What Is Histidine & What Foods Can I Find It In?

Histidine is an essential amino acid. Histidine works anti-inflammatory and as an antioxidant.

Essential means that the body cannot synthesize histidine. It must be ingested from our diet.

Histidine has been regarded as essential only for infants, making it conditionally-essential.

But it has been shown to be essential for adults as well.

Histidine Is Essential

Histidine is an essential amino acid, and one of 22 proteinogenic amino acids. (source ◳)

It was initially thought that histidine only was essential for infants.

But longer-term studies have established that it’s essential for adults as well. (source ◳)

Histidine is the sixth most abundant amino acid in animal proteins, and it is a precursor of other amino acids such as histamine, carnosine, and imidazole.

Benefits Of Histidine

Histidine possesses many health benefits, like that it works anti-inflammatory and as an antioxidant.

It is an essential amino acid that for instance is important for normal growth and development.

You can find all the benefits of histidine in Histidine: 10 Research-Backed Benefits .

Histidine In All Dietary Proteins

Histidine must be supplied from the diet. All dietary proteins contain histidine, but quantities vary between types of food.

Pork, beef, and other meats contain more histidine than plant-based products.

But legumes and corn/maize has a slightly higher content than other grains. (source ◳)

Foods You Can Find Histidine In

You find Histidine mostly in american indian and alaska native food, legume, egg, and seafood products.

Examples of food sources include

• Beluga Whale Meat
• Bearded Seal
• Soy Protein Isolate
• Egg White
• Atlantic Cod
• Parmesan Cheese
• Cured Bacon

Foods in our nutrition tool

You can find regularly updated top-ranked lists of foods for over 200+ nutrients in our nutrition tool.

If you are interested in what foods contain the most Histidine, we recommend you visit our tool.

Here's our top-ranked list of foods that contain Histidine.