Additives and tyramine: 337 foods rated

Concentrated yeast extract is one of the four foods both reviews of the MAOI diet put under absolute restriction, with aged cheese, broad bean pods and sauerkraut. Yeast products have been known to carry tyramine since the 1960s, and concentrating them multiplies it - which is why a spoonful of spread matters where a slice of bread does not.

• Blackwell B et al., J Food Sci 34 (1969) 47-51, tyramine in yeast products
• Gardner D.M. et al., J Clin Psychiatry 57 (1996) 99-104, and Shulman K.I. et al., J Clin Psychopharmacol 9 (1989) 397-402, the two reviews that narrowed the MAOI diet

Lactic ferments on a label are the starter cultures added to yoghurt, cheese, bread and cured sausage. The culture itself is a tiny quantity of bacteria, but WHICH one turns out to be a lever: EFSA names starter cultures that do not produce biogenic amines as one of the main ways to control them, and a label never says which kind was used. What the culture then does to the food over hours or months is the rest of the answer. Read the food, not the ingredient.

• EFSA Journal 2011 (tyramine and histamine in fermented foods)
• McCabe-Sellers et al., J Food Compos Anal 2006
• EFSA Panel on Biological Hazards, EFSA Journal 2011, for the doses — 50 mg histamine, 600 mg tyramine without MAOI treatment and 6 mg with a classical one

Nutritional yeast is inactivated whole yeast, not yeast EXTRACT - the distinction MAOI guidance draws explicitly. The extract, made by autolysing the cells, is the concentrated one; the flakes are the cells themselves, and baker's yeast in bread is not a problem at all. Three things sharing a word.

• Gardner et al., J Clin Psychiatry 1996, the review that narrowed the MAOI diet
• Shulman KI et al., J Clin Psychopharmacol 9 (1989)

Acetic acid is the acid of vinegar, in purified form, 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.

Baker's yeast is not what the MAOI diets restrict. Gardner names 'Marmite concentrated yeast extract' and Shulman names 'concentrated yeast extracts' — in both cases the autolysed paste, never the leavening cake — and Gardner adds the closing rule that foods it does not mention are unrestricted. SIGHI, which marks an A against every entry it holds to carry other biogenic amines, sets no letter against yeast in any form. Tyramine is what those diets restrict, and what they restrict it in are foods that have aged or fermented; a yeast cake is neither, being the organism that would do the fermenting. Both lists publish categories rather than mg figures, so this rests on which category the food falls in.

• Gardner D.M. et al., J Clin Psychiatry 1996, the review that narrowed the MAOI diet
• Shulman K.I. et al., J Clin Psychopharmacol 9 (1989)
• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list

Brilliant Black BN is a synthetic azo dye, 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.

Brown FK is a mixture of azo dyes, 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.

Brown HT is a synthetic azo dye, 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 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.

Green S is a synthetic triarylmethane dye, 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.

Koji is a living mould culture, and it is the starter behind miso, soy sauce and sake - the soy ferments at the top of this axis. The koji itself is low; it is what it is used to make, over months, that is not. Fermented soy is where this axis is decided, and it was measured as such: the level follows a survey of biologically active amines in FERMENTED SOY PRODUCTS. The fermentation is the variable - the same bean unfermented is a different food here.

• Toro-Funes N. et al., Food Chemistry 173 (2015) 1119-1124, biologically active amines in fermented soy products

Lactic acid is an acidity regulator, purified, 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.

Litholrubine BK is a dye used only on cheese rind, 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.

Processed Eucheuma seaweed is milled red algae used as a thickener, not a fermented product. Seaweed concentrates minerals from seawater, which matters on the nickel axis; it does not make amines.

Sulfite is a preservative and antioxidant, 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.