Thanks Mark/Todd, never realised they were as suspect as they are


On Mar 05, 2007, at 6:39 pm, Todd Moody wrote:

> http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=george&dbid=62
> As Mark pointed out, the nightshades have been selectively bred for  
> low solanin content.  But they still contain this toxin.  I was  
> surprised to learn that peppers have as much of it as they do.

After reading that I'm also surprised- I assumed that if anything  
potatoes would be 10x higher in solanine!  I don't eat peppers often  
though so I'm not too bothered.  A bit like tomatoes, I can take them  
or leave them.

I did some searching on my own and found this: http:// 
www.rawfoodsbible.com/index.php?page=ch6/oxalic

What caught my eye was: "The solanine levels are highest in unripe  
vegetables and the solanine levels drop when the vegetable ripens. A  
vine ripened tomato will not cause problems while a tomato picked  
green and ripened off the vine will (most supermarket tomatoes)."

What a surprise - supermarkets sell us the poisonous ones because  
they're cheaper.  Well would you believe...


Also on a different vegetable, I found this searching for nightshades  
but what was interesting was the bit about parsnips: http:// 
www.beyondveg.com/tu-j-l/raw-cooked/raw-cooked-1g.shtml (apparently  
they "contain toxic psoralens, which are potent light-activated  
carcinogens and mutagens not destroyed by cooking" - turns out this  
was copied from the wikipedia page).  On a more positive note,  
according to http://www.mc.uky.edu/Biochemistry/dept_personnel/ 
faculty/Spielmann/psoralen.html , "psoralen damaged DNA is recognized  
by both the human repair system and the prokaryotic (A)BC  
excinuclease and serves as an excellent model to study the structural  
and dynamic motifs that cellular repair enzyme systems may recognize".

Over winter, when British parsnips are available in the shops, I eat  
them regularly.  They are *easily* my favourite vegetable, and I like  
them at least twice as much as swede, broccoli or cauliflower.  This  
year I've had them probably one day in two.  I suspect if they  
actually were dangerous, I'd be dead by now.

I just find it strange to think I've been giving myself cancer on a  
daily basis and having my body clean up after me.  Makes me almost  
want to go carnivorous!  Still I'd rather take my chances with  
parsnips than aspartame or corn.  It made me think though - if so  
many plants contain potentially dangerous toxins, which we've  
presumably lived with for millions of years, we must be doing  
something SERIOUSLY wrong to get the level of disease we've got  
today.  I doubt supermarket tomatoes explain everything.


Ashley