Creating your own stop light list

 If you've looked in low histamine diets or some other specialty diets, you might have seen a stop light list. There are three columns labeled red, yellow, and green. These stand for do not eat, eat occasionally or possibly dangerous, and safe to eat. When you first start trying to eat on a specialty diet life is made a lot easier by categorizing your foods this way. I recommend you type up the list then hang it on your fridge. As you think of more things that can go on the list add to the printed out list and occasionally go back and fix the original document so you can print it again. This keeps you organized and gives you a clear plan of what you have decided to eat in one central location. 

My stop light list looks like this:

Red

  • wheat (allergen)
  • milk (allergen)
  • citric acid (naturally occurring in fruits and added to products)
  • lactose (again may be added into products)
  • strawberries
  • bananas
  • avocado
  • peanuts (allergen)
Yellow
  • ground meat
  • refrigerated meat
  • chocolate
  • tuna fish
  • soy (high in estrogen)
  • mayo
  • vinegar
  • cashews
Green
  • frozen meat
  • frozen or fresh vegetables
  • rice
  • potatoes
  • oat milk
  • oatmeal
I haven't written mine down in a while, so I will try to come back and add to it. You might note the red section has a few items I've labeled as allergens. That's because those are on my list because I have IgE markers to them and know I have a full blown allergic reaction to them. Its not a bad reaction, but the fact of the matter is, they aren't just triggers that may or may not trigger histamine release. These may have a mast cell component, but they most definitely will cause histamine to be released. That does not help my histamine bucket in any way shape or form. If you don't know what histamine bucket theory is here is a great article that provides a quick over view of the concept.

I am constantly tempted to add in an orange section. This section cuts the yellow into probably safe to have every other day and things only to have occasionally. I add this category for those mental health days when you need some comfort food, but you still want to be able to stay basically on diet. Kind of a safe bad foods list because if you've tried this diet you'll quickly find out restricting this heavily is really hard mentally. 

Sources and reading materials:
https://kanodiamd.com/the-relationship-between-histamine-intolerance-and-food/
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322543
https://www.histaminintoleranz.ch/downloads/SIGHI-Leaflet_HistamineEliminationDiet.pdf

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