Finding low Histamine wine is essential if higher levels of histamines in give you an allergic reaction, a wine headache, or other difficulties. If you are concerned about histamines in wines, ask your doctor for advice. This post provides general tips for wine lovers only.
What Are Histamines?
Histamines are found in various foods and drinks, including alcohol, beans, tomatoes, citrus fruits, chocolate, and bananas. Avoiding foods high in histamine is vital if you have a condition related to this substance.
Scientifically, histamine is a chemical released by the body’s white blood cells. It is released when the body perceives the presence of an allergen. Histamine is especially common in red wine, so you may want to avoid buying another red bottle of wine.
How Many People Are Histamine Intolerant?
It is estimated that 1% of the population is histamine intolerant. Before coming to a conclusion and switching to a low histamine diet, consider multiple possibilities. If you have a substantial adverse reaction to alcoholic beverages, there may be multiple causes.
Your body might have an adverse reaction to gluten in beer (i.e., a food intolerance). Alternatively, the level of histamines in a single glass of wine may be enough to cause a problem. Also, your physiological reactions may be due to something else you consumed, like dairy products. Speaking of food, it’s worth checking to see if you suffered from food poisoning.
Ultimately, the best way to determine if you should switch to alcohol without histamines is to seek medical advice. Lab tests and a discussion with your doctor is the best way to determine if high amounts of histamine are a problem.
Three Rules of Thumb To Find Low Histamine Wines
Choosing wine with low histamine concentrations may help you to avoid problems like wine headaches. You wouldn’t know for sure until you tried this category of alcoholic beverages. Fortunately, there are a few simple rules of thumb to keep in mind to minimize the amount of histamine content you consume.
Rule of thumb 1: Focus on white wines
White wine tends to be the best bet for finding low-histamine wine. Wine drinkers who switch to white wines may find their adverse reactions to wine disappear. You may also want to look into my guide to organic white wine if health and allergies concern you.
As a bonus, some white wines have a lower alcohol level which may help to reduce the chance of a hangover. In addition to looking for lower alcohol content, consider natural wines as another option.
Rule of thumb 2: Rose Wines Are Your Plan B
The winemaking process used to create rose wines helps to reduce histamine levels. However, rose wines are best seen as a “Plan B” for the histamine intolerant.
Rule of Thumb 3: Avoid Red Wines
Unfortunately, you may need to avoid red wines, including the best Beaujolais wine and the best Merlot wine, if you are histamine intolerant. Generally speaking, red wine has a high concentration of histamine. Therefore, it is wise to avoid wine producers exclusively producing red wine.
Low Histamine Wine Frequently Asked Questions
This section summarizes the current wine, histamine, and food safety knowledge. This is medical advice, and I’m not a scientist. View this post as a starting point.
1 Why does wine have histamine?
Histamine content is found in nearly all wines. However, there is a wide range of histamine levels depending on the type of grape used. Red wines have the highest histamine content (60-3800 micrograms per liter). It doesn’t matter if you prefer Australian, French, or American wines – nearly all red wines have a significant amount of histamine content.
2 How to find lower histamine wines?
Finding a wine with low micrograms of histamine is simple. Look for white wines! Ideally, you may want to stay away from cheaper wines and switch to organic white wine.
3 Is natural wine better than conventional wines for low histamine content?
Not necessarily. You may have intolerant reactions to wine for various reasons. That said, natural wine and organic wines tend to have fewer artificial chemicals, which may reduce the chance of unpleasant chemical reactions when you drink the wine.
4 What are the leading low histamine wine brands?
There are some Italian wineries to try, like Dolcetto D’Alba Doc Low Histamine and Barbera D’Alba Doc Low Histamines. If you can’t find those wines, look for white wines.
5 What about sulfites? Should I be concerned about reactions to sulfites?
The vast majority of the wine bottles I’ve ever seen have the “contains sulfites” on the wine bottle label. This substance is present in wines because of yeast. All wines use some yeast, naturally occurring or commercial yeasts, to cause the fermentation process.
Sulfites have a valuable role to play: protecting the wine against oxidation, preserving the desired color, and improving fermentation. However, some people react to this everyday substance found in regular wine.
Strictly speaking, all wines have sulfites. The only question is how much. Some producers add additional sulfites during the winemaking process. Therefore, producers may use terms like ‘no artificial sulfites’ or ‘no added sulfites.’
Low Histamine Wine In Summary
You don’t have to avoid commercial wines if you are concerned about wine quality or excessive histamine content. The simple solution is to switch to white wines like Riesling, Chardonnay, or Sauvignon Blanc. If you have problems when drinking wine, consult your doctor for advice. That is the best way to get answers to your specific situation.
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