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Nightshade Foods?
Hello Daniel and Bernadette,I’d like to inquire about a topic I recently encountered – nightshade foods. I’m not familiar with this term, so I’m curious to know if it’s a legitimate concept. If so, could you please provide me with information on what nightshade foods are? Furthermore, I’m wondering if it would be advisable for my husband, who has ankylosing spondylitis, to avoid consuming them. Thanks for your help. -
5 Replies
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Hey ,
Nightshades are a group of plants that can protect themselves from insects and bugs by producing certain chemicals. These chemicals are nature’s variation of insecticides.
Solanine for example is such a compound that you can find in nightshades like potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, goji berries and peppers (Bell peppers, chilli peppers, cayenne, etc)
While nightshades are completely healthy for most people, they are a common (but not always) food sensitivity in those with joint pain, IBD, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and other inflammatory autoimmune diseases.
Ankylosing spondylitis is a form of arthritis that causes chronic spine inflammation. Avoiding nightshades can be something you could consider.
That being said, the supplements I recommended earlier can also be used with Ankylosing spondylitis. Following an anti-inflammatory lifestyle is definitely something that could help. I know your husband followed an anti-inflammatory diet which helped. Other things that can help the healing process are having a focus on good quality sleep and avoiding stress.
If you are unsure if your husband sleeps well, just ask him the question if he feels he has enough energy for the day when he wakes up.
If you like some more detailed tips around those topics, let me know!
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Hello Daniel, thanks for the valuable insight. I’ve been searching for the quickest method to have the supplements you suggested be delivered to Dubai. Additionally, we will make an effort to eliminate the foods you identified from his diet. However, this raises another question – how can we replace the protein in his diet since he can’t consume red meat? Any examples or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
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Hey ,
It can be a little tougher to get enough protein in your diet, but it is still possible. Legumes like beans for example are rich in protein. They are a source of lectins though and some research shows that lectins aren’t helpful with rheumatoid arthritis. I’m mentioning this, because ankylosing spondylitis is also a rheumatic disease.
Cooking does however destroy almost all lectins, so make sure you cook your beans well. Other sources of lectins are for example other legumes like soybeans, peas and peanuts. If you like to consume a low lectin diet, you should also cook them well.
Nuts can be a great source of protein as well. But some other nuts like walnuts, almonds, and sunflower seeds contain some lectin as well. The next nuts are low in lectin and fit in a low lectin diet if you choose to follow this route: pecans, pistachios, pine nuts, flax seeds, hemp seeds, sesame seeds, and Brazil nuts.
Plant based protein powders can also be a solution. In this case I would recommend hemp based protein powders.
I hope this helps!
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Wow, I had no idea. It goes without saying that peanut butter is no longer an option. That’s tough news to deliver to him, hehe. I just realized that I’ve been making so many mistakes and have very little understanding about an anti-inflammatory diet. This brings me to two questions, one very simple: what can he eat? The second is more serious: can you recommend a book or video that can help me better understand the do’s and don’ts?
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Hey ,
I have to disagree with you there. In the time you did your anti-inflammatory diet, symptoms became less! Which to me means, you were able to reduce inflammation.
One of the core beliefs in the world of functional medicine is that everyone is unique. Two persons with the same disease might have different root causes and might need 2 different approaches.
Reducing inflammation might be the perfect example to explain this to you. Of course, there are recommendations that help the majority of people: getting vitamin D up and taking omega 3’s are two such examples. Reducing fast digestible carbs, sugars and processed foods are examples that often reduce inflammation as well.
When it comes to reactions to specific foods the area becomes much more ‘grey’. With rheumatoid arthritis removing nightshades might help. It just doesn’t help everyone. The same goes for avoiding lectins. They are in a way nothing more than educated guesses.
Maybe you are thinking: but why is it there so much variation from person to person?
We often see in autoimmune diseases that the gut for some reason suffered some damage or is more ‘leaky’ and lets in undigested foods. The immune system sees undigested foods as possible invaders and starts to clean up the mess. The reaction of the immune system causes inflammation. And although there are rules of thumb (like nightshades with rheumatoid arthritis), many reactions to food are also really personal. I for example had a food sensitivity to fish, which is considered anti-inflammatory.
There are 2 reasons why I’m explaining this. Often the most inflammatory choices aren’t about choosing between bell peppers and broccoli, but about choosing to sleep 8 hours, reduce emotional stress/trauma and reduce the number of processed foods.
If guess what I try to tell you is that you probably did more right then you thought! If you like to learn and read more about anti-inflammatory foods I could recommend you the book Digestive Wellness: Strengthen the Immune System and Prevent Disease Through Healthy Digestion. It’s written by Elizabeth Lipski.
The second reason why I explained the relationship between the gut and how the immune system can be triggered by undigested foods is that even when you follow the best anti-inflammatory diet in the world, when the gut lining is leaky (which we see a lot in auto-immune diseased) you need to reduce the leakiness. You might not have focussed on this step the last time, but here are some steps to reduce a leaky gut:
• Remove gluten-containing grains. Breakdown products of gluten will open the doors (also called tight junctions) between the cells of the gut lining.
• Remove dairy.
• Vitamin D is necessary to close the tight junctions. A low serum vitamin D needs to be addressed in my opinion
• Focus on gut-healing foods – watch this movie about gut-healing therapies.Of course, I could recommend more, but have you watched the Gut Health Masterclass already? It might be something that could help you in your healing journey!
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