Nightshade Allergy
Throughout my Rheumatoid Arthritis journey, I realized that I became sensitive to certain foods. I went through an elimination diet identifying everything that I ate and later realized that I was allergic to nightshade vegetables. It was causing me inflammation. My body was confused and thought that these nightshade vegetables was attacking my immune system causing me to have a fever, joint pain, stiffness and rashes. Let’s break down what exactly are nightshade fruit & vegetables.
What are nightshade fruit & vegetables?
According to GreenMedInfo, nightshades belong to the Solanaceae family which contain over 2,000 species which the majority are highly poisonous. The Solanaceae family contains cholinesterase inhibiting glycoalkaloids and sterioid alkaloids including, among others, solanine in potato and eggplant, tomatine in tomato, nicotine in tobacco and capsaicin in garden peppers.
The popular foods belonging to the Solanaceae family are tomatoes, potatoes, all types of peppers and eggplant. There are also nightshade spices derived from peppers including paprika, cayenne pepper, and curry. Tobacco is also a nightshade that is known to cause cancer, heart, lung, circulatory problems and other health issues. Although not truly nightshades, blueberries, huckleberries, goji berries and ashwaganda all share the same inflammation-inducing alkaloids.
Dr. Sarah Ballantyne, also known as the Paleo Mom, has a detailed list on her site of all the nightshades.
The symptoms of the consumption of nightshades are:
· Irritation to the gastrointestinal tract such as the Irritable Bowel Syndrome
· Inflammation of the body causing the nervous system to become paralytic-like such as muscle spasms, aches, pains, tenderness and stiff body movements, drowsiness, convulsions, labored breath etc.
Although many have said that there isn’t sufficient research or evidence that nightshades do contribute to an arthritis-related disease such as rheumatism, lupus or any other musculoskeletal disorder, I beg to differ.