Nightshade Vegetables

So what are nightshade vegetables? Nightshade vegetables consists of roughly 2800 different foods, herbs, and shrubs in the Solanaceae family that grow in the shade of night. Among the most well-known are: tomato, potato, eggplant, peppers of all kinds, tomatillos, tamarios, pimentos, paprika, cayenne, Tabasco sauce, and tobacco. (Included is a longer list at the end of this blog.)

What I found interesting was the effects eating these foods CAN have on your body. Nightshade vegetables contain different types of alkaloids that MAY effect your body in certain ways. One type of alkaloid is the steroid alkaloid that can effect your nervous system and/or joint health (inflammation and altered mineral status). In fact, two of the major problems attributed to nightshades are arthritis and osteoporosis. Another type of alkaloid is nicotine. Yup, you read that right - nicotine! Okay, that makes sense to me since the tobacco plant is part of the nightshades. We all know the effects of nicotine.

Dr Norman Childers, a professor of botany at the University of Florida at Gainesville, has shown that nightshade consumption contributes to osteoarthritis because the alkaloids disturb the calcium metabolism and tend to remove calcium from the bones, causing aches, pains, even deformations. If you consume a lot of dairy products, you probably eat a lot of nightshades to counterbalance the extra calcium. If your dairy intake is minimal, you may feel the effects of the nightshades more than most.

Two of the most popular nightshades are potatoes and tomatoes, so that is were I will focus in this blog.



While learning about nightshades, I became curious about tomatoes after reading they were once thought of as "The Cancer Apple." Come to find out, tomatoes are actually considered "toxic plants"; the vines and leaves are known to be poisonous. Because tomatoes looked a lot like deadly nightshades, early Americans grew tomatoes only as ornamental plants, and didn't start eating them until the 1800s.

Potato plants are also considered toxic. Most people think just the sprouts are poisonous, but there is poison in a potato itself. Have you ever cut into a potato and found some green spots? The green color is due to a high concentration of glycoalkaloid (alkaloids + sugars) poison. The Lenape potato was withdrawn from commercial growing in Canada and the USA as it contained unacceptably high levels of glycoalkaloids. Yet potatoes, as well as other nightshades, are considered healthy choices by the USDA.



Potato Trivia:
Sir Walter Raleigh, a British explorer, first brought the potato to Ireland. Legend has it that he gave the potato plant to Queen Elizabeth I as a gift. The local gentry were invited to a royal banquet featuring the potato in every course. Unfortunately, the cooks had never seen a potato before and threw out the tubers and brought to the royal table boiled potato stems and leaves, which made everyone deathly ill. Potatoes were banned from court for years.


Okay, so you may think that you don't eat many nightshades and not really worried about it, but let's think about the average American diet for a second:

-Pizza (tomatoes)
-French fries and ketchup (potatoes and tomatoes)
-Tex-Mex Dishes (all the spices, peppers, tomatoes)
-Chips and Salsa (potatoes and tomatoes)
-"Americanized" Italian Dishes (tomatoes and eggplants)
-soups (potatoes and tomatoes)
-sauces (peppers, tomatoes)
...you can see where this list is going..


Of course, some individuals are more sensitive to nightshade vegetables than others. Even though some say there is not enough research on the effects of these foods, it is interesting to read testimonials from people that have "cured" health problems like joint pain, back pain, arthritis, eczema, seizures, and asthma by eliminating these foods.

Check out The Arthritis Nightshade Research Foundation

If you are into spirituality, balance, natural and organic food, I highly recommend looking into the Macrobiotics Diet. One of the guidelines to the Macrobiotics way of eating is to eliminate nightshades from your diet due to the toxic effects they can have on your body.

I am not trying to convince everyone that they need to stop eating tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers. I just want people to become aware of what they are putting in their bodies. Some of you will think it is worth eliminating these foods from your diet for a month or two to see if your joints and back feel better, you sleep better, and/or you can concentrate better. If you do, please share your results.

Here is a more complete list of culinary nightshades. Please make note that Sweet Potatoes are NOT nightshades.


List of Nightshades

Culinary Vegetables:
Bell pepper (sweet pepper)

Italian pepper

Chile Pepper

Examples of varieties:

fresh
Anaheim
Fresno
Jalapeño
Pimiento / pimento
Poblano
Serrano

dried
Ancho
Cascabel
Chipotle
Guajillo
Habañero
Pasada
Pasilla

Eggplant
Potato
Tomato
Tomatillo

Spices:
Cayenne
Chili powder (some ingredients of)
Curry (some ingredients of)
Paprika

Sauces:
Ketchup
Tabasco

Culinary Fruit:
Cape gooseberry
Goji berry
Pepino
Tamarillo

Other:
Tobacco