Have you ever heard of nightshade foods? As a new nutritionist, I’m just learning about them. Today, we are breaking down nightshades & sharing a nutrient dense flavorful curry veggie stew that is nightshade free.
What Are Nightshade Foods?
Scientific definition: Nightshades belong to the Solanaceae family and include thousands of edible and inedible plants. Nightshades contain glycoalkaloids (basically a built-in bug repellant). Glycoalkaloids trigger an inflammatory response in the gut & body which cause even more problems for people with autoimmune and digestive issues.
Here is a list of edible & nutrient dense nightshades:
- Tomatoes: All varieties
- Potatoes: White and red potatoes, but not sweet potatoes
- Eggplant
- Peppers: Bell peppers, chili peppers and any red spices
- Paprika
- Tobacco
- Goji berries
- Ashwaghanda
Who Should Avoid Nightshades?
If you have inflammatory conditions such as IBS or various autoimmune conditions (Eczema, Psoriasis, Lupus, Hashimoto’s, Rheumatoid Arthritis, etc) & find yourself experiencing endless “flares”, try an elimination diet for 30 days. Keep a food diary and review whether your symptoms subside. Then slowly introduce them back into your diet and note whether your symptoms return.
Keep in mind, you should already be following a clean diet. A diet that is centered on plants with minimal to no animal fat/protein intake is ground zero for eliminating inflammation of any kind + optimal health.
A few other known inflammatory triggers for flares are:
- Eggs
- Dairy
- Corn
- Wheat
- Gluten
- Canola & Grapeseed oils
My 3 month old daughter has severe eczema. Eczema is considered an autoimmune condition but is mainly a gut issue. I turned my focus to healing her gut to figure out her triggers. Since she is exclusively breastfed, I started an elimination diet which revealed she may have an intolerance to nightshade foods.
My daughter’s skin cleared up dramatically within days after removing nightshades from my diet & flared back up after reintroducing them 4 weeks later. As of now, I follow a diet that is void of nuts, corn, soy, wheat, gluten and is plant-based.
Being nightshade free has changed up the cooking game for me. The inability to use bell peppers, potatoes and certain spices really motivated me to flavor my food in creative ways.
One of the items I’ve been incorporating is vegan bouillon cubes. This was a staple in my parents’ pantry when I was growing up so it’s awesome to have a plant-based version with clean ingredients to recreate dishes. Adding these cubes to my stew only enhanced the flavors I used in my base. 
I combined cumin, coriander, turmeric, ginger, mustard seed, onion, garlic and organic adobo to create a flavor packed base.
*If you’re sensitive to garlic, just combine onion with fresh grated ginger to create a garlicky taste without using garlic itself.*
Here’s where it gets fun: you can add ANY vegetable you’d like! Whatever your heart (or palate) desires.
Using guar-free coconut milk is essential to an anti-inflammatory diet. Guar is an emulsifier (thickening agent) that can bind to your intestinal walls and trigger leaky-gut, constipation, diarrhea, bowel obstruction and various digestive issues when consumed in high amounts. I love using Native Forest & Trader Joe’s coconut milks because they are both guar free and super cheap.
Now that we’ve covered nightshades, here’s the recipe for my nightshade free Curry Veggie Stew!
Let me know if you try this nightshade free stew!
