If we were lucky enough to live in a laboratory with lots of fancy equipment, we’d have a better idea of the individual histamine levels in each dish and each ingredient.

But sometimes, even the most seasoned of histamine experts is left guessing.

Perhaps that's why there are often infuriating and contradictory ideas on the internet about what foods are high histamine.

Life can be a bit of a ‘histamine guessing game'.

So what do we know?

Some main points may help you determine the bacterial load in food:

• Length of time food has stayed out without refrigeration.
• Whether or not the food has fermented.
• The type of bacteria found in the food.

As a starting point, you can try and avoid foods that don’t pass these three points.

In brief, you could look to avoid eating food that is either fermented, has stayed out of the fridge, or is not freshly prepared.