TempoLife › Features › Food compounds: acid load, purines, oxalate and histamine › nickel
Nickel in food: the low-nickel diet and who it is actually for
Nickel is the classic contact allergen — jewellery, belt buckles, phone cases — and by a wide margin the most common one found on patch testing in Europe. A much smaller group of people who are sensitised also react to the nickel they eat, and that is what a low-nickel diet is for.
Not a diagnosis. Nickel allergy is confirmed by patch testing performed by a dermatology service, and a low-nickel diet only makes sense after that confirmation and under supervision — it restricts legumes, wholegrains and nuts, which are foods worth keeping. Widespread or worsening dermatitis needs a clinician, not a food list.
Contact allergy first, diet a long way second
Nickel contact allergy is common — surveys across European populations consistently find it as the leading positive on patch testing, and much more often in women than in men, historically because of ear piercing and jewellery. The EU responded with a restriction under chemicals law that limits how much nickel may be released from articles in prolonged contact with the skin, with a tighter limit for posts inserted into pierced ears, and that restriction measurably reduced sensitisation in younger cohorts.
Systemic nickel allergy syndrome is the much less common step beyond that: a person already sensitised by skin contact develops dermatitis — often on the hands, or in a widespread pattern — and sometimes digestive symptoms, in response to nickel absorbed from food. It is a real phenomenon, but it applies to a minority of nickel-allergic people, and the studies supporting dietary treatment are small.
The order of operations therefore matters. Patch testing confirms sensitisation. Removing the metal sources in contact with skin comes next, because that is where most of the exposure is. Only then does dietary nickel become a sensible thing to investigate, and it should be a defined trial with a defined end.
Where dietary nickel comes from
Plants take nickel up from soil, and the concentration varies with the soil as much as with the species — which is why nickel tables from different countries disagree, and why no table can tell you what is in the lentils you bought. What holds across all of them is the ranking: legumes, especially soy, and wholegrain cereals, nuts, seeds and cocoa sit at the top, while meat, fish, eggs, dairy, refined grains and most fruit sit far below.
A significant part of the exposure never came from a plant at all. Nickel leaches out of stainless steel cookware, and it does so much more when the food is acidic, when the pan is new, and when cooking is long. It also concentrates in canned food, and it accumulates in water that has stood overnight in the plumbing — which is why running the tap for a while before drawing drinking water is standard advice for anyone on a low-nickel diet.
What the safety assessments say
Nickel in food is assessed as a contaminant, not a nutrient. The European Food Safety Authority re-assessed it and derived a tolerable daily intake for the long-term effects, and separately addressed the acute problem — the eczematous flare-up that occurs in already-sensitised people after an oral dose — which needs a short-term reference value rather than a lifetime average. The point of having two values is that the two effects behave differently: one is a chronic toxicological endpoint, the other a same-day immunological one in a susceptible subgroup.
The published figures belong with the opinion they came from, so they are not reproduced here; the assessment is on the EFSA site and is the document to read if you want the numbers.
For practical purposes the useful conclusion is the shape of the problem rather than the number: ordinary diets are not a toxicological concern, and the dietary question is entirely about the sensitised minority.
Nickel by food group
Bands, not decimals. Where a published quantity for a specific food could not be verified against a document, this surface prints the band rather than a number — and every food below links to its own nutrition page so you can see what else is in it.
| Band | What it means | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Higher nickel | Legumes and soy at the top, then wholegrains, nuts, seeds and cocoa. Actual content varies with the soil the crop grew in, so these are categories rather than measurements. | Soybeans, Tofu, Soy milk, Lentils, Chickpeas, Kidney bean, cooked, Peas, Oats, Oat bran, Buckwheat, Cocoa powder, Dark chocolate, Cashews, Peanuts, Almonds, Walnuts, Flax seeds, Sunflower seeds |
| Lower nickel | Animal foods, refined grains and most fruit and vegetables. These are the staples a supervised low-nickel trial is built around. | White rice, Potato (boiled), Carrot, Cucumber, Apple, Egg (hard-boiled), Whole milk, Cheddar cheese, Chicken breast, Salmon, Butter, Olive oil |
| Not about the food at all | Exposure that comes from the container, the pan or the plumbing rather than from the ingredient. It is often the easiest part to reduce. | Canned tomatoes, canned legumes and other canned foods, Acidic food simmered long in stainless steel, especially in a new pan, The first water drawn from a tap in the morning |
What changes the number
- Soil is the biggest variable in the plant itself — the same crop from two regions can differ substantially.
- Acidic cooking in stainless steel adds nickel to the dish; enamelled or glass cookware does not.
- New pans leach more than old ones, and the rate falls with use.
- Canning adds nickel; the same food fresh or frozen carries less.
- Running the tap before drawing water clears the metal that leached into standing plumbing.
Where else these foods are flagged
Foods raised on this page that also sit in a raised band on at least two of the other fifteen. Reassuring bands are not counted, so a row here means the food genuinely collects labels rather than merely getting mentioned a lot.
It is worth reading before removing anything. The lists on this surface were each written for a different person with a different problem, and they converge on the same small group of nutrient-dense foods. Satisfying all of them at once produces a diet nobody designed and nobody has tested.
Talking to someone who can actually test
Nothing on this surface is personal medical advice. If a food genuinely makes you ill, if you have had a kidney stone or a gout attack, or if you are considering removing a food group from your diet, the person to talk to is your doctor, pharmacist or a registered dietitian — they can test for the things that can be tested for, which a table cannot.
Sources: European Food Safety Authority — scientific opinion on nickel in food and drinking water, including the separate treatment of chronic and acute effects. · EU restriction on nickel release from articles in prolonged contact with the skin, under the REACH chemicals regulation. · European surveillance of contact allergy, which consistently ranks nickel first on patch testing. · Food names and links: the site food database. Checked 2026-09-06.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know if I am nickel allergic?
By patch testing arranged through a dermatology service. Reacting to cheap jewellery is suggestive, not diagnostic, and a low-nickel diet before testing tells you nothing useful.
Does everyone with nickel allergy need to change their diet?
No. Most nickel contact allergy is managed by dealing with what touches the skin. Dietary nickel is only relevant to the smaller group with systemic symptoms, and the evidence base there is limited.
Do stainless steel pans really matter?
They contribute, particularly with acidic food, long cooking and new pans. For someone on a supervised low-nickel trial, switching those dishes to enamel or glass is one of the more effective single changes.
Is a low-nickel diet safe to stay on?
It removes legumes, wholegrains, nuts and seeds, which are among the foods with the best evidence behind them. It should be a supervised, time-limited trial with reintroduction, not a permanent way of eating.
Why do nickel food tables disagree with each other?
Because the content depends on the soil the crop was grown in as well as the species. A number measured in one country does not transfer to another, which is why categories are more honest than figures here.
Other compound pages
Acrylamide
Everyone who fries, roasts or toasts starchy food
Coumarin
Heavy cinnamon users, people giving cinnamon to children, cinnamon supplement takers
Acid load (PRAL)
Kidney stone formers, chronic kidney disease, and anyone who has met the “alkaline diet”
Food pH
Home canners and picklers, anyone with dental erosion, anyone confused by “alkaline foods”
Histamine
People investigating flushing and headache after meals; anyone who has had a reaction to fish
Tyramine
People prescribed a monoamine oxidase inhibitor; people told tyramine triggers their migraine
Keep the trial honest
A dietary trial only answers the question if what you ate and how your skin behaved are recorded on the same days. TempoLife does both.