Headaches linked to tomatoes?

Are tomatoes causing your headache?

It is well known that tomatoes belong to the night shade family. Having never had an issue with night shades, it didn’t concern me. When I found that tomatoes could contribute to headaches, I had to look into it more.

I decided to continue my research on night shades just to identify them. (See my article on night shades).

Tomatoes were particularly interesting because I get headaches out of the blue. I ALSO eat a LOT of tomatoes or tomato products. I think marinara sauce runs in my veins.

Tomatoes, tomatillos and tamarillo’s are all members of the nightshade or Solanceae family. What sets them apart from other nightshades is another alkaloid called tomatine!

Could it be the Tomatine?

Too much tomatine can cause severe headaches and gastric distress as well.

What’s more, Solanine (alkaloid in nightshades) and tomatine are accumulative!

The toxins are stored in your system and may be released during high stress situations!

Stress induced, Accumulative? This was a game changer.

Tension headache anyone?

It would take more than a pound of tomatoes to cause distress, but the cumulative factor has to make me wonder if my headaches out of the blue could be from something red!

When you snack on tomatoes, notice if you get a headache within one hour of eating them. A tomatine induced headache could last as long as four hours.

Is that where the term “seeing red” comes from?

Could it be something else?

Tomatoes in the USA are largely commercially grown tomatoes.

Some are found on the vine and may continue to ripen. Hot house or hydroponic tomatoes are picked green. The green ones are gassed with ethylene to give them a red color, but the gas does not ripen them.

As the concentration of solanine and tomatine are in the skin, peeling the tomatoes may sufficiently lower the levels enough to not trigger a headache.

Here is an eye-opening article about industrially grown tomatoes. It is shocking that so many chemicals involved.

How to skin a tomato!

An easy way to peel them is to remove the stem and tip of the core. Score the skin from top to bottom into quarters. Plunge into boiling water for a few minutes until you start to see the skins peeling away. Remove with a slotted spoon and place in ice cold water.

The skins are easy to peel away, and the tomato is still mostly raw.

Does good triumph over evil?

Tomatoes are high in nutrients such as potassium, beta carotene, vitamin C and Lycopene.

Lycopene is a known cancer-fighting nutrient and can slow or even stop various forms of cancer.

Tomatoes can lower inflammation and fight life threatening diseases like heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and dementia.

Macular degeneration can be eased by eating tomatoes! Tomatoes are high in vitamin C which is one of the vitamins prescribed to slow the MD process.

Side note: AREDS or AREDS Plus is usually the vitamin of choice for MD. Well, most brands have food dye (really?), and other unwanted ingredients. Red food dye will cause a headache in a heartbeat! I found a more natural supplement by Code Age called EYES.

Night shades of a different color.

Since green potatoes can cause severe reactions in people, it stands to reason the concentration of Solanine is higher in green or overripe plants!  I wondered if the same analogy applied to green tomatoes. It appears so!

Shame, my Southern roots and fried green tomatoes go way back!

Maybe it is the color of the nightshade. When is under ripe or really over ripe, the Solanine is intensified.

The solanine in a green fruit is very concentrated. Try organic tomatoes and see if you get a headache.

Also try the yellow, orange or ripe green heirloom tomatoes. The darker the color, the higher the tomatine. Try the smaller varieties like grape tomatoes as well.

I have another article about night shades you may find of interests. Could be you are not allergic to ALL nightshades. You could just be sensitive to some.