Are Bananas High in Histamine?

Michael Eisenwasser 5 min read

Bananas are one of the most confusing foods for people figuring out histamine intolerance. They're not on the high histamine foods list the same way aged cheese or cured meat is. But they show up on almost every list of foods to avoid. And a lot of people notice real reactions after eating them.

So what's actually going on?

The short answer

Fresh bananas contain very little histamine. In some studies, the levels are nearly undetectable. But bananas are listed as histamine liberators, meaning they may trigger your body to release stored histamine even when the food itself doesn't contain much.

Bananas also contain other biogenic amines, including tyramine and putrescine, that can cause their own reactions. These aren't histamine, but they can produce similar symptoms: headaches, flushing, skin reactions. And when your body is already struggling to break down histamine, adding more compounds that compete for the same enzymes makes everything harder.

That's part of why reactions to bananas can feel bigger than you'd expect from a fruit that's technically low in histamine.

Ripeness changes things

The pattern is fairly consistent: the browner and softer the banana, the more likely it is to cause a reaction. If you're going to test your tolerance, start with a firm, barely-yellow one rather than something that's been sitting on the counter for a few days.

What reactions look like

People describe a range of symptoms after eating bananas: itching or hives around the mouth, flushing, headache, stomach cramping, and sometimes a racing heart. The pattern can be easy to miss because reactions aren't always immediate. Some people don't notice anything for an hour or two.

It's also easy to blame something else. Banana is such a normal, "safe" food that most people don't think to connect it to symptoms. If you've been carefully avoiding obvious triggers and still having reactions, banana is worth looking at.

Why some people seem fine with bananas

Individual tolerance varies a lot. Some people with histamine intolerance eat bananas without any problem. Others react to a small amount.

I'm somewhere in the middle. I don't eat a whole banana or a ripe one, but I can tolerate a small amount of unripe banana frozen and blended into a smoothie. That's about as far as I push it.

A few factors that influence this:

• How loaded your bucket already is. A banana on a day when you've eaten otherwise clean foods is very different from a banana on top of other triggers. The bucket theory matters here.
• How well your DAO enzyme is working. People with lower DAO function tend to react more strongly to foods like bananas that compete for DAO capacity.
• Ripeness. The browner and softer the banana, the more likely it is to cause problems.

The smoothie problem

Many low histamine smoothie recipes are technically low histamine on paper but use bananas as the creamy base. This is worth watching out for. A smoothie with banana, mango, and coconut milk looks healthy and mostly is, but the banana is doing a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of triggering potential.

If you're trying to identify your banana tolerance, it's better to eat banana on its own rather than in a smoothie where other ingredients might be masking or compounding your reaction.

For smoothie ideas that skip banana entirely, our low histamine recipes use mango and other safe fruits as the base instead.

How to test your tolerance

If you want to find out where you personally stand with bananas:

1. Wait until you're well into an elimination phase. Testing before your baseline is settled won't give you clear results.
2. Choose an unripe banana. Firm and mostly yellow, no brown spots.
3. Eat a small amount on its own. No other potential triggers alongside it.
4. Wait 24-48 hours before drawing conclusions. Some reactions are delayed.
5. Track your symptoms. The delay and variability make this hard to figure out without notes.

DAO supplements are designed to help break down dietary histamine in the gut. Since part of banana's issue is competing for DAO capacity rather than delivering direct histamine, a DAO supplement may or may not help. It's worth trying if you're borderline, but it won't resolve things if banana is a genuine trigger for you.

Safer fruit alternatives

Several fruits are generally well tolerated by people with histamine intolerance:

• Blueberries are one of the most reliably low histamine fruits.
• Mango tends to be well tolerated when eaten fresh.
• Apple and pear are commonly listed as safe, though individual response varies.
• Cherries are well tolerated by many people, fresh or frozen, though individual response varies.
• Coconut works well as a base for smoothies and desserts.

The key with any fruit is freshness. Very ripe or overripe fruit of any kind tends to be harder to tolerate than fruit that's just ripe.

Finding your limit

Some people with histamine intolerance find bananas are a consistent trigger regardless of ripeness or portion size. Others can handle a small, firm banana without a problem, especially on days when their overall load is low.

The only way to know which camp you're in is to test carefully and track what happens. Avoiding bananas forever is probably not necessary for everyone. But they're worth testing deliberately rather than assuming they're fine because they're on every healthy eating list.

Track your symptoms and discover patterns with Histamine Tracker. Includes a database of 1,000+ foods with histamine ratings.