Can a low histamine diet help your seasonal allergies? Do your allergies flare up in the spring? Below is an allergy season meal plan, which follows the protocol of a low histamine diet.
Your food choices can help alleviate, or aggravate, allergy symptoms. Histamine is part of our natural immune response. When our body detects something foreign in our body, like pollen, histamine is released to “attack” it. Sometimes our body is too aggressive with the histamine release and then you end up with itchy eyes, runny nose, and sneezes for days.
I had the worst seasonal allergies and it wasn’t until I switched to a gluten-free, dairy-free lifestyle that I found relief without a prescription. Both gluten and dairy can cause chronic inflammation in your body. By removing these two triggers, your body is less likely to overproduce histamine when it’s allergy season. Pair this with a low histamine diet plan and you will set yourself up for fewer sniffles and sneezes!
There are a few other key things to do during allergy season to complement the meal plan below.
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Boost your immune system with foods rich in vitamin C and polyphenols.
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Use locally grown raw honey repeatedly in the weeks prior to allergy season to prep your body for local pollen.
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Increase your intake of fresh herbs, like mint, cilantro, and watercress. All of these increase your levels of quercetin, a natural antihistamine.
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Focus on fresh food first (meat, produce.)
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Avoid cultured, processed, cured, fermented, and aged foods. (cheese, beer, wine, beef jerky, and smoked meats.)
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Avoid soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and yeast extract.
RELATED: Do you have Histamine Intolerance?
Allergy Season Meal Plan
Dinner
Turmeric Pork Skillet from Sweet Treats. This dish is anti-inflammatory, AIP, paleo, and Whole30 compliant.
Chicken Lemon Spinach Stew from A Healthy Life for Me. Adding lemon to chicken soup is a game-changer. Plus it adds a healthy dose of Vitamin C!
Master Cleanse Salad Recipe from Detox DIY. Includes watercress and immune-boosting broccoli. Pair with chicken or hard-boiled eggs as a protein source.
Cilantro Lime Chicken with Avocado Salsa from Joyful Healthy Eats. Cilantro is a great herb for our allergy season meal plan, plus it helps detox heavy metals found in your body. (limit the avocado as it is higher in histamine.)
One Pan Roasted Pork with Sweet Potato, Pear, Apple, and Garlic from Garlic Matters.
Lunch
Easy Almond Apple Quinoa Salad-from Chelsea’s Messy Apron. Apples also produce quercetin, a natural antihistamine. Note, avoid store-bought chicken stock as it often contains yeast extract, another form of MSG. Instead, grab the recipe here for homemade chicken bone broth.
Breakfast
Superfood Breakfast Smoothie Bowl from A Glowing Fridge. The spirulina added here is a blue-green algae that is rich in protein and immune-boosting. I use a powder like this one.
Allergy Season Beverages
Beverages
Green Tea: delivers EGCG, an antioxidant that blocks the production of histamine and immunoglobulin E.
Bone broth: reduces inflammation. Learn more about why I drink bone broth every morning.
Bonus
Probiotics: a dose at night can help boost your immune system during the height of allergy season. Always buy probiotics from a quality source. However, only certain strains of probiotics should be used if you have histamine intolerance (HIT).
Additional Resources
Do you have a Food Sensitivity or Food Allergy?
Healing Histamine (low histamine food list, great for anyone with histamine intolerance)
I hope you learned something new with this allergy season meal plan, with low-histamine food ideas.
