Hello everyone this is Monica Reinagel the nutrition diva here with your quick and dirty

tips for eating well and feeling fabulous this week's topic was suggested by several nutrition diva

listeners including Bronwyn who wrote I came across a magazine article in which a

woman extolled the virtues of a histamine-free diet? Is it true that there are histamines in food?

And does eating a low histamine diet help with allergies or improve the look of your skin, will it give you more energy?

I've been hearing a lot about the low histamine diet lately as well.

It's recommended as a treatment for histamine intolerance, and that's a condition that's not widely recognized in the conventional medical community.

But that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

The theory behind histamine intolerance is plausible, but pending more and better research,

the diagnosis and treatments are still somewhat speculative.

But can a low histamine diet also be a panacea for clearer skin and better energy levels, as this magazine article implies?

Not likely. At most, a low histamine diet might offer relief from chronic and mysterious symptoms,

which sometimes include skin rashes and fatigue, for a small percentage of the population.

Now the word histamine is probably familiar to you but

maybe not in a dietary context. Your body produces histamines as part of its

immune response. If you suffer from hay fever, for example, the histamines that your cells

release when they're exposed to pollen are what causes the itchy watery eyes, the

runny nose, wheezing, and all that misery you're experiencing.

Anthistamine drugs bring relief by blocking the activity of those histamines.

But yes, Bronwyn, some foods, including many things that we think of as healthful, also contain

histamines.

Fermented foods like sauerkraut, kafir, cheese, or cured meats can be especially high in histamines. But eating these foods

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