Spotlight On Night Shades

Confused About Whether Or Not Nightshade Vegetables Are Good For You? Julia Braybrook Clears It Up

- Julia Braybrook

There’s been a lot of buzz lately around the nightshade family, with some saying that they make conditions like arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and autoimmune diseases worse. But before you swear off spuds entirely, let’s take a look at the evidence.

You may be familiar with the term ‘nightshades’ through the toxic species, deadly nightshade. But it’s just one plant in the large Solanaceae family, which encompasses more than 2000 varieties of plants. While we don’t eat many of the plants in this family, those that are edible have been considered staple foods for hundreds of years. Among the most commonly consumed nightshade foods are potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, capsicum and chillies. Even condiments like paprika, tomato sauce and salsa contain nightshades.

Behind the claims Much of the controversy around nightshades centres around the alkaloid solanine. Solanine is toxic in high concentrations, and is one of the glykoalkaloids that make deadly nightshade poisonious, and green potato leaves, sprouts and stems toxic. When it comes to our health, it’s thought that a build-up of this bitter-tasting chemical can have pro-inflammatory properties for some individuals, triggering arthritic swelling, pain and stiffness.