Is Rice High in Histamine?

Michael Eisenwasser 5 min read

When you first start cutting out high-histamine foods, the list of things you can't eat feels endless. Aged cheese, fermented foods, alcohol, tomatoes, canned anything. After a while, you start to wonder what's actually left.

Rice is one of the answers to that question.

The short answer

Plain rice is low in histamine and generally well tolerated by people with histamine intolerance. White rice, brown rice, jasmine, basmati: none of them are high in histamine, and rice is not a known histamine liberator either. It won't trigger your body to release stored histamine the way something like avocado or strawberries can.

For most people, rice is a reliable staple during an elimination phase and beyond.

White rice vs. brown rice

Both are fine from a histamine standpoint. White rice has the outer bran removed, which makes it slightly easier to digest for people with sensitivity. Brown rice has more fiber and nutrients, but some people with histamine intolerance also deal with gut issues that make high-fiber foods harder to tolerate. If you find brown rice bothers you, switching to white is a reasonable thing to try.

Neither type is more likely to trigger a histamine reaction than the other.

The one real caveat: freshness matters

Here is where rice gets more complicated, and it has nothing to do with histamine in the raw grain.

Cooked rice that sits out or gets left in the fridge for days is worth being cautious about. Microbial activity in stored food can contribute to histamine accumulation over time, and leftover rice is no exception. The practical risk is similar to what you'd watch for with any cooked food: the fresher, the better.

This is not a reason to avoid rice. It's a reason to eat it fresh. Cook it, eat it. If you're making extra, freeze individual portions right away rather than storing cooked rice in the fridge for later. For a deeper look at why this happens, see why leftovers can trigger histamine symptoms.

Rice cakes and rice crackers

Plain rice cakes and rice crackers are generally fine. The base ingredient is still rice, and the same low-histamine logic applies.

The problem comes with flavored versions. Seasoned rice cakes, soy sauce-flavored crackers, anything with yeast extract, vinegar, or artificial flavorings can contain ingredients that are much more likely to cause a reaction. Read labels. The plainer the ingredient list, the safer it is.

Rice flour

Rice flour follows the same pattern. Plain rice flour is low histamine and works as a useful wheat substitute for people who are also avoiding gluten. If you're buying packaged products made with rice flour, the flour itself isn't the concern: check everything else on the label.

What about sushi rice?

Plain sushi rice is just rice. The histamine concern with sushi isn't the rice at all. It's everything else: the fish (especially high-histamine options like tuna and mackerel), and the rice vinegar used to season the rice.

Vinegar is fermented, and fermentation is how histamine forms. Rice vinegar is sometimes better tolerated than wine-based vinegars, but it is still vinegar and can be a problem for more sensitive people. If you've ever reacted to sushi and wondered whether it was the rice, the rice itself is usually not the culprit. The fish, vinegar, soy sauce, and other ingredients are much more likely candidates.

What about fried rice?

Fried rice from a restaurant is almost never just rice. The standard preparation includes soy sauce, which is fermented and one of the higher-histamine condiments you can eat. Many versions also include oyster sauce, fish sauce, or other fermented seasonings. Some include eggs, which are generally fine, but the sauces are the real issue.

If you're eating out and order fried rice, assume it has soy sauce in it unless you ask otherwise. Even "simple" fried rice at most Asian restaurants is cooked with it as a base flavor. It's one of those dishes that looks low-risk from the outside but stacks multiple triggers together.

Making fried rice at home is a different situation. You can skip the soy sauce, use coconut aminos if you tolerate them, and control exactly what goes in. That version of fried rice is much more manageable.

What about flavored rice packets?

Pre-seasoned rice packets and flavored instant rice are worth being cautious about. The rice itself is fine, but the seasoning packets often contain ingredients that aren't: yeast extract, soy sauce powder, spice blends with paprika, or other additives. Fresh plain rice is a better starting point.

Rice as a foundation

One of the most useful things about histamine intolerance is that once you find foods you actually tolerate, you can build meals around them. Rice pairs easily with proteins, vegetables, and simple seasonings, which is exactly what a low-histamine approach requires.

If you're looking for ways to use it, our low histamine recipes have a lot of meal ideas built around simple, safe staples like rice.

The bottom line

Rice is one of the most reliably safe foods for histamine intolerance. Plain, freshly cooked rice of any variety should be easy to tolerate for most people. The only real consideration is freshness: cook it fresh, eat it fresh, and freeze leftovers if you need them later rather than storing cooked rice in the fridge.

If you've been avoiding rice out of caution, you can almost certainly add it back in.

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