Mondays, we build your grocery list with one food, focusing on this month’s main topic - histamines.
So let’s dive in to one of those best foods to help you move through histamine mediated troubles with a bit more ease.
FRESH HERBS!
For those who wish to know the ‘why’ behind this idea, I’ll give you three things to think about.
BECAUSE DIGESTIVE SUPPORT
Fresh herbs are abundant in live enzymes, especially when consumed fresh. These enzymes are naturally occurring in herbs; they help support that breaking-foods-down job your digestive system has to do. The better you can break down foods, the less stress on your immune system. (Yep. She’s the back-up worker bee who’ll intercept anything that comes into the body not quite digested.)
The less stress on your immune system, the less she’ll feel embattled. The less she feels embattled, the less histamine her mast cells will be releasing.
Incidentally - when you chase flavour, you enhance your body’s ability to digest. Fresh herbs? One of my favourite flavour delivery systems!
BECAUSE MAST CELL STABILIZING
Lots of the fresh herbs available out there (either via your balcony, garden or grocery store) are wonderful sources of quercetin. Quercetin is a compound that has been shown to help stabilize mast cells! (1) Other compounds found in fresh herbs include luteolin (2) and rutin (3) (aka Vitamin P), two polyphenols showing good promise in supporting a reduction in allergic type reactions on the body involving histamine. Where are they plentiful? In fresh herbs!
If you understand that mast cells, when activated release histamine, then anything you can do to help stabilize mast cells will go miles in reducing possible histamine mediated troubles.
BECAUSE MINERALS
The more your body has to mount an inflammatory or protective mechanism (read: dumping of histamine) then the more you’ll need the ingredients to mount the reaction so that your body can protect you. One of those nutrients your body needs in abundance when histamine is a reality is MAGNESIUM. (4)
Dark leafy greens to the rescue! Except…. some dark leafy greens are tricky to digest for some who may be struggling with digestion or leaky gut. (And in the scenario of possible histamine issues, there is always a good indication to dive in to see well the body is able to digest, and how well the intestinal lining is doing in order to produce that all important histamine-degrading enzyme called DAO at the gut level.) Some dark leafy greens make it downright tricky to get at the nutrients found within for those who are struggling with lots of inflammation and a reduced digestive fire. Think things like oxalates, goitrogens that can disrupt thyroid function, and a few others.
Know what packs a similar nutritional punch without providing some of those troublesome compounds? FRESH HERBS!
Pesto, like this low histamine version soon to be featured in Histamine Haven is a great way to pack a punch while helping keep histamine troubles low! Photo by Eluvier Acosta.
Where to start?
Mince fresh herbs, and add to all meals. They’re wonderful allies and easy to toss on to each and every dish out there.
Get to know chimichurri, and pesto. We’ll be featuring two recipes in the upcoming Histamine Haven guide + cookbook.
Know this: sprouts are also a wonderful ally. I did a post on these histamine busting plant allies back in the fall of 2020. Check it out here!
Aiming to Keep Well? Working through what you wonder might be histamine related issues? Need some help in feeling real good?
Get in touch by clicking here. Let’s meet up to start drawing up your road map to support you in both quantity and quality of life.
*This is not medical advice.