Hello once again.

How are you doing today?

Are you happy?

Are you sad?

Well, if you are at the bottom of your barrel, then I hope to shed some light on you. Today I want to shine some light on solanine. Never heard of it?

No worries, most people haven’t.

I was the same way until my nutritionist told me that I might be extra sensitive to solanine.

What is Solanine?

Solanine is a poisonous compound that can be found in green potatoes and members of the nightshade family. Solanine is not only limited to the nightshade family however it can also be found in blueberries, huckleberries, and goji berries.

Apples, sugar beets (These are different from the red beets you are used to) cherries, wonderberries, tomatoes, and eggplants also contain solanine. All peppers excluding peppers from the myrtle and the Piperaceae family are not nightshades.

Symptoms of Solanine Poisoning

For me, nightshades plants and other plants that contain solanine causes my pain to flare up and leaves me in pain for a few days. Your reaction to solanine will differ from mine but you may experience inflammation, muscle pain, insomnia, morning stiffness, gallbladder problems, and arthritis.

You may also experience headaches, irritability, back pain, and general fatigue. It is an upgrade from PMS with a killer motive.

You are probably wondering why have you never heard about this before? Well, solanine poisoning isn’t heavily researched in the food industry, but my hope is to educate you on a few key points about it. There aren’t large studies on solanine and how it can affect your body.

Now don’t get me wrong, solanine is actually really helpful to these plants but when it comes to humans it may have a mixed reaction with our systems. Solanine is a natural pesticide, protecting plants from insects that may harm them.

Does the Solanine Hide in Your Food?

If you have decided to eliminate solanine from your diet, then be on the lookout for where it may sneak in. Potato starch is used to help shredded cheese separate from each other. Modified food starch often has potato starch in it. That means your slice cheese from Kraft and just about everywhere else. Paprika is in mustard, mayo, and few other condiments. The majority of salad dressings and spices has some form of pepper in it to help the taste. Some of the pre-seasoned meat that you buy uses chili powder or cayenne powder.

Substitutes?

You are probably asking your self, can you have a normal life — you can. By learning about new spices, you can reclaim the flavors you have lost.

Use cumin, cloves, long pepper, annatto, Tasmania pepper, and white pepper to add back a bit of kick to your recipes.

Try using other root vegetables as fries, and if you want to eat a nice juicy tomato, try eating a cucumber instead.

Buy cheese in blocks and grater them, or you could even try making your own.

More information

If you liked this post and want to learn more about solanine and other things that may affect your body then check out this post and this blog .

As always my friends, stay happy, stay healthy, and keep moving forward.