Food They Thought Was Poison

[@PossumReviews]

It's my understanding that people thought tomatoes were poisonous because people actually did get sick from eating them, but that was because they were cooking them in copper pots. What they didn't know is that the acid in tomatoes reacts with copper and creates toxic compounds.

[@CloudCuckooKing]

Copper, lead-containing pewter, and tin were all common cookware metals at the time. All of them can dissolve in significant quantities in hot tomato flesh - not significant for the pan, but significant for the eater's biochemistry!

[@connivingkhajiit]

wasn't it also because people were eating green tomatoes, which are moderately poisonous?

[@cameronoday3929]

Also account a lack of education of the subject; a lot of night shades are deadly while their solanine said poison people were unaware of they avoided for safe sake; funny to know a fully ripened deadly nightshade taste like a blueberry and safe to consume

[@johanneswerner1140]

What about cooking with vinegar? Pretty traditional, lots of recipes call for it. I find it more likely to do with the poisonous lookalikes. Or people eating underripe berries....

[@entropyembrace]

I've eaten plenty of green tomato even raw. You'd have to have seriously impaired liver function for them to actually be a problem.@@connivingkhajiit

[@josephbrown8905]

The tomato is a berry, which in other nightshades would be more concerning than roots or leaves. Potato berries are toxic even though the tuber is (usually) not. So even folks who had accepted eating potatoes would be leery of tomatoes.

[@VeryScaryDragonRawr]

Eggplants are also nightshade berries, though I have no idea if people centuries ago knew that. Or maybe they just figured new world nightshade fruits are much more poisonous than old world ones?

[@samgraham6355]

​@@VeryScaryDragonRawrEggplant is poisonous raw.

[@Hrrrrrrrrrreng]

potato berries look eerily similar to cherry tomatoes. Only one of them is packed with enough solanin to cause renal failure. I grew both and I had to make sure the potato fruit never got red bc my dog loves tomatoes. Chopping the flower stem seems to work.

[@Hrrrrrrrrrreng]

Might’ve been people mixing up the two, cherry tomatoes and potato berries. causing distrust for both.

[@girlbuu9403]

I heard that the acid in it leached out lead in the cookware of the time and killed some people. That seems a little odd though, tomatoes are very acidic but they aren't the only acidic food... heat and scraping also puts particles of whatever the cookware is made of in the food. Honestly I think it was multiple things.

[@piscesplayer9473]

Good morning! I have heard the acid in tomatoes reacted with lead in the pewter plates people used and they thought tomatoes were poisonous.

[@Cr4z3d]

I was just about to comment this...forget where I heard of it myself, think it might've been a special on the History Channel?

[@brograb898]

Yeah the Smithsonian website says the same thing. But I can find any primary sources that are definitive. Might just be an educated guess.

[@DrTurtleBee]

This story never made sense to me. There was plenty of other acidic food they ate regularly on pewter plates. Vinegar based sauces, citrus, fruits, pickles, etc. But only tomatoes get blamed for this.

[@sasha1mama]

Well, we know the acids in wine can erode lead microparticulate from cups - that's what killed a few Roman settlements near Eboracum (Jorvik/York) in Roman England. The resultant lead poisoning caused brain damage and "drove people mad", so the area was abandoned. Tomato acids are much stronger, so it's very plausible.

[@shankieinthefridge]

A-cid I would sort you out with some science!

[@natviolen4021]

I learned at school that people tried to eat potatoe berries in stead of the tubers when they first were introduced to Europe. People then of course got terribly ill. Due to the similarity in appearance between potatoe berries and unripe tomatoes nobody would then touch the latter either. I don't know whether it's true, but it seems to make sense.

[@RaduB.]

In my opinion that was the most probable cause.

[@mkv2718]

they are both nightshades…

[@Rocketsong]

@@mkv2718 They are closely enough related that you can graft the top of a tomato to the bottom of a potato. I'm not sure why one would want to do so other than a stunt, but it can be done.

[@chouseification]

@@Rocketsong people with limited growing space do it for fun sometimes... harvest spuds, tomatoes and a few squash (planted in same pot) at same time.

[@OsirusHandle]

Wierdly potatoes are quite toxic for a solanum. Most of them are edible. But in europe we have Belladona Atropa which is one of the most toxic plants around. We also have hemlock and so on though so youd expect peasants to be able to tell the difference.

[@rigues]

In Brazil we have some native wild solanums (Solanum capsicoides) that look similar to a small tomato, but are EXTREMELY poisonous. One of the popular names for them is "Arrebenta Cavalo" (Horse Breaker), since a horse could die from eating them. Maybe those were mistaken for being tomatoes, and the fame spread.

[@Adnancorner]

There is a similar night shade family in Europe around the region of Italy as Christianity spread in Europe so does the eating habits and fruits and vegetables. That berry is similar in looks as tomato and poisonous when eaten. No animal eat it, herbivores avoid eating anything from the plant. So people thought that tomato is not edible.

[@PuffyJacket10]

Thats interesting, thanks for sharing!

[@Pieces_Of_Eight]

Very interesting! Thank you so much for sharing that!

[@fugu4163]

It was exactly the same thing with potatoes in Sweden during the 18th century. People considered it as dangerous but now a days we measure how long you can survive in a crisis based on how much potatoe you have in storage.

[@TheBookOwl]

I couldn’t stand tomatoes for 35 years, and now I like them. It is weird how our tastes change over the years!!

[@jwenting]

may also be the tomatoes. Couldn't stand them for the longest time, and still many I loathe. But a GOOD fleshy tomatoe can be nice. What's changed here is that tomatoes used to be just red bags of slime and water. Now the quality has improved to where they're more tasty and fleshy.

[@dr.froghopper6711]

I learned to much prefer home grown tomatoes because I can allow them to ripen on the vine. Most store bought tomatoes were picked well before they were fully developed fruit. Some flavors were never allowed to develop.

[@Ezullof]

@@dr.froghopper6711Also depends on how you cook them. Ripe tomatoes are excellent with no cooking (just a bit of olive oil, maybe sesame, cheese, basil etc). Greener tomatoes have a nice acidity for cooking (like in a tomato sauce).

[@KiraRagged]

As a kid i never understood why dinners at grandma's in the summer always included a plate of nothing but sliced garden tomatoes seasoned with salt and pepper. Looking back now, i realize how spoiled i was and wish I was there and I could wolf down that entire plate.

[@charlessalmond7076]

I grew up eating store bought tomatoes. Not good, never liked them. Then I tried farmers market tomatoes, dang those were good. Then I grew my own, ohhhh boy, those were excellent.

[@theganozone4133]

I remember reading that people ate off of dinnerware made of lead or some alloy containing lead, the acid from the tomato would strip the lead out and cause lead poisoning.

[@Lamback772]

pewter dinnerware

[@dragemit]

some metals that are otherwise safe to cook in (most famously copper) become unsafe with tomatoes or other acidic foods for a similar reason!

[@deseosuho]

It's an interesting theory, but tomatoes are nowhere near the top of "most acidic" fruits that people eat. Apples, grapes, oranges, limes, peaches all are at least as acidic. If this were the basis of the belief, it would mean people understood the dangers of lead but massively overestimated the acidity of tomatoes.

[@joanhelenak]

​@@deseosuho those fruits are acidic, however people tend to cook tomatoes and not those other fruits, unless baking it in a pie crust or coffin that doesn't directly touch the cookware unlike tomatoes. Just a thought.

[@skilletborne]

​@@deseosuho I eat all of those foods with my fingers as standard, and I rarely cook with them. Tomatoes are much the opposite. Also very important to note that PH isn't the best thing to consider here, but the varieties of acid - tomatoes are rich in acetic, malic AND citric acid, unlike the others you listed. Then there's things to consider like cuisine and common materials in the time period - for example, the Spanish were the ones eating citrus AND they were the ones who ate tomatoes. Citrus was in severely limited supply on the frontier and in Britain because the Spanish weren't on good terms for much of the period. Not saying you're totally wrong at all, just saying that your dismissal is too quick and confident.

[@Willy_Tepes]

The smell of a tomato plant is strong and it also resembles and is related to many poisonous plants already known in Europe like the Bittersweet nightshade, Belladonna, and Mandrake. Both tobacco and potato are poisonous plants even though the tuber of the potato is edible. There were several highly publicized cases of nicotine being used as a poison. The Solanaceae family is very easy to recognize by it's flowers. The "golden apple" probably refers to Physalis alkekengi or Alkekengi officinarum.

[@DianeSLoftis]

Fantastic comment

[@TnT_F0X]

I started identifying common weeds around the yard a few years back... Turns out the berries I played with as a kid were two deadly forms of Nightshade. Ignorance is bliss... until it kills you.

[@karynstouffer3562]

We have silver leaf nightshade where we live. Very pretty plant, with beautiful purple blossoms. Deadly poisonous. The berries look just like tiny, green cherry tomatoes.

[@karynstouffer3562]

We have silver leaf nightshade where we live. Pretty plant, with beautiful purple blossoms. Deadly poisonous. The berries look like tiny green cherry tomatoes.

[@justicedemocrat9357]

Did you eat the berries as a kid? Did you die?

[@grapicusdrinktus]

Tomatoes react with the pewter used in American/English cutlery. Pewter back then used lead in it. The tomato acid leeched out lead in a form that would make people "seem dead" similar to a wake from lead-alcohol poisoning so people thought that the tomato was poisonous.

[@LaineyBug2020]

My favorite thing about nightshades is that any nightshade can be grafted onto a potato stalk and you can grow potatoes under them in the garden. Great space saver and way to bulk everything up with enormous amounts of potatoes. If you use the little gem potatoes with all the colors for more diverse nutrients, it's a really great scarcity method of gardening, especially when used with a 3 Sisters garden!

[@thebandplayedon..6145]

Rank smelling? Wow, tom plants are one of my absolute favorite smells of summer ❤

[@robzinawarriorprincess1318]

Yay, Ryan! I'm finally off my deathbed after a week of illness, and it's so good to hear your cheerful voice. Blue Lion Coffee rules!

[@s0d4c4n]

Oh no! Did you eat a tomato?

[@Pygar2]

@@s0d4c4nOr was it the coffee?

[@robzinawarriorprincess1318]

It was a bad case of tainted brain.😂

[@kellysouter4381]

Congratulations on getting well.🪻

[@thecannonball34]

Glad you're feeling better!

[@olddawgdreaming5715]

Thanks Ryan for sharing some History about the Tomato and for the great recipe you prepared. It looks delicious . Fred.

[@gorilla_with_jetpack4102]

Another name for tomato from antiquity is the "Wolf Peach". Since it's part of the poison nightshade family it can cause sickness if grown in soil with heavy Lead or Arsenic concentrations, potatoes were also considered bad during the same time period. Oddly enough a similar thing goes for Asparagus - during crop rotation they would plant asparagus to remove heavy metals and poisonous materials from soil before planting a crop of wanted vegetables or fruit.

[@Ezullof]

Small correction, but the Aztecs who called it the Wold Peach were around in the 1500s, that's not really the antiquity.

[@THECHEESELORD69]

Maaaan, I love both potatoes and tomatoes! These guys were insane!

[@the-chillian]

​@Ezullof Not-so-small correction: It was Europeans who called it that, the plant having had no negative associations for its original cultivators, who also didn't have peaches since those are native to China.

[@Bombur888]

@@the-chillian Nor had the ancient Europeans tomatoes, since they came from the Americas XD .

[@TaLeng2023]

​@@Bombur888read somewhere that "wolf-peach" referred to a now unknown fruit and then when Europeans encountered the tomato, they used that name for it, thinking it might be that plant.

[@bartsquared1398]

Ryan really knows how to bring these topics to life. Fantastic video!

[@ericstoverink6579]

For some reason I cannot get this video to play on any of my devices. I have no problem with any other video, but, this one keeps freezing at the same point.

[@BD-lq4id]

Same for me.

[@CaribouOrange]

Start at 156s

[@justicedemocrat9357]

It's probably all the viruses and malware embedded in the video.

[@anophelesnow3957]

Second best food channel on the internet after Ordinary Sausage. I upvote every time before watching, never disappointed. Nice one, Ryan.

[@cliffwoodbury5319]

Like always - amazing video. Watch every one you make and hope you make many more of them. Reminds me of early childhood memories at colonial era houses at tourist sites, and the music makes it as real if not more real than being there physically.

[@jlwhitecotten5947]

You have inspired me to recreate his feat, but I will increase the risk with the addition of BACON and the much maligned BREAD!!!

[@supergeek1418]

Tomatoes (being a "New World" fruit) were completely unknown to the European, Asian, and African continents before Columbus brought them back in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, at which time, the Italians called them pomodoros or golden apples (since the dominant varieties back then were orange or yellow). In Italy, that's what they're called to this very day.

[@fernbedek6302]

It did take ages for potatoes to catch on because people in Europe didn’t trust them, no? Maybe that was also from being part of the nightshades family?

[@goofusmaximus1482]

Other parts of the plant are deadly toxic. The tuber is what is edible. Tomatoes, chili peppers, and eggplants (aubergines in the UK) are also known species of edible nightshade.

[@Ezullof]

It only took around 40 years for the potato to reach Europe. Not an immediate success, but still very fast when it comes to moving around plants. What's true however is that for 2 centuries it was mostly used to feed animals. It's only in the 17th (because of the 30 years war) and especially the 18th century (when France started cultivating it seriously) that it became a much more popular ingredient.

[@kicktree]

cyanide is produced in the eyes of potatoes... but people eventually figured that out. just about every plant has a chemical self-defense... over the last 5k years humans have been able to detoxify quite a few of them... veggies make you liver work really hard. plant foods are survival foods in the pre-agriculture days. multi-chambered stomach animals ie cows can break down the plant toxins.. heck they even break down manmade chemical like round-up... Sadly we can't . So our liver must neutralize the plant toxins.. Think about the american and central american indians dying off in mass when the spanish landed and spread diseases that the natives had never been exposed to... veggies are the same same.... night shades are not native to europe... so in the beginning they were toxic to europeans... with preparation techniques and being forced to fight off starvation... they were able to assimilate tomatoes for example. and root crops like potatoes... we were not meant to eat vegetation. We were and I argue still are meat eaters. vegetation was survival food... like when sailors get shipwrecked on desert islands and are forced to eat their leather shoes, belts.....( added for emphasis ) . It is fine to say that we can eat potatoes, tomatoes, etc , but is our digestive system and immune system working much harder to accommodate our pallet?

[@kicktree]

@@Ezullof yes, and they learned to prepare it by removing the skin where the plant pesticides were formed... ruminant animals have the capacity to break down those chemicals ... we don't. I imagine that people were pushed into eating them during that war... hmmm to fight off starvation perhaps? Humans will always find a way...

[@ULTRAOutdoorsman]

That would explain why they were mostly a "poor food"

[@ImhulluWind]

It would be easy to think that on the townsends channel you need townsend himself, but i love this host. He's such a joy to watch and we would be friends in real life. Keep being awesome.

[@Nobody-s824]

Yep, Ryan is just as passionate as John! Love seeing both of them.

[@nortyfiner]

How times have changed. Now in the USA you can't hardly get a standard "off the menu" sandwich, hamburger et al, without sliced tomatoes on it.

[@Tony.795]

Those tomatoes are unfortunately a far cry from tomatoes that are grown with sun exposure and allowed to fully ripen.

[@Duquedecastro]

It’s interesting that people don’t often know the many different things that are Mexican in origin, and today seem universal/American. Both chocolate and vanilla, tomatos, chia seeds, squash (Americas), Turkeys, etc were all originally from Mexico. Not to mention the Dahlia flower and Poinsettia were both Aztec as well.

[@gemfyre855]

@@Tony.795I once made something with tomatoes and a friend thought they were off. Turned out he had only eaten out-of-season supermarket tomatoes, not vine ripened home-grown ones. I explained that that was how tomatoes are MEANT to taste.

[@trevorstewart8]

Originally tomatoes were very small and toxic. The varieties we grow now are hybrids breed to be larger and safe to eat, just as originally bananas were small, green, and inedible. Only through breeding were they domesticated into the yummy fruit known as the Cavendish banana we have today. Consequently the Cavendish banana is actually continuing to change and will be sterile in a few years. Tomatoes also evolve with new varieties being discovered in gardens all the time.

[@anakelly76512]

I could eat tomatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's one of my favorite fruits.

[@ryeguy7941]

Same. I love my tomatoes and potatoes

[@projectinlinesix]

Awesome content, Ryan! Thank you for putting this together!

[@Wububub]

The "Golden Apples" referred to in Greek times is not a tomato, which is a new world plant, but refers to the Quince fruit.

[@johnrell3106]

As usual this is quite informative and always a pleasure to hear Ryan speak on these subjects. Thank you, Sir.

[@Williamleo71]

Thanks for sharing another excellent video

[@gatheringbaskethomestead9942]

Another great video with the Ryan, he explains and presents very well. Looking forward to seeing more. Thanks!

[@sawyerstudio]

How was Joe Pera not brought in on the tomato episode? 😂

[@sashmezh]

Love to see this guy again on this channel!

[@DrTurtleBee]

For everyone saying it was the pewter plates, why werent other acidic foods also considered poisonous then? Pickles, vinegar based sauces, citrus and other fruits can be just as acidic if not more than tomatoes but only tomatoes have this "fact" associated with it. It doesnt make sense to me.

[@joanhelenak]

I think because with the fruits, if you cooked them they would be cooked in a pie crust or coffin and not touch the cookware directly. The pickling was done and stored in ceramic or wooden barrels that would not have the same toxic reaction. I think it may have been for various reasons, and this may be part of it.

[@oldsouthernpine]

Absolutely awesome episode!!!

[@roostershooter76]

A lot of people are sensitive to green bell peppers. If they are the yellow or red variety, they are more "mature" and easier to digest.

[@shaneblair-hicks4975]

My wife for one.

[@MikehMike01]

Green bell peppers are disgusting

[@TaLeng2023]

Since you mentioned it, I wonder if it's true that the earlier varieties rattled a lot

[@davidmccarthy6061]

Yes, anything in the nightshade family can cause issues for some people.

[@ULTRAOutdoorsman]

Orange bell peppers forever

[@TingTingalingy]

Ryan!! Love how engaging you've become. Great video, sir.

[@aguythatworkstoomuch4624]

As a resident of Salem county NJ, I can confirm the story of a man eating a tomato on the steps of the courthouse

[@O2life]

Was it a guy that works too much?

[@ek-nz]

You were there??

[@aguythatworkstoomuch4624]

@@ek-nz read my comment

[@TinaMarie869]

Thank you so very much ❤ I love trying very old recipes and will definitely give this one a try. Just love this channel ❤

[@yeemstskrt5158]

1820: hundreds of people gather to watch a man eat a tomato. 2022: hundreds of people gather to watch a man eat a rotisserie chicken.

[@FlyTyer1948]

And now thousands gather to watch Joey Chestnut eat hot dogs in enormous numbers! ;-)

[@ugljesaradosavac4489]

A hundred years from now, people in Europe will wonder why we didn't eat dogs.

[@MikehMike01]

@@ugljesaradosavac4489if Europe still exists

[@koolkrafter5]

@@MikehMike01 Do you think it's all going to sink into the ocean?

[@Drakon332x]

????????

[@Larka666]

Hey guys! I loved this video! So much history and it was beautifully presented 😄 I hope you can do some weirder/odder recipes in the future too… I liked as well when the end result was maybe not so great, but it was a fun experiment to try anyway! 😁

[@harpintn]

This video is stopping after about 30 seconds in Firefox, and I can't get it to start playing again. Is anyone else having the same problem?

[@Noahkam_13]

Yup

[@brianartillery]

The bright red colour of the fruit might have made people think that it was a warning that the plant was toxic; the metallic smell, too, can be off-putting to some. Then again, they do look like the fruit of the potato, which can cause quite serious gastric upsets - although I do know people who have eaten them with no ill effects. I do know, that, like potatoes, tomatoes took a very long time to be accepted as food in France, where potatoes were popularised by a clever ruse - people, even starving people, wouldn't eat them; so someone put it about that they were rare, and put phony guards around his potato plots, knowing full well that if he did this, people would come in at night, and steal the 'rare' potatoes, and cook them. He was absolutely correct, and I expect that here, in the UK, they were regarded for a long time, as 'Foreign Muck'. 😆😆😆 Man, that Haddock recipe looks wonderful. 👌👌👌

[@peterawesomeness1]

Apparently, due to their acid content, tomatoes would also leech lead out of pewter plates, leading people to believe the tomatoes themselves were toxic.

[@brianboye8025]

Lead toxicity is not short-term or noticeable, it is chronic exposure with hard to detect symptoms.

[@peterawesomeness1]

@@brianboye8025 True. It's probably an old legend, but it is one of the reasons I found while researching.

[@NIL0S]

oh man, I looooove the smell of growing tomatoes. They smell of the earth, their stalks and the sun, it's magnificent.

[@Varnaj42]

Lead poisoning is the reason. In Europe in those days many people used "poor man's silver" (pewter) table ware. This has a high lead content. Tomatoes are very acidic. When contacting lead one gets lead oxides which, when injested, cause all sorts of complaints like brain or nerve damage. How did this kill people? I think the worry was more to do with the unexplained long term sickness than immediate death.

[@LoveShaysloco]

Yeah going to say that the ate off of lead based plates the acid in it ate the lead. But the rich had silver and lead and poor was what most think is pewter

[@DrTurtleBee]

That explanation never made sense to me. There were plenty of vinegar based sauces, citrus and other acidic food that did not get the same treatment as tomatoes, despite also being served on pewter plates.

[@LoveShaysloco]

@@DrTurtleBee what kind of pewter were they eating off of. For a good example is solder. Back then lead based now adays its lead free

[@strongback6550]

I have heard this story as well. I cannot verify it's accuracy however.

[@terrysperman304]

Sounds like BS, maybe it was swamp gas that got trapped in a pocket and refracted the light from Venus. LoL, dude if it was the plate, then why just one food are they afraid of? Makes no sense, people were not stupid back then.

[@Touketsuken]

This is absolutely fascinating, it's crazy to think a thing we know and love today that's super ingrained in our culinary culture was once thought to be hyper dangerous.

[@Moeflyer6213]

People thought tomato is poisonous because tomato belongs to the Solanum genus, most of the Solanum plants are poisonous.

[@Giggiyygoo]

I'm glad they figured it out. Nothing better than a homegrown tomato in the summer. Im growing 9 varieties this year. I'd probably eat them even if they were poisonous .

[@CommunityGuidelines]

4:35 ---"Even back in Greek times you see references to tomatoes, or something in the tomato family, called Golden Apples." "Emblematum Liber" (1531) by Andrea Alciati indicates, in Emblem 206, that the "Golden Apples Of Venus" are oranges. There seem to be multiple interpretations as to what "golden apples" actually were.

[@Lermoth]

The nightshades originate from the americas so the ancient greeks would certainly not have tomatoes

[@heidimisfeldt5685]

​@@Lermoth Who knows. There are a few and rare evidences of ancients that knew how to travel to the America's. Might have taken seeds along too, and so some few things may have spread. Ancient trade routes ...

[@heidimisfeldt5685]

​@@Lermoth Rare ancient Chinese to the West coast of the USA, Egyptian as evidenced in the Great Canyon, and Vikings to Newfoundland, Canada. Evidence of all these have been found.

[@ripper7210]

Every time I try to load this video, even in a new browser in private mode, just freezes. I can watch anything else. Obviously youtube overlords hate tomato.

[@CaribouOrange]

This video shoul be re-uploaded, it's broken and is a shame.

[@miorioff]

I just watched 9 minutes of tomato history and I loved every second of it!

[@kimmcdonagh6756]

So funny! Today the tomato is the most popular home grown vegetable!! It still makes me laugha that they believed freshly baked bread, still warm was also dangerous!!! So strange.

[@goofusmaximus1482]

There was a time when bran was thought to be dangerous to eat.

[@nadezhdaversh]

Freshly baked bread can cause indigestion

[@MxArgent]

Takes me back to the '20s-era moral panics surrounding...Jazz music. People can be remarkably touchy about unexpected things, particularly if you go back a bit.

[@drengillespie]

So in 2324, we’ll get a video about the anti-gluten craze?

[@nadezhdaversh]

@@drengillespie I believe we'll get it in 2054 or something like that

[@NickShawnFX]

Love when you do videos, Ryan 💪

[@AccountInactive]

This video is really bugging out for me even after all the usual troubleshooting. Freezes consistently at "young man says he was going to eat a tomato--" all qualities, mobile and desktop.

[@paulschwartz2464]

I love the content, always enjoy watching it.

[@andydaniels3029]

Per research referenced in Reader’s Digest as of 2023, the issue wasn’t the differentiation in the various nightshade plants known at the time, but rather the acidity in tomatoes reacting with pewter plates in common usage at the time, causing the lead in them to leech, thereby rendering a poisoning effect.

[@minamur]

tomatoes aren't uniquely acidic. so why weren't people afraid of vineager? and lead poisoning is very slow, so how do people become so accutely afraid of it? actually, what you're saying is people weren't afraid of lead poisoning but of tomatoes because they increase the uptake of lead from lead containing cookware, so they're ignorant enough of the dangers of lead to cook with it... but at the same time they're aware enough to be afraid of tomatoes because of it. that story really doesn't make sense.

[@andydaniels3029]

@@minamur I’d meant to add this edit to my comment, but hadn’t gotten to it yet due to a few life distractions in between lol;​​⁠ from additional research that I’ve done, it would appear that the issue pointing specifically to the tomato is due to a case of mistaken identity and classification. Apparently the acclaimed French botanist Tournefort first gave the Latin classification for the tomato, which translates to “wolf peach” due to its round shape like a peach and because it was originally suspected to either be or be related to the wolf peach, a plant referenced by the notable ancient physician Galen as being poisonous. So it would appear that there was no awareness to lead and reactions with lead-based stuff in the time period as being the real issue, or even an awareness of tomatoes being in the nightshade family and poisonous from that perspective; only that it would be for the knowledgeable and well-to-do (who would also be first amongst people to eat off of pewter plates and have a classical-based education) to be led to the belief that this exotic “heathen food” (which they’d already been led to believe could be poisonous) would be the culprit.

[@MrsLovelyPendragon]

Puerto Ricans have long been credited to bringing tomatoes to the US/Spain due to the Mayan/Mesopotamian cultural inheritance. Puerto Rico is generally *always* overlooked but since tomatoes the topic thought they should at least be mentioned. A few centuries later places like Italy and Spain took up cultivation of the tomato and later culinary uses.

[@Doofus171]

This video wont load. What gives?

[@kyleblankiv7589]

Restart KZbin

[@sclarsen86]

Same! I tried loading it on an android and Apple device and it still doesn’t load. I even downloaded it and still had the same issue.

[@PaineStakingTruth]

I’d forgotten about the name “Love Apple” from my childhood days. Thanks!

[@kc9eow]

I’m allergic to tomatoes (I’m allergic to all nightshades including potato too) so they’re still dangerous. It’s hard to find recipes nowadays without them. 😢

[@growinglifeorganic940]

Maybe some pootine would be good for ya.😂

[@Calamitytoo]

Me too! Didn’t find out until I was 70 years old! Symptoms are incredibly itchy skin. ‘Straight’ medicine told me years ago that I was allergic to Latex but not the bit about the nightshades food! I had to find that out for myself many years later 😊

[@tiffanydeangelo8575]

Me too! I was 45 when I found out the hard way (anaphylaxis).

[@megashawnx4427]

No Italian food for you then unfortunately.

[@kc9eow]

@@megashawnx4427sadly no Mexican or Thai or Vietnamese either.

[@freedomfighter8883]

Apparently youtube doesnt like tomatoes either, video wont load

[@hewhoadds]

in a book i read on the “colombian exchange” the author attributes europeans lack of knowledge on the tomato to the methods they used to bring it back for example, without consulting native peoples cultivating non poisonous varieties, someone may have eaten a superficially similar tomato that was actually poisonous and rumour spread

[@outlawsamurai47]

It was because tomato's are related to poisonous nightshade

[@alecbaker13]

I love these videos and this guy. Very informative and immersive

[@dwaynewladyka577]

Plants in the nightshade category have leaves which are toxic to humans and to livestock. Eggplants, peppers, potatoes, and tomatoes, fit into this group. I recall that tomatoes were brought over to Europe, from Mexico, and Latin America. Cheers!

[@sweetestpotato4392]

The toxin is called solanine and it is in the fruit as well. Some people are able to build a tolerance and are fine. Those of us with digestive challenges struggle more, and instead of building a tolerance these foods contribute to their digestive problems.

[@isopropyltoxicity]

​@@sweetestpotato4392it's almost like plants don't want to be eaten

[@simonkoeman3310]

This is addressed in the video, watch before commenting

[@dwaynewladyka577]

@@simonkoeman3310 I already watched the entire video.

[@sweetestpotato4392]

@@isopropyltoxicity yes, plants have defensive mechanisms, another example are lectins

[@ExtremUnknownAl]

I heard somewhere that they used cutlery and pots with lead in, and due to the acid in tomatoes it coursed them to be lead poisoned, i guess them being red and with the spiked leaves also helped with scare factor.

[@rockhuddy]

The nightshade family of vegetables (tomoatoes, potatoes, peppers, and others) are known to trigger gut inflammation and autoimmune disorders in many people, probably due to chemical compounds such as lectins. Proper storage and preparation can reduce the risk.

[@rustyshackleford1235]

That looks delicious! Another great video Ryan.

[@jamesli629]

people were afraid of tomato is probably just lack of information - you just need one authoritative person saying "don't eat tomato" then the whole town wouldn't eat it - it's not like you will have 4 or 5 books/documents readily available in your town saying tomatoes are good; instead, you will just need 1 document or word of mouth suggesting tomatoes are bad to justify you not to touch it since you will just want to be safe than sorry.

[@GeorgeWashingtonLaserMusket]

No it's because it was a nightshade.

[@danielnugent6545]

Thankfully we've moved past that dark time. BTW, watch out for gluten.

[@Pieces_Of_Eight]

Fascinating subject, fantastic recipe! Cannot wait to try this out over the weekend, love it.

[@Alcanox]

For some reason, this video - and only this video compared to all the other videos I have watched in the last 24 hours - stalls out at the 20 second mark. Refreshing doesn't help. Trying again several hours later doesn't help - when it hits 20 seconds, it just stalls out and will not continue. I can kind of jump past that point, but only kind of. I can walk it back to around 2:36 and let it play from there. However that still leaves bit more than 2 minutes that is just inaccessible. Maybe needs to be re-uploaded?

[@johnclarke9498]

Very interesting stuff, Great channel 👍

[@PrincessAngelaXOXO]

It did take ages for potatoes to catch on because people in Europe didn’t trust them, no? Maybe that was also from being part of the nightshades family

[@Амин-т4х]

It's a bot that copied someone else's comment

[@Barbarra63297]

Well ya know, they did make a movie about this, it was called 'Attack of the Killer Tomatoes' lol Good vid!

[@nunyabidness5789]

I don't know why you think the ancient Greeks had tomatoes when they are a new world crop lol

[@jacobv3396]

This is the second time where they've mistakenly identified a New World crop as being used in the Old World during the Age of Antiquity; last one being the pumpkin and that the Romans knew of them (they did not).

[@hlynnkeith9334]

Tomato is a nightshade. Every part of the the tomato plant EXCEPT the fruit is poisonous. Maybe that is the reason people were afraid of tomatoes.

[@busby777]

this video stalls and won't play. I can play other YT videos just fine, but not this one

[@Sciolist]

Yup happening to me as well

[@Doofus171]

Me too.

[@Noahkam_13]

Same

[@Draco137YT]

In regards to your point about potatoes: every part of the potato plant is toxic except a properly buried tuber. That includes the fruit of the potato plant, which does bear a passing resemblance to a cherry tomato.

[@DoomsdayPoetic]

Cooked tomatoes give me heartburn. I love pizza and spaghetti but I pay for it.

[@wtk6069]

Some sacrifices are worth it.

[@DoomsdayPoetic]

@wtk6069 omeprazole... is the trick I figured out... plus don't eat cooked tomatoes at least 6 hours before bedtime and definitely don't skip a day of taking omeprazole.

[@SWDesert1535]

It could be the gluten in the pasta and pizza dough rather then the tomatoes. I’m gluten intolerant and this food cause me all kinds of trouble.

[@DoomsdayPoetic]

@barbaramiddleton1535 could be, but I notice heartburn after cooked tomatoes. I love ham sandwiches and potato chips and I don't get heartburn afterwards. Usually wheat bread and we know how unhealthy bleached flower is. If it doesn't start to mold or decay after 24 hours it doesn't have neutral value. The darker the bread the healthier.

[@MxArgent]

@@wtk6069 I honestly don't know what I'd do without magnesium antacids

[@FriedEgg101]

With the popularity of arsenic poisonings in the 1800s, it would've been inevitable that tomatoes eventually be outed as harmless, when people failed to poison others with them.

[@richardlord7775]

Greeks? I thought tomotoes potatoes and bannanas were native to the Americas.

[@Very_Angry_Citizen]

Trade between the continents goes back to 800ad, pre muslim conquests and Greeks were trading with other traders that braved the journey between oceans. Tobacco was first seen in Eurasia in 1200bc. Go figure. Our history is a lie.

[@7thsluglord363]

@@Very_Angry_Citizen Theres actually a good bit of evidence for global trade going back much much before then even. But, of course, mainstream historians have established a narrative and they refuse to alter it despite the evidence. History is indeed a lie.

[@jacobv3396]

Tomatoes are indeed native to the Americas so the Ancient Greeks wouldn't have known about them. Bananas were actually domesticated on the island of New Guinea, thus making them an Old World crop.

[@7thsluglord363]

Very interesting how my comment got deleted

[@Blrtech77]

Ryan, Thanks for the history and info about tomatoes.

[@ErikBramsen]

The ancient Greeks ate tomatoes? Dude, the tomato is from the New World.

[@luke_fabis]

They did eat black nightshade though.

[@jamesmckean3221]

Probably imported via Atlantis.

[@millriverfarm]

Thanks for sharing, loved every minute of it

[@feloniusduck183]

SALEM NEW JERSEY MENTIONED LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

[@AllanBeam]

Growing up in Western North Carolina, a lot of our food, especially barbecue, was tomato based. Tomatoes were also a staple on sandwiches and burgers. When I moved out to Eastern NC, all the barbecue is vinegar based. I was told that this was because closer to the coast, pewter was more readily available and the acid in the tomatoes would leach the lead from the plates and such, making them sick. Out west, the poorer frontier settlers used wooden plates and bowls which had no lead to sicken them. No idea if this is true but it made sense. Anyone else heard this before?

[@bvd7517]

To be fair, there wasn't a lot going on at Salem, NJ at the time.

[@davea6314]

Historically, there were people wearing leaded facial makeup afraid that tomatoes 🍅 were poisonous.

[@SpencerORourke]

Solution for folks who've been having trouble with this video loading: I'm guessing the video file is corrupted somehow, but I found that after 156s it runs just fine, so just append "&t=156s" (without the quotes) to the end of the URL to start the video after the broken segment.

[@paulrun111]

Tomatoes are night shades... That is why they were concerned.

[@jacobv3396]

Interesting information but the Ancient Greeks did not know of the tomato as tomatoes are a New World crop. The "golden apple" is hypothesized to be either a quince or an orange. Love the channel.

[@Gregg2G]

The seeds and skin of the tomato are still considered very dangerous in some countries because of the lectins they contain I believe. In Italy for example there are certain regulations in the ways in which they need to be processed before being canned and considered safe for consumption.

[@noahh805]

Another great video!

[@glennberry4829]

A piece of the issue might be a rare allergy. Most have no problem with tomatoes, but one of my grandmothers was allergic and one of my children is allergic. For my child the allergy also extends to eggplant which is also in the nightshade family.

[@lyn1.6]

Wonderful video. In movies and shows, when they show people throwing tomatoes at someone who they believe committed a crime, they really were trying to ☠️ the person. Sometimes it's played off as a joke or not than serious, but the people throwing tomatoes really thought that it would work.

[@noblelies]

Tomatoes were considered the rumored "poison apple" in fairy tales. It didn't help that many of them, as heritage varieties, came in dark purple and looked black. They also look like giant nightshade berries (belladonna), which would instantly kill you.

[@tiggytheimpaler5483]

"A tomato in my food? You sir are trying to kill me! Now excuse me while I go to the doctor and inject mercury into a very sensitive area to clear up my syphilis" I love this era of history because of the absurdity at time.

[@nian60]

Future generations will find us just as absurd though.

[@YTDeletes90PercentOfMyComments]

Future generations will laugh at us for using plastics in food preparation and storage