Low-histamine vegetables
| Food | Rating | Category | Published diets excluding it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broccoli | Vegetables | — | |
| Carrot | Vegetables | — | |
| Cauliflower | Vegetables | — | |
| Celery | Vegetables | — | |
| Cucumber | Vegetables | — | |
| Garlic | Vegetables | — | |
| Lettuce | Vegetables | — | |
| Onion | Vegetables | — | |
| Potato | Vegetables | — | |
| Sweet potato | Vegetables | — | |
| Zucchini | Vegetables | 0 of 10 | |
| Asparagus | Vegetables | — | |
| Bell pepper | Vegetables | 0 of 10 | |
| Cabbage | Vegetables | — | |
| Chard | Vegetables | — | |
| Green beans | Vegetables | — | |
| Kale | Vegetables | — | |
| Mushroom | Vegetables | — | |
| Pumpkin | Vegetables | 2 of 10 | |
| Sweet corn | Vegetables | 0 of 10 | |
| Tomato · disputed | Vegetables | 9 of 10 | |
| Eggplant · disputed | Vegetables | 3 of 10 | |
| Sauerkraut | Vegetables | 7 of 10 | |
| Spinach | Vegetables | 8 of 10 |
Vegetables split cleanly into two groups once you look at the measurements. A few contain histamine reliably: eggplant (aubergine) averaged 39.42 mg/kg across 23 samples, spinach 31.77 mg/kg across 18, and tomato 2.51 mg/kg across 53, with some tomato samples reaching 17.07 mg/kg. Most other vegetables had none. Courgette (zucchini), carrot, cucumber, lettuce and potato all had no detectable histamine in a University of Barcelona survey, and pumpkin had only traces.
The published low-histamine diets only partly match. Nine of the ten diets in a 2021 review exclude tomato and eight exclude spinach, which fits the measurements. Only three exclude eggplant, even though it had the highest average of any vegetable measured. That is why our eggplant page disagrees with most lists.
Where histamine in vegetables comes from is still being studied. Some of it may be natural to the plant, but the 2021 review links higher levels to bacteria growing during storage. One study it cites found that histamine in spinach rose significantly over 15 days in the fridge. Two practical points follow. Buy these vegetables fresh and use them soon. And if you cook them, boiling is the method with evidence behind it: heat does not destroy histamine, but boiling moves some of it into the water, and in a study cited by the 2018 review, boiled spinach had 83% less on average. Grilling, roasting and frying have no water to carry it away.
Putrescine is the other amine you will see on our vegetable pages. Tomato and eggplant carry notable amounts; courgette, peas, green peppers and sweet corn can too, yet no published diet excludes them, which shows how unevenly the putrescine idea has been applied. On our scale putrescine alone can move a food from 0 to 1 but never higher, because the evidence that it matters in people is thin.
Some common vegetables have no histamine figure in any study we use: broccoli, cabbage, celery, kale, sweet potato and garlic. For several of them only putrescine was measured. Their pages say so plainly, their ratings are estimates from how the vegetable is grown, sold and stored, and they stay hidden from search engines until a dietitian has reviewed them.
Each vegetable page lists the measurements where there are any, how many published diets exclude the vegetable, and lower-rated swaps that work in the same dishes.
Sources
- 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
- 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