• YtA4QCam2A9j7EfTgHrH@infosec.pubEnglish
    19 hours

    *europeans.

    People in the americas had been eating them for a long ass time by the time the Columbian exchange happened

    • BeN9o@lemmy.worldEnglish
      18 hours

      Not just Europeans, from the article: “As Andrew F. Smith details in his 1994 book The Tomato in America: Early History, Culture and Cookery, before the fruit made its way to the table in North America, it was classified as a deadly nightshade”

      • YtA4QCam2A9j7EfTgHrH@infosec.pubEnglish
        18 hours

        According to the tomatoes Wikipedia article, tomatoes were definitely domesticated and eaten by indigenous folk in the americas by 500 BC.

        My point is that the people who domesticated the tomato never feared it. Europeans propagated the myth that it was harmful and people who’d been eating it for millennia never took that seriously.

  • xep@discuss.onlineEnglish
    17 hours

    Tomatoes are nightshades and contain solanine. They weren’t wrong.

  • teyrnon@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    18 hours

    That is because they ate out of pewter, a lead alloy, and the acidity of tomatoes leeched lead out into the food.

    This often lead to lead comas, and people were thought to be dead and then buried. They for some reason dug some up and found claw marks on the inside of their coffins, and started to attach a string connected to a bell on the surface.

    • otacon239@lemmy.worldEnglish
      18 hours

      This is also the origin of “saved by the bell”, if I’m not mistaken.

      • ClanOfTheOcho@lemmy.worldEnglish
        18 hours

        I’m too lazy to make the meme, myself, so imagine an image of Zack Morris looking confused, and the text, “I thought it came from boxing?”

  • Mugita Sokio@lemmy.todayEnglish
    12 hours

    Tomatoes do, in fact, cause issues with arthritis in many forms. One of my folks has gout, which is an issue to do with sugar and carb consumption.

  • Rachelhazideas@lemmy.worldEnglish
    18 hours

    It is toxic if you cooked in a copper pot because of its acidity, which a lot of people had.

    • teyrnon@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      18 hours

      Copper might do it too, I read about pewter, which is a lead alloy. Copper poisoning is serious business too. Telltale signs are green rings around the eyes. It fucks with your reproductive organs amongst other things, in a non fucking sort of way if I recall.