Is kale high in histamine?
Kale has not been tested for histamine; we estimate it mostly low, because measured leafy greens range from none in lettuce to high in spinach and kale has not been placed in that range.
- Histamine
- Not measured
- Other amines
- Not measured
- Liberator
- Not on the lists we use
- DAO blocker
- No evidence
What each source says
| Source | Verdict | What it says, in our words |
|---|---|---|
| Leafy vegetables measured in Spain 1 | No histamine in lettuce, traces in chard, an average of 31.77 mg/kg in spinach. Kale was not tested. | |
| 10 published low-histamine diets 2 | Kale is not on the review's chart of foods the diets exclude. | |
| SIGHI food list 3 | See source | See SIGHI's own list for its rating. |
How freshness and processing change it
Kale was not measured fresh or stored. Leafy greens are the vegetables where storage has been shown to matter: histamine in spinach rose significantly over 15 days in the fridge. Buy kale fresh and use it within a few days, and eat cooked kale the day it is made.
Not measured. (estimate)
Not measured; boiling lowered histamine in spinach by 83% on average. (estimate)
Not measured. Storage time adds histamine, and reheating does not remove it. (estimate)
Why we rate kale 1
Kale has not been measured for histamine, or for any other amine, in the studies we use. This page explains how we estimate it, and what would change the rating.
Kale is a leafy green, and leaves are where the measurements vary most. A University of Barcelona team found no histamine in four lettuces, traces in eight samples of chard (0.79 mg/kg on average, at most 1.33 mg/kg), and a lot in spinach: every one of 18 samples contained it, at an average of 31.77 mg/kg. The team's review says histamine occurs naturally in certain plants, which is why spinach practically always had it, and that bacteria during storage can add more. One study it cites found that histamine in spinach rose significantly over 15 days in the fridge. Nothing in the data lets us predict where an unmeasured leaf falls in that spread.
Kale belongs to the same species as cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower. Cauliflower had no detectable histamine in three samples; broccoli and cabbage were tested only for putrescine. That is a family resemblance, not a measurement.
Kale does not appear among the foods charted as excluded by the ten published low-histamine diets in the team's 2021 review.
We rate kale 1, "mostly low", as an estimate: below spinach, because there is no evidence it behaves like spinach, but not 0, because no one has checked. If you are replacing spinach, chard and lettuce are the measured alternatives. Kale is often sold washed and chopped in bags, and leafy greens are where storage time has been shown to matter, so buy it fresh and use it within a few days. If you cook it, boiling and pouring away the water is the one method shown to lower histamine in a leafy green: it cut histamine in spinach by 83% on average. Raw kale salads and smoothies have no such step, so freshness matters more for them.
Questions about kale and histamine
Is kale high in histamine?
Kale has not been measured. We estimate it at 1, "mostly low": measured leafy greens range from none in lettuce to high in spinach, and kale has not been tested to show where it falls.
Is kale a good swap for spinach on a low-histamine diet?
Possibly, but it has not been measured. Chard (0.79 mg/kg on average) and lettuce (none detected) are the leafy greens with measurements behind them.
Evidence behind this page
- Kale does not appear in the measurement tables of the 2018 or 2021 reviews. 12
- Among leafy vegetables tested in Spain, lettuce had no detectable histamine (4 samples), chard averaged 0.79 mg/kg (8 samples) and spinach 31.77 mg/kg (18 samples). 1
- The 2018 review says histamine occurs naturally in certain plant foods, which explains why it was found in practically all samples of spinach, eggplant and tomato. 1
- Histamine in spinach rose significantly over 15 days of refrigerated storage. 2
- Boiling spinach in water lowered its histamine by 83% on average, because the histamine passed into the water. 1
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 et al. 2018)
- 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 (Sánchez-Pérez S et al. 2021)
- Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance (SIGHI). Food compatibility list for histamine intolerance. histaminintoleranz.ch (accessed November 2026), 2026. Link (Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance (SIGHI) 2026)