Food & triggers

Search the directory to compare source-specific ratings for histamine, FODMAP, oxalate, other amines and tyramine. Open Sources on any row to see why a value is shown; potential-trigger reports remain separate from content ratings.

Ratings are shown per source and as low / moderate / high rather than as numbers. Both choices are deliberate. Published food lists disagree with each other more than patients are usually told: a 2021 review comparing ten low-histamine diets found that only fermented foods were excluded unanimously, and that measured histamine content justified fewer than a third of the exclusions. Averaging those sources into one number would manufacture a certainty the literature does not have.

Potential trigger is a separate literature signal, not another content rating. “Reported” means an opened review explicitly names the food as a possible endogenous-histamine trigger while also acknowledging that controlled human evidence and the proposed release mechanism are unresolved. A blank cell means no qualifying signal is recorded here; it does not promise universal tolerance.

The conflict you will meet most often is not between two laboratories — it is between a food list and a measurement. Citrus is the clearest case: 60% of the reviewed diets exclude it, and it contains no detectable histamine at all. Those entries carry a note explaining what the exclusion is actually based on, because “avoid this” and “this contains that” are different claims and deserve to be read differently.

Where two citable sources give the same axis different values, the table says “sources differ” and shows both rather than picking a winner — currently on 7 of 54 entries. They divide into two kinds, and the difference matters. Some are an artefact of measurement: one oxalate review reports per 100 grams and the other bands per serving, and servings differ enormously by food. Others are real differences in what was measured — the histamine content of avocado, tomato or canned sardines genuinely varies by region, cultivar, storage and assay. Each entry says which kind it is, because "these two papers used different units" and "this food is not the same everywhere" call for different responses from a reader.

Food directory

54 of 54 foods

Foods and their ratings on each content axis, plus separately sourced potential-trigger reports. Cells marked “sources differ” have more than one published value.
FoodFODMAPHistamineOxalateOther aminesTyraminePotential triggerSource detail
Aged cheddar cheese · agedDairyHighHigh
AlmondsNuts and seedsSee sourceSee sourceHigh
AmaranthGrains and pseudocerealsSee sourceHigh
Apple · rawFruitLowLow
Asparagus · boiledVegetableLow
Avocado · rawFruitSources differLow
BananaFruitSee sourceLowLowHigh
BeansLegumesSee sourceSources differ
Beer · fermentedBeverageLow
BeetsVegetableSee sourceHigh
Brewed coffee · juiceBeverageLow
Brewed tea · juiceBeverageSee sourceLow
Canned sardines · cannedFishSources differ
Canned tuna · cannedFishVariable
Chicken breast · rawMeatLow
Chickpeas · driedLegumesLowLowHigh
Cocoa powder · powderOtherSee sourceHigh
CornmealGrains and pseudocerealsLowSources differ
Dry-fermented sausage · fermentedFermentedSources differHigh
EggplantVegetableVariableVariable
Fresh salmon · rawFishVariable
HazelnutsNuts and seedsSee sourceHigh
Ketchup · cookedOtherVariable
Kiwi · rawFruitLowLowReported
Lentils · boiledLegumesSee sourceLowHigh
Miso · fermentedFermentedHighHigh
MushroomsOtherLowHigh
OkraVegetableSee sourceHigh
OrangeFruitLowLowHigh
Papaya · rawFruitLowLowLow
PeanutsNuts and seedsLowHighLow
Pear · rawFruitHigh
Peas · rawLegumesLowHigh
Pineapple · rawFruitLowLow
Pistachio nutsNuts and seedsSee sourceModerate
PotatoesVegetableSee sourceHigh
QuinoaGrains and pseudocerealsSee sourceHigh
RaspberriesFruitSee sourceLow
RhubarbVegetableSee sourceHigh
Rice branGrains and pseudocerealsHigh
Sauerkraut · fermentedFermentedHighLowHigh
Soy sauce · fermentedFermentedVariable
SoybeansLegumesLowHighHigh
SpinachVegetableSee sourceVariableHighReported
Star fruit · rawFruitHigh
Strawberry · rawFruitLowLowLowReported
Sweet potato · rawVegetableLowHigh
Swiss chard · rawVegetableHigh
TofuLegumesSee sourceHigh
TomatoVegetableSee sourceSources differReported
Watermelon · rawFruitLowLow
Whole-grain flourGrains and pseudocerealsSources differ
WineBeverageLow
ZucchiniVegetableLow

Why some sources show no rating

3 of the sources used here are linked rather than restated, for reasons that differ between them. For a laboratory database, coarsening a measured value into “low” or “high” reduces its precision but not its provenance — it is still that database's figure. For a practitioner's list, the value lies in which foods it selects and how it groups them, and that selection is the author's own work. Either way the build enforces it: an entry that puts a rating against a link-only source fails validation, and a link-only source that does not explain itself fails too.

Full source list and terms →