Low-histamine legumes

Beans, lentils, chickpeas and the other pulses give one of the clearest results in the studies we use: no legume tested had detectable histamine. A 2020 review from a University of Barcelona team pooled 11 legume samples and found none in any of them. The same team's 2018 review gives figures for individual legumes bought in Spain: white beans (6 samples), chickpeas (4), lentils (7), peas (9) and peanuts (7), which the paper files with the legumes rather than the nuts. Histamine, tyramine and cadaverine were not detected in any of them.

Putrescine, a related amine, was the only one found, and it varied a lot. White beans averaged 0.66 mg/kg and peanuts 0.87 mg/kg, chickpeas 3.63 mg/kg and lentils 8.19 mg/kg. Peas stood out at 34.28 mg/kg, and another study found 46.3 mg/kg on average in frozen peas, which its authors linked to bacteria acting between harvest and freezing. Some researchers think putrescine competes with histamine for DAO, the gut enzyme that breaks histamine down, but that idea rests on old animal and laboratory studies, so on our scale it can move a rating by one step at most.

The published diets are split, and mostly not over histamine. The 2021 chart of foods excluded by ten low-histamine diets has no bar for beans, lentils or chickpeas, and the review names peas as a food no diet excludes despite its putrescine. The 2020 review found lentils and chickpeas excluded by fewer than one diet in five. A 2024 clinical review, on the other hand, lists legumes in general among the foods a low-histamine diet avoids. The 2018 review suggests polyamines as the reason: lentils carried 15–107 mg/kg of spermidine across studies and chickpeas 15–85 mg/kg, and DAO also handles these compounds, with lower affinity. Nobody has tested whether that causes symptoms.

Two common beans were not measured for histamine: red kidney beans, where only low putrescine and tyramine were reported, and black beans, with no data at all. Their pages say so and give an estimate. Soybeans, tofu and fermented soy have their own category, because fermentation changes the picture completely.

Each legume page lists the measurements, the sources and the forms that were not tested, such as tinned beans, hummus and leftovers. Cooked pulses kept for days are the main thing to watch: amines form as cooked food is stored, and reheating does not remove them.

Sources

1. Sánchez-Pérez S, Comas-Basté O, Rabell-González J, Veciana-Nogués MT, Latorre-Moratalla ML, Vidal-Carou MC. Biogenic Amines in Plant-Origin Foods: Are They Frequently Underestimated in Low-Histamine Diets? Foods 7(12):205, 2018. doi:10.3390/foods7120205
2. Comas-Basté O, Sánchez-Pérez S, Veciana-Nogués MT, Latorre-Moratalla M, Vidal-Carou MDC. Histamine Intolerance: The Current State of the Art. Biomolecules 10(8):1181, 2020. doi:10.3390/biom10081181
3. Sánchez-Pérez S, Comas-Basté O, Veciana-Nogués MT, Latorre-Moratalla ML, Vidal-Carou MC. Low-Histamine Diets: Is the Exclusion of Foods Justified by Their Histamine Content? Nutrients 13(5):1395, 2021. doi:10.3390/nu13051395
4. Jochum C. Histamine Intolerance: Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Beyond. Nutrients 16(8):1219, 2024. doi:10.3390/nu16081219