Tomatoes are poisonous?

You don't have to go back in time to find a lot of nonsensical beliefs still alive. You only have to read myLot posts on supernatural sightings or posts on cancer cures. The latest in this category told us that a daily 10-minute walk would prevent cancer. What say?

I love tomatoes, especially ripe ones from the garden.

People did worry about unfamiliar things back then. Glad he proved tomatoes weren't poisonous!!!

Food is better with tomatoes.

Oh wow. Well I'm happy he didn't die from tomatoes. I wonder where they got that idea....

I will ketchup with this story later

However, I can find something suspicious in the quality of tomatoes these days.

I don't mind not drinking that disgusting tomato juice but I totally get you on ketchup.

I grew really big tomatoes last summer and they were really good. I hope they are good next summer to.

In the past in Europe people believed that all the plants of the family of the nightshade (tomatoes, eggplants, bell peppers and potatoes) were poisonous.

I can't imagine cooking without tomatoes nowadays. Interesting info - I hadn't heard it before.

I love to eat tomatoes raw with salt pepper sprinkled on it

Nice info lol I love tomatoes.

This is a fun food.See it and be interesting.

Tomato seeds were brought to Europe from Central America in the early 16th Century and the plant was classified as a member of the Solanum family. Since all the European members of this family - henbane, deadly nightshade, woody nightshade and mandrake among them - were known to be poisonous, it was assumed that tomatoes were as well, especially as the leaves and stems were. For a long time this small yellow fruit (the early tomatoes were probably small and yellow rather than red - the Italians call them 'pomodoro', which means 'golden apple') was grown only as an ornamental plant and sometimes used as a table decoration. Eventually, however, people tried them, found they were not poisonous and eating them slowly became popular. The belief that tomatoes were inedible persisted much longer in North America and people still distrusted them well into the 19th Century, which is what your quotation refers to. Nowadays, of course, they are almost an essential ingredient in nearly every cuisine you can think of. I can't help wondering what Italian and Indian dishes would have tasted like before tomatoes (and chillis, of course) arrived!

Yes, I so love tomatoes. I love it for my sauteed veggies. And yes, I also love it as a dip for my dried fish, fried fish and salted eggs too. I love cooking it in my scrambled eggs. So delicious, as a viand or as a sandwich filling.

Yes there are many of these false beliefs that have been proven incorrect over the years.