Too Allergic

A Huge List of 80+ Foods High in Nickel and How to Avoid Them

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Surprisingly, there are many foods high in nickel, thus making the adjustment to low nickel diet a big challenge, especially after being recently diagnosed with a nickel allergy.

By now, you must have known what nickel allergy and its symptoms are. Its causative agents are everywhere, all around us, it is almost (if not completely) impossible to avoid being in contact with them.

It is crucial to be able to recognize high-nickel foods products when shopping, dining out, or even when having a drink or two (or more) with friends. This will save someone’s skin, quite literally save your skin from nickel dermatitis flare-up episodes, hence why I decided to make a topic about nickel content in foods, and this topic deserves its own post.

Alternatively, visit this post for details on foods low in nickel and nickel allergy food pyramid.

What is the best way to avoid all the foods known to be high in nickel?

Read further to know more.

List of Foods High in Nickel

Number One

This list contains mostly of high-nickel content in foods such as cereals. Cereals are usually among the highest nickel-containing food items. However, not all cereals are high in nickel, oat-containing cereals are usually accompanied by an unusually high level of nickel.

These cereals listed below should be avoided at all costs because most of them consist of at least between 50 and 100μg of nickel, considering 250μg being the recommended daily dosage of nickel for a healthy person.

  • whole-grain products such as whole-grain bread
  • Rye and rye products such as rye bread
  • millet
  • barley, pearl
  • chocolate cereals
  • oatmeals and oats flour
  • unpolished rice
  • chocolate oat bars
  • wheat germ
  • buckwheat
  • mulsi

Number Two

There are mostly your green leafy veggies and basically all pulses and beans, as these are also usually high in nickel. On average, these are usually higher than 120μg. One serving contains almost half of the recommended daily intake, and they include:

  • All leafy greens such as spinach
  • kale
  • lentils
  • soybeans
  • other soy products
  • beans (dried and non-dried)
  • bean sprouts
  • cabbage
  • lettuce
  • dried mung beans
  • red kidney beans
  • peas
  • chickpeas

Number Three

This one is pretty straight-forward, avoid all canned food and drinks. Any item stored in a can for a prolonged duration of time will eventually have some percentage of nickel and other sensitizing metal allergens leach into the canned food. So when you’re on grocery shopping, look right immediately you see the “canned foods” aisle on the left, and if it’s on the right side? You tell me!

  • All canned food – like canned fish, meat, spam, etc
  • canned beer
  • canned fizzy drinks
  • canned nuts
  • canned pickles
  • canned tomato paste
  • All canned anything goes here!

Number Four

  • raspberries
  • prunes
  • avocado
  • dates
  • pineapple
  • figs
  • oranges

Number Five

This list includes some nuts and seeds

  • alfalfa seeds
  • peanuts
  • dried apricots
  • walnuts
  • pistachio
  • sunflower seeds
  • melon seeds
  • coconuts, coconut milk, and coconut juice.
  • hazelnuts
  • almonds
  • oil derived from any nuts and seeds

Number Six

Again, here’s another straightforward list of foods high in nickel. Basically, avoid all chocolate and cocoa food products, milk, or any pastries that contain them. They are a tasty treat sent from hell to torment the lovely people allergic to nickel! 

  • chocolate
  • chocolate milk
  • chocolate-flavored drinks
  • hot chocolate
  • hot cocoa
  • products that may contain cocoa
  • all kinds of licorice and its derivatives

Number Seven

Avoid certain freshwater fish and shellfish such as

  • carps
  • roaches
  • breams
  • bass
  • white suckers
  • trouts

Number Eight

This group consists of cooking spices and cooking condiments, those mentioned on this list consist of spices with nickel levels higher than 100μg, and they include

  • cinnamons
  • carnations
  • cumin
  • juniper
  • popeye seeds

Others worth mentioning

Here are some other foods high in nickel that are worth mentioning, so keep an eye for these:

  • Some kinds of Margarine consisting of 80% fat.
  • Avoid all tea (green, black, yellow, red, flower) leaves.
  • Avoid instant coffee powders as they are high in nickel, instead, have a brew made from fresh coffee beans.
  • Syrups are normally ok, but like other foot items, moderation is the key.

So that’s it, we have gone through the list of foods high in nickel which are currently known and confirmed to flare up allergic reactions once consumed.

Hopefully, you went through the list too! And now, it is time to answer the question!

what is the best way to avoid all these high-nickel-level foods?

Number one is, to know the foods that are high in nickel

Number two is, to stay AWAY from them.

  • As a rule of thumb, the key here is moderation on what we consume, as we know, nickel CAN NOT be completely avoided for health reasons.
  • Additionally, remember to always “flush” out the first liter of water first thing in the morning, and after any prolonged period of nonuse, do this before cooking with the water.
  • Finally, remember your vitamin C, orange juice, tea, and coffee(to be had together with food at the same time) as I mentioned in one of my previous blog posts.

Is avocado high in nickel?

Yes, absolutely! Avocado has a high level of nickel, 100μg of nickel per 100gram of avocado to be exact. On average, one bulb of avocado weighs 150 grams, so that puts the nickel content at around 120 – 200μg depending on the weight of that particular avocado.

Is cumin high in nickel?

Yes, cumin is among one of the spices lists above on the list of foods high in nickel, it contains 280μg per 100gram, being a spice, it’s advisable to use it only in small amounts during cooking.

Please remember to like and share this list of foods high in nickel to your friends and loved ones, you know as the saying goes, sharing is loving!

What are your thoughts about these foods high in nickel?

Depending on where you live, Have you discovered a higher nickel content in foods in your area?

send in your comments, please.

This list will continue to be updated, so please do remember to check frequently for updates.

references:

https://www.fda.gov

https://www.nal.usda.gov

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27935089

https://www.pwrc.usgs.gov

https://www.tandfonline.com

www.torrinomedica.it/

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