription and over-the-counter medications have the most significant impact on DAO.
Foods high in histamine include:
Vinegars
Fermented foods, such as yogurt and sauerkraut
Kombucha
Ginger
Nightshades (i.e. tomatoes, peppers, eggplants)
Cured or fermented meats, such as sausages and salami
Aged cheese
(It’s interesting how many of the “healthy” food trends are actually high in histamine, right?…)
Using Diagnostic Testing and Tools for Digestive and Nutritional Health
If my clients are experiencing symptoms that may be related to histamine intolerance, I help them make simple diet substitutions in order to test if histamines are indeed to blame. If they are, many people see symptomatic improvement within 1-2 weeks!
While histamines are a real problem for some people, People can experience similar symptoms for other reasons...
That’s why I often use diagnostic testing and tools in order to identifying specific imbalances in the digestive tract, as well as vitamin and mineral deficiencies. From there, we develop a digestive and detox plan that you can manage and is super effective.
My goal is for my clients to learn what to eat for their body’s unique needs…so they are not left confused about the newest health trend.
