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Are
these healthy for you to eat?
What are nightshades? As a botanical family, the Solanaceae comprise some
ninety-two genera with over two thousand species. Its members include many
stimulating, medicinal, or poisonous plants, such as tobacco, henbane, mandrake,
and belladonna (also known as the deadly nightshade). The food plants of the
nightshade family include some of our most popular vegetables: tomatoes, potatoes,
eggplant, and peppers of all kinds (green, red, chili, paprika, cayenne, hot
and sweet, except for black and white pepper.)
Research has found that when people with joint pains stopped consuming all
varieties of nightshades, their condition improved dramatically.
It turns out that nightshades are high in alkaloids, chemical substances with
a strong physiological effects. In the case of potatoes, storage conditions
after harvest that include light and heat, may over time increase the content
of the alkaloid solanine to toxic limits. Improperly stored old potatoes have
been know to cause symptoms severe enough to require hospitalization, including
gastrointestinal inflammation, nausea, diarrhea, and dizziness.
Earl Mindell in his book, Unsafe at Any Meal, stated the following concerning
potatoes, "Solanine, present in and around these green patches and in the
eyes that have sprouted, can interfere with the transmission of nerve impulses,
and cause jaundice, abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea."
These alkaloids act a little like a variation of Vitamin D, in that they appear
to affect the metabolism of calcium. Nightshade foods may, through a mechanism
not yet understood, remove calcium from the bones and deposit it in joints,
kidneys, arteries, and other areas of the body where it does not belong. Thus,
they may contribute to arthritis.
Nightshades are consumed in appreciable quantities mostly in dietary systems
that also include milk products. These foods often show up in pairs: tomato
sauce and cheese, potatoes and sour cream, spicy Indian foods, yogurt, and
eggplant parmigiana.
Nightshades, with their calcium-disturbing alkaloids, have something to do
with the digestion or assimilation of milk products, which have an excessively
high calcium content. Cow's milk contains four times more calcium than human
mother's milk, and that may turn out to be too much for the human metabolism
to handle.
In other words, when the nightshades are consumed in calcium-rich diets, they
help keep the calcium from depositing in the wrong places, as long as the
body is functioning properly. If it is not, then either the nightshades pull
out calcium from the wrong places or the dairy calcium is improperly used
by the body and collects in the joints and tissues. Symptoms of improper storage
include bone loss, tooth decay, and what is called the "naked tooth feeling"
(a sensation of rawness or brittleness in the teeth). If you are avoiding
dairy foods and eating a low fat diet, you may want to eliminate the nightshade
vegetables from your diet.
Dr. Collin H. Dong, a San Francisco Physician created a diet called the "Dong
Diet." He believes arthritis is caused by allergic reactions to certain food
and chemical additives in the food. His diet prohibits meat, fruits, tomatoes,
all dairy products, all acids including vinegar, all types of peppers, hot
spices, chocolate, roasted nuts, alcoholic beverages, especially wine, soft
drinks, all foods containing preservatives, additives and chemicals, especially
MSG (monosodium glutamate).
His diet favors fish, because fish oils appear to benefit arthritis. This
diet cuts back on most of the nightshades, eggs, vitamin A and D, in supplement
form, and foods fortified with these vitamins, such as margarine. The sun
on the skin promotes sufficient vitamin D, the green leafy vegetables, the
orange colored ones, such as carrots, sweet potatoes, and cantaloupes provide
plenty of vitamin A in the diet. Norman F. Childers, a former Professor of
Horticulture, Rutgers University had severe joint pains and stiffness after
consuming tomatoes in any form. He was aware of the nightshade family of plants
and their toxicity. He observed livestock kneeling because their knee joints
were too painful to hold them up, after eating weeds containing solanine.
He then started to test the nightshade foods one at a time and found that
each one aggravated his arthritic pain. He eliminated all of the nightshade
vegetables from his diet and within months his pain vanished. He totally believes
that those who are sensitive or allergic to the nightshade vegetables will
cure the aches and pains of arthritis by avoiding those foods.
The macrobiotic diet, noted for its healing properties, forbids meat, eggs,
dairy products, poultry, fruit juices, and nightshade vegetables. If one has
arthritis, bone loss, or aching muscles and joints, the nightshade vegetables
should be omitted from their diet to see if their condition improves.