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Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplant and other variations of nightshade plants in our gardens and in our yards as weeds, are in the spotlight recently. I, for one, love my nightshades. After reading all the hype about these plants actually being bad for you, I understand why.
The nightshade family of plants have long been touted as plants from the devil himself due to the sweet flavor and terrible side effects. Yes that is right, in fact, in Europe after the Spanish had conquered South America and brought the fruit back with them, the tomato had earned the name "the cancer apple" since it would poison livestock who fed on it. It was then used for years as an ornamental plant. According to the English Oxford Dictionary here is a definition of Nightshade:
A plant related to the potato, typically having poisonous black or red berries. Several kinds of nightshade have been used in the production of herbal medicines.
We have all heard, growing up, not to eat the eyes of the potato because they were poisonous. I think maybe we should have looked into this a little earlier, but back then, but our parents believed what they were told by the ruling parties of the world. Well as it turns out, they are not very good for us.
Nightshades tend to extract calcium from the bones, and diets of regular feasters of these divine tasting fruits, are subject to this silent loss. Many nightshades were used as ingredients in poisons made to kill. Since the fruit of the tomato does not "kill" us right off, we tend not to consider it harmful. In reality, the fruit is eating away at the inside of our bodies. There have been many studies that would show the elimination of nightshades from our diet will decrease or eliminate the following problems: arthritis, calcium depletion, stiff joints, painful wrists, painful ankles, painful knees, diabetes, cartilage depletion, rheumatic diseases, back pain, teeth and gum pain or swelling. This is in no means a complete list of the symptoms of nightshade poisoning.
Consider that calcium is depleted with the consumption of nightshades, by way of the alkaloids contained in each fruit. When you consume large amounts of this alkaloid your body immediately starts to become restless and enters into a state of unrest. During this period your body becomes hyper-sensitive to solanine which is contained in potatoes, and according to "Poisonous Plants of the United States and Canada, by John Kingsbury" can put you into a state of sleeplessness and even death.
Since calcium is a natural bone and cartilage healer and sedative, and our depletion of this mineral through the use of nightshades, we are becoming a population of walking zombies who take all kinds of chemicals to alleviate the pain and stress of everyday living.
Why would this information not be readily available to the public? Why are there isles and isles of canned tomatoes, bags and bags of potatoes? Why do we grow them? We are addicted to the comfort of having them around. Since I was a kid I can not remember a time where we went to a burger joint and get a burger with fries, smothered in ketchup, and hated it. That's right, we loved every delicious bite. Since keeping people happy is what our world governments do, why rock the boat and publish a warning for foods that are so delicious, and widespread.
In the case of Nix v. Hedden, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that tomatoes are vegetables, despite the botanical fact that tomatoes are fruits.
So why was it so important that tomatoes be defined legally as a vegetable? Well, back in 1883, a tariff was put in place to protect domestic vegetable growers by taxing imported vegetables. In 1886, the plaintiffs (Nix) imported some tomatoes from the West Indies. The collector of the port of New York (Hedden) imposed a duty on the tomatoes, which he considered vegetables. The plaintiffs paid the duty under protest and sued Hedden, arguing that tomatoes are botanically a fruit, and therefore should not be taxed as a vegetable. The case eventually ended up in the Supreme Court, which decided that while tomatoes are indeed botanically defined as fruit, consumers think of tomatoes as vegetables, and that is how they should be legally defined.
My new nightshade favorite is the ground cherry, I grew it for the first time last year and we could not stop eating it. I love pizza, steak and potatoes, tomato soup, salads with tomatoes, stuffed peppers, chili, and all the other possible nightshade culinary crescendos. So this information is quite terrible.
Looking forward, I will be growing nightshades this year to meet demand, only. I will be putting a warning on every box of veggies I sell, informing the end user of the possible problems associated with the consumption of nightshades. I will rid my shelves and my diet of these potential hazards, not totally, but substantially. Might also be possible that the acid reflux you get after eating nightshades is our body attempting to warn us of the poison we just ingested.
According to the Mayo Clinic
Hypercalcemia is usually a result of overactive parathyroid glands. These four tiny glands are situated behind the thyroid gland. Other causes of hypercalcemia include cancer, certain other medical disorders, some medications, and taking too much of calcium and vitamin D supplements.
Hmmm, I am thinking that with our over consumption, maybe the nightshades play a part in this condition. The nightshades, all, deplete our bones of calcium and fill our blood with excess calcium. Then we take in lots of supplements, even through the advice of our doctors, in order to stop the loss of bone mass or improve our sicknesses, such as MS. These people should be immediately restricted from the use of nightshades, in my own opinion, I think they may have a severe allergy to the nightshade family of plants. By removing these plants from our table I hope to achieve a healthier and more productive lifestyle.
Well, find some reference material below and feel free to throw those tomatoes out into the garden, by the way, they are loaded with potassium and will make for great compost!
- Neal Barnard, M.D., Eat Right, Live Longer, Random House, New York, New York.
- Dr. Norman Childers, The Nightshades and Health, Horticultural Publication, New Jersey.
- Dr. Norman Childers, "A Relationship of Arthritis to the Solanaceae (Nightshades)", Journal of the International Academy of Preventive Medicine, November, 1982, pp. 31-37.
- Winifred Conkling, Natural Medicine for Arthritis, Dell Publishing, New York, NY.
- Dr. Collin H. Dong, New Hope for the Arthritic, Crowell Co., New York, NY
- Alex Jack, Let Food Be Thy Medicine, One Peaceful World Press, Becket, MA
- John M. Kingsbury, Poisonous Plants of the United States and Canada, Prentice-Hall, Inc. New Jersey.
- Sherry Rogers, M.D., Wellness Against All Odds, Prestige Publishing, Syracuse, NY.
- J. Salmeron et al, "Glycemic Load and Risk on Non-Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus in Women", Journal of the American Medical Association, 277 (6): 472-477, 1997.
- http://www.greatlifeglobal.com/services/health-a-wellness-consultations/29.html
- https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/nightshade
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hypercalcemia/symptoms-causes/syc-20355523
- https://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/garden/are-tomatoes-legally-vegetable
Well please up-vote and follow if you like my content. I will continue to post similar articles on plants, homegrown foods, gardening and homesteading ideas. Again thanks for dropping in. Remember that this is not medical advice nor do I prescribe anything to anyone. This post is for educational purposes only. Your body is your temple, treat it well. Have a great garden!
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Ugh! I knew SOME nightshades were poisonous, but I had no idea it was this bad! I don't even eat meat, but I just adore tomatoes. Potatoes are OK. I don't eat a lot of them. It's tomatoes!!! What is the purpose of these "fruits", I wonder. Must research this! Thanks, Derek!
your welcome...
A thought-provoking article! However, I have to say that I have NEVER met a single person - vegetable consumer or producer - in either France or Italy (not exactly countries known for low average health and bad diets) who thought that tomatoes could be bad for your health. Same goes for here in Nagano, Japan (the region with the highest average life expectancy in the world) despite the fact that many tomatoes are grown and sold. Might this story not be more about US governmental policy than actual health? I mean, we all know that the vines and leaves of the tomato plant are not edible but the fruit are, right?! And as for the fruit/vegetable debate, I can't help but feel that it is pointless as there are lots of "vegetables" that are also fruit. In fact, "vegetable" is, in my opinion, a very vague term used roughly to designate commonly consumed plants, whereas "fruit" is a precise botanic term. Surely the only people who are surprised to learn that tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines etc are all fruit are people who have no knowledge of botany...
Awesome to hear from you! Yes, I might consider that. Unfortunately, there is scientific evidence pointing to the acidic qualities of the tomato and it's interaction with the skeletal system of mammals. I have yet to read any scientific results or studies to the contrary. I have though read plenty of studies from the US government about how awesome the tomato is for you, also through major state run universities.
I am sure you can find a hundred more. The focus is on Lycopene. Which is very good for you. But the fact that the fruit is highly acidic is a major cancer contributor. Since cancer thrives in a acidic environment, the question is, whether or not the lycopene counteracts the saturation of the acid in the body.
Therefore, while there may be qualities of the tomato that are good for you, the overall tomato, as published in scientific results, show that highly acidic foods leech calcium from bones and create a great environment for cancer to start.
1st world countries have a lower age/mortality rate, due to the medicines that one must consume to regulate our lifestyles. Imagine if we were to eliminate the bad things from our diets, and have no need for medicines, just how long we could be living.
I have no intention of removing them from my diet completely, but I will be significantly reducing them in my diet.
As far as the fruit/veggie theory, I put it in there because fruits have a far greater restriction on them legally than do vegetables. I look at the fact that they disregarded the fruit so, as to, satisfy the ease of importing the fruit. Yes the US gov is a notable deceiver of it's people. This is due to many reasons the main one is money. I am sure that there was not a lot of scientific evidence used on the safety of the food we ate back in the 1700 and 1800's. In this day and age I think we are all realizing that we are living out of balance, taking some of that chaos and putting it back into balance might change the world. :)
Hello! Thanks for taking the time to reply! I can see your point, but it still does look as though it is very much peculiar to the US. AS you said yourself, it is all a question of balance. And the main problem I have with these findings is that they seem to be totally lacking! Pointing out tomatoes as being responsible for such and such an ailment may be possible in the US where people seem to have a much less balanced and less complex diet, but elsewhere in the world -- anywhere, in fact, where the traditional diet has yet to be supplanted by American junk food culture --but elsewhere it just doesn't make sense. And blaming tomato sauce -- without taking into account the innumerable ingredients other than tomato which it contains -- is laughable. Again, this may be relevant to an American slob living off cheeseburgers and coke, but I really don't think it applies to anyone leading anything vaguely resembling a healthy life. After all, the vast majority of the healthiest fruit and vegetable we know of are also harmful if consumed in large amounts: the secret is to consume them in a balanced amount, not eat just them alone.
And as for science and its conclusions, I am more and more of the opinion that it is making things worse, not better: science examines isolated, individual elements, very rarely taking the greater picture and interrelationships between things into account. Traditional medicine and health practices, on the other hand, do. When people were less healthy in the past or still are in traditional societies, it is more likely to be due to a general lack of access to food, rather than to a lack of nutritional knowledge or suitable medicine. This applies also to such concepts of acidity: what kind of acids are we talking about? In what medium? In what kind of diet? Not taking any of this into account is to me akin to current US foreign or economic policy: it assumes everyone and everything else to be subject to the very same conditions as in the US. Which might be OK if the US had something to be proud of, but currently it is one of the -- if not the number one -- worst off countries in the "civilised" world in terms of health, literacy and general culture. I know your intentions are good, but this seems to be a very dangerous approach.
My favourite food in the world is tomatoes (pure fruit, not processed mush/sauce). Whilst I can't give up my beloved tomato (I actually crave them), I certainly appreciate this article and the insight into its effects on our bodies. I will further expand my research into this area of study as a result. I must know more, it's fascinating to think about and something I have never considered before!
Thank you for posting and sharing (and ruining my tomatoes innocence).
I look forward to reading your future articles :)
One of the sites I cited had this to say about the craving of the nightshade. I completely understand. I also live under the belief of anything in moderation will not harm me. Having said that, I tend to give in to my cravings which are usually "bad" for me. Thanks for your read!
I know if I eat nightshades, I will have pain in the night. I love them, but do try to limit how much I eat of them.
Does this include white and sweet potatoes? What about yams?
All potatoes, sweet potatoes and yams are not nightshade though. WHEW!
Interesting. I've wondered about this before, but never looked into it too deeply. I love me some ground cherries and tomatillos though.
mmm mmm me too... im not quitting, lol just cutting back!
Awesome I always hated tomatoes and ketchup. The only nightshade I like is fried/baked potatoes. I mainly eat vegetables, fruit and meat what helped my skin problems.
ahhhh potatoes! I love them! It is such a shame they are bad for us. Fruits and vegetables are the best cures for so many problems, and, as y ou can see, a cause of some as well.
I believe this primary issue with nightshades is the lectins not the calcium issue. Each nightshade plant is different and each individual will react differently. Basically you just have to experiment to see what you personally can and cannot eat.
For example, I can eat potatoes aplenty but others will end up with sore muscles for days afterwards, but it doesn't begin for about a day. Most people don't notice these non immediate effects and so keep eating them.
Just to say in the Freewrite category, today's word is Potato! I don't know whether it would interest you to write something similar to this article there (to highlight others to your insight), but on the off-chance it may interest you in doing so, I thought I'd let you know about it :)
I might do that itwill be a bit though cheer competition for my daughter