Nightshades and Mental Health
Nightshades and Mental Health: What Are Nightshade Foods? What Nightshade Causes
Nightshades
Nightshades and Mental Health
What Are Nightshades?
While many people associate nightshades with vegetables, these foods are actually fruit. The nightshade family, or Solanaceae family, includes tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, tobacco, potatoes, and other starchy vegetables.
Who Shouldn’t Eat Nightshades?
Before we even start talking about nightshade sensitivity, there are a few groups of people who should stay away from nightshades due to the risks they could have to their health.
● If you are diabetic, nightshades may not be a good option for you as they are high in carbs and can raise your blood sugar to unhealthy levels.
● If you have chronic pain, nightshades could increase the pain you experience.
● If you have a known autoimmune disease like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Crohn’s disease, or colitis, nightshades might worsen your symptoms.
“When people experience nightshade sensitivity, they are actually sensitive to the high amount of alkaloids in the food.”
Nightshade Sensitivity and Nightshade Intolerance
When people experience nightshade sensitivity, they are actually sensitive to the high amount of alkaloids in the food. Alkaloids are primarily found in the stems or leaves of a plant, though there are some alkaloids in the part of the plant that we eat. They often have a bitter flavor and function as a natural insect repellant. This is why some nightshades, such as eggplant, has a bitter taste. If you don’t like the bitterness, you’ll have to prepare these foods properly, such as slicing slits in them and adding salt to soften them.
If you experience diarrhea, digestive issues, physical pain, heartburn, nausea, acid reflux, or other gastrointestinal issues, you may have a sensitivity to nightshades. The best way to figure this out is through the elimination process. Stop eating nightshades (including foods that are made with nightshades, like tomato sauce) for several weeks and take note of how you feel. As you gradually add these foods back into your diet, and keep noting how you feel. If your symptoms stopped when you cut those foods out of your diet and reappeared when you added them back in, you likely have a sensitivity to nightshades.
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Dealing With Acid Reflux
If you experience nightshade acid reflux while eating nightshades but aren’t ready to cut them out of your diet entirely, try this handy trick: take an ice pack and put it on your sternum, above your heart. 20 minutes before you eat. Let that sit for 15 minutes. That should relax the little flap in your esophagus.
If that does not work, try to drink some juices that are not acidic, like celery juice. If this juice was to come up, it would not be as painful.
“As you gradually add these foods back into your diet, and keep noting how you feel. ”
When Nightshade Sensitivity Becomes More Than A Sensitivity
Sensitivity to nightshades may indicate a larger issue, such as the presence of IBD, Crohn’s disease, or colitis. With these conditions, the protective lining in the bowel is actually broken, which can cause something called a leaky gut. When you’re eating nightshades, the alkaloids can be so toxic to the body that they leak out.
In addition, if you’re experiencing more severe symptoms, such as hives, skin rashes, itchiness, nausea, vomiting, excessive mucus production in the throat and nose, achy muscles and joints, or general inflammation, you could have an allergy to nightshades. In this case, you should take an allergy test so you know if you need to avoid nightshades permanently.
Nightshade Toxicity
While nightshades can be delicious, they are also toxic to other plants and animals. Potato plants are especially poisonous to animals, so make sure your pets stay away from your plants or your compost bin.
Nightshades can also be toxic to other plants. Just the other day, my mint plant fell over and hit a potato plant I have growing in my yard. When I lifted it, part of the mint plant was wilting, drying up, and turning brown. Ensure that you are thinking of yourself as well as other living things in your home.
Nightshades and Mental Health
Many mental health symptoms, particularly depression, can be connected to inflammation of our organs, muscles, or brain. This is why it is so important for us and our therapists to be aware of how nightshade foods are impacting you. Make sure to always be taking care of your physical health, and remember that some physical ailments might appear to be mental ailments.
Summary
What we consume can play a huge role in how we function throughout the day. Internally it cause cause inflammation by activating our gut-brain-heart axis. Lastly, foods can make us more susceptible to having difficulty concentrating, elevate or lower our energy, as well as exacerbate symptoms of chronic health issues.
If you are ready to start incorporating a variety natural whole foods beyond nightshades into your lifestyle grab the Mood Boosting Foods eCookbook to start your journey today!
Written By: Reynelda Jones, LMSW-C
CEO and Founder of A Solution B, LLC
Edited By: Ashley McCrea
If you're in need of working through stress, anxiety or trauma and feel you would benefit from a holistic therapeutic approach, Contact me today for a session.
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