For all the good stuff you hear about tomatoes and other nightshade vegetables, you also hear a lot of bad stuff. Do they cause arthritis and inflammation? How come so many people allergic to them, and why are we eating from a group of plants nicknamed the, "deadly nightshades"?


I take a look at them here: [www.raw-food-health.net]

This sort of nitppickery is a bit too orthorexic for me. That's not intended to personally offend anyone, just addressing the issue at hand.

That said, consuming eggplant used to make me vomit. I haven't eaten any on purpose in years.

I don't understand why some people let themselves be talked into avoiding tomatoes. If one is allergic, that makes sense. But just because a tomatoe is a nightshade, and other nightshades are toxic?

Who suggests you avoid tomatoes if you're not having a bad reaction to them?

Coco - Giving that I'm telling people to eat tomatoes unless they have a bad reaction to them, what exactly are you objecting to?

When we hear words like arthritis or dermatitis they often sound much more sinister than they really are. Arthritis literally means inflammation of the joints. If you are allergic to any food they can produce an inflammatory response which can produce symptoms such as inflammation of the joints and so on.

Again allergies are mainly caused by adrenal gland dysfunction, you may go through periods of your life with chronic stress and poor adrenal gland function where you may be allergic to a number of foods then later grow out of it. Tomatoes and nightshades should only be avoided if you have a sensitivity to them.

If not then continue to include them in your diet as they have been proven time and time again in studies to have a range of health benefits.

[www.vegankingdom.co.uk]

I object to the classification of tomato (etc) as a Deadly nightshade when it's simply a nightshade, nothing deadly about it. Sometimes these ideas are so ridiculously far fetched as to be completely useless. Certainly one should avoid foods that one has a reaction to, for a time at least (I would always try to reintroduce healthy food groups and see if the body's reaction had changed), but putting an entire group of foods on the forbidden list for something as simple as it's relationship to a poisonous cousin is just silly-pants. Everything is related if you dig deep enough .

There are "unhealthy" compounds in many, many otherwise healthy foods, the trick is to eat a variety of foods to get the benefits of them all and dilute any negatives to tolerable levels. Fruit is high in sugar, spinach has oxalic acid, etc etc etc. You could drive yourself around the bend with the little details, believe me.

Viktoria Boutenko wrote a wonderful article on moderation and variety to combat toxins in greens, etc. Maybe someone who is more techy than I am will be able to find a link to post here.

Hi Andrew, thanks for the interesting article you wrote on this topic. As you said, they are 'nicknamed' "The Deadly Nightshades", even though they're really the Nightshade Family.

I can't eat tomatoes, either, because it gives me arthritis and I know many others who are in the same situation. But there are many arthritis sufferers who don't know of the connection with joint pain and the Nightshade Family, so I'm glad to see you're getting the word out there.

I had the same question, and I read something about the connection with arthitis and tomatoes. I have heard conflicting information. The information came from a webpage which was NOT vegan and not raw. The list also included potatoes, eggplant and peppers. The list should also include goji berries, as they are in the same family, along with a pepino 'melon' its called a melon, but its a fruit from the same family as tomatoes. Tobacco was included on this list,but I can't imagine a raw vegan smoking or chewing.

I am thinking if its problem, its probably specific to people who have a reaction or already have a problem with arthitis, not everyone. Also concentrating tomatoes from cooking, such as pastes and sauces could have something to do with it. All I can think is that if someone has a problem try avoiding them for a month, and if you see a change than go with it, if you don't notice anything then don't bother.

Good blog entry, Andrew--thanks!

In the nightshade family the deadly part is in the greens. This would also include green fruit. Fruit fully ripened on the vine is not poisonous. I suspect that even the allergic reactions and arthritis are connected to fruit not quite fully ripe. Cherry tomatoes, fresh, ripe from the vine are especially delicious.

That might be a possibility, as tomatoes are commonly picked green for shipping.

I eat them or juice them. I saw a bbc documentary that showed how your tolerance to sunburn goes up And I am pretty white!

My video to keep me inspired on my health quest: [www.youtube.com]

I have a question-

If a person reacts quite unpleasantly to bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, etc. But doesn't notice an immediate reaction to tomatoes, do you think it'd be better to avoid tomatoes?

Background: I am trying to heal leaky gut and have autoimmune disease. If I eat any sort of bell pepper, my skin gets very itchy and I feel hot all over. I've always read that nightshades further thin the gut walls. But I've never understood if tomato is included in this?

Corathegreen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have a question-
>
> If a person reacts quite unpleasantly to bell
> pepper, jalapeno pepper, etc. But doesn't notice
> an immediate reaction to tomatoes, do you think
> it'd be better to avoid tomatoes?

Sounds more like salicylate sensitivity, peppers are loaded with salicylates.

[www.vegankingdom.co.uk]

Interesting. I need to read up on that, because I seem to recall reading on the celiac boards a long time ago that many celiacs are also sensitive to salicylates... thanks for the heads up, I'm going to research it now. Because even after cutting out everything that seemed to cause me reactions I still am having reactions once in awhile and I'm not sure why!