[HN Gopher] The tomato was thought to be poisonous in late-1700s...
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The tomato was thought to be poisonous in late-1700s Europe (2013)
Author : thunderbong
Score : 20 points
Date : 2023-09-24 17:26 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.smithsonianmag.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.smithsonianmag.com)
| retrac wrote:
| It's obligatory to note this when it comes up: tomatoes are in
| the nightshade [1] family. The greens and fruits of many
| nightshades are poisonous.
|
| The obvious kinship is probably best demonstrated visually.
|
| The common tomato (Solanum lycopersicum)
| https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gc5_tomatoes.jpg
|
| The currant tomato, also edible and close wild relative of the
| tomato (Solanum pimpinellifolium):
| https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Botanisk_tidsskrif...
|
| Belladonna, toxic (Atropa belladonna):
| https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Atropa_belladonna_...
|
| Datura, toxic (Datura stramonium):
| https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Datura_stramonium_...
|
| Mandrake greens and flowers, toxic (Mandragora autumnalis):
| https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mandragora_autumna...
|
| Mandrake fruit, toxic:
| https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mandragora_autumna...
|
| I have only a layman's interest in botany so I lack the
| vocabulary to describe it well. But a tomato plant has the
| overall structure of a datura plant, bushy, similar stalks,
| similar pattern. The leaves look a lot like belladonna, datura or
| mandrake. The flowers look like diminutive mandrake flowers. The
| fruit looks a lot like mandrake fruit.
|
| If I had never heard of tomatoes, the close family resemblance
| would make me very reluctant to eat one.
|
| [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solanaceae
| anon291 wrote:
| The snakeberry (also a nightshade) --
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solanum_dulcamara -- has fruits
| that look almost identical to a tomato, and while not deadly...
| incredibly uncomfortable and bitter.
|
| I came across these on a trek in the woods, and thought they
| were wild tomatoes at first. Fruit looks identical. But of
| course, I knew never to eat a nightshade. It's not surprising
| that Europeans thought tomatoes were poisonous. Nightshades are
| no joke.
| the_third_wave wrote:
| More Nightshades:
|
| Aubergine (or 'Eggplant'), Solanum melongena [1]. It is edible
| but does contain a relatively high amount of Nicotine just like
| its relative:
|
| Tobacco (Lat. _Nicotiana_ ) [1] - also a Nightshade and
| probably the one with the largest body count of them all.
|
| Chili pepper (Lat. _Capsicum_ ) [3] which also belong to the
| Nightshade family.
|
| Quite a large and useable family even if some of its members
| are better left alone...
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggplant
|
| [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco
|
| [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chili_pepper
| tomohawk wrote:
| Yes, and while many people can eat them just fine, many others
| experience health issues when eating tomatoes or other
| nightshades. The connection between eating the tomatoes and the
| health issues is not very obvious, and many people suffer for
| years before figuring it out. A family member had arthritic
| pain which got quite a bit better when they went gluten free,
| but it wasn't until they got off of certain plant families that
| things cleared up.
| genter wrote:
| Tomatoes and other nightshades have lectins in them, (along
| with wheat).
| jschveibinz wrote:
| I love Italian food. But even though the cuisine is known for
| tomato sauce-based dishes, those recipes didn't really exist
| until the 17-18th century regionally and 19th century in general.
|
| Pasta was introduced to Italy earlier than tomatoes, but the
| toppings were pretty strange compared to today's tastes.
|
| https://www.trafalgar.com/real-word/history-pasta/
| [deleted]
| wkat4242 wrote:
| I'm surprised they didn't notice this effect from other acidic
| foods.
| 6nf wrote:
| Like what?
| wkat4242 wrote:
| There's so many. Vinegar, citrus fruits..
| 29athrowaway wrote:
| It had to do with the materials used in the utensils.
| dang wrote:
| Related:
|
| _The tomato was feared in Europe for more than 200 years (2013)_
| - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29131410 - Nov 2021 (182
| comments)
|
| _The Tomato Was Feared in Europe for More Than 200 Years_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13052405 - Nov 2016 (8
| comments)
| zerojames wrote:
| Thank you for posting the Related sections, Dan!
| mcpackieh wrote:
| > _Some researchers credit Cortez with bringing the seeds to
| Europe in 1519 for ornamental purposes._
|
| I really doubt they (particularly the Spaniards) weren't eating
| tomatoes from the start. The confusion emerged later, the premise
| of all Europeans thinking that tomatoes were poisonous is wrong;
| _some_ of them did but others did not.
|
| Related popular food myth: Lobsters being gross. Lobsters were
| known to be delicious by Mediterranean people since Roman times.
| The premise of lobsters being disgusting poor people food
| developed much later, in America, when immigrants from inland
| regions of Europe encountered lobsters for the first time, had no
| cultural background with them, and prepared them poorly.
| soperj wrote:
| Tomatoes aren't exactly the nicest looking of plants either.
| mcpackieh wrote:
| I don't know about that, anything red looks tasty to me. When
| I was a kid I tried to eat holly berries before they were
| smacked out of my hand. Of course not all tomatoes are red,
| but I assume at least some varieties back then were.
| zdragnar wrote:
| Nightshade plants are funny. Apparently, repeated exposure to
| poison ivy can make you also react to cashews- my dad had to stop
| eating them for quite awhile after he'd had a few particularly
| bad exposures a few years in a row.
|
| Aside from the notable tomato and potato, there's also cashew,
| eggplant, tobacco, chili and bell peppers, gooseberry, goji and
| huckleberries, and a few others.
| anon291 wrote:
| Nightshades are members of the Solanaceae family.
|
| Huckleberries are not nightshades. You are confusing the garden
| huckleberry (solanum nigrum) with the actual huckleberry, which
| is a member of the Heath family (Ericaceae). Actual
| huckleberries are incredibly difficult to grow and only grow on
| mountains. The garden huckleberry is a tomato relative that has
| similar looking fruits and some say a similar taste and is
| easier to grow. Hence the name.
|
| Cashews are also not nightshades. Cashews are members of the
| cashew/mango family. All plants are highly allergenic. Many
| people have cashew problems, and many many people have
| reactions to the outer skin of the Mango. Poison Ivy is in the
| mango/cashew family. They are part of the Anacardiaceae family.
|
| Gooseberries... you are thinking of the cape gooseberry. The
| cape gooseberry is a nightshade. Real gooseberries are members
| of the currant family Grossulariaceae. Gooseberries are very
| distinct from a cape gooseberry. The two plants are actually
| not very similar looking at all. Cape gooseberries, like many
| nightshades, grow in a husk (like a tomatillo). Real
| gooseberries do not.
|
| The rest are indeed nightshades.
|
| Sorry for the pedantry, but these are all very different
| plants.
| matthewtse wrote:
| Not just in late-1700s Europe.
|
| I spent years pursuing a cure for chronic illness, and at one
| point I crossed paths with a homeopath of sorts. Among other
| things, she gave me a fairly strict diet, and I still remember
| one sentence: "No tomatoes. They're poisonous nightshades."
| amanaplanacanal wrote:
| That's still a thing among the folks who adhere to a paleo
| diet: no dairy, no nightshades, no grains, no legumes. I
| believe the theory is that they are all recent additions to the
| human diet (Neolithic) and therefore more like to cause
| problems.
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(page generated 2023-09-24 23:01 UTC)