Tomatoes and the nightshade debate

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Replies

  • azironasun
    azironasun Posts: 137 Member
    I love tomatoes and eat at least one a day. I've found my main source of inflammation is carbs. Cutting way down on refined flour and sugar products helps tremendously.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    Technically, tomatoes are primarily carbs.
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    I eat a lot of tomatoes. Fresh in season, canned or sauce in soups and stews, and occasionally fresh out of season. Right now I am drowning in tomatoes from my garden. I have never had an issue with them, and neither has anyone I know with one exception, my Mom. Like me, she grew and ate a lot of tomatoes in season. She started feeling a bit sluggish so saw her doctor. Knowing Mom, one of the first questions he asked was if her tomatoes were starting to ripen and if she was eating more than normal. Turns out that the high concentration of vitamin K in tomatoes was interfering with her blood thinner. She had to limit herself to 1 small or 1/2 large per day.
  • pancakerunner
    pancakerunner Posts: 6,137 Member
    edited September 2019
    Love these replies!
  • pancakerunner
    pancakerunner Posts: 6,137 Member
    Safari_Gal_ wrote: »
    pancakerunner wrote: »
    I have been reading a lot into nightshades and inflammatory foods and of course tomatoes are on the list of "foods to avoid."

    This leads to the question: do you eat tomatoes? If any of you have cut out tomatoes from your diet, have you seen improvements in your health?

    @pancakerunner - now you tell me! It’s sauce making time!

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    @Safari_Gal_ yes! Personally I love tomatoes! Just curious where everyone stands. Love a good caprese or salsa 😬
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 8,978 Member
    Clairin wrote: »
    paperpudding wrote: »
    Oh Ive never done that.

    They just get sliced and eaten - in a sandwich or something for me, not a fan of eating them alone myself.
    Except sometimes the little cherry tomatoes.

    But never de-skinned them first or removed the seeds.

    That would be such a messy and fiddly job..

    Hi, yes de skinning definitely fiddly so mostly don't bother. However canned tomatoes are peeled typically so that works out well. Id pretty much always d.e seed though just push out the seeds with my thumb :-)

    Ah, ok.

    yes tinned tomatoes are generally peeled, I do not eat them so didnt think of that

    I do use cans of diced crushed tomatoes in recipes like spaghetti bolognaise, chilli con carne and the like.

    But as far as eating actual tomatoes, it is always the fresh ones for me - which just get eaten skin, seeds and all.

  • purplefizzy
    purplefizzy Posts: 594 Member
    pancakerunner wrote: »
    I have been reading a lot into nightshades and inflammatory foods and of course tomatoes are on the list of "foods to avoid."

    This leads to the question: do you eat tomatoes? If any of you have cut out tomatoes from your diet, have you seen improvements in your health?

    Raw tomatoes make my stomach hurt. Brutally, which is sad cuz I’d love to eat them. I try again every so often, and always regret it.
    I never liked red sauce (pasta) or pizza with sauce, because the stomach awfulness.

    I did actually play with the no-nightshades thing when I was going thru the bulletproof phase a couple of years back. Eventually I brought back eggplant because I love it, but peppers also make my stomach super mad.

  • MikePTY
    MikePTY Posts: 3,814 Member
    I never really ate tomatoes until I started on my weight loss journey. Since then I incorporate them a lot more (usually along with avocado). I had one tonight. I find them to be enjoyable, filling, and a good way to help volume eat as they have minimal calories. Also, anecdotally, I tend to feel better when I have them vs. when I don't. No idea if that is just in my mind or not, but I certainly don't feel worse.

    I tend to agree with @NovusDies that nowadays everything is considered "bad" for you. If you were to believe every article out there about why not to eat something, there would be almost nothing left to eat. Conversely, most things that are bad also tend to be considered a "superfood", which just makes it more confusing. Google "tomatoes superfood" and you'll find lots of articles extolling all the amazing miracle health benefits of the tomato. I tend to think both sides are mostly noise, and I try to cut it all out and just focus on eating things I enjoy within a calorie deficit while trying to balance macro and micro nutrients. Tomatoes can help with that, so they are a pro in my opinion.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,961 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »
    Inflammation is such a difficult thing to discuss right now. On the one hand, there is useful, necessary inflammation that happens in a properly working body. On the other hand, there is unnecessary chronic inflammation that some people who have an allergy or misfiring immune system need to deal with. And on the other other hand, the term "inflammation" has become an alternative health buzzword used to fear monger to ratchet up sales.

    To make matters more complicated, it seems like people with similar immune conditions can have very different triggers. So while one person with RA has to avoid chocolate, another person with RA can eat chocolate but has to avoid something else.

    Just in my own amateur research, I have yet to see anything that conclusively even suggests that a healthy person needs to worry about "inflammatory" foods. I guess if a person has a lot of allergies, or perhaps there is a predominance of immune conditions in their family tree, trying to follow one of the more moderate anti-inflammatory diets out there couldn't hurt as a safeguard, but whether or not it would prevent anything is anyone's guess.

    I grew up on an Italian-American diet, I'm reasonable sure my blood is like 45% tomato paste. I've made it through 46 years so far with no food allergies or sensitivities, no medical conditions or chronic anything, an iron stomach, and great health markers so yes, I'm eating tomatoes. And the garlic that typically goes along with the tomatoes protects me from vampires, so it's win-win for me.

    Who knew vampires liked their blood 45% tomato paste? :)
  • Fuzzipeg
    Fuzzipeg Posts: 2,298 Member
    It is impossible to address complex dietary issues in a series of short posts. I would respond more scientifically to direct questions.

    May be if I refer anyone interested in looking into natural chemicals which can cause digestive issues to the e-book, Food can make you ill, by Sharla Race as a very good starting point.

    Much of my information comes from the functional perspective, concepts rejected by general medicine so how can we expect the members of our society who have not had cause to experience Health issues related to the foods we eat. Functional Medicine, uses the same blood tests and other test general medicine does but delves deeper into why a body is doing what it does and set to rectify the dietary/nutritional deficiencies issues before turning to the plasters of medication.

    There is a saying, WE ARE WHAT WE EAT. If we do not absorb the right nutrition for ourselves we are not going to thrive.
  • Athijade
    Athijade Posts: 3,242 Member
    I restrict tomatoes but that is because of the acid in them since I have Interstitial Cystitis and I don't want to be in pain and feeling like I have to pee all the time. I can have them in small amounts without a problem but I can't make a huge thing of spaghetti and tomato sauce and eat it for multiple days like I used to.

    I do not believe nightshades are bad in general at all.

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