Fruits

I wanted to examine the diet somewhat closer, but since there are so many foods, it’s broken up in parts. The fruits come first, since I personally really like fruits, and got rather tired of the apples, pears and grapes I mostly ate. One thing that I learned from this is that melons are okay, and watermelon seems to be as well, though many of the dutch resources  say that these no good as they contain histamine liberators.

I have googled for some dietary lists, at the end of the post the used ones are mentioned, and counted the times fruits are mentioned as either allowed or restricted. A ‘v’ is allowed and ‘l’ is not allowed.

Pineapple, papaya, strawberries, cranberries, plums and avocado are almost always mentioned as high in histamine or histamine releasing factors. Citrus has histamine releasing capacities, and generally should be avoided as well. Though some just caution but promote moderate consumption of these fruits.

Bananas seem to be highly controversial, some lists say these are okay, others put this in the avoidance zone. Also controversial are kiwi’s.

Opinions over stone fruits like apricot, cherry, nectarines and prunes also vary, from okay to bad. I think for certain of these, like apricots could be okay if eaten while fresh, whereas the dried version will have accumulated more histamine, since the dried version is often on the restricted side.  On the list from my nutritionist dried apricot, raisins and figs are allowed if these are without sulfur. And please don’t ask me why strawberries are ok if they’ve been washed by hot water, maybe the thing that triggers mast cells to release histamine is located on their skin and easily flushed off with hot water? Couldn’t find any mention of this with a quick search.

I ate a few strawberries last summer, but had taken some antihistamines as I was eating at a friend’s place, so I have no clue if they would make me react. They did taste quite good even washed in hot water. Poor guys trying to seduce a lady with strawberries while she is not allowed to eat them.

There is overwhelming agreement over the low histamine content of apples, melons and rhubarb. While mango, pears and grapes all get mentioned as restricted by one of the dietary lists.  Even though they’ve been OK’d by many other lists.

In all  cases what matters most is that the fruit is fresh, as bacterial activity breaks histidine down into histamine, so the more ripe the fruit, the more histamine it will contain.

The list:

Apple vvvv

Apricot vllv

Avocado llll

Banana vv lllll

Blackberry v

Blueberries l

Cantaloupe v

Carambola v

Cherry vlll

Citrus lllv – (oranges 0lll  – grapefruit v ll – manderine o – lemon v- lime  lv – kumquats l – limquats l – mineola l – pomelo l – tangelo  l – ugli l )

Cranberry lll

Currant lll

Date vll

Figs vv

Grape vvvl

Guave vl

Indian fig/prickly pear l

Kaki v

Kiwi lll vv

Loganberry l

Lyche v

Mango vvvl

Melon vv

Nectarine vll

Papaya llllll

Passion fruit ll

Peach vlvlv

Pear vvlv

Pineapple lllllll

Plums lll

Prunes vll

Raisins ll

Raspberries llll

Rhubarb vv

Strawberries  llllllll

Strawberries washed in hot water  v

Watermelon vvv

lists:

http://www.michiganallergy.com/food_and_histamine.shtml

http://www.urticaria.thunderworksinc.com/pages/lowhistamine.htm

http://www.digitalnaturopath.com/treat/T444777.html

http://www.allergyuk.org/fs_histamine.aspx

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/85/5/1185

http://www.esfbchannel.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=15777&sid=822c9837c371230e99db2d80ef9f56be

http://web.archive.org/web/20070830124324/users.bigpond.net.au/allergydietitian/fi/amines.html

http://www.cs.nsw.gov.au/csls/handbook/FactSheetView.asp?Number=44

And I used the list I got from my nutritionist.