Allergies and Your Diet
Springtime! The melting of winter’s blanket with the sun, the warmth, the flowers, the itchy watery eyes, runny nose, congestion. Wait, what? Ah yes, allergies. Yes, the seasonal springtime allergies. This lush, pollen-rich season exudes newness and rebirth but also the resurgence of allergy symptoms. Allergies are on the rise. Food allergies alone have increased close to 50% between 1997-2010. 1 in 13 children now have some type of food allergy.
When it comes to allergy symptoms, it all comes down to histamine. Histamine is a part of the immune system however it’s best known for its role in allergic reactions. Histamine is produced and stored primarily in mast cells. Between allergy tests, shots and medications, the diagnosis and treatment of allergies is a $26 billion market. But did you know your diet can affect your allergy symptoms? And I don’t mean just food allergies. Your diet can affect the amount of histamine circulating in your body, either by increasing histamine levels, activating the histamine already in your body or altering your micro biome.
LIMIT FOODS THAT AFFECT HISTAMINE LEVELS
Histamine intolerance occurs when histamine overwhelms our system and we develop allergy symptoms. This can happen because histamine levels are too high or our bodies don’t break down histamine fast enough or both. DAO, or diamine oxidase, is an enzyme found in the gut that breaks down histamine. We make our own histamine but it’s also found in foods we consume. If you get an overwhelming amount of histamine at one time, springtime blooms and/or a histamine rich meal, your system can become overwhelmed and you can develop allergy symptoms.
You can’t always avoid allergens in the environment, but you can help your allergy symptoms by limiting histamine enriched foods. Foods can have high levels of histamine, trigger an internal histamine response or they can affect the activity of DAO. In knowing which foods can affect your histamine levels you can eat your way to a less itchy existence.
It’s important to note the foods listed below are not “bad.” However, if you suffer from allergies, it may be worth eliminating these foods from your diet for 10-14 days. If you notice an improvement, you could introduce one food every week to see which foods you are more likely to react.
Foods with higher histamine levels:
Alcohol – especially fermented alcohols like beer and wine
Eggplant
Fermented foods (histamine is a byproduct of the fermentation process)
Aged cheeses
Smoked meat products – salami, ham, sausages….
Shellfish
Legumes – beans, peanuts, cashews
Rice vinegar
Salty snacks, sweets with preservatives and artificial colorings
Dairy products
Soy
Foods that result in increased internal histamine release:
Citrus fruits – lemons, limes, oranges…
Cocoa and chocolate
Papaya, pineapples, plums, kiwi and bananas
Tomatoes
Wheat germ
Most vinegars
Additives – benzoate, sulphites, nitrites, glutamate, food dyes
Foods reported to block diamine oxidase (DAO):
Alcohol – especially fermented alcohols like beer and wine
Black tea
Energy drinks
Low Histamine Containing Foods: Preferred
Fresh meat (cooled, frozen or fresh)
Certain fresh/frozen fish – hake, trout, plaice
Chicken
Eggs
Fresh fruits – with the exception of plantains and citrus
Fresh vegetables – with the exception of tomatoes, eggplant
Most cooking oils – olive oil, ghee, coconut oil, avocado oil
Most leafy herbs
IMPROVE YOUR MICROBIOME
The micro biome is a collection of trillions of organisms that live on your skin and in your gut. We now know these symbiotic organisms strongly affect our health. People with allergy symptoms have been shown to have low diversity among the organisms in their gut. This is an entire blog subject (coming soon) however a few quick tips can lead to beneficial changes within the micro biome within just a few days.
- Limit sugar and processed carbohydrates from your diet
- Increase prebiotic foods. The insoluble fiber in these foods are the food for the organisms in your gut.
- Avoid antibiotics and stomach acid reducers. GERD is typically due to your diet and driven by sugar and processed carbohydrates.
- Avoid artificial sweeteners
- Take probiotics that contain lactobacillus and bifidobacterium
DIAMINE OXIDASE (DAO) SUPPLEMENTS
Doses of 4.2 mg of DAO 2–3 times daily before meals have been researched with no reports of adverse reactions. However, a clear consensus for DAO dosing has not been established.
You can take DAO supplements OR you can eat pea sprouts. They are very high in DAO. You can grow them in a mason jar on your counter. However the DAO is destroyed when exposed to heat, so don’t cook them. You can put them in salads or on top of your meal.
Take a multivitamin to ensure adequate amounts of Vitamin B6 and C needed for proper DAO activity.