Glutamic acid

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

Glutamic acid contains moderate levels of histamine. Glutamic acid (E620) is the free acid, and it is the form that occurs naturally - in tomato, parmesan, mushroom, soy sauce. That is the useful fact: you cannot avoid glutamate by avoiding the additive, because the foods richest in it are foods, and several of them are on this axis for reasons that have nothing to do with the glutamate. The additive itself is where the double-blind evidence lands, and it lands softly: Geha challenged 130 self-declared reactors with 5 g of MSG without food, and while more reacted to MSG than to placebo, only half of them did so again on retest and the effects were neither persistent nor serious. SIGHI rates the whole family E620-625 alike, at 2 of 3. EFSA set the first ADI for these additives at 30 mg per kilo of body weight a day, then found exposure above it — and above DOSES ASSOCIATED WITH ADVERSE EFFECTS IN HUMANS — for some population groups. That answers a different question from the blinded challenge: habitual intake, not a meal. Glutamate is not histamine, and the body does not make histamine from it - histamine comes from histidine. It is on this page because the elimination protocols remove the flavour enhancers alongside the colours and the preservatives.

Glutamic acid contains only low levels of tyramine. Glutamic acid is an amino acid used as a flavour enhancer, and it contains no tyramine. It sits higher on the histamine axis than here, which is not a contradiction: that axis counts liberators - things that make the body release its own histamine - while this one counts content only. There is no tyramine liberator, because the body stores none to release.

Glutamic acid contains only low levels of salicylate. An amino acid used as a flavour enhancer. It belongs with the glutamates, not with the salicylates — the two are commonly eliminated together but are unrelated. Amounts vary by brand and recipe, so always check the label of the exact product.