Vegetables and histamine: 61 foods rated

Gherkins split into two products that share a jar shape: TRADITIONALLY FERMENTED in brine, which is a live lactic ferment and high here, and QUICK-PICKLED in vinegar, which is not fermented at all - the acid does the preserving. The ingredient list separates them: vinegar means pickled and low in histamine, salt and water alone mean fermented.

• Comas-Baste et al., Biomolecules 2020
• McCabe-Sellers et al., J Food Compos Anal 2006

Kimchi is fermented cabbage with garlic, ginger and chilli, and every part of that adds up here: the fermentation makes histamine, and the chilli is a liberator in its own right. Longer-aged kimchi carries more than freshly made. Retail surveys measure the spread: histamine from 3.3 to 386 mg per kilo depending on variety and age.

• biogenic-amine surveys of retail kimchi, Foods 8(3):109 and 8(11):547 (2019)

Sauerkraut is one of only four foods both reviews that narrowed the MAOI diet put under absolute restriction - with aged cheese, concentrated yeast extract and broad bean pods - and the load climbs the longer it ferments - which is the one thing a barcode cannot tell you. Pasteurised jars carry far less than raw refrigerated kraut, because heat stops the bacteria that were still producing amines. It is also one of the seven foods Gardner's review kept when it narrowed the MAOI diet to what the evidence supports — a list that dropped most of what had been on it and held on to this.

• Gardner D.M. et al., J Clin Psychiatry 57 (1996) 99-104, the review that narrowed the MAOI diet
• Shulman K.I. et al., J Clin Psychopharmacol 9 (1989) 397-402, tyramine assayed in over 100 controversial foods

Dulse is a red seaweed sold dried in flakes and often eaten straight from the bag as a savoury snack - which is the difference from nori, where the seaweed is a wrapper around something else. Eaten by the handful, the small per-gram histamine figure stops being small.

• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007
• Zuberbier et al., EAACI/GA2LEN urticaria guideline

Bagged salad is the issue, not lettuce itself: leaves that have been cut, washed and sealed for days accumulate amines. A whole head you cut yourself is a different food.

Seaweed is dried and then stored for months, and the amines come from the drying itself rather than from the sea - rehydrating does not remove them, it only puts the water back. Nori sheets for sushi are the form most often eaten, and they are eaten in small quantities.

• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007
• Zuberbier et al., EAACI/GA2LEN urticaria guideline

Spinach is one of the few vegetables that genuinely carries histamine, and it climbs quickly once picked or left cooked in the fridge. Buy it fresh, cook it the same day, and do not reheat leftovers — that is where most reactions come from.

Artichoke carries no meaningful histamine and does not liberate any. Fresh vegetables are the reliable ground on this axis - it is fermenting them, or letting them sit, that changes the answer.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list, for the entry, its rating and its letters

Artichoke heart carries no meaningful histamine and does not liberate any. Fresh vegetables are the reliable ground on this axis - it is fermenting them, or letting them sit, that changes the answer.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list, for the entry, its rating and its letters

Edamame is the soybean picked green and eaten cooked, before any fermentation or germination, and fermentation is what builds histamine. That is the whole difference between it and the soy ferments at the top of this axis.

Fennel carries no meaningful histamine and does not liberate any. Fresh vegetables are the reliable ground on this axis - it is fermenting them, or letting them sit, that changes the answer.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list, for the entry, its rating and its letters

Mushroom is low when fresh, and that qualifier does more work here than usual. Mushrooms are mostly water and spoil from the inside, and it is that spoilage that builds histamine; a fresh one is low, one that has darkened in the fridge is not. Dried mushrooms have spent weeks doing exactly what drying does.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list, for the entry, its rating and its letters

Oyster mushroom is low when fresh, and that qualifier does more work here than usual. Mushrooms are mostly water and spoil from the inside, and it is that spoilage that builds histamine; a fresh one is low, one that has darkened in the fridge is not. Dried mushrooms have spent weeks doing exactly what drying does.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list, for the entry, its rating and its letters

Porcini is low when fresh, and that qualifier does more work here than usual. Mushrooms are mostly water and spoil from the inside, and it is that spoilage that builds histamine; a fresh one is low, one that has darkened in the fridge is not. Dried mushrooms have spent weeks doing exactly what drying does.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list, for the entry, its rating and its letters

Red cabbage carries no meaningful histamine and does not liberate any. Fresh vegetables are the reliable ground on this axis - it is fermenting them, or letting them sit, that changes the answer.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list, for the entry, its rating and its letters

Rocket carries no meaningful histamine and does not liberate any. Fresh vegetables are the reliable ground on this axis - it is fermenting them, or letting them sit, that changes the answer.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list, for the entry, its rating and its letters

Shallot carries no meaningful histamine and does not liberate any. Fresh vegetables are the reliable ground on this axis - it is fermenting them, or letting them sit, that changes the answer.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list, for the entry, its rating and its letters

Shiitake is low when fresh, and that qualifier does more work here than usual. Mushrooms are mostly water and spoil from the inside, and it is that spoilage that builds histamine; a fresh one is low, one that has darkened in the fridge is not. Dried mushrooms have spent weeks doing exactly what drying does.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list, for the entry, its rating and its letters

Taro carries no meaningful histamine and does not liberate any. Fresh vegetables are the reliable ground on this axis - it is fermenting them, or letting them sit, that changes the answer.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list, for the entry, its rating and its letters