The Low Histamine Chef

Thanks so much for the reply. I've been trying to deduce the specific cause of what certainly appears to be a food reaction. I'm embarrassed to say that I've been going around in circles for nearly 3 years. Fortunately, I've been keeping a food diary during that entire time so I've spent a ton of time going back and looking for patterns.

At this point, I feel 95% certain it is histamine based.

For me, it's multiple symptoms.

Mostly, it's eyes bloodshot and hurting, with light sensitivity, combined with tension headache, sometimes escalating to full blown migraine with impaired vision (always 15 minutes before headache).

The other common set of symptoms is muscle pain/cramping, with feet and hands cramping.

Also, severe brain fog and inability to think and function.

Two years ago, I had the worst experience ever after cooking a 5 pound corned beef roast in my slow cooker, and eating 10 to 15 ounces a day for 5 days. After 5th day, every muscle in my back & body froze up and I was in dire pain and could not move off the couch.

One year ago today, I was feeling fine, then went to an xmas party in which I pigged out on huge quantity of parm cheese mac & cheese, bacon wrapped scallops, alcohol, and marinated steak. The next day I felt like I was instantly 50 years older (muscles stiff, feeling terrible).

I considered histamine reactions several times over the last 2 years, but there were some really bad reactions that didn't quite fit so I moved onto testing other hypothesis.

I just recently figured out that despite all my food diaries, I never wrote down how old (or how many days left-over) the food was.

I'm on the verge of concluding that even foods that are supposed to be ok (like cauliflower) if eaten 3 days later can cause a really bad reaction.

The reason for my mcdonald's question is that I think cooking ground beef in the morning, then bringing it to work might not be the best idea. McDonalds beef is cooked from frozen state and they have a huge turn-over so it seemed like that might be a better bet. I wanted more than just plain meat patties so I wanted bread or fries, though reading your ingredients, I can see why that might not be good for someone actively having problems.

I think that once I remove the high histamine foods from staples in my diet, I will be fine. When I have flare-ups, it's always after eating large quantities of offending foods day after day after day.

I'm pretty optimistic as I think I'm in the home stretch of putting all the pieces together.

For the last several days, I started a new breakfast routine:
1.5 cups milk, 1/4 cup cream of quinoa/rice, 1.5oz coconut oil, 1T of sugar, cooked for 20 minutes. It's really filling and delicious.

Lunch while at work remains a big concern.

Anyway, thanks for providing this great forum for people to share experiences,

Mike