rambunctious's Profile

Guess I'll add another food challenge to the list that hasn't been mentioned yet...

I have a histamine intolerance disorder, which means I can't eat foods that are high in histamine because I can't process it properly. So what foods are high in histamine? Well, you name it. First, no pickled or fermented foods--so no cheese, wine, beer, soy sauce, yeast, pickles. No foods with vinegar--so no salad dressings, ketchup, mustard. No aged foods, like aged steaks. And no foods that are naturally high in histamine--spinach, tomatoes, ripe bananas, and chocolate, to name a few. Also, no canned foods because histamine in food increases when the food is canned. And get this, I can't eat any foods that are aged, so aged steaks are completely out. All meats that I eat have to be fresh because histamine builds up in meat the longer it's been around.

As you can imagine, eating out is nightmarish for me, and I think I don't get invited to dinner parties anymore (because I only hear about them after the fact)!

If I do eat any of these foods, I'll get hives, or I'll start to itch, or I'll get acid reflux that lasts for day. But the worst symptom of all is....insomnia. Who would have ever guessed? Turns out that histamine affects one's wakefulness. So if I eat food that has a lot of histamine in it I won't sleep at all that evening. Before I knew I had the disorder I went through a 4-month period when I didn't sleep. I was eating lots of cheese and spinach those days and medicines like Ambien were completely ineffective on me.

My sister and my aunt's on my father's side have the same condition. And sometimes when I describe the condition to someone, I find another person who shares the problem (like my hairdresser!). So if you're a fellow sufferer (no survivor!), look at this article from the American Journal on Clinical Nutrition http://www.ajcn.org/content/85/5/1185.full