09/07/2026
Did you know that tomatoes are a fruit?
🤷♀️🤷♀️🤷♀️🤷♀️🤷♀️🤷♀️🤷♀️
As a Maryland native, eating tomatoes was a fault thing for many years! Between BLT's at my college lunchroom and eating them straight from the garden, I couldn't get enough.
Then in 2021, the effects of tomatoes hit me like a Boulder rolling down a cliff. I didn't know why, but my joints started getting inflamed more that I was used to...
Tomato season meant eating at least one Big Beef or Cherokee Purple or a hand full of cherry tomatoes EVERY meal. One season we grew over 800lbs of those beauties! I can't even think about how many pounds I personally consumed. My knees, my hands, my fingers, my ankles (Achilles) were gradually worsening. Birth with inflammation and pain. Just show enough to not jump into pain meds and doctors.
Then, as fast as we had buckets, we had none. The season was over. And within a few weeks, the pain and inflammation slowly subsided. Just slow enough to not notice.
The spring season started again, the tomatoes started ripening, the buckets and dehydrators were full again and so was my belly.
This time the inflammation and pain started like a jolt. By this time, summer of 2022, I was noticing that it hurt to much for me to walk around the neighborhood, the scale was inching higher and higher and by the end of the summer, it took me a few minutes to walk from the sofa to the kitchen for the ache in my knees. I started using cabbage leaves on my knees, c*d tinctures and Frankensence for my joints. They all have me relief but the pain kept coming back. All while I was still eating my beautiful tomatoes. Summer ended and much slower, but eventually, the pain subsided.
I suppose, g👀gle heard my cries and started showing me videos about lectins on social media (why when I type social, this phone re-spells it to read suicidal...another post).
If you know me, I research!!! Found out that the skin and the seeds of the tomatoes (night shades) have lectins & some of us can't eat them. 🤷♀️🙋♀️
I immediately stopped! It's very rare that I will eat more that a few cheri tomatoes these days. I do grow 2-3 plants but mainly eat 2-3 at a time.
Last night, I ate a Beautiful Bacon, Miringa & 1 slice of tomato on unbleached, home made sourdough bread. This morning, my knees were on fire. 🤦♀️
I'm so sad!
Do some research! Let me know what foods you have issues eating. And I don't mean processed "foods". 😉😪
