From Yasmina’s last eBook – the all liquid Anti-Detox. This is a high nutrient soup with lots of her favorite antihistamine and anti-inflammatory ingredients. Sadly, we forgot to add the link to the recipe… You can find it here: https://dev.healinghistamine.com/video-roasted-butternut-squash-shallot-and-saffron-soup/
Author: healing
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Roasted Butternut Squash Shallot & Saffron Soup
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From Yasmina’s last eBook – the all liquid Anti-Detox. This is a high nutrient soup with lots of her favorite antihistamine and anti-inflammatory ingredients. Sadly, we forgot to add the link to the recipe… You can find it here: https://dev.healinghistamine.com/video-roasted-butternut-squash-shallot-and-saffron-soup/
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Eating healthy in airports
Travel used to be an absolute nightmare, but I persisted. I recently shared a list of my top healthy eating airport destinations in a post for the wonderful Beauty & Wellbeing.
“It might seem like an impossible task, but the proliferation of healthy restaurants over the last few years finally appears to be spilling over into the mainstream. The fallout of which is that we’re starting to be able to score something resembling real health food in airports. In a world where some airlines (Emirates for example) are now offering not just vegan meals, but also the holy grail of health food snobbishness, raw vegan fare, to weary passengers wary of facing yet another sodium and preservative laden mess of congealed meat-like substance flanked by scrawny, brown green beans. I don’t know about you – but in the pre-liquid ban days I very much enjoyed using my long-haul flights as a kind of detox in the sky. Just me, a laptop and a canteen of green machine, and a very annoyed aisle seat resident not enjoying my frequent dashes to the loo. I mean hey, why get all snarky with me just because you forgot to choose your seat at early check in? I digress…on to the list… Even JFK has jumped on the healthy foodie bandwagon, offering a smattering of healthy snacks to keep you going.”
You can read the full article here at Beauty and Wellbeing.
The Anti-cookbook and all liquid Anti-Detox Book, don’t treat any conditions, but are high in the high nutrient antihistamine and anti-inflammatory ingredients that have been instrumental in helping me feed myself on a limited diet. The Anti-cookbook features a six page list of antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods and comes in regular and Paleo.
The Low Oxalate Cookbook features antihistamine and anti-inflammatory rich recipes.
Don’t miss the Low Histamine Beauty Survival Guide for non-toxic beauty tips, the skinny on histamine releasing (mast cell degranulating) beauty ingredients, antihistamine and anti-inflammatory beauty alternatives and the top brands natural brands I’ve found.
Take a peek at my other low histamine and antihistamine cookbooks for more high nutrient recipes and sign up to my mailing list for freebies.
Please remember, even antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods can hurt us, please always exercise caution and consult a medical practitioner before adding new foods.
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Once upon a time, we all reacted to all foods
I’ve been asked at least a couple of times this week if I once reacted to any of the foods I currently eat. Once?? Any?? Blimey, I thought I’d been really clear on that on – I once reacted to ALL foods. And I mean all.
I didn’t know what I was dealing with in the beginning, not even that food bothered me. I’ll spare you my ramblings on that, it’s just too scary to see where my thoughts took me and all the avenues I ruled out. It’s actually just too painful to relive it all, even though in a way I do consider this blog to be therapeutic, for me and for you guys (or am I getting ahead of myself there?).
Once I worked out that food played some role, I began a food diary, which I wrote notes in religiously from 2009 to 2011. Here’s some of the entries (I’ve edited out the excessive punctuation and swearing). I have never had allergies, but despite negative test results, I remained convinced I somehow had them and persisted in calling my histamine/mast cell issues “allergies” and referring to my “acne” which turned out to be urticaria/hives. My most severe symptoms occurred before keeping this diary but I have also edited some out as I don’t want to upset anyone or plant any kind of idea that these are common histamine intolerance symptoms. They are not, which is why I kept searching for answers and then was finally diagnosed with mast cell activation. My anxiety symptoms were not really noted in my diary, because by now it was just a part of my life and I didn’t believe it had anything to do with what I was eating or putting on my skin (which is a huge part of it as I talk about in my beauty book).
CLICK HERE FOR A FOUR WEEK HISTAMINE RESET WITH MEAL PLANNERS, STRESS RELIEF STRATEGIES & MORE
10 Oct 09 Allergy bad today now throat swelling after one clove garlic and one tbsp spring onion. Ear swelled shut since eating.
25 Oct 09 Allergies pretty much gone, ate bell peppers though and throat suddenly massively swollen and painful suddenly, ears swollen shut too, sounds like I’m living life at the bottom of a swimming pool.
30 Oct 09 Ate chickpeas, lemon, olive oil, now horribly dizzy, can’t walk straight.
1 Nov 09 Rice don’t eat it! Bladder issues were resolved till rice. Now so much pain. Help me Yasmina! Do better dammit! Figure this out you stupid b***h!
11 Nov 2009 Lettuce scratchy throat, ear fullness, kidney beans make me SICK and nauseous.
15 Nov 09 Allergies disappeared! It was olive oil, all beans, lettuce and cabbage!
30 Nov 09 They’re back. Spasms, cramps, horrible anxiety. Almost fainted in supermarket today.
06 Dec 09 Miracle, everything has cleared up today on second day of low histamine diet. Skin beautiful.
13 Dec 2009 Dizzy again, anxiety, reacted to many low histamine foods.
17 Dec 09 Feeling almost normal today after the diflucan, must be the candida making me shake.
I was convinced for many years that all my issues stemmed from candida. They did not, it was just another red herring.
18 Dec 09 Dizziness caused by trapped nerve?
07 Jan 2010 No shaking last night.
09 Jan 10 Fruit makes me shake, don’t eat alone. Don’t eat peppers, they hurt you.
17 Jan 10 Parsley and coriander make me sick.
22 Jan 10 One sip green juice made my lips swell and brought back old symptoms for three days. Don’t try again.
30 Jan 10 Started Dr. Fuhrman’s Eat to Live. I think this might be the answer.
18 Feb 10 Woke up relaxed but loud tinnitus. Have lost 5kg so far. Worried I’m starving myself. Am eating 500-800 cals. Weird salmon is always ok with me thought fish is high histamine???? I’ll never work this out!!
2 March 2010 Zucchini and olive oil made throat swell shut. Migraine, blurred vision, want to throw up.
4 March 10 Blood sugar crash/hypoglycemia again. Ran to pharmacy next door for fifth time this week, weird, again not registering ANY kind of blood sugar fluctuation. MUST be the candida, took another diflucan.
10 March 2010 Fasting – feeling great!!
11 March 10 Fast not going great. Broke out in horrible itching and spasms, epileptic seizure like again. Eyes rolling back lost control of my body.
7 July 10 Pomegranate made my throat swell shut. Onion making me itch.
13July 10 Feeling great till I ate dates. Never ever eat them again. Promise me.
17 July 2010 Up all night itching from cantaloupe and apple.
19 July 10 Ants are crawling all over my body.
22 July 10 Bananas give me joint pain stop them.
25 July 10 ALL fruits make me dizzy, especially mango.
18 Oct 11 Olive oil and blueberries give me spots.
25 Oct 11 Broccoli and cauliflower make me nauseous.
09 Nov 11 Quercetin makes me sick!!!!! Rice bladder pain, blueberries, butternut squash make me tired and give me spots.
25 Nov 11 Horrible spots from hummus. Stop eating it stupid.
As you can see, I wasn’t very nice to myself in those years. I somehow kept believing that I deserved whatever was happening to me, if only because I wasn’t smart enough to figure out the cause. I was carrying around so much anger at the time – at myself, my family and friends for telling me it was psychosomatic, the shrinks for telling me the same thing and medicating me to the gills. Most of all, the crushing anxiety I was dealing with made me mad, spitting mad, because I didn’t understand how I could let something created by my mind torpedo a career at CNN (it didn’t in the end – that was all in my mind) and stop me from doing something such basic things as drive a car or leave my apartment, or worse, be in my home, alone, without my mind scaring the hell out of me. I am now much kinder to myself. I realised that was the first step, and everything else follows. That it’s incredibly important to surround yourself with those who support your journey, and if there are none, that it’s time to go out and find them.
But, in the end of course, food turned out to play a huge role. Not as most people see it, by being the demon or the cause in this equation, but rather because food turned out to be my saviour. The point of my post today is to share that, like many of you, I was down to just a handful of “safe” foods by the time I realised that was the wrong approach to healing. Like many of you, I reacted strongly to beans, fruits and even the herbs that I now rely on so heavily. I don’t specifically get into it in the food diary, but rather in a separate document where I kept track of all the diagnoses and intolerances I believed myself to have. Among them salicylate intolerance (all the symptoms to all the medium-high sals foods), oxalate issues ad infinitum. Once I stopped basing my recovery on the exclusion of foods, the path to healing opened up to me. You can see my progression and my thought processes change with each of my successive cookbooks. I wrote the first using a food list given to me, before tossing it away in the third. By then I had understood that increasing nutritional intake, even in small amounts from foods that bothered me, was the key.
As was managing my stress. That was a biggie. I’ll write more about that next week, along with sharing my favourite new high protein pancake recipe.
Oh, if it’s not clear from my post, I now eat all the foods that were making me feel sick, as often as I want, whenever I want. There’s hope I promise. It’s not really about the food or the histamine in the end…
Be well xo
You’ll find recipes full of foods with antihistamine and anti-inflammatory properties my books Anti-Recipes and The Anti-Cookbook
CLICK HERE FOR A FOUR WEEK HISTAMINE RESET WITH MEAL PLANNERS, STRESS RELIEF STRATEGIES & MORE
Please remember, even antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods can hurt us, please always exercise caution and consult a medical practitioner before adding new foods.
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Gluten free zucchini pasta with creamy vegan sauce (low histamine)
So I made a decision to just go ahead and post recipes with my instagram shots – it just means I’ll get more recipes up here but you’ll have to deal with it while I figure out the tripod and iphone framing issues sorted!
Today’s post-yoga lunch was one of my absolute favourite new dishes: gluten free zucchini pasta with a creamy vegan sauce made from white beans. You can go ahead and sub the beans with coconut cream, my creamy artichoke pasta recipe or by using some steamed cauliflower. It’s all good believe me.
The zucchini pasta is my go to for pretty much everything since finally taking the plunge into 100% grain free territory. Ok, I guess more like 99% realistically as when I’m in a jam while traveling I’ll relax my kung fu grip on diet. Just get yourself a vegetable slicer – this is the one I use:
Paderno World Cuisine A4982799 Tri-Blade Plastic Spiral Vegetable Slicer. My favourite veggetti is made from zucchini, butternut squash or kholrabi (Have some new ideas for me? Post them in the comments below please!).
You’ll find recipes full of foods with antihistamine and anti-inflammatory properties my books Anti-Recipes and The Anti-Cookbook
CLICK HERE FOR A FOUR WEEK HISTAMINE RESET WITH MEAL PLANNERS, STRESS RELIEF STRATEGIES & MORE
Some with histamine intolerance or mast cell activation may react to bell pepper which is a nightshade. You can go ahead and omit that, especially if you’re using red onion. It’s mostly for the colour and for extra nutrients and anti-inflammatory benefits. You could sub with a little boiled beet, or beet juice, or a couple of carrots.
If you decide to go bean free (I know everyone’s afraid of the big bad lectins!) consider that they’ve been shown to possess antihistamine and anti-cancer properties as I talk about in this post.
Nutritional benefits:
Please remember studies on these foods are often conducted in test tubes or animals, not on people, and that antihistamine foods can still cause reactions. All the foods I post are absolutely tolerated by me, but not in the first few months on the diet. As your inflammation bucket empties you should be able to tolerate more and more foods. You can search my site for the studies I have linked to that show the properties of these foods, I’m no longer including them in every single post as I keep repeating myself! You’ll also find a six-page list of high nutrient antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods and the studies in the Anti-Cookbook.
Antihistamine: red onion, garlic, basil, turmeric, beans.
Anti-inflammatory: red onion, garlic, basil, turmeric, beans, olive oil, paprika, cayenne, bell pepper.
Gluten Free Zucchini Pasta with Creamy Vegan Sauce
Servings: 2 | Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients:
2 large zucchini
1 cup white/cannellini beans
1 red onion, finely chopped
1/2 red bell pepper
1-2 cloves garlic
lemon, squeeze of
olive oil
handful basil, half of it finely chopped
1/2 tsp grated turmericoptional
2 tbsp coconut sugar
1/2 tsp paprika
pinch cayenne pepperDirections:
Drizzle a little oil into a large pan and begin sautéing half the onions. I like to add a cup of cancer-fighting Portobello mushrooms at this point but they appear on some lists as high histamine (Dr. Furhman says they’re fine for HIT). Meanwhile toss the beans, other half of the onion, bell pepper, garlic, turmeric, a plash of olive oil and half the basil. Blend, adding a dash of water if needed. Add in the coconut sugar, paprika and cayenne if using. Pour the bean mixture into the pan and mix it all up over low heat.
Now grab the spiraliser and get cracking! It should take you about 60 seconds to pasta-fy those zukes, but take as long as you need. Once done, add them to the creamy sauce. The zuke pasta will release some water as cooked which will thin out your creamy sauce, but don’t overcook it. I just cover it and let it cook for about five minutes in total.
Kid tip: peel your zukes before spiralising. They won’t know they’re not pasta – I’ve tried this out on little ones…
You’ll find recipes full of foods with antihistamine and anti-inflammatory properties my books Anti-Recipes and The Anti-Cookbook
CLICK HERE FOR A FOUR WEEK HISTAMINE RESET WITH MEAL PLANNERS, STRESS RELIEF STRATEGIES & MORE
Please remember, even antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods can hurt us, please always exercise caution and consult a medical practitioner before adding new foods.
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Check in: yoga course, anxiety summit, hair dye!
It’s been a while since I checked in with myself and with all you lovely folk out there.
Here’s what’s been happening:
I spent the week before last shooting a number of cooking videos, an interview with a local British journalist (it was a fabulous disaster, more on that in an upcoming post), and a six week yoga course.
Yup, you heard right: a yoga course. Coming to your living room real soon is an introduction to restorative yoga. I enlisted my yoga teacher Lori Sjollema here in Spain to help me recreate the restorative (chilled out) sequences I’ve used over the last year to help get me where I am health-wise.
Where’s that? Check out the photos…I just recently had my hair bleached and toned by the wonderful Phoebe at the George Northwood salon in London. It’s significant because just over a year ago I was still reacting horribly to chemicals and wouldn’t have dreamt it was possible to smell the bleach let alone put it anywhere near my head. While we’ve been going for model highlights (as they call it at this salon) with a balayage technique (which means it doesn’t touch the scalp), I told Phoebe to get real close to the scalp this time, close enough to put chemicals all over it. While I definitely don’t plan on making a habit of it, I mean, bleach, blecch, I am certainly enjoying the freedom. Yes, to people who have never experienced the all-consuming chemical and food trigger avoidance many of us with histamine/mast cell issues do, it seems totally mental to be excited about hair colour, but when you consider that I wrote an ebook just a few short years ago detailing my beauty routine thus:
“Washing” my hair with water, or wearing gloves to shampoo just the ends without touching the scalp.
Scrubbing my body with sea salt and a bath mitt (and nothing else).
Employing “shower” shoes or a rolled up yoga mat to avoid product back wash when sharing a shower with a significant other.
Using a nail file to file off water-based nail polish rather than use soy-based polish remover.
Henna to dye the hair (I will still use henna again when I go back to my natural midnight brown colour).
And now, I’m using any nail polish I want (I use zoya), soy based remover, I dye my hair any way I want, I wear any (natural) make up I choose (check out the store or ebook for my top choices).
Not too shabby for the chick who cried her way through her first Notting Hill carnival because some woman accidentally sprayed her with perfume, the one who lost her s**t on a plane when people ate cheese next to her (yeah, thanks amygdala), the one who was so terrified of chemicals and pollen that she wore one of those SARS masks everywhere for a few months.
A combination of diet (more on that in the anti-cookbook and anti-detox books), meditation (it’s been shown to switch off some of the genes related to histamine/mast cell disorders) and yoga has totally turned my life around.
A note to meditators and those employing it to heal: it took me some time to understand the difference between making my peace (through meditation) with my life, and trying to survive a situation that no-one should be forced to tolerate, while trying to keep my sanity. If you can take steps to make your life better by removing yourself from a stressful situation that’s making you miserable and sucking your life force, go ahead and do that, do not attempt to use meditation to stick your head further in the sand. There’s no heroism in sticking it out and trying to apply meditation as a bandage. Take action, then meditate, or meditate while you take action. You’ll find more on what I’m talking about here.
One of the bravest decisions I made was to accept I needed to fix myself. Once I did, the most amazing thing happened – I met and moved in with someone who helped me heal on an emotional and physical level. We meditate and do yoga together. We eat the same diet (he just likes being healthy), we read books and discuss our spiritual and physical development. We all need a little magic in our lives, irrespective of how long it lasts. Sometimes a little fairy dust is all it takes to help us fly…but make no mistake, it’s not your other who sprinkles it on…it’s you, and there’s a never ending supply as long as you take the time to understand how amazing and unique you are as a human being and that happiness, wellness and super charged healing comes from within. We just sometimes need a little space or understanding and support to let it flourish.
Back to yoga.Having spent the last week in London, hitting up Whole Foods and checking out all the new organic/raw food restaurant/juicing talent, as well as frequenting the insanely intense yogasana class of Stewart Gilchrist – one of the most amazing teachers I have had the pleasure of experiencing, I’m now back in Spain putting the finishing touches on the yoga course. I’m quite sure Stewart would hate being described thus, but he’s taught quite a few high profile people like Woody Harrelson, various supermodels, and supremely bottomed Pippa Middleton (among others). Lori, my teacher in Spain, trained at Jivamukti with Sharon and David Gannon in the same class as Stewart. I love how small the world is!
The point is that I spent years moulding my body to fit the idealised notion I had of who I was. The conflict zone CNN/BBC journalist always in danger, always on the move, definitely totally in control. But nothing was further from the truth. My body imploded under the duress, I got sick, and the career and life I worked so hard to nurture came crashing down around me.
And yet I kept trying to heal in the only way I knew how: pushing myself, trying to batter my body into submission by lifting weights aggressively, running till the verge of collapse, kickboxing till my nerves were so raw that I exploded in anger at the drop of a hat. My type A personality forced me into a competition, against myself, against my sickness. But my body rebelled, and soon I was bed-bound, out of work and in serious debt.
And then, I re-discovered meditation. Regaining the mind body connection helped me let go of who I no longer was, rekindling the passion for my long-abandoned yoga.
Medical studies show that yoga fights all kinds of inflammation and that pranayama breathing in particular, sometimes referred to as yoga or yogic breathing, may lower histamine levels and help asthmatics lessen their need for inhalers [1]. I now practice many styles of yoga, balancing my competitive nature with the more yin, yielding, female aspects of yoga, and now I’m almost ready to share my personal yoga practice with you.
The six-week course, is based on a practice developed by my yoga instructor Lori Sjollema, in response to my requests for soothing, cooling, sequences to help put out the fires in my body created by inflammation. The six videos, each designed to build on each other, will introduce you to the basics of restorative yoga, with plenty of modifications for those with less range of movement or balance issues. Each 30 minute video will feature an additional 15 minutes of yoga nidra and another 5 minutes of seated meditation, for a total of 50 minutes per video. But you’ll be able to just play the main 30 minute sequence if you’re in a rush.
We designed the course with those new to yoga in mind, and certainly being mindful of the fact that many of us have not exercised for many years or are fairly limited in our range of motion/movement, or dealing with vertigo. A chair and a couple of blocks or pillows are all you need to gently ease into some of the poses (and we’ll show you how of course). Once you’re familiar with them, you can do away with these props and progress steadily. Videos will be available weekly and the course can be played as many times as you like.
This course has been created to serve as a gentle introduction to the world of yoga, inspiring you to seek further practice as you gain strength, of mind as well as body. It’s not a practice that’s going to have you turning cartwheels or making pretzel shapes with your body, it’s about relaxation, mindfulness, meditation and healing. It’s most suitable for beginners and those who find sitting still for meditation challenging.
In other news, I recently wrote a post for the wonderful New York based Beauty and Wellbeing online magazine. It’s a round up of my favourite healthy eateries in airports across the globe. LAX in particular stood out – it boasts the world’s fist plant based airport restaurant. You can read it here.
The Anti-cookbook and all liquid Anti-Detox Book, don’t treat any conditions, but are high in the high nutrient antihistamine and anti-inflammatory ingredients that have been instrumental in helping me feed myself on a limited diet. The Anti-cookbook features a six page list of antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods and comes in regular and Paleo.
The Low Oxalate Cookbook features antihistamine and anti-inflammatory rich recipes.
Don’t miss the Low Histamine Beauty Survival Guide for non-toxic beauty tips, the skinny on histamine releasing (mast cell degranulating) beauty ingredients, antihistamine and anti-inflammatory beauty alternatives and the top brands natural brands I’ve found.
Take a peek at my other low histamine and antihistamine cookbooks for more high nutrient recipes and sign up to my mailing list for freebies.
Please remember, even antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods can hurt us, please always exercise caution and consult a medical practitioner before adding new foods.
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The Anxiety Summit
I suffered from severe anxiety for most of my life. From shaking like a leaf during social situations, to all out vertigo and nausea in high stress work environments, to severe palpitations while chilling on the sofa (in other words for absolutely no logical reason whatsoever). I went through it all.
The low point anxiety-wise was when I was forced to give up driving due to increasingly severe attacks and what seemed like the beginning stages of agoraphobia.
A cocktail of medications only made me worse, driving my anxiety to new highs – literally – I suddenly began experiencing manic episodes in addition to the anxiety, and psychotherapists were flummoxed as to what was going on with me.
I’m happy to say that my life-long depression, anxiety and newly acquired bipolar disorder (according to the shrinks anyway!) all resolved thanks to the lifestyle and diet changes I discuss in my chat with Trudy Scott for her wonderful Anxiety Summit.
In addition to myself, and Dr. Ben Lynch of MTHFR.net who kindly introduced Trudy and I, you’ll find a number of speakers covering many aspects of natural anxiety treatment.
Details below…
Do you have anxiety or feel stressed and overwhelmed?
Do you get panic attacks?
Or feel awkward or uncomfortable in social situations?
Do you have obsessive thoughts or behaviors?
Do you have that busy mind that won’t switch off, negative self-talk and/or problems sleeping?
What about emotional or stress eating?
Or do you know someone who does?
Or do you work with clients or patients who have these symptoms?Anxiety is on the rise and it can often be completely eliminated by addressing nutritional deficiencies and biochemical imbalances, removing toxins, improving the gut, addressing hormonal imbalances and eating real whole food!
My colleague and friend, Food Mood Expert Trudy Scott, is hosting a virtual FREE telesummit called, “The Anxiety Summit.” She is the author of “The Antianxiety Food Solution: How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood and End Cravings” and is on a mission to share the amazing healing powers of food and nutrients for anxiety and mood issues.
Between May 6 and May 20, 2015, she will be interviewing world-class experts and opinion leaders on the topic of anxiety and food.
Here are just a few of the amazing speakers and topics:
– Dr. Daniel Amen MD, “The Brain Warriors Way to Attacking Anxiety, Depression and Aging”
– Ann Louise Gittleman PhD, CNS, “The Parasite/Anxiety Connection”
– Julia Rucklidge PhD, “What if… Nutrition could Treat Anxiety and Depression?”
– Rebecca Katz MS, “Your Brain on Food: The Science and Alchemy of Yum for Alleviating Anxiety!”
– Lierre Keith, “Anxiety, Depression, and the Vegetarian Diet”
– Kaayla T. Daniel PhD, “Real Food for Anxiety: Butter, Broth and Beyond”Click this text to check out the complete speaker lineup.
You’ll hear the science and learn practical transformational tools you can apply right away.
Once you sign up (again, it’s free!), you will also receive a link to the page where you can download amazing gifts from many of the speakers, and get access to questionnaires and research.
Here are just a few of the gifts (and more are being added each day)
- “Top of the World” – a custom song co-created by Trudy and Amma Jo
- “Brain Warrior’s Way”: a 3-part online video series – from Dr. Daniel Amen
- “Parasites – Still the Greatest Masqueraders of All Time” – from Ann Louise Gittleman
- Folate video presentation along and methylation pathway planner – from Dr. Ben Lynch
- “Your Health Destiny” – sneek preview chapters from Dr. Eva Selhub
- “Paleolicious Snack Ideas” – from Dr. Jill Carnahan
- “The Backpain Breakthrough” – series of videos by Joe Tatta
- “Be Souper: 7 Ways to Boost Your Energy and Health with Broth” and broth recipes by Kaayla Daniel
- The MindBody Toolkit, the first 3 chapters – from Dr. Kim D’Eramo
- Is Anxiety Scaring You to Death? from Dr. Kim D’Eramo
- The Pose that Reverses Depression video – from Dr. Kim D’Eramo
- Instant Elevation Technique video – from Dr. Kim D’Eramo
- The 3 Things Keeping You Sick and Tired self-diagnostic quiz – from Dr. Kim D’Eramo
- “Fooducator-approved movies you absolutely have to watch” – from Lebby Salinas
- “How to Rebalance Your Hormones with Food” and Recipes – from Magdalena Wszelaki
- “Micronutrients For Eliminating Anxiety” – from Mira and Jayson Calton
- “10 Ways to Balance Serotonin Naturally” – from Dr. Peter Bongiorno
- “Grainflammation and Anxiety” – from Dr. Peter Osborne
- “The Power of Yum” – from Rebecca Katz
- “Making Fermented Vegetables” video series – with Summer Bock
- “Taster of My High Nutrient Diet” ebook – by Yasmina Ykelenstam
- A PERSONAL Micronutrient Sufficiency Analysis from Mira and Jayson Calton, micronutrient specialists, authors of Naked Calories
- 3-Chapters of OUR BEST SELLING BOOK: Rich Food, Poor Food – Mira and Jayson Calton, micronutrient specialists, authors of Naked Calories
- Micronutrient Miracle Guide to Reducing Stress, Anxiety and Depression from Mira and Jayson Calton, micronutrient specialists, authors of Naked Calories
- NUTREINCE SAMPLE PACK & COUPON from Mira and Jayson Calton, micronutrient specialists, authors of Naked Calories
- Fab 14 and Terrible 20 Wallet Guide from Mira and Jayson Calton, micronutrient specialists, authors of Naked Calories
- e-report on Micronutrient Competition from Mira and Jayson Calton, micronutrient specialists, authors of Naked Calories
You will also have the option to purchase the MP3s and/or transcripts (digital or CD version) of all the interviews if you’d like to keep them for your learning library.
I hope you’ll join the summit!
ps Listen from the comfort of your own home for FREE! And listen from your computer if you prefer.
pps. Be sure to share this information with family, friends and colleagues who you think may benefit from this summit, here’s the link: http://www.easywebautomation.com/app/?af=1625260
The Anti-cookbook and all liquid Anti-Detox Book, don’t treat any conditions, but are high in the high nutrient antihistamine and anti-inflammatory ingredients that have been instrumental in helping me feed myself on a limited diet. The Anti-cookbook features a six page list of antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods and comes in regular and Paleo.
The Low Oxalate Cookbook features antihistamine and anti-inflammatory rich recipes.
Don’t miss the Low Histamine Beauty Survival Guide for non-toxic beauty tips, the skinny on histamine releasing (mast cell degranulating) beauty ingredients, antihistamine and anti-inflammatory beauty alternatives and the top brands natural brands I’ve found.
Take a peek at my other low histamine and antihistamine cookbooks for more high nutrient recipes and sign up to my mailing list for freebies.
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Histamine safe ferments?
As I’ve pointed out a number of times over the years (in almost every post!) cutting histamine containing foods out of the diet isn’t a great idea for long term healing. I came up with this theory when all other bloggers and the handful of practitioners actually somewhat schooled in histamine disorders were pinning all our woes on a lack of the histamine-degrading enzyme DAO (diamine oxidase), telling us that salvation lay solely in avoiding histamine containing foods and popping a pork supplement filled with nasty fillers.
Why do I think it’s not the answer for most of us?
Going on the standard low histamine diet was the gluten/dairy/nut/soy free straw that broke this camel’s back.
It didn’t just break my body – it broke my mind.
And those of many thousands of my readers.
Think I’m exaggerating? You try being diagnosed with something no-one has ever heard of (or self-diagnosing and having no one believe you), being sent away with a list of dozens of foods to avoid, and spending the next few years crying into your dinner plate, avoiding scents and social situations, while suffering increasing symptoms.
I’m not going into all the gory details of what we go through – odds are that if you’re reading this blog, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
Now I’m sure a lot of people are going to be much more receptive of this post than any of my hundreds others on why we shouldn’t remove high nutrient high histamine foods from the diet while continuing to “enjoy” low histamine ones that are still highly inflammatory (for more on that read my post – the inflammation bucket), simply because it deals with something that’s turned into a national dietary pre-occupation.
Fermentation.
What’s the deal with it?
Those with histamine issues are supposed to stay away from ferments, because bacteria = histamine.
Here’s the catch though: as I mentioned in a previous post on probiotics – some probiotics exert an antihistamine or just generally exciting anti-inflammatory effect, by stimulating histamine receptors. Yes, you heard me right, that was what I wrote in that post a few years back.
When I first started researching this topic a few years back, there wasn’t much information out there. The best study I found at the time, on kimchi (Korean fermented cabbage), showing that the bacteria found in it after a few weeks exhibited antihistamine and anti-inflammatory effects. The study shared that the probiotic found in kimchi, Lactobacillus sakei probio 65, can inhibit IgE (the stuff involved in allergies) and interleukins (involved in mast cell disorders and inflammation generally), and that it shows promise in treating atopic dermatitis caused by IgE mediated histamine release [0].
An example of this opposite day doozy is laid out in a Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology study [1] discussing the importance of the microbiota (gut bacteria) in ongoing “immune homeostasis” and that activation of the H2 histamine receptor is “associated with potent immunoregulatory effects”. The study authors found that the anti-inflammatory effects of the histamine-secreting L. Rhamnosus were down to its stimulation of the aforementioned receptor.
In the case of kefir, a study appearing in the peer-reviewed Biological and Pharmaceutical Bulletin of Japan showed that rice kefiran was able to inhibit degranulation and cytokine production in bone marrow mast cells exposed to an antigen [2].
In English: kefir was able to stop mast cells exposed to an antigen (examples of which may be an allergen, bacteria or virus), from releasing inflammatory elements (like interleukins and histamine for example).
I have to point out here that this study was not conducted on mammals, but rather in test tubes. The study authors comment in their paper that in vivo studies (on animals) have shown kefiran to have anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects, but it remained unclear in these studies whether kefiran influenced mast cells.
Crazy right? Not so much…it’s what I and others have found over and over again; that making cutting all dietary histamine from the diet your goal is probably counter productive. I’ve wondered if severely restricting it may even cause the body to produce more histamine to make up for the shortfall.
I first discovered this by accident, when feeling crappy. I was so miserable with my life of restriction, that, as had happened many times in the past, I decided to go nuts and eat what I wanted. But this time, I decided to do it within the confines of a high nutrient diet. So I gave in to my urges and ate cacao, quite bit of it in the end. The glorious raw, organic, cacao, processed with a couple of dates and pecans, and rolled into little balls, gave my body exactly what it needed, and suddenly, all was well in my world.
I thought it was just me – but many I speak with report exactly the same. Some high histamine foods and probiotic strains appear to potentially trigger the histamine receptors (H2 and H3 according to the aforementioned research) into producing an anti-inflammatory effect. I have no information as to whether the anti-inflammatory benefit outweighs the histamine spike – I can only speak from my experience and those of the readers I have spoken with. What seems to make the difference is if the foods are healthy/high nutrient ones, the kind that I have research showing they’re in possession of some anti-inflammatory or antihistamine benefits. These would be foods that appear on many high histamine lists like pomegranate, dates, certain probiotics (check my post), some ferments (kimchi??), lentils, cherries, raspberries, cacao, turmeric and many others.
Now, I would think that this essentially homeopathic approach (is this the right term? I mean that a little of the poison may be the cure) wouldn’t work for folks whose histamine/inflammation bucket is still full. When your bucket is full, sticking a toothpick between your teeth could make it spill over! So you’d have to consult with your doctor/nutritionist/faith healer for more on that, should you be lucky enough to have one.
Ok, so given that we know all the above, and that a good many of you are just downright mistrustful of even eyeballing something on the high histamine lists, but are likely to be desperate to return to fermenting, here are some things that may help prevent histamine build up in ferments.
CLICK HERE FOR A FOUR WEEK HISTAMINE RESET WITH MEAL PLANNERS, STRESS RELIEF STRATEGIES & MORE
Anaerobic fermentation
I can’t find much research on this, but a number of websites claim it’s the safer way to ferment. I have seen many people online speaking of ferments longer than 16 weeks causing very little histamine reaction – but this is entirely anecdotal and not based on research. I did think it was worth mentioning as so many are reporting it.
Generally when fermenting it would be essential to be absolutely sure you’ve properly sterilised your utensils and jars.
Foods, herbs and spices
A particularly interesting study showed that thyme (antihistamine), turmeric (antihistamine), red pepper, black pepper and salt posses the ability to prevent or slow histamine (and certain other amine) production in foods (but cooking will greatly reduce their efficacy). Also don’t forget, scientists are usually working with extracts, so their potions will be a lot more potent than what we can whip up at home. The antihistamine foods ginger, garlic and green onion have been also been found to delay histamine production. The addition of 5% garlic, for example, to traditional Korean anchovy ferments reduced overall biogenic amine production by just under 10%. It might not sound like much, but I would also factor in that garlic is itself an antihistamine and anti-inflammatory food [3], toss in a couple of the others and we might be on to a bit of a winner?
You’ll find recipes full of foods with antihistamine and anti-inflammatory properties my books Anti-Recipes and The Anti-Cookbook
Garcinia cambogia [4]
Many people are confused by the whole fish issue. Fish isn’t inherently high histamine, but histamine formation becomes a problem as the flesh accumulates bacteria.
A study in the International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition turned up that adding garcinia cambogia to fresh fish slows histamine build up. I haven’t found other studies showing it has any effect on anything but fish. And I definitely wouldn’t try fermenting fish…
Citric acid [5]
While it has been shown to inhibit/lower rates of histamine accumulation in fish, citric acid nowadays is often made from fungus/mold [6] and that’s very definitely a mast cell trigger. So, if like me, you’ve never reacted to lemons/limes, this could be something to add in to try to keep histamine levels lower in ferments.
It’s like what I say about my diet. I prefer to eat my medicine because I believe that phytonutrients work together to create the magic. Antihistamine foods with high histamine, low oxalate with medium to high oxalate, so why not high histamine ferments with antihistamine additions? I really need to change the name of my website, because it’s not about low anything – it’s about the combination of nutrients, a dance of colour, taste, and the balancing of emotion.
As Aesop wrote: “A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety [7]”.
If you’re going to have your cake, eat it in peace and be well with the decisions you’ve made.
I just hope it’s made from soul and body nourishing ingredients.
Same goes for the ferments!
You’ll find recipes full of foods with antihistamine and anti-inflammatory properties my books Anti-Recipes and The Anti-Cookbook
CLICK HERE FOR A FOUR WEEK HISTAMINE RESET WITH MEAL PLANNERS, STRESS RELIEF STRATEGIES & MORE
————————————REFERENCES————————————
[0] http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/content/meeting_abstract/26/1_MeetingAbstracts/lb465
[1] Histamine receptor 2 is a key influence in immune responses to intestinal histamine-secreting microbes
[2] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22293347/
[3] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2995314/
[5] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2995314/
[6] http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0734975095000028
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GF pancakes with mango coconut custard
Not into grains? That’s fine, see my photo below for an alternative way to enjoy the filling all on its own. I love this stuff for desserts!
Gf oat crepes with mango coconut cream and berries
Prep Time: 15 mins | Servings: 4-8 crepes
Ingredients:
Crepes
1/2 cup gf oat flour (or your gf flours of choice, like a mix of rice/sorghum/chestnut for example)
1/2 cup coconut milk (or your choice of df milk)
1 tbsp date syrup/1 whole date/1 tbsp coconut sugar/4 grapes
1 tbsp coconut oil
2 eggs or aquafaba
pinch raw vanilla powderFilling
1 mango
2 tbsp biona coconut bliss or young Thai coconut or 2 tbsp shaved/shredded coconut with 2 tbsp coconut oil
1 cup blueberries
1/2 cup raspberries/blackberries (or your choice low histamine berries or other fruit)Optional: shredded/dried coconut for serving
Preparation:
Crepes
Whizz the crepe ingredients in the blender. Heat a little oil in a medium pan on low-medium heat. Pour in about a ladle of batter, twisting the pan around as you do, to make sure you get an all round really thin coating. In about 1-3 minutes, flip over and cook through on the other side.
Place on a plate and get the next one going.
I normally have two pans on the go so I can actually enjoy my breakfast with the family.
Filling
Blend everything but the berries.
Serving
Place the filling onto a quarter of the crepe and then top with some berries or fruit of choice. Fold the crepe over in half, then fold again till you have a triangle (as the photo above).
Decorate with more berries/fruit and shaved coconut. I then drizzled a bit of date syrup (to make it look pretty!).
If you’re not into grains, serve the filling in a bowl as below. That’s how I usually have mine.
You’ll find recipes full of foods with antihistamine and anti-inflammatory properties my books Anti-Recipes and The Anti-Cookbook
CLICK HERE TO CREATE YOUR OWN PERSONALISED HEALING HISTAMINE PLAN.
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GF Paleo pancakes with coconut cream
There’s a transition happening in our household. We’re getting ripped!
In the work out sense that is.
And though I’m not a fan of any particular dietary dogma, I can’t deny that cutting carbs and increasing protein seems to lead to that six pack I rather fancy developing.
I’ll never forget the day my kung fu teacher punched me in the stomach (nowhere nearly as hard as he could have) and declared in shock “But you DO have strong abdominals! I never realised.”
It was that, rather than the punch to the gut, that blew the wind out of my sails. In one deft verbal strike my teacher had hit straight to the heart of the matter – somewhere, buried underneath layers of bloating, lay well developed stomach muscles capable of taking a decent punch. Years have passed, during which crunches, pilates, kickboxing and intensive yoga have all worked their magic on my abs, as has eliminating all bloating from that area (probably by fixing my “leaky” gut) – check out the before and after photos…
Before fixing my “leaky” gut
After…this photo was taken last summer, before starting kickboxing and yoga.
But something was still missing. So, in the interest of seeing if I can get my dream body – a healthier, curvier, more ab-sticky-outy version of the stick insect figure I sported in the past, I’ve decided to see if I can make a less meaty, bean avoiding version of paleo – one that’s mostly plant powered. We’re still eating some animal protein (very little in my case) but I am upping the plant proteins.
This though is an extravagant recipe.
I do not eat this daily, or even weekly. I saved mine as an extravagant dessert, in the evening.
Don’t worry if you see something you don’t tolerate. There’s sooooooo many variations on these pancakes. I used my pancake recipe found in the Anti-Cookbook (regular and paleo) as a base.
My personal preference is to use fresh young Thai coconuts for the cream. I really, really, hated coconut until I tried this unbelievably creamy and indulgent goo. It makes the most amazing desserts. If you can’t do coconut, you can go ahead and use (preferably home made) almond butter (low histamine), cashew cream (depends on the list), tahini (again depends on the list) mixed with some sweetener, or you can just blend up some dates (on some lists as high histamine – I eat them because they’re anti-inflammatory) with your choice of dairy free milk and add in a couple of tbsp of arrowroot flour, tapioca or kuzu starch to thicken it up.
Read why I don’t follow lists and how the inflammation bucket, rather than the histamine bucket, means I can now eat pretty much whatever I want.
This is a really decadent recipe but it still includes a number of healing foods, while being high nutrient real food overall.
Antihistamine: blueberries, ginger, turmeric, apple.
Anti-inflammatory: almonds, chestnut, coconut, apple, ginger, turmeric, vanilla.
I do not recommend agave or any other liquid sweeteners for people who are still dealing with a lot of inflammation. Sugar causes inflammation. It’s that simple. I can’t see how anyone can deny that nowadays. While something like agave or rice syrup, which are almost totally devoid of healing nutrients, might technically be listed as low histamine, they are just liquid sugar. Dates, while they appear on some lists as high histamine, are full of anti-inflammatory goodness (though also mega sugary!). My choice is always to go with the whole food, which is why I prefer dates and coconut sugar over the rest. But at the end of the day, sugar is still sugar and I try to consume as little as possible.
But hey, I’m human!! And so, here are my pancakes…
GF paleo mini pancakes with coconut cream and blueberries
Makes about 6-8 mini pancakes
Pancakes
1/2 cup almond flour (or your choice of gf flour)
1/3 cup chestnut flour (or your choice of gf flour)
1/4 cup coconut/almond/your choice of dairy free milk
1/2 small apple
2 tbsp coconut oil
3 eggs (or flax/chia eggs or aquafaba)
pinch of salt
pinch of raw vanilla powder (optional)Optional
pinch of raw vanilla powder
2 tbsp grated ginger and turmericCoconut cream
the meat of 1 young Thai coconut
or
1 can coconut cream, flipped over and refrigerated overnight
1/4 cup liquid sweetener (I used agave)Garnish
1 cup blueberries
Preparation
Coconut cream
Fresh coconut
Blend up your young Thai coconut meat with a little sweetener (or not). I use agave here simply to preserve the lovely porcelain colour of the coconut. I have used coconut sugar in the past for a lovely toffee like flavour. It’ll literally be the texture of cream.
Canned coconut
Open your flipped over can (the right way up) and scoop out the hard white coconut cream that has collected there. Transfer to a blender and whip with some sweetener (or not) till fluffy!
Pancakes
Seriously – do you have time to combine the wet and dry ingredients separately? I don’t, so I just toss everything into a mixer/blender and combine.
Heat a little oil in griddle/pan – I use coconut. Pour in just under a ladle full of batter into the pan and cook through and then flip over. Repeat till batter is finished.
Add coconut cream on every layer of pancakes and smoosh some blueberries in there too, and so on, till you get a nice stack. I drizzled mine with a little extra date syrup for the photo, but you could use agave, coconut nectar or nothing at all!
Happy weekend xo
You’ll find recipes full of foods with antihistamine and anti-inflammatory properties my books Anti-Recipes and The Anti-Cookbook
CLICK HERE TO CREATE YOUR OWN PERSONALISED HEALING HISTAMINE PLAN.
