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Nah it's a joke about how euros used to think all solanum (tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, etc) were as poisonous as nightshades (also in the solanum family).
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.
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.
I was gonna say, I wonder if it had anything to do with general xenophobia/classism.
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:
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the aforementioned nightshade connection
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potatoes aren't mentioned in the bible which means God didn't mean for us to eat them
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herbalists thought they looked kinda like leprous flesh so if you ate it you'd get leprosy
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Granted, potatoes are healthier when you blanch them first to soften them.
Damn the UK really spectacularly fucked itself over with Brexit.
The EU isn't as bad, shit is way more expensive but it's still trucking on for now. I have a feeling it's gonna get worse soon enough tho.
