Recipe: triple strength antihistamine tea

There’s something internally cooling about cup of tea on a hot day. But if a hot antihistamine beverage doesn’t appeal, just add a little ice and serve with a wedge of lemon. I enjoyed this antihistamine in a glass by the beach yesterday here in Kenya. My project has been extended, again, which is giving me some much needed time to continue exploring all the natural antihistamines this country has to offer. Yesterday’s discovery was the guava tree in the garden. No fruit this time of year, but, much to the amusement of my masai (warrior) companion, I began jabbering about needing to score some leaves. I barely heeded calls to watch out for snakes; stupidly, given that we had found a 6ft poisonous snake making its way to the living room just the day before, before denuding a quarter of the tree.

Why the excitement? Guava leaf inhibits histamine release from mast cells. In English: it’s an antihistamine! I choose to treat my histamine condition naturally, so I’m always on the lookout for anything to add to my natural antihistamine arsenal. I supplemented guava’s antihistamine and anti inflammatory properties by dunking a mast cell stabilising, gallic acid rich white tea bag a few times and topping everything off with a chunk of gastric acid killing ginger. As you may have heard, this natural H2 receptor antagonist (ginger) is as effective as Zantac (Ranitidine), without causing any of the nasty side effects. I eat with my eyes. If that makes sense? So I put all this good stuff into this funky cafetière to serve it.

You’ll find other tasty antihistamine and anti inflammatory recipes in my upcoming books. Don’t forget to sign up to my mailing list for more recipes.

Here’s what went into my tasty antihistamine beverage:

Beach House Antihistamine Tea

1/2 cup fresh guava leaves, chopped

1 white tea bag, quickly dunked

1 tbsp sized chunk of fresh ginger

1 squeeze of fresh lemon juice (omit if sensitive)

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Please remember, even antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods can hurt us, please always exercise caution and consult a medical practitioner before adding new foods.

27 responses to “Recipe: triple strength antihistamine tea”

Martha

February 11, 2013

Love the name for it … “Beach House Antihistamine Tea”!
Martha

February 11, 2013

Love the name for it … “Beach House Antihistamine Tea”!
thelowhistaminechef

February 11, 2013

Thank you!! 🙂 Let me know if you try it…
thelowhistaminechef

February 11, 2013

Thank you!! 🙂 Let me know if you try it…
Dlbroox

February 24, 2013

I gave up green tea when I saw it on the list of high hisamine foods. I’ve since tried nettle tea and chamomile and reacted to both of them, and they’re supposed to be relatively safe. Now I’ve tried white tea and think I’m reacting mildly to that. I’m thinking any tea with a leaf is off limits to me. I’m down to ginger tea made only with the actual rhizome. Any thoughts?
Dlbroox

February 24, 2013

I gave up green tea when I saw it on the list of high hisamine foods. I’ve since tried nettle tea and chamomile and reacted to both of them, and they’re supposed to be relatively safe. Now I’ve tried white tea and think I’m reacting mildly to that. I’m thinking any tea with a leaf is off limits to me. I’m down to ginger tea made only with the actual rhizome. Any thoughts?
bongaan

February 25, 2013

I’m missing something, why is using a natural antihistamine more healthy than using a antihistamine drug? Not all things natural are good to consume, I can brew you a natural tea that will kill you within minutes.
My scientific minds tell me that drugs went through vigurous testing, so they know at least what the side effects are. I’m worried about the long term side effects of consuming a home brewed natural tea of which I know nothing about and which very little to no testing have been done? Isn’t the devil you know better than the devil you don’t?
Or am I missing something? I’m really not trying to be difficult, this is something I’m really struggling with. My current viewpoint is that no drugs are often better than any drugs, whether natural or manufactured in a lab.
bongaan

February 25, 2013

I’m missing something, why is using a natural antihistamine more healthy than using a antihistamine drug? Not all things natural are good to consume, I can brew you a natural tea that will kill you within minutes.
My scientific minds tell me that drugs went through vigurous testing, so they know at least what the side effects are. I’m worried about the long term side effects of consuming a home brewed natural tea of which I know nothing about and which very little to no testing have been done? Isn’t the devil you know better than the devil you don’t?
Or am I missing something? I’m really not trying to be difficult, this is something I’m really struggling with. My current viewpoint is that no drugs are often better than any drugs, whether natural or manufactured in a lab.
thelowhistaminechef

February 25, 2013

Hi there!

Thanks so much for raising such an important point.

I’m pretty much of the same opinion, when it comes to taking supplements, or anything in large doses/quantities.

The question of whether disrupting the histamine receptors with natural teas could create a problem in the long run remains to be seen. But my personal experience and the research of others (Drs Fuhrman, Campbell, Oz, Duke among others) points to a different effect on the body of the entire fruit/food/leaf vs. isolating a compound and delivering it in mega high dose with dyes and fillers (i.e. pharmaceuticals).

Regarding testing/the devil you know: in addition to having been used as a traditional ayurvedic remedy for thousands of years, ginger has also been studied quite extensively by medical researchers. Just as it has side effects when consumed in quantity – as with every compound on this earth) I have dozens of terrifying studies on the side effects of antihistamines: B12 deficiency, anemia, stomach cancer, immune system dysfunction, penile development impairment in children, increased risk of contracting fatal bugs while hospitalized, pneumonia in children and adults, seizures, hallucinations and the list just goes on and on. I have not found any studies showing that ingesting ginger, white tea or guava leaf in a tea, even daily, could have any of those effects.

The key is in knowing the potential side effects and weighing up the potential benefits. I personally enjoy tea. I eat guava, and am fine with it. I have white tea every day.

Given where I am now (running two businesses full time, traveling the globe from New York to Kenya) and where I was (bed bound, unemployed due to illness, thinking I was dying), I can naturally surmise that my approach of natural antihistamine foods and teas has helped me. I can’t speak for others. All I can do is report on my successes (and failures) and hope it is of some use to people.
thelowhistaminechef

February 25, 2013

Hi there!

Thanks so much for raising such an important point.

I’m pretty much of the same opinion, when it comes to taking supplements, or anything in large doses/quantities.

The question of whether disrupting the histamine receptors with natural teas could create a problem in the long run remains to be seen. But my personal experience and the research of others (Drs Fuhrman, Campbell, Oz, Duke among others) points to a different effect on the body of the entire fruit/food/leaf vs. isolating a compound and delivering it in mega high dose with dyes and fillers (i.e. pharmaceuticals).

Regarding testing/the devil you know: in addition to having been used as a traditional ayurvedic remedy for thousands of years, ginger has also been studied quite extensively by medical researchers. Just as it has side effects when consumed in quantity – as with every compound on this earth) I have dozens of terrifying studies on the side effects of antihistamines: B12 deficiency, anemia, stomach cancer, immune system dysfunction, penile development impairment in children, increased risk of contracting fatal bugs while hospitalized, pneumonia in children and adults, seizures, hallucinations and the list just goes on and on. I have not found any studies showing that ingesting ginger, white tea or guava leaf in a tea, even daily, could have any of those effects.

The key is in knowing the potential side effects and weighing up the potential benefits. I personally enjoy tea. I eat guava, and am fine with it. I have white tea every day.

Given where I am now (running two businesses full time, traveling the globe from New York to Kenya) and where I was (bed bound, unemployed due to illness, thinking I was dying), I can naturally surmise that my approach of natural antihistamine foods and teas has helped me. I can’t speak for others. All I can do is report on my successes (and failures) and hope it is of some use to people.
thelowhistaminechef

February 25, 2013

Hi there, I try not to use anything packaged. That could change. But for now, I generally use whatever that’s fresh. Green tea is semi fermented tea leaves. Black tea is fully fermented. White tea is the same leaf before fermentation. I do better with white than green.

I find that rotation is key. Having the same thing day after day is problematic for most people.
thelowhistaminechef

February 25, 2013

Hi there, I try not to use anything packaged. That could change. But for now, I generally use whatever that’s fresh. Green tea is semi fermented tea leaves. Black tea is fully fermented. White tea is the same leaf before fermentation. I do better with white than green.

I find that rotation is key. Having the same thing day after day is problematic for most people.
bongaan

March 6, 2013

Thank you for taking my concern seriously. I appreciate your answer!
bongaan

March 6, 2013

Thank you for taking my concern seriously. I appreciate your answer!
thelowhistaminechef

March 13, 2013

You’re very welcome! I’m always happy to explain myself 🙂 Thanks for reading!
thelowhistaminechef

March 13, 2013

You’re very welcome! I’m always happy to explain myself 🙂 Thanks for reading!
tricia

June 23, 2013

I have read that green tea is an DAO inhibitor. Do you know if this is true. I’ve been drinking a cup of matcha tea daily for a year. In this time my histamine intolerance has gotten much worse. It could of course be other supplements I take, or a peri-menopause effect. But I would eliminate the matcha if I knew it inhibited DAO. Thoughts?
thelowhistaminechef

June 25, 2013

Hi there, so, it depends which list you follow. I was told that green tea is fine, good even, because it has mast cell stabilising properties (which I talk about in my Anti-Cookbook). I personally drink white tea which is made from the same leaves. It’s just not fermented at all. Green tea is lightly fermented and black tea is fermented for longer. I tend to look to other things that might make things worse. We’re always every quick to blame something quite healthy but unwilling to acknowledge that the junky foods we still indulge in are more likely to be the culprit. I encourage people to write down every single thing they eat for a few months. It’s often that odd sweat treat, that shampoo with “natural” perfume, nail polish, or anything out of a packet 🙂 But, anything can bother anyone. It doesn’t have to be a histamine issue…
tricia

June 26, 2013

Hi – Thanks for your response. I have been researching how to increase DAO. My understanding is that women produce significantly more DAO in the second half of their cycle. With peri-menopause, ovulation can stop and DAO production plummets. Hence many women in their 40s & 50s begin to have histamine intolerance. This has been my case. Your site has such excellent suggestions on how to limit intake of histamine, and increase anti-histamine foods, I was wondering if you know of ways to increase DAO?
thelowhistaminechef

July 4, 2013

Currently I only know of using DAO supplements or eating a diet rich in omega fatty acids and medium chain triglycerides as boosting DAO.
PC

November 6, 2014

Where can I buy guava leaf? I can see it on ebay but only in dried form?
David

March 19, 2015

How much water do you put in to make this amount of tea given in the recipe?
Hal

July 20, 2015

Hi Tricia. How are you getting on with your histamine intolerance? Are you still drinking matcha tea? Matcha tea is giving me hives at the moment. I strongly suspect that I have histamine intolerance and it also appears to have developed over the last year or so while I have been a regular matcha drinker. Just starting a long break from matcha.
Hal

July 20, 2015

Hi Tricia. How are you getting on with your histamine intolerance? Are you still drinking matcha tea? Matcha tea is giving me hives at the moment. I strongly suspect that I have histamine intolerance and it also appears to have developed over the last year or so while I have been a regular matcha drinker. Just starting a long break from matcha.
tricia

July 20, 2015

I don’t have any immediately noticeable side effects from matcha – besides the calm energy boost. As far as DAO – I have stopped & started tea a couple times without seeing a difference in the HIT. I drink it a few times a week currently.
tricia

July 20, 2015

I don’t have any immediately noticeable side effects from matcha – besides the calm energy boost. As far as DAO – I have stopped & started tea a couple times without seeing a difference in the HIT. I drink it a few times a week currently.
charles

October 8, 2015

I wondered if you had anything written about the science behind long term effects of anti-histamines?
Personal experience is after a bad virus I developed histamine intolerance and took anti-histamine for a year plus low histamine diet. It really helped. But now after slowly decreasing my dose I appear to have developed more food allergies – and an allergy to another anti-histamine. It is extremely difficult to find out any information about this situation, and I wondered if you had written a post regarding this?

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Yasmina was an award-winning broadcast journalist with a decade of experience covering war zones for CNN and the BBC. She devoted her journalism skills to researching and writing about histamine. Click here to learn about her. Each post is carefully and fully referenced with the latest scientific research. Not sure where to start? Here’s a four week meal plan and overall Histamine Reset.