Do you suffer from bloating and gas after you eat? Do you eat next to nothing and still gain weight?
Do you have acne, joint pain, fluid retention, fatigue, inflammation, and the inability to lose weight no matter what diet you’re on?
You could be allergic to foods that are high in histamine.
Most people have heard of histamine because it is known to “cause” allergies. In fact, the body’s defense reaction to foreign proteins in the blood is what causes allergies. Part of that reaction includes the release of histamine from mast cells — these are a kind of white blood cell that releases histamine and other substances. Although mast cells also release many other pro-inflammatory substances, histamine gets a particularly bad rap.
Histamine is a neurotransmitter that communicates important messages from the body to the brain. It is needed by many body systems, including the immune system, the digestive system, and the central nervous system. Histamine is also key to many allergic reactions. Histamine is found in the body as well as in food. Some foods contain histamine and others trigger its release from cells once in the body. Histamine does have many beneficial effects, but too much of it can also be a source of problems for some people. Histamine in the right amount keeps your body in balance.
There are two enzyme systems that break down histamine in your body to prevent excess levels. The main enzyme is diamine oxidase (DAO) and the other is HNMT (histamine N-methyltransferase), which is supported by the methylation process. Normally, when histamine levels reach a certain level, these enzyme systems kick in and break down the excess. If these systems are not working properly, the body is unable to break down the excess histamine and levels can build up. Each person has a threshold of how much histamine his body can handle. Once your levels have passed that threshold, you will suffer from symptoms such as hives, nasal congestion, headaches, and even fatigue. Histamine intolerance can be difficult to identify because it can have such a wide variety of symptoms. Furthermore, the response may not be immediate — there may be a cumulative effect that may not appear until several hours after consuming the problem food.
Factors that can affect your reaction include seasonal pollen, hormonal changes, and quantity of histamine foods eaten. For women, the DAO enzymes that are needed to break down histamine are higher during the last half of the menstrual cycle. This can play a part in the increase in headaches and food reactions right before the monthly period. Also, women may experience fewer symptoms during pregnancy as those enzymes are higher during that time.
Sensitivity to food occurs when the naturally occurring chemical composition of the food eaten has a direct effect on the brain or body. Sensitivities exist without immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies and therefore can be hard to detect. It is believed that about 80% of the population has undiagnosed food sensitivities, while true food allergy occurs in only about 5% of the population. Although the terms are often used interchangeably, a food allergy is not the same as a food sensitivity, also known as food intolerance. Food allergy creates an immediate and pronounced effect like difficulty breathing or anaphylactic shock; food allergy is IgE mediated. But reactions from food sensitivity or food intolerance are usually delayed or hidden and the symptoms are not as recognizable; they are immunoglobulin G (IgG) mediated.
Sensitivities and allergies to food can be caused by a variety of factors such as a weak immune system, heredity, repeated exposure to the same foods over and over, nutritional deficiencies, Candida overgrowth, or leaky gut syndrome. The individual living with food allergies or sensitivities often faces a lack of support from family, friends, and the uneducated medical community because these people refuse to believe or acknowledge that food can cause such debilitating symptoms.
Food sensitivities may actually cause you to crave certain foods. When we eat something that is reactive in our system, an inflammatory response occurs. It’s identical in action to the stuffy nose in someone who has an allergy to pollen. Histamine is triggered to block the nose so the offending substance cannot enter. This action also happens to other cells and tissues in the body when an allergen or sensitivity substance enters it. Cell signaling molecules known as cytokines produce pro-inflammatory chemicals. That inflammatory response sometimes produces pain, on either a major or minimal scale, somewhere in your system. When the body notices the pain signals, it starts to produce natural painkillers. Over time, the body looks forward to these naturally produced opiates, knows that certain foods are the trigger, and then stimulates a craving for those foods. The cravings are not so much for the food itself but rather for the natural high you get from the feel-good endorphins (natural opiates) you produce. As a result, many food cravings may be a direct result of food sensitivities because they trigger the production of feel-good chemicals.
Common food allergies or food intolerances with greater amounts of histamine, or foods that encourage mast cells to release histamine, causing you to hold onto weight, include:
- fermented foods (aged cheeses, sour cream, yogurt, buttermilk, sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, ham, sausages, sourdough bread, soy sauce)
- fermented chicken, beef, pork (smoked meats)
- canned fish (sardines, tuna)
- shellfish
- egg whites
- yeast
- wheat germ
- licorice
- vinegar
- tomatoes (and ketchup), eggplant, spinach
- avocado
- citrus fruits, pineapple, strawberries
- long stored nuts like peanuts, almonds, cashews
- salty snacks
- chocolate and cocoa
- black tea
- kombucha
- alcohol (wine, beer, champagne)
- energy drinks
- food additives such as preservatives, MSG, nitrates, pesticides, food colorings and dyes, fungicides
Food intolerance creates an imbalance in your body’s biochemistry. As a result, your metabolism slows down, your digestive tract and immune system become impaired, insulin and other hormones become unbalanced, and the body loses control of the neurotransmitters that control appetite. When chemicals that control appetite are altered, food cravings and binge eating occur, disrupting normal metabolism and impacting how much fat is stored. This in turn damages the vascular system, which causes fluid to leak into connective tissues, resulting in water retention. This becomes a vicious cycle that your body is burdened with, and it makes weight loss impossible.
Other than paying very close attention to your body’s response to the foods you are eating, testing is the only way to know whether certain foods are inflammatory for your body, keeping you fat, and increasing your risk for other metabolic and degenerative diseases like diabetes, arthritis, autoimmune conditions, and cancers. Food allergy testing is available at TLC Medical Centre Pharmacy. If you’ve been holding onto the nagging 10 – 50 pounds or more most of your life, please consider learning more about the food culprits that are deterring your weight loss efforts, and look forward to a healthier future.
As a functional medicine pharmacist, I can help guide your weight loss approach by using functional medicine tools, such as testing, to get to the bottom of your underlying organ system imbalances. Changing your diet to lower the histamine in your body is an important step, but correcting other system imbalances to reduce inflammation contributes not only to weight loss but also to a stronger, more resilient, and healthy body going forward.
