Tomatoes and Arthritis

[gill_s]

Does anyone have views on this subject? Does eating tomatoes increase the incidence and severity of arthritis? I have heard that yellow/orange varieties are better if there is a problem because they are less acidic.

[harleysilo]

No idea regarding arthritis, but my father-in-law is not supposed to eat as many red tomatoes as he would like, so he cherishes the yellow/gold ones i've grown in the past.

Interested in the answer to your question.

[Blueaussi]

Originally Posted by harleysilo

No idea regarding arthritis, but my father-in-law is not supposed to eat as many red tomatoes as he would like, so he cherishes the yellow/gold ones i've grown in the past.

Interested in the answer to your question.

Why can't he eat as many red tomatoes?


I've never heard of tomatoes increasing the severity of arthritis, though.


Edit: A cursory google turned this up: http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/i...e_foods_l.html

No ideas on the reliability of the sources, read at your own risk

[coloken]

I have arthritis bad, very bad. I love tomatoes and eat a bunch each year. Have never noticed any bad from eating them. No cured meat though, bacon or ham, or the gout will come on.
KennyP

[stevenkh1]

Originally Posted by gill_s

Does anyone have views on this subject? Does eating tomatoes increase the incidence and severity of arthritis? I have heard that yellow/orange varieties are better if there is a problem because they are less acidic.

Tomatoes causing or exacerbating arthritis is a myth.

[akgardengirl]

I heard the same thing too but not only tomatoes but all members of the nightshade family including tobacco. I have a friend who has rheumatoid arthritis and she has to limit tomatoes and eggplant. She does have an increase in pain from eating these especially peppers.
Sue

[b54red]

I also have arthritis but mine seems much worse during the time that I don't have any tomatoes and peppers. During late summer and early fall I get a little easing up and get to cut back on the anti-inflammatory meds a bit. I have also noticed if I eat food with a lot of hot pepper in it my arthritis seems a bit better. Of course it could be the pain in my mouth and lips makes me forget the joint pain.

[BlackestKrim]

Some people taking meds that require a decreased intake of potassium (my boyfriend, for example) can not eat too many tomatoes. Doesn't mean he shouldn't eat tomatoes- just not to the point he gets extra RDA's worth of potassium.

Maybe the myth originated from there? Perhaps there's an arthritis medicine that requires reduced potassium intake?

My meds deplete potassium and thus require an increased intake, so I get to eat most of his tomatoes

[stevenkh1]

Originally Posted by akgardengirl

I heard the same thing too but not only tomatoes but all members of the nightshade family including tobacco. I have a friend who has rheumatoid arthritis and she has to limit tomatoes and eggplant. She does have an increase in pain from eating these especially peppers.
Sue

I am a licensed healthcare provider and these old wives tales crack me up. Arthritis is an autoimmune disorder (body attacks itself) and tomatoes/potatoes do not cause or exacerbate the disease. More and more scientific evidence is pointing to genetic issues which can be familial.

There's an old wives tale that acidic foods (like tomatoes) caused or exacerbated arthritis. Then in the '80s, the homeopaths wove even a bigger tale touting the dangers of eating plants like tomatoes and potatoes within the nightshade family because some of the 2,500+ plants within the entire nightshade family were poisonous. Now it's spun to include fancy biochemical terms like lectins and other nonsense that when one reads it, an eyebrow goes up and one thinks, "one the heck is he talking about???!".

Anyway...now you know the rest of the story...

[beeman]

My DW suffers from arthritis quite badly, in fact she has an artificial knee and one finger joint because of it.
We have taken to drinking 100% Pure Sweet Cherry juice. It seems to relieve the stiffness in the joints making them more flexable and certainly less painful. We suggested it to a friend who also swears by it.
Take a tablespoon each morning and night for 1 week then reduce to 1 tablespoon per day. Pass it on. Why suffer?

[tjg911]

Originally Posted by stevenkh1

I am a licensed healthcare provider and these old wives tales crack me up. Arthritis is an autoimmune disorder (body attacks itself) and tomatoes/potatoes do not cause or exacerbate the disease. More and more scientific evidence is pointing to genetic issues which can be familial.

There's an old wives tale that acidic foods (like tomatoes) caused or exacerbated arthritis. Then in the '80s, the homeopaths wove even a bigger tale touting the dangers of eating plants like tomatoes and potatoes within the nightshade family because some of the 2,500+ plants within the entire nightshade family were poisonous. Now it's spun to include fancy biochemical terms like lectins and other nonsense that when one reads it, an eyebrow goes up and one thinks, "one the heck is he talking about???!".

Anyway...now you know the rest of the story...

i'll go against the majority of the comments here and specifically i'll address a healthcare provider. i eat a lot of tomatoes in august and september, at least as many as most here. i say that will some confidence cuz i doubt anyone could eat more! i am extremely healthy, people half my age should be as healthy as i am, not bragging just the truth! i don't take any meds, i don't eat meat if that may be of interest as most here do. i definitely feel a tightness and stiffness in both hand's fingers when i wake up when i eat tons of tomatoes. it'll be a week ago nothing then BANG. it is quite noticeable but not to the point of being painful. if i cut back it will mitigate. i'll eat 1 slice of potato bread with a cains mayo and slabs of tomatoes, up to 5/8" per slice. i easily eat 5-8, sometimes 10 of these every day that that's when it hits.

this may not effect everyone but it does effect me but again this is only when i eat several tomatoes per day.

tom

[VORTREKER]

There is no scientific evidence that tomatoes affect arthritis--good or bad.
So enjoy.

[gill_s]

Thanks for all the positives for eating tomatoes. I shall just go on loving them! I also read about the cherry juice. I shall have to see if you can get it pure here. If not wait till the cherry season and make some, but oh! all the stones!
Gill

[carolyn137]

And I'll weigh in to debunk two other wrong impressions.

First, of all tomatoes tested to date, with few exceptions, the acidity is about the same for all, meaning, there are no high or low acid tomatoes as so many of the seed catalogs tout. For a long time it was said that the non-red pastel colored ones were lower in acid, they aren't, rather, their higher sugar content masks the normal pH level.

Second, many folks will post and say that their doctor told them not to eat foods with small seeds such as strawberries and tomatoes if they have a GI condition called diverticulosis, which is usually asymptomatic but can proceed to diverticulitis which is, if small seeds become trapped in GI pouches.

More recent research has been done to show that the small seed directive doe'st hold true, so I would suggest a second opinion for those who insist they aren't allowed to eat tomatoes b'c of possible exacerbation of diverticulosis or post and ask for variety recs for tomatoes with low seed counts.

Finally, I inherited both rheumatoid and osteoarthritis from my maternal side of the family. Rheumatoid arthritis is caused by auto antibodies as was mentioned above so that kind of arthritis has nothing to do with tomatoes. Nor does the osteoarthritis type since that has a different mechanism in terms of development.

To date I've grown about 2500 tomato varieties and have never seen my arthritis get worse after eating tomatoes of any color, especially the osteo one that affected my hips now that both have been replaced so I'm more bionic than natural at those two places.

No, I don't take lycopene tomato pills and don't get me going about all the claims made for tomatoes prepared in a certain way that are supposed to lessen the possibility of certain cancers.

And no, I'm not a medical Doctor, my Ph.D is Microbiology with a concentration in human infectious disease and I taught med students infectious disease ( bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi and friends) as well as the host response to diseases which is called immunology. I'm retired now, thank heavens.

[Katmary]

I recall tomatoes being on a list of not good as the acid can increase inflammation so to avoid or eat minimally if you deal with inflammatory conditions. I believe I read this when looking into an anti-inflammatory diet. I honestly don't recall if it was based well-done studies or not, nor do I know how well this topic's been investigated. I'm all for taking notes on how you feel when tomatoes come pouring in and go from there. Tom, I'm sorry to hear how much your pain increases with the amount of tomatoes you have. It's so tough NOT to eat a lot when they first start ripening!

As far as arthritis and post-surgical pain that's stuck around (not including my nerve pain, more on the muscle side of things) I've found Magnesium Malate helps A LOT with spasming and arthritis pain as well as the scar tissue from surgeries. Just noticed the bottle I have says it's for Muscles and Nerves, but it was recommended for my Dad when he had frozen shoulder and for me from the same doctor later for constant spasming from my back. I take 2 tablets per day and sleep better than I used to. Hopefully, it'll get me through the beginning of summer! I really hope tomatoes will be a safe food for me, I'm just growing up into non-cherry tomatoes!