Tomatoes, Potatoes, Eggplant and Arthitis: The Nightshade Suspect

“If nightshades can be eaten or used sparingly, arthritis can be slowed in developing.” The Arthritis Nightshades Research Foundation

Summer gardens are bringing forth an abundance of nightshade foods destined for your dinner plate, your fresh tomato salad, or scattered across a slice of hot cheesy pizza with peppers. Nightshades or the Solanaceae family, cover some 2,800 species of plants, herbs, shrubs and trees, but the nightshade foods you most often consume include:

Eggplant
Potatoes
Peppers (hot and sweet)
Tomatoes
Tomatillos
Paprika
Cayenne
Pimentos

These nightshade foods are suspected of causing arthritic type symptoms in people already prone to the ailment, but you will probably still love them anyway. Although there is no solid evidence that the alkaloids in nightshade plants negatively affect joint and nerve-muscle function in humans and animals, there are individuals who experience symptomatic relief when nightshade foods are eliminated from their diet.

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Sarah B.

9:20PM PST on Jan 29, 2012

Interesting, but this article doesn't give enough evidence for me to stop eating them. In fact, the article almost goes against itself in a few statements. For all we know the little percentage of people having flare ups could be allergic to them or a preservative in the vegetables.

January 29
send a green star

KrassiAWAY B.

11:41PM PDT on Aug 8, 2011

Interesting.

August 8
send a green star

Jane R.

11:03AM PDT on Jul 26, 2011

I'll eat them anyway. I have OA and my sister has RA.

July 26
send a green star

10:56AM PDT on Jul 26, 2011

Thanks, but I'll eat them anyway. I have OA and my sister RA.

Estelita A.

6:39PM PDT on Jul 25, 2011

THANKS.

July 25
send a green star

Lyn M.

6:25PM PDT on Jul 24, 2011

". . . flare-ups have been shown to occur in 1-2% of patients who consume a diet high in nightshade vegetables."

And because of that I'm supposed to stop eating some of my favorite foods because they MIGHT cause my arthritis to flare? I think experimenting to see if those foods affect my arthritis would be more in line. Really, people, we ought to be able to figure this out on our own. If 98% of us are not likely to be affected, why should all of us follow restrictions suggested by unnamed medical researchers? I am not a sheep!