Nightshades, nicotine and your diet
For several decades there has been a lot of discussion about nicotine and its addictive properties, mostly coming from the anti-smoking community. Nicotine addiction causes tobacco consumers to inhale or ingest cancer-causing substances and while smoking is declining in the US, the CDC website reports that Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States, including more than 41,000 deaths resulting from secondhand smoke exposure. This is about one in five deaths annually, or 1,300 deaths every day. On average, smokers die 10 years earlier than nonsmokers.
Nicotine has been credited for some positive impacts as well. For instance, it can help sharpen mental focus in patients with various maladies from ADHD to Parkinson’s disease. It is also suspected of helping to curb appetite and is thus thought to offer potential for weight loss. But it’s the addictive nature of nicotine we want to focus on here and the often-overlooked sources of the chemical in many foods. Can nicotine in foods help explain weight gain as well as weight loss?
Mostly in the family
Tobacco, a primary source of nicotine, is a member of the nightshade family of plants (the Solanaceae). In addition to tobacco, the family is also comprised of potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. Other foods containing…
