Brandy
Brandy is a distilled, aged spirit — the alcohol blocks your body's ability to clear histamine, and some people report more sensitivity to aged styles.
Brandy's high sensitivity rating comes primarily from its alcohol content, which temporarily slows DAO, your body's histamine-clearing enzyme.
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DAO blocking — Like all alcohol, brandy temporarily impairs DAO, meaning histamine from food and drink accumulates rather than clearing normally
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Aging and tolerance — Some people report older or more complex brandies feel harder to tolerate than younger styles, though the relationship between aging and histamine in distilled spirits isn't clearly established
If spirits feel necessary, younger or unaged clear spirits are generally reported as better tolerated.
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For educational purposes only. Not medical advice. Consult a healthcare professional for personal guidance.
References
- SIGHI Food Compatibility List — SIGHI (2026)
- Histamine and histamine intolerance — Maintz & Novak (2007)
- Histamine Intolerance: The Current State of the Art — Comas-Basté et al. (2020)
- Low-Histamine Diets: Is the Exclusion of Foods Justified by Their Histamine Content? — Sánchez-Pérez et al. (2021)
- Histamine Intolerance: Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Beyond — Jochum (2024)
- Guideline on management of suspected adverse reactions to ingested histamine — Reese et al. (2021)