Cooking Party and Histamine Intolerance

Cooking for people with special diet needs can be a challenge, but mostly because we are so set in our ways that thinking outside our own fridge seems difficult.

I have to admit that I like the challenge of creating special diet menus and the most challenging I have had to do so far was given to me only a few days ago. A person attending an upcoming event has Histamine Intolerance.
(HistaWhat? Yeah, that was my reaction as well.)

So what exactly is Histamine Intolerance?
I will share with you what I found on MindBodyGreen:

“You might be most familiar with histamine as it relates to the immune system. If you’ve suffered from seasonal allergies or food allergies, you may have noticed that antihistamine medications like Zytrec, Allegra or Benedryl provide quick relief of your symptoms. This is because histamine’s role in the body is to cause an immediate inflammatory response. It serves as a red flag in your immune system, notifying your body of any potential attackers.

Histamine causes your blood vessels to swell, or dilate, so that your white blood cells can quickly find and attack the infection or problem. The histamine buildup is what gives you a headache and leaves you feeling flushed, itchy and miserable. This is part of the body’s natural immune response, but if you don’t break down histamine properly, you could develop what we call histamine intolerance.”

Histamine-Rich Foods:

• Fermented alcoholic beverages, especially wine, champagne and beer
• Fermented foods: sauerkraut, vinegar, soy sauce, kefir, yogurt, kombucha, etc
• Vinegar-containing foods: pickles, mayonnaise, olives
• Cured meats: bacon, salami, pepperoni, luncheon meats and hot dogs
• Soured foods: sour cream, sour milk, buttermilk, soured bread, etc
• Dried fruit: apricots, prunes, dates, figs, raisins
• Most citrus fruits
• Aged cheese including goat cheese
• Nuts: walnuts, cashews, and peanuts
• Vegetables: avocados, eggplant, spinach, and tomatoes
• Smoked fish and certain species of fish: mackerel, mahi-mahi, tuna, anchovies, sardines

There is also a long list of Histamine-Realeasing Foods and DOA Blocking Foods and if you are interested in this I urge you to check out mindbodygreen.com

What to cook?

I googled, read and learned a lot about this diet before landing on two courses.
I actually pulled out two recipes I have made before Roasted Chicken and Mango-Pumpkin Soup. They just needed a little adjusting to fit the criteria. Like removing the lemons and adding apricots and apples for stuffing the bird.
Water instead of wine and cinnamon instead of curry.

I am so looking forward to the cooking party tomorrow and hope the ladies will enjoy the food.

If you have a recipe you would like to fit a certain diet, please ask me. I will help if I can.

Also for more info on low histamine recipes check out thelowhistaminechef.com