[HN Gopher] Tomatoes Were Considered Sinful - Until the Salem To...
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       Tomatoes Were Considered Sinful - Until the Salem Tomato Trial of
       1820 (2019)
        
       Author : austinallegro
       Score  : 13 points
       Date   : 2025-01-03 21:17 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.thevintagenews.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.thevintagenews.com)
        
       | akmarinov wrote:
       | It's crazy that 200 years ago, the main ingredient to many
       | national cuisines (like Italy's), wasn't considered edible
        
         | c0brac0bra wrote:
         | Also the fact that they're not indigenous to Italy in the first
         | place.
        
       | hasbot wrote:
       | > By the late 1700s that had radically changed -- people feared
       | to eat tomatoes as the fruit had gained a reputation as being
       | poisonous. The unusual culprit was actually tableware. It turned
       | out the pewter plates of the wealthy contained significantly high
       | lead content. The acid in tomatoes brought out this poison and
       | people succumbed.
       | 
       | I'm always amazed at how wide spread the use of lead in food and
       | water was considering knowledge of lead poisoning was known as
       | far back as 200 BC.
        
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       (page generated 2025-01-05 23:00 UTC)