Saying Nay to Nightshades: The Drama Kings and Queens of Inflammatory Aggrevation

I placed my hands on my heart with my eyes shut and said my gratitude. I slowly opened my eyes in the darkness of my bedroom and I reached out for my mobile phone to see the time. It was only 5.45 am. I should really be going back to sleep again but I was having difficulty with my breathing due to the aggravated sinus problem that once was dissapearing and now is back and worsen just overnight! Dear oh dearie me what could have been the cause to this symptom.

I rushed to the bathroom stood across the mirror and lifted up my top to see if there was any spots on my skin. There was nothing. I sighed in a relief. Achoo achoo achoo.... went on without stopping for about 10 seconds. By the time it stopped I was a little breathless. While trying to catch my breathe, I felt some small itch under my armpit. Argh... oh no no no! I murmured in dissappointment. In my head...could it be it. Oh no!

So what could have caused this then? I have been eating healthily and have started eliminating a lot of culprits from my diet. Then it dawn on me that I had a NIGHTSHADE vegetable for dinner. This DRAMA KING or/and DRAMA QUEEN which is aptly known as MR OKRA or also known as MS LADYFINGER. Obviously OKRA has slipped off my mind being categorised as a NIGHTSHADE.

It was a mix feelings of dissappointment and relief having had realised that the culprit of my health is one of those vegetables from the nightshades family. But I'm thankful that I was able to identify what was the cause of my allergy attack and so I can stop it from reoccuring in the near future. See how powerful having the knowledge and the will to stop eating what may trigger the next attack can do to your well being!

Meet the Drama Kings and Queens: (The edible Nightshades)

Cayenne

Eggplant

Goji Berry

Ground Cherry

Habanero

Jalapeno

Okra or ladyfinger

Paprika

Pepper (sweet and hot/spicy types)

Tobacco

Tomatillo

Tomato

White Potato

Wolf Berry

Do you know that they are actually a member of the family SOLANACEAE?

This is why the first impression may be deceiving! We may think they look like totally unrelated to one another or rather a random collection of fruit and vegetables.

Every nightshade plant produces fruit that has similar little green elfish hat. However of the list above, only tomatoes, eggplants, goji berries and peppers are fruit while the potato is a tuber and tobacco is a leaf.

Most of the Nightshades are toxic to humans. They are well known as Belladonna or Deadly Nightshades. Those listed above are those edible Nightshades and it is indeed a shorter list than the poisonous one. Personally, I would be very cautious if I were you about consuming these edible Nightshades even though if they are harmful to you as they are somewhat associated with the rest of the family members which are deadly toxic! If I were you I would be thinking twice about consuming them especially raw (due to glycoalkaloids content). Perhaps even what may be seem harmless such as tomatoes may be up to no good to those of you who are not having any symptom of an auto-immune disorder.

What are glycoalkaloids?

Glycoalkaloids are compounds (natural pesticides) produced by Nightshade plants. They are also present in small amounts in a few non-Nightshades: cherries, apples, and sugar beets. Glycoalkaloids are bitter compounds which are found throughout the plant, but especially in leaves, flowers, and unripe fruits. While the Nightshade plant is alive, Glycoalkaloids work as its home grown pest spray. Naturally they present as to defend the plants against bacteria, molds/fungi, viruses and insects. In short, they kill pests! In the poisonous members of Nightshades, they present in much greater amount and are deadly for humans.

Glycoalkaloids also act as neurotoxins by blocking the enzyme cholinesterase. This enzyme is responsible for breaking down acetylcholine, a vital neurotransmitter that carries signals between nerve cells and muscle cells. When the enzyme is blocked, acetylcholine breaking down process slows down and eventually will accumulate and can overstimulate the muscle cells. This can lead to paralysis, convulsions, respiratory arrest, and death. They work like the Military nerve gasses!

Those with no auto-immune disorders have healthy gut. Therefore, healthy guts can deal with these compounds unlike those people whose digestive system is already compromised by an auto-immune disorder. My advice is, just keep these Nightshades away from your healthy eating lifestyle. The alkaloids will further irritate your gut and further reduce the lining of your intestinal tract which amplified your leaky gut syndrome (in case you already have it) or can cause a leaky gut syndrome to develop.

In addition to alkaloids, there is this culprit called LECTIN. All foods contain lectins of which many of these lectins are harmless to us, but others are gut irritants. An example of lectin is in peanuts and are dangerous to some individuals especially those with leaky gut syndrome.

How do you know if you are allergic to Nightshades? Firstly you can perform the foods allergy test. Or by removing Nightshades from your diet for a couple of weeks or so to see if you feel better.

I can attest here that people with an auto-immune disorder or those who suffer from arthritis, all those inflammatory disorders related are affected by these nightshades. I am personally affected. I have recently introduced OKRA into my diet to see and the next morning I experienced a variety of symptoms, most notably my skin condition flared up, heartburn and aggravated sinus problem. At times they cause pounding heart too. Other symptoms reported are difficulty concentrating, muscle/nerve/joint pain, and profound insomnia.

There are evidences of health risks of nightshades connecting to auto-immune disorders including arthritis and join pain. Doctors have conducted surveys and found out that patients who eliminated Nightshades from their diet have shown further improvement in health conditions.

Everyone is different, so as always, you’ll need to discover for yourself whether these foods may pose problems for your individual health. However, given what we know about nightshade chemicals, common sense tells us that these foods are well worth exploring as potential culprits in pain syndromes, gastrointestinal syndromes, and neurologic/psychiatric symptoms. If you are not having any signs of allergies when consuming them, my recommendation is for you to cook all your nightshade vegetables and fruit before eating them to remove as much as possible alkaloids from them.

Before I end, I would like to specifically highlight one of the nightshades here which is very common in our diet these days and that is none other than White Potato. Research conducted at Cornell University in 1987 indicates that the skin of white potatoes contain toxic substances known as glycoalkaloids. It was also concluded that the skin of white potatoes contain the highest amount of toxins. So if you have auto-immune disorder or any form of arthritis, do avoid the skin and the pulp and it simple form, do not eat white potatoes at all.

I’m saying nay to Nightshades including their derivatives such as french fries, mashed potatoes, salsa, spaghetti sauce, ketchup etc. Should you avoid Nightshades? That I shall leave to you to decide. I hope what I have written down here will make you think through about consuming more Nightshades. I encourage you to look into these Nightshades further and decide what is best for you and your loved one.

I wish you great health.

Lots of love

Aina

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