Kiwi

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

Kiwi contains only low levels of histamine. Kiwi contains almost no histamine but is classed as a liberator - it prompts the body to release its own. That is a different mechanism from content, and it is why a fresh fruit can still cause symptoms. It is one of the five fruits the current review names as reported to trigger the release of endogenous histamine, and the review says plainly that the mechanism responsible has not yet been elucidated.

Kiwi contains only low levels of salicylate. Kiwifruit measures 13.4 mg of salicylate per kilogram and a single fruit delivers 1.14 mg - one of the larger per-serve figures in the survey, because unlike a spice it is eaten by the fruit rather than by the pinch. Eaten with the skin on, as some people do, expect more: the same paper found unpeeled apple at three times the peeled value.

Kiwi contains only low levels of FODMAPs. Kiwi is low on this axis rather than clear of it, and one family out of the several it counts is the reason: sugar. A measurement of the kiwi's sugars put sucrose at 71.9 per cent of the total, leaving glucose and fructose to share the rest, and free fructose is one of the FODMAPs. The polyol side is the other way round — the same survey measured sorbitol across 25 berry species and the kiwi, and found it in three of them, chokeberry, rowanberry and eastern shadbush, with the kiwi not among them.

Kiwi contains only low levels of fructose. Kiwi carries free fructose, though less of it than its sweetness suggests: a measurement of the kiwi's sugars put sucrose at 71.9 per cent of the total, which leaves glucose and fructose to share roughly the remaining quarter between them. Sucrose is itself a glucose joined to a fructose and is split into the two during digestion, so what a kiwi finally delivers is more than its free fructose alone. A ripe kiwi is sweeter than a firm one for the same reason any fruit is, so the state it is eaten in moves the figure. Amounts vary by brand and recipe, so always check the label of the exact product.