Tag: Optimum

This histamine-lowering quercetin rich juice appears in the Anti-Cookbook: High Nutrient Antihistamine & Anti-inflammatory Recipes for Health.

You know how you take antihistamines for allergies? Well antihistamines are found in food too; especially in brightly coloured and leafy green ones (sorry, nope, not M&Ms). Having given up antihistamines last year, my focus has shifted to eating them!

CLICK HERE TO LEARN HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN HISTAMINE BALANCED DIET AND HEALING PLAN. 

Benefits of this juice: 

Apples are rich in histamine lowering quercetin and inhibit the development of allergies [1].

Spirulina inhibits histamine release from mast cells and possess anti-inflammatory and cancer fighting properties [2]. Particularly effective for allergic rhinitis [3] (also known as a stuffy nose!).

Chlorella is an antihistamine that works by preventing mast cells from releasing histamine [4].

Broccoli prevents cancer [5] and gastric mucosal damage [6].

Cucumber meanwhile is a natural pain killer and an antioxidant. Worried about thinning hair? Cucumber also prevents the body from making the highly inflammatory molecule prostaglandin [7] which (as I’ve previously posted) has been implicated in hair loss [8].

Green Goddess Juice

Ingredients

1 head broccoli

1 medium cucumber

3 medium apples

1 tbsp sized chunk fresh ginger

1 tbsp spirulina

1 tbsp chlorella

Preparation: 

Juice the broccoli, cucumber, celery, apples and ginger.

Spoon in the spirulina and chlorella, stir well and enjoy!

It’s finally here! Man Food – a high nutrient antihistamine and anti-inflammatory ingredient filled book geared towards guys, women who love to work out, yoga like they mean it, or just load up on healing nutrients. Features my personal shopping list of antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods. 

The Anti-cookbook and all liquid Anti-Detox Book, don’t treat any conditions, but feature a plethora of 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. 

References:

[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16081068

[2] http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006295297006783

[3] http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/jmf.2005.8.27

[4] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12639395

[5] http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0163725893900123

[6] http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0378874189900883

[7] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc3019374/

[8] https://dev.healinghistamine.com/the-allergy-hairloss-link-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/

I came face to face with one of my greatest fears this last week: catastrophic hard drive failure with no current back up. The fallout wasn’t as unpleasant as I had anticipated – sure, I lost the final draft of a mega project I had just finished, but I got to spend a lovely week with my man, away from the internet and Facebook.

The downside is that in the 10 days I’ve spent in London waiting for my computer to be fixed, I have also been without my kitchen, camera or anything else that I normally employ to come up with a recipe and half decent photo. So while today I’m happy to present you with a lovely antihistamine, low histamine, paleo and low oxalate recipe created on the fly, it’s sadly as captured by my iphone. I’m not at all happy with the photos – these looked so very lovely and I wanted to document them before they deflated.

But I guarantee you they’re yummy!

I chose not to use any flour in these – you may wish to. They came out, as many of my baked goods, denser than I would have made on a standard diet (SAD), but I’m ok with that! You may wish to add one tbsp of your choice of flour.

Those of you with egg issues – duck eggs might be an option, or you could try adding 1/2 cup of sweet potato or carrot instead of them, if oxalates aren’t a problem for you. The result would be very similar to passover favourite kugel.

Why do I say low histamine and antihistamine in the same recipe? I finally worked out last year that a standard low histamine diet wasn’t getting me anywhere. What I needed was to completely overhaul my diet to incorporate foods with antihistamine and anti-inflammatory properties. So while my recipes are all low histamine, most also feature antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods.

As I mention in my Paleo antihistamine cookbook:

Butternut squash suppresses IgE antibody production, thereby exerting antihistamine qualities. Also possesses anti-ulcer, anti-inflammatory and antidepressant action [1].

Shallots possess significant anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory action, in addition to inducing the death of cancerous cells (apoptosis) in human leukemia and cervical cancer [2].

Chives are high in the mast cell stabilising/antihistamine bioflavonoid quercetin [3].

Arugula/rocket has been shown to possess anti-inflammaotry and anti-ulerative properties through its action on histamine and prostaglandins [4].

Please remember that we can still have an allergy to foods with antihistaminic qualities – please check with your doctor before introducing new foods. 

Antihistamine Butternut Squash Soufflé w/Shallot Chutney on a bed of rocket and baby leaf salad

Prep Time: 5-10 | Cook Time: 30 – 50 | Servings: 4 – 5

Ingredients:

Soufflé

1 medium butternut squash (should make 1.5 cups in puree), peeled, seeded and quartered

4 eggs

1/4 cup oil (I use olive)

1 garlic clove

chives, finely chopped

coriander, finely chopped

Chutney

4 – 6 medium shallots, quartered

2 garlic cloves, sliced thinly

fresh lemon

1/8 – 1/4 cup oil (I use olive)

thyme

sea salt/pepper

Garnish – arugula and a drizzle of olive oil and lemon. 

Directions:

Soufflé

Preheat the oven to 400F/200C.

Bake the butternut on a pre-oiled baking tray for 20-30 mins (till soft).

Use either a potato masher or food processor to blend the butternut into a puree. You’ll need about two cups.

Into the food processor crack four eggs, then toss in the garlic. Pour in the oil, a little salt and pepper (white pepper if you’re low oxalate) and process. Once smooth add in the chopped herbs. If you’re worried about the egg whites, you might experiment with duck eggs or use yolks only.

Oil 4 – 5 ramekins (depending on their size) and pour in the batter, just up to the dent. It’s there for a reason!

Bake at 350F/180C for 30-40 minutes, depending on your oven. Use a baking stick or a toothpick to check the inside till it comes out dry. Don’t worry about the deflating thing – we’re not in a Michelin starred restaurant over here – we’re just trying to get some nutrition!

If you’d like them to be fluffy, add a spoon of your choice of flour.

Serve with shallot chutney.

Chutney

Preheat oven to 350F/180C.

Place the shallots and garlic in an oven proof dish. Sprinkle with thyme (to taste), salt and pepper a squeeze of fresh lemon.

Pour on the oil.

Bake for 30 – 40 minutes, taking care to turn at least once.

Arrange the soufflé ramekins on a plate with the arugula salad. Serve with shallot chutney. 

You’ll find more Paleo antihistamine and anti-inflammatory low histamine recipes in the Paleo Anti-Cookbook.

Please remember that we can still have an allergy to foods with antihistaminic qualities – please check with your doctor before introducing new foods. 

———————- REFERENCES ————————

[1] http://lib.bioinfo.pl/pmid:8031259

[2] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3258679/

[3] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3932203

[4] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2675085/

The one last major symptom that can drive me to despair is chronic inflammation “down there”. Having eliminated wheat, gluten, dairy, all grains, all sugar but fruit, I’m a little stumped by what’s going on. Sure I know about the mast cell Interstitial Cystitis link (as per NIH funded Dr Theoharides) [1] but given that I am no longer forced to run to the loo every 10 minutes screaming in pain as I unleash the razor blades embedded in my urinary tract I can’t say that’s too much of a factor. Thankfully quercetin has done its job there.

A diet rich in antihistamine and anti-inflammatory foods has helped me lower overall inflammation. Mast cell mediated/histamine induced inflammation has moved way from my brain (no brain fog/migraines anymore), away from my heart (tachycardia/palpitations gone), away from my fingers (no more arthritis or buzzing and tingling in them), away from my feet/hips (adios bone pain, shooting sciatica like pain or buzzing/tingling), and for the most part, away from my stomach (only rare instances of basketball stomach/tingling/Homeric belching). But I guess it would make sense that the part of my body that’s in contact with ingested histamine is somewhat chronically inflamed.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN CUSTOMISED HEALING PLAN AND DIET.

So looks like it’s time to tweak the diet once more. This thought used to unleash a hurricane of self pity but now I figure I’ve already hit the ground running having done this quite a few times.

Having purposely avoided looking at high oxalate food lists for the last three years (scared of what I would find), I finally took a look, passed out momentarily in despair at the sight of so many healthy plant based foods in the high column (kale, chard) and so many crappy ones in the low oxalate list (corn nuts, dairy, white chocolate), before picking my sorry self up off the floor and reminding myself that as with the low histamine diet, moderation is key.

I will never completely eliminate higher histamine foods – partly because it’s almost impossible to, but also because I don’t believe that kind of restriction is good for the body and soul. With that in mind I finally unclenched my teeth and decided to give a low-ish oxalate diet a go (not that my diet is particularly high oxalate to begin with!).

It’s not just those with lady part inflammation who benefit from moderating oxalates, related conditions are: autism, asthma, cystic fibrosis, kidney stones as well as vulvodynia [2].

A cursory glance at the oxalate sites revealed that mr curly kale must be re-assigned from my juicing drawer to my boyfriend’s “I’ll eat it if it’s green” shelf. I then sat down for some intensive net trawling in order to come up with a list of low to medium oxalate foods that are also low histamine, as well as being high nutrient. You’ll find this list here. As always, please remember most histamine lists differ from each other and the low oxalate lists suffer the same problem.

Additionally, because you’re supposed to keep oxalate intake to a maximum range, wether you eat 1/2 a cup of asparagus or a full cup makes a big difference in the milligrams of oxalates/oxalic acid you ingest. It’s kind of like weight watchers where you tally everything up. I think it borders on the obsessive to do it right, but if you’re in that much pain and have determined that you problem is oxalates/oxalic acid, then you do what you have to! I’m thankfully not in severe pain, I’m just determined to be the best me I can be. Yes, I am often my own coach/cheerleader/movie cliche all rolled into one!

This list is by no means exhaustive, it’s just meant to give you an idea of the low oxalate low histamine foods I’ll be trying to stick to for a while. I recommend checking out oxalate researcher Dr Susan Owen’s site for further information. Rest assured, I’ve put in an interview request and am waiting to hear back.

Here’s the low to medium oxalate and low histamine food list I’ll be working off for a while:

PLEASE NOTE: various low oxalate sites warn that you shouldn’t jump into an extremely low oxalate diet as it can kick the body into a sudden detox, causing it to suddenly dump its oxalate stores which can cause an intensification of symptoms.

Low histamine & low to medium oxalate foods

FRUITS

Very low – low oxalate foods

CRANBERRY (low histamine on some lists)

CHERRY (low histamine on some lists)

APPLE FUJI

APPLE GALA

APPLE GOLDEN

APPLE BRAMLEYS

APPLE GRANNY SMITH

APPLE RED

BLUEBERRIES

CRANBERRIES DRIED

DATES MEDJOOL

LEMON

MANGO

CASABA

HONEYDEW

WATERMELON

PASSION FRUIT

PEACH

PEAR BARTLETT

 Medium oxalate foods

APPLE BRAEBURN

APPLE MACINTOSH

BANANA

DRIED CHERRIES

BLACKCURRANTS

DATES MEDJOOL

LIME

CANTALOUPE

VEGETABLES

V. low – low oxalate foods

CORN

BOK CHOY

BROCCOLI RAW AND BOILED

CABBAGE GREEN RAW

NAPA CABBAGE

CABBAGE PURPLE

CARROTS BOILED

CAULIFLOWER BOILED/STEAMED/RAW

CUCUMBERS

GARLIC

TURNIP GREENS

ARUGULA

RAAB BROCCOLI

KALE  (not curly!)

KHOLRABI

KOHLRABI LEAVES

MOST LETTUCE IS VERY LOW

MUSHROOMS (I still eat some)

ONION, WHITE

ONION, YELLOW

RED PEPPER

RADISH, DAIKON

RADISH, RED

RADISH, WHITE

RUTABAGA

SEAWEED, HIJIKI

SEAWEED, KOMBU

SEAWEED, NORI

SEAWEED, WAKAME

SHALLOTS

SPROUTS, ALFALFA

SQUASH, ACORN

SQUASH, BUTTERNUT

SQUASH, KABOCHA

SQUASH, SPAGHETTI

SQUASH, YELLOW

SQUASH, ZUCCHINI

TURNIP

WATERCRESS

Medium oxalate foods

ARTICHOKE

ASPARAGUS

GREEN BEANS

BRUSSEL SPROUTS

BROCCOLI STEAMED

CARROTS RAW

ENDIVE

FENNEL

GRAPE LEAVES

RAAB BROCCOLI STEAMES

COLLARED BOILED

LEEKS RAW

JICAMA

RED ONION

PARSNIPS

BELL PEPPER, YELLOW

BELL PEPPER, GREEN

SEAWEED, DULSE

HERBS/SPICES/CONDIMENTS

Low oxalate foods

(Most fresh herbs are low oxalate. Dried are far higher. These herbs are all fresh)

BASIL

CIDER VINEGAR (the lowest histamine of all the vinegars)

CHILI

CHIVES

CORIANDER

CRESS

GINGER

LEMON BALM

MUSTARD

WHITE PEPPER GROUND

PEPPERMINT

ROSEMARY

SAVORY

CAYENNE PEPPERS

HABANERO PEPPERS

Medium oxalate foods

DILL

PARSLEY

BLACK PEPPER GROUND

LEGMES/NUTS/SEEDS

Low oxalate foods

CANNED CHICKPEAS (but dry/boiled are medium!)

LIMA

MUNG

RED LENTILS BOILED

BROWN LENTILS

GREEN PEAS

SPLIT GREEN PEAS

SPLIT YELLOW PEAS

SUNFLOWER BUTTER (small amount)

Medium oxalate foods

CHICKPEAS BOILED

PISTACHIOS

ALFALFA SEEDS

BROC SEEDS

MUNG BEAN

MEAT/POULTRY/FISH

Low oxalate foods

ANCHOVIES (fresh)

FLOUNDER

HADDOCK

PLAICE

SALMON

FRESH TUNA

BEEF

LAMB

LIVER

EGGS

OTHER

Low oxalate foods

WHITE CHOCOLATE (I can eat homemade raw white chocolate – you might not be able to)

GRAINS/FLOURS

Low/Medium oxalate foods

WHITE RICE

WILD RICE

CORN

COCONUT FLOUR

BLACK EYED PEA FLOUR

FLAX SEED FLOUR

CELLOPHANE NOODLES

BROWN RICE PASTA COOKED

WHITE RICE

THAI JASMIN RICE

Soaking rice and grains for 12 hours lowers oxalates.

Medium oxalate foods

CHICKPEA FLOUR

BROWN RICE FLOUR

SORGHUM

MILLET

ROLLED OATS COOKED

RICE NOODLES

BROWN RICE

JASMIN RICE

UNCLE BENS WHITE RICE

WILD RICE

FATS/OILS

Low oxalate foods

CANOLA

COCONUT

OLIVE

SESAME SEED

SWEETENERS

V.low/low oxalate foods

AGAVE

RAW COCONUT NECTAR

TAHINI – high oxalate but I plan to keep it in my diet because of it’s calcium content and anti-inflammatory activity. 

———————————- Sources ———————————-

[1] http://mastcellmaster.com/documents/Interstitial-Cystitis/Mast-cells-IC-Urol-2007.pdf

[2] http://lowoxalate.info/research.html

CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE TO PURCHASE THE BOOK

(Now also available in a Paleo version)

Wondering why you’re still not feeling better, despite eliminating all the foods those lists tell you to? Have a niggling suspicion that losing all those high nutrient foods could be counter productive? Starting to worry that your five “safe foods” might turn on you one day?

It’s time to ask yourself – why go low histamine when you can go anti-histamine?

While I always tell people that it’s not just about the food, eliminating high nutrient foods from my diet turned out to be the BIGGEST mistake I ever made. But by the time the damage was done, I struggled to figure out how to fix it. At first adding high nutrient foods was challenging, till I figured out that if the goal was to add the least histamine possible to my body, why not go one step further and add antihistamine foods to my diet instead? It worked and I was finally able to come off my remaining antihistamine (zyrtec)!

My reading of the mast cell field’s top researchers (Drs Theoharides, Akin, Castells, Escribano) soon revealed that histamine, in addition to the other pro-inflammatory elements released by mast cells (prostaglandins et al), were likely causing further dysfunction in my body.

Many people in our histamine intolerance, mast cell activation disorder, and mastocytosis community are prescribed aspirin to relieve that inflammation – but why not go straight to the source? Aspirin is salicylic acid – guess where in nature you can find it? High nutrient green leafy foods! My new understanding of histamine/prostaglandin induced inflammation and the very serious ilnesses it can feed (cancer, neuro-inflammation, heart disease and many others) prompted me to address the very scarily elevated inflammatory markers in my blood work.

Thanks to my high nutrient antihistamine and anti-inflammatory approach, I’m now in the best health of my life (and have the blood tests to prove it)! And it took less than a year…

The Anti-Cookbook: High Nutrient Antihistamine & Anti-inflammatory Recipes for Health shares:

The 10 easy steps that changed my life.

The power of positivity.

A list of my top high nutrient antihistaminic, anti-inflammatory and mast cell stabilising foods.

Tasty antihistamine beverages.

Antihistamine and anti-inflammatory breakfasts, lunches and dinners.

NB: Almost every single ingredient in this book was chosen for its antihistaminic, mast cell stablising or anti-inflammatory properties…

This book is fairly hardcore high nutrient and as such incorporates green juices and smoothies. If you are new to the low histamine diet or still eating the Standard American Diet (SAD) then I recommend trying one of my other books. Please be aware that this is not a diet book, but rather a collection of the high nutrient recipes. Please be sure to consult with your doctor before adding any new foods to your diet.