Vegetables and tyramine: 61 foods rated

Kimchi is fermented vegetables with a long cure, and surveys of traditional fermented vegetables find tyramine among the amines that build. Unlike sauerkraut it also carries garlic and fish sauce in many recipes, both of which add their own. The same surveys put tyramine at up to 181 mg per kilo.

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

Sauerkraut is one of only four foods the standard MAOI assay singled out for absolute restriction, alongside aged cheese, yeast extract and broad bean pods. The lactic bacteria that sour the cabbage decarboxylate tyrosine as they go, and the longer the ferment the more there is.

• 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

Gherkins split into two products sharing a jar shape: traditionally FERMENTED in brine, which is a live lactic ferment and belongs here, and quick-pickled in vinegar, which is not fermented at all. Vinegar on the ingredient list means pickled and low in tyramine; salt and water alone mean fermented.

• EFSA Journal 2011 (tyramine and histamine in fermented foods)
• McCabe-Sellers et al., J Food Compos Anal 2006

Bagged mixed lettuce is cut leaves kept for days in a sealed atmosphere, and cutting a leaf starts the clock: the cut surfaces are where the bacteria that build tyramine grow. A whole lettuce taken apart at home is not the same food as the same lettuce washed, cut and bagged a week ago.

• EFSA Journal 2011
• McCabe-Sellers et al., J Food Compos Anal 2006

Spinach is sold pre-washed and bagged more often than any other leaf, and it wilts faster than most - a bag that has gone slimy at the bottom is bacterial growth you can see, and those bacteria are what build tyramine. Fresh loose spinach cooked the day it is bought is a different entry from the bag at the back of the fridge.

• EFSA Journal 2011
• McCabe-Sellers et al., J Food Compos Anal 2006

Artichoke is low. What is eaten is a flower bud, boiled or steamed within days of cutting - nowhere in its life do bacteria get time on protein. The few surveys that measured vegetables for tyramine put the leafy and green ones at the bottom of their range.

• Ly D. et al., J Med Food 11:2 (2008) 385-389, and Simon-Sarkadi L. et al., Z Lebensm Unters Forsch 198 (1994), tyramine in vegetables

Artichoke heart is low. The heart is the bud trimmed to its tender centre, and the tin or jar means it was cooked and packed in acid - cooked, sealed, no fermentation anywhere. The few surveys that measured vegetables for tyramine put the leafy and green ones at the bottom of their range.

• Ly D. et al., J Med Food 11:2 (2008) 385-389, and Simon-Sarkadi L. et al., Z Lebensm Unters Forsch 198 (1994), tyramine in vegetables

Dulse is low. Tyramine needs two things: protein to build it from, and a ferment or an ageing to build it in. Dulse has the first - it is unusually rich in protein for a sea green - and not the second: nothing ferments a dried flake, and a flake is all a serving ever is. No survey has measured an alga for this axis; the level rests on the vegetable surveys, the nearest measured thing to it, which put the leafy and green kinds at the bottom of their range.

• Ly D. et al., J Med Food 11:2 (2008) 385-389, and Simon-Sarkadi L. et al., Z Lebensm Unters Forsch 198 (1994), tyramine in vegetables

Green bean is low. A pod eaten green, cooked within days of picking - there is no stage in its life where bacteria get time on protein. The few surveys that measured vegetables for tyramine put the leafy and green ones at the bottom of their range.

• Ly D. et al., J Med Food 11:2 (2008) 385-389, and Simon-Sarkadi L. et al., Z Lebensm Unters Forsch 198 (1994), tyramine in vegetables

Mushroom is low in tyramine fresh. Mushrooms have been surveyed processed and unprocessed, and it is the processing that moves them - dried, pickled or left to darken, they carry more than they did in the punnet.

Oyster mushroom is low in tyramine fresh. Mushrooms have been surveyed processed and unprocessed, and it is the processing that moves them - dried, pickled or left to darken, they carry more than they did in the punnet.

Porcini is low in tyramine fresh. Mushrooms have been surveyed processed and unprocessed, and it is the processing that moves them - dried, pickled or left to darken, they carry more than they did in the punnet.

Rocket is low. A leaf eaten raw and fast, peppery from glucosinolates and not from anything fermented - a handful in a salad, gone the day it wilts. The few surveys that measured vegetables for tyramine put the leafy and green ones at the bottom of their range.

• Ly D. et al., J Med Food 11:2 (2008) 385-389, and Simon-Sarkadi L. et al., Z Lebensm Unters Forsch 198 (1994), tyramine in vegetables

Seaweed is low. An alga, not a vegetable, but the arithmetic is the same: dried and eaten in sheets or flakes, grams at a time, and nothing in its making is a fermentation, and fermentation is what builds tyramine. No survey has measured an alga for this axis; the level rests on the vegetable surveys, the nearest measured thing to it, which put the leafy and green kinds at the bottom of their range.

• Ly D. et al., J Med Food 11:2 (2008) 385-389, and Simon-Sarkadi L. et al., Z Lebensm Unters Forsch 198 (1994), tyramine in vegetables

Shiitake is low in tyramine fresh. Mushrooms have been surveyed processed and unprocessed, and it is the processing that moves them - dried, pickled or left to darken, they carry more than they did in the punnet.