Cocoa powder

Cocoa powder is notable for nickel, oxalates, histamine and tyramine. Clear on salicylate, sucrose, FODMAPs, lactose, oligosaccharides, sorbitol, fructose and gluten.

Yes — cocoa powder is high in nickel. Cocoa powder is among the highest-nickel foods measured anywhere - the cacao tree accumulates the metal from the soil, and removing the fat concentrates what is left. It is the most concentrated form of the whole cocoa family.

Yes — cocoa powder is high in oxalates. Cocoa powder is the bean with its fat pressed out, so its oxalate concentrates per gram with everything else. It is also the form used by the spoonful in drinks and baking, which is the one thing keeping the dose down.

Cocoa powder contains moderate levels of histamine. Cocoa is on this axis for two reasons, and it is worth separating them because only one has a mechanism. It is listed as a liberator in the elimination protocols - a classification from those lists rather than a demonstrated effect - and it carries other biogenic amines of its own, tyramine and phenylethylamine, which COMPETE with histamine for the same enzyme. Competing for DAO is not inhibiting it, and claims that cocoa blocks the enzyme are not established. Cocoa powder is the most concentrated form of the bean short of the mass: the fat is pressed out, so everything else concentrates per gram.

Cocoa powder contains only low levels of tyramine. Cocoa powder is the bean with its fat pressed out, so the solids are more concentrated per gram than in cocoa mass — but chocolate came off the MAOI restriction lists when the two reviews narrowed them, and neither names cocoa among the foods needing restriction. Low rather than nothing, because the bean does carry a small amine load. Amounts vary by brand and recipe, so always check the label of the exact product.