What is the issue with Nightshades?

[technosmith]

More specifically, is there an issue with tomato?

[Hannibal]

Yes, it is.
http://www.eczemacure.info/article/articleview/247/1/9/

[King Salmon]

Yes, it is.
http://www.eczemacure.info/article/articleview/247/1/9/

Interesting scary article,but it's written by a macrobiotic writer.Macrobiotic diet promotes grains which,to me,is far worse than tomatoes.
Anyway,I eat tomatoes occasionally.Low in sugar,decent natural sodium and water.Sounds like a good deal to me.Potato is a different story.High carb food,low water,bitter when eaten raw,and when cooked the sugar content becomes elevated.Not such a good deal there.

Btw,I bet you could find minute/traces of poisons in just about any food.Ex: Apple seeds contain arsenic

[yuli]

Only a small portion of people are sensitive to nightshades, most have no problem.
I love tomatoes raw, nice and salty!
I love once in a while to have some eggplant fried in grease as well, as an occasional snack it makes me feel good. I have that at most once a week though.
Potatoes, out of all the starchy foods are the best, most easily digested and instant energy, so I don't get why they have SUCH a bad rep, I  guess cause they are better cooked, oh well.
Anyways I tend to favor the small amounts of these so called "poisons" in some plants anyway, most good medicines are also poisons in one way or another.

[raw]

I grow tomatoes, but don't eat them. I also grow eggplants, but I don't eat them. In the past, I ate many of them, didn't help me. Even I tried my own home grown fully riped potatoes eating them raw, didn't help me a bit. I don't want to take any health risk at this point. But it's undeniable that fried eggplants are truly delicious, home made tomato catchup or just onion and tomato salad simply delicious!

[Iguana]

Well, I finally took the time to check what’s all that fuss about nigthshades and especially tomatoes. The question of potatoes is not relevant for us rawfooders since we barely eat any. But is shows once again that what is not palatable raw shouldn't be eaten cooked neither.

http://www.rawpaleoforum.com/infonews-items/loren-cordain-newsletter-update-re-nightshade-plants/msg37017/#msg37017
http://www.rawpaleoforum.com/infonews-items/cordain-newsletter-nightshades-part-2/msg37471/#msg37471

In the wild world of the internet and elsewhere, urban legend has it that consumption of nightshade (tomato, potato, eggplant, bell peppers, hot peppers, and paprika) free diets may improve symptoms in some rheumatoid arthritis patients. Is there any scientific basis for these alleged anecdotal observations? Indeed, in theory a growing body of scientific studies points toward the use of nightshade-free diets in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. To date, no animal or human experiments have been conducted that confirm or deny this hypothetical evidence. As has been my policy in the past, I believe that anyone suffering from an autoimmune disease should remove suspect foods from the diet for an extended period and then monitor symptoms. If conditions get worse after you re-introduce the food, then this particular food may be problematic for you and should not be part of your lifelong diet.

Because the effects of saponins on membrane function and intestinal permeability are dose dependent, then the more saponins you consume the greater the potential for your gut to become leaky. To date, little is known about the dietary threshold concentrations of saponins required to elicit a leaky gut in humans and its associated adverse health effects. My recommendation for healthy people would be to avoid potatoes for all of the reasons I have previously listed (see last week’s newsletter for part 1 of this paper and the discussion of potatoes). However, because ripe red tomatoes have such low concentrations of ?-tomatine, and because they are rich sources of vitamins, minerals and other healthful nutrients, only people with an autoimmune disease or allergies should consider limiting their fresh ripe tomato intake.

http://www.rawpaleoforum.com/infonews-items/cordain-newsletter-nightshades-part-3/msg37932/#msg37932
For Paleo Dieters my advice would to be to eliminate or drastically reduce potato consumption and for autoimmune and allergy patients to be cautious with the consumption of tomatoes, chili peppers and eggplants.

[Hannibal]

For me it doesn't matter, because I don't like any veggies, with some few exceptions from time to time.

[miles]

For me it doesn't matter, because I don't like any veggies, with some few exceptions from time to time.

So mostly you eat only animals?

[TylerDurden]

I don't seem to have any negative effects from tomatoes. However, on an instinctive level, I find I thrive more on berries like blueberries and apples/pears, which are fruits from more northern climes.

[Hannibal]

So mostly you eat only animals?

+ fruits as my main source of carbs

However, on an instinctive level, I find I thrive more on berries like blueberries and apples/pears, which are fruits from more northern climes.

Exactly

[miles]

You don't consider tomatoes to be a fruit?

[Hannibal]

You don't consider tomatoes to be a fruit?

Indeed, they are botanically the fruits.