Because in reality, histamines are a natural part of our immune system, as well as nervous and digestive systems. It helps stomach acid break down your food, and gallops through your bloodstream on imaginary horseback to relay important messages from body to brain. All in all, it's a pretty good thing...unless the party starts to get out of hand.

​You see, histamines can also be absorbed through food, like that awesome healthy salad (piled high with croutons and drenched in dressing) you had for lunch, or the leftover pizza you had directly after that. And for ​most people, their systems ​are fully equipped to handle the ​amount of histamine absorption. Unfortunately, there is a growing population that find that their systems are not processing histamines correctly, allowing too much histamine to hang out in the bloodstream and wear out their welcome. 

​And when you get an overload of histamine in your body? You get an uncomfortable imbalance.

You also start to experience weird symptoms that ​feel all over the place and are hard to pinpoint. These ​includes allergy-like symptoms such as bloating, hives, excess itching, flushing, nausea, flatulence, headaches, fatigue, vertigo, and/or abdominal pain. And this is where a low-histamine diet plays a huge part in the healing process.

A low-histamine diet involves the (hopefully temporary) elimination of high histamine foods. ​It’s common for those embarking on this journey to follow a standard ​LH diet, which involves eating selected animal products such as fish, chicken, or eggs, and avoiding processed ones like cheeses and yogurt.

​And yet, there is a handful of people who choose a low-histamine vegan diet. The reasons for this varies; some are already vegan and are concerned about switching back to animal products, while others simply want to incorporate more plant-based foods and detox their bodies temporarily.

To most of the world, switching to a strictly plant-based diet already feels limiting. Scribble “low-histamine” above that title, and you just qualified yourself for a lot of weird looks and rhetorical questions from friends and family.

Case in point: when I decided to ​try low-histamine a few years ago (after already being vegan for some time), I made the ​impulse of voicing it to a friend in my yoga class. While it made perfect sense to me on the reasons WHY I was going to try this (after feeling constant nausea, migraine headaches, and severe bloating for months), it didn’t make sense to someone who wasn’t in the same position, experiencing the same discomfort I was.

The conversation went something like this:

ME: “Yeah I haven’t been feeling good recently....I think I’m going to try to do this temporary diet thing, it’s a low-histamine diet...”

FRIEND (skeptical) : “A diet? But you’re already vegan- I thought you already ate healthy? I don’t even know what low-histamine is!”

ME (a bit defensive): “Well, I thought I was eating healthy, but I’ve started to not feel very well...I’m really stressed out. But I read this book that talks about doing a low-histamine diet and it made sense to me. In the book, she talked about having an overload of certain foods in your diet, and that eventually, your body could start to have allergic reactions to those foods. It would explain why I’m feeling sick recently.”

FRIEND: “But what would you eat? You’re already so....limited.”

ME (starting to feel regret for starting this conversation): “Um, well I’m not entirely sure. It says in the book that you can’t eat soy, or tomatoes, or potatoes, or canned foods. No vinegar either...I still need to look into it.”

FRIEND (alarmed): “Omg that sounds like a lot! And no soy!? But I thought that was a your main protein source; WHERE WILL YOU GET YOUR PROTEIN!?”

And you can imagine how it goes on from there. Uncomfortable silence and furrowed brows, followed by a little backtracking and “promises to be safe” from yours truly.

​This can cause a whole new set of problems, and be mentally damaging if you're looking at this problem as black and white, right or wrong.

​That's why I like to focus on encouraging you to do your best, and keep taking healthy steps forward. ​In general, I've found that many readers have reported feeling relief after incorporating low-histamine vegan meals into their diet, and for mild cases, it makes total sense to make the switch at home. That being said, it would be irresponsible for me not to mention that if you're experiencing hardcore symptoms and are afraid to eat, please seek ​your local medical professional immediately. ​​​

​As for my personal experience, I found that through a temporary elimination diet, I was able to get myself back to a healthy balance. Now, three years later, I can enjoy foods I couldn't before, and I understand what my limits are (that tofurky sandwich may LOOK harmless....resist. the. urge!). But in that first month, I must admit that I was terrified I would do something wrong. It all seemed overwhelming, and I had a few complete meltdowns involving my shopping list and a few curse words.​

Which is why I want to provide you with EXACTLY the right tools you need to do this, so you don’t feel afraid like I did. ​Read on for more valuable resources and meals to get you started asap!

​Before you go, please know that I'm glad you're here, because it means that you've decided to take action to change your diet (and your life!) for the better. I will continue to add to this page, so check back for more helpful info + sign up for the VIP list to hear about new recipes and more resources.

And if you think this page could help someone who is struggling with their diet right now, please pass it along! Of course, if you have any questions, you can always contact me here.

Wishing you all the best on your wellness journey:)