Page 48 - Spring2010

Nightshades

Problems from these Popular Foods
Exposed to the Light of Day

by Garrett Smith, NMD, BS, CSCS, CBP

T
he nightshades are members of an enormous fam-
ily of plants called Solanaceae, represent a huge

family of plants. The ones that concern us in the

Western diet mainly include tomatoes, potatoes (not sweet
potatoes or yams), eggplant and peppers—this means all
peppers including chili peppers, habenero, cayenne pep-

per and paprika (not peppercorns, see sidebar). Paprika is

a sneaky one, showing up in lots of flavoring mixes and
often under “spices” on ingredient labels. Other night-
shades include goji berries (the new darling of the anti-

oxidant crowd), ashwagandha (an adaptogenic herb from

Ayurvedic medicine), Cape gooseberries (not normal
gooseberries), ground cherries and garden huckleberries
(not blueberries).

I’m a licensed naturopathic physician in private practice, and I will admit

right off the bat that I am biased against nightshades. I used to eat a ton of
foods in the nightshade family, but now I avoid them as much as possible. I
am one of those who is very sensitive to these foods. In my medical practice,
I treat pain often. My goal in pain treatment is pain relief. In my opinion,
pain management—that is, long-term painkillers, without a goal of true
pain relief—is for suckers. For me and many of my patients, nightshade
avoidance is the answer to long-term relief from pain.
48 Wise Traditions SPRING 2010