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  • KobaCumTribute [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I'm pretty sure that's a myth. They're all new world cultivars that were brought over from the Americas specifically as food. I can't say for sure that no one ever went on some rant about them being nightshade and imagining some health impact from eating them, but that would have been some fringe condemnation of people already eating them.

    • BodyBySisyphus [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      While it wasn't universal, tomatoes were originally grown as ornamentals in Italy and the Brits initially thought they were toxic despite the fact that the Spaniards were eating them.

    • RION [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Everything I can find online suggests that they were indeed viewed as very sus before a some campaigns from nobility and wealthy farmers convinced the general populace they were okay to eat. Reasons for the susness include:

      • the aforementioned nightshade connection

      • potatoes aren't mentioned in the bible which means God didn't mean for us to eat them

      • herbalists thought they looked kinda like leprous flesh so if you ate it you'd get leprosy