Yes, bone broth contains histamine, and the longer it simmers, the more histamine it builds up. This is one of the reasons bone broth causes digestive trouble, skin flushing, or headaches in some people, particularly those with histamine intolerance. The good news is that cooking time, ingredient freshness, and storage all influence how much histamine ends up in your bowl.
Why Bone Broth Is High in Histamine
Histamine forms naturally when proteins break down. Bone broth simmers for anywhere from 12 to 48 hours, and that extended cooking time steadily breaks apart the collagen and other proteins in bones, joints, and connective tissue. As those proteins fragment, bacteria and enzymes convert the amino acid histidine into histamine. The relationship is straightforward: longer cook times mean more protein breakdown and more histamine in the final broth.
This is one of the key differences between bone broth and meat stock. Meat stock cooks for a much shorter period, typically 1.5 to 3 hours, and contains dramatically less histamine as a result. Both are savory, nutrient-rich liquids made from animal products, but the histamine gap between them is significant enough that many people who react to bone broth tolerate meat stock without issues.
Freshness and Storage Matter Too
Cook time isn’t the only factor. The freshness of the bones you start with plays a major role. Histamine accumulates in animal products when they sit at temperatures above about 59°F (15°C) for extended periods, because bacteria on the surface begin converting histidine to histamine before you even start cooking. Using bones that have been stored on ice or frozen immediately after butchering keeps the starting histamine level low.
The same principle applies after cooking. Once your broth is done, leaving it on the counter or in the fridge for days gives bacteria more time to generate additional histamine. Every round of reheating and cooling creates another window for histamine to climb. If you’re sensitive, the safest approach is to freeze individual portions of broth right after cooking, then thaw only what you plan to eat in a single sitting.
Histamine Intolerance Symptoms
Most people process dietary histamine without any trouble. Your body produces an enzyme called diamine oxidase (DAO) in the gut that breaks histamine down before it enters the bloodstream. But some people don’t produce enough DAO, or their DAO doesn’t work efficiently, and the histamine from food accumulates faster than the body can clear it.
Symptoms vary widely from person to person. Common reactions include diarrhea, bloating, headaches, nasal congestion, skin flushing, and hives. Because these overlap with so many other conditions, histamine intolerance can be tricky to pin down. Not all providers recognize it as an official diagnosis, and there aren’t any proven diagnostic tests. Most practitioners start with a food diary to track whether symptoms consistently follow high-histamine meals, and you may be referred to an allergy or GI specialist if the pattern is unclear.
How to Reduce Histamine in Broth
If you want the nutritional benefits of broth without the histamine load, you have several practical options.
- Shorten the cook time. Switching from a 24-hour bone broth to a 1.5 to 3-hour meat stock is the single biggest change you can make. You’ll still extract flavor and some minerals, just less collagen.
- Use the freshest bones possible. Buy from a butcher and cook the same day, or use bones that went straight from processing to the freezer. Avoid bones that have been sitting in a display case for days.
- Freeze immediately after cooking. Pour finished broth into ice cube trays or small containers and freeze within an hour of cooking. This halts bacterial histamine production.
- Use a pressure cooker. Pressure cooking reaches higher temperatures and extracts nutrients in a fraction of the time, reducing the window for histamine to build up compared to a slow, open-pot simmer.
DAO Supplements as a Buffer
For people who still react despite these precautions, supplemental DAO enzymes (derived from pig kidney) are available over the counter. The idea is simple: take a capsule before a meal to boost the enzyme that breaks down histamine in your gut. A clinical study found that DAO supplementation before meals significantly reduced every tracked symptom of histamine intolerance, including gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, respiratory, and skin complaints. An earlier trial showed that taking DAO alongside a histamine-containing beverage also reduced symptoms.
DAO supplements aren’t a cure and they won’t eliminate every reaction, especially from very high-histamine foods. But they can widen the margin enough to let some people enjoy moderate amounts of broth or other fermented and slow-cooked foods they’d otherwise need to avoid entirely.
Who Needs to Worry
If you’ve never noticed digestive issues, flushing, or headaches after drinking bone broth or eating aged cheese, cured meats, and fermented foods, histamine content in broth is unlikely to be a concern for you. Histamine intolerance affects a relatively small portion of the population, and the body’s DAO system handles normal dietary histamine efficiently in most people.
If you do notice a pattern of symptoms after high-histamine meals, keeping a food diary for two to three weeks is the most useful first step. Track what you eat, when symptoms appear, and how severe they are. That record gives you (and a provider, if you choose to see one) enough data to determine whether histamine is the trigger or whether something else is going on.