Overview
About Tyramine
Tyramine load highlights aged, cured, and fermented foods — such as aged cheese, salami, soy sauce, and beer — that can trigger sensitivity in some people.
Tyramine is an amino acid that forms when proteins break down. It's found in aged, fermented, or spoiled foods. For people taking MAO inhibitors or those with tyramine sensitivity, it can cause headaches, elevated blood pressure, and other reactions.
In the data
Where you will find tyramine
- High in tyramine, relevant on MAOI medications and for tyramine-driven migraines
- Very high in histamine and high in tyramine, the pairing most often blamed for red-wine headache, flushing and nasal congestion
- High in tyramine, worth watching on a MAOI diet or if aged foods reliably set you off
- High in histamine and high in tyramine from the fermentation, a common cause of flushing, nasal congestion and headache within minutes
Examples
A few ingredients either way
Rated high
Grading
How we grade tyramine
Every ingredient in the database carries one grade for tyramine, and this page, the checker and the app all read that same grade. It describes the ingredient as it is usually eaten. Portion size and preparation move it.
Practical
Working with tyramine
- Choose fresh versions over aged or fermented options.
- Space out high-tyramine foods throughout the week.
- Choose fresh over aged, fermented, or preserved foods
- Eat protein foods fresh and store properly
- Be especially careful if taking MAO inhibitor medications
- Common high-tyramine foods include aged cheese, cured meats, and soy sauce
- Ripeness affects tyramine - choose less ripe fruits
Method
Test it with a diary
Most people find their own triggers by logging meals and symptoms for a few weeks and reading the result back. Three steps.
- 1Log every meal for a few weeks. Type it, say it out loud, or scan a barcode, and it lands as a list of ingredients.
- 2Rate how you feel through the day on whatever you are tracking, whether that is bloating, headaches, skin or sleep.
- 3Read the pattern back. Every ingredient you logged is scored against the days you felt worse, and the result ranks tyramine against everything else you eat.
Questions
Questions people ask
Is grated parmesan in a shaker high in histamine and tyramine?
Very high in both. Parmesan is aged for a year or more before grating, and that long ripening builds tyramine and histamine to levels near the top of any cheese. Grating it does not lower them, so a light dusting still delivers a concentrated dose.
More about parmesan cheeseDoes sharp cheddar have more histamine and tyramine than mild cheddar?
Yes. Histamine and tyramine both form as the cheese ripens, so the longer a cheddar is aged the higher they climb. A mild, young cheddar carries less of each than a sharp or extra-mature block, which is why sharper cheddar tends to trigger headaches and flushing more readily.
More about cheddar cheese
Read next
Where to go next
References
Tyramine sources
Where the tyramine grades come from: food composition databases, clinical guidelines and patient organisations.
4 sources from peer-reviewed research, regulatory bodies, and clinical guidelines.
Get started
Tracking tyramine?
Log what you eat and how you feel, and the app finds the pattern for you. Or look an ingredient up here first.
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