nightshade plants
#279539 - 08/22/06 03:57 PM
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Is there anybody out there who knows if nightshade vegetables are something I should be concerned about? I've been suffering from chronic constipation from over two years now and a naturapath from whom I received a colonic advised that I avoid nightshade vegetables. I would like to compare this advice to anything anybody knows about possible relationships between these foods and IBS.
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i may be showing my own ingnorance on this subject, but the only thing i have heard or read that plants in the nightshade family have negative effects on would be arthritis.
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p.s. i find potatoes to be quite a nice soluble fiber source.
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The only foods I know of in the nightshade family are potatoes, tomatoes, & eggplant, but I would think that you shouldn't avoid all of them. Potatoes are a staple of the EFI diet & are usually easy to digest. I don't eat a lot of tomatoes, but when I do I always eat them cooked, not raw. They haven't bothered me so far, but that's just me. And I don't like eggplant (except in baba ganoush) so, I can't help w/that one.
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IBS-A...I can never make up my mind 
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Just found this post - a few months late.
I stumbled onto something yesterday that made me think about nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, including cayenne)... I heard that nightshade vegetables can slow the motility of the intestinal tract and I believe I even heard the word "paralyze". I thought that was a fascinating factoid, and went online to investigate more. I found a few random mentions of this, but nothing relating nightshades to IBS or constipation.
I don't know much about fibromyalgia, but I understand that nightshades should be avoided by those who have it. Seems to make sense that people with IBS, who are also overly sensitive to food, might want to see for themselves if nightshades are a trigger.
They are for me. I've known for a long time that eggplant, tomatoes and peppers seem to mess me up, and I suspected potatoes as well, but was hoping that wasn't the case! Unfortunately, I think it is. Every other week, I eat dinner at the in-laws, and always eat lots of potatoes. And... suffer for several days afterward with an incredibly sluggish gut. I've always attributed my suffering to overeating (which certainly contributes!), but now I'm wondering...
Just something else to worry our pretty little heads about!
If someone can find an article linking nightshades to IBS or constipation, please post the link!
Jen
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Jennifer
42 years old
Neither D nor C - just sluggish
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I have to admit
#289718 - 11/11/06 08:08 AM
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Sand
Reged: 12/13/04
Posts: 4490
Loc: West Orange, NJ (IBS-D)
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I thought I'd investigate this and find it was a load of hooey. Once I started looking around thought, I found something really, really interesting. The deadly nightshade family is deadly because many of its members contain "tropane alkaloids" which, as Wikipedia puts it:
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include atropine, scopolamine, and hyoscyamine. Pharmacologically, they are the most powerful known anticholinergics in existence
In other words, if you're taking an anti-spasmodic you're almost certainly taking deadly nightshade. Theoretically this could mean that if your constipation is due to colon spasms you have nothing to fear from deadly nightshade, but if your constipation is due to a sluggish colon deadly nightshade could slow it down further. The problem is that as far as I can tell the parts of the deadly nightshades we actually eat don't contain the tropane alkaloids.
With regard to potatoes specifically this article states that:
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Although this plant itself is generally considered toxic, swollen subterranean sections of modified stem known as tubers generally possess no toxicity.
In other words, the leaves and stems are inedible but what we call the potato should be fine. It does caution, however, that potatoes can become toxic if allowed to sprout. (I'd always heard sprouted potatoes were dangerous but never knew why.)
The Wikipedia article kind of peters out but it sounds like what is true for potatoes is also true for tomatoes and eggplants - the plant may contain the alkaloid but the fruit does not.
Peppers of all sorts are something different. Although part of the nightshade family, they do not contain a tropane alkaloid. Rather they contain Capsaicin which is not toxic to mammals but stimulates certain pain receptors. That's why we perceive peppers as "hot".
What I get out of this reading is that the parts of the deadly nightshades we actually eat shouldn't be a problem. I will say, though, that none of this explains the widespread conviction that deadly nightshade is bad for people with fibromyalgia - I don't know if there are any studies that confirm this but it seems to be a firmly held belief. So I guess the bottom line, as with so many other things, is that if a food bothers you avoid it - whatever family it's in.
HTH.
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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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Quote:
... I heard that nightshade vegetables can slow the motility of the intestinal tract and I believe I even heard the word "paralyze"...
LOL! Not in my world.  Tomatoes and cayenne pepper send me running for the toilet. But then again, I'm D, not C.
OTOH, I tolerate potatoes very well.
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Check multiple sources and make the best-informed decision possible!
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That's really interesting!! Thanks for doing all of that research! Luckily, potatoes, tomatoes, and eggplant don't seem to bother me. But I try to avoid peppers - unless they're pureed!
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Lisa, IBS-C (Vegan)
Stable since July 2007!
Mommy to Rhiannon Marie (Dec. 13, 2008)
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