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Hello everyone and welcome back to the PKD Dietitian Podcast. I'm your host, diana Bruin, and today is another listener question episode. Faye from upstate New York wrote in is it okay to eat nightshades with PKD? I was recently shamed online when I questioned someone who was promoting them as toxic to our kidneys. Can you please clarify, because I love eggplant and red peppers. Faye, I am so sorry that you got bullied online. Folks, it is never okay for anyone to throw shame or anger at you, virtually or anytime around your nutrition and your health. Fear mongering gets us nowhere except it adds to the already stressful reality of having kidney disease. Seriously, what is the end game there? I'm really glad you wrote in and are asking for a second opinion, so today I'm going to break this down for you. I'm going to break down what nightshades are, why some people avoid them and stay to the end, because I will fill you in on what the research says about eating them with PKD. Are they good, do they have perks for PKD or are they something you should avoid? I think you're really going to like what I have to say about Nightshade's nutrition and polycystic kidney health.
Let's start with the basics. What are Nightshades? Nightshades are a family of plants. They include a group of vegetables, fruit and even some spices. Common edible night shades are tomatoes, potatoes except for sweet potatoes eggplants, all kinds of bell peppers, including jalapenos, and some chili peppers, and spices made from any of those peppers.
What makes a plant and its produce a nightshade is that it contains one or two natural compounds called alkaloids or lectins. Sounds super serious and dangerous, right? Nope, let's unpack that a bit more. There are over 2,000 known nightshade plants. Some are poisonous, but many are safe to eat. Each nightshade plant contains a different level of those alkaloids and lectins. These compounds are the main reason some folks don't consume nightshades and or promote them as being poisonous and bad. Let's look at those natural chemicals and compounds. Then, and first up we have alkaloids. Two primary alkaloids in nightshades are solanine and capsaicin.
I am going to focus on solanine, the more common one and the source of lots of fear-mongering around eating nightshades. Now why do plants actually contain the solanine? It's part of their protective mechanism. The amount of solanine in nightshades and their produce is dangerous for small critters and bugs. If they eat it, it keeps them from munching on them. For humans, solanine can be dangerous and even poisonous, but only in very large doses. The amount of solanine present in edible nightshades is minimal. Really, just to trace them out. You 100%, really just to trace them out. You 100% aren't going to get large doses by including and eating nightshades in your diet. Let me repeat that it's important you 100% are not going to get large doses of quote unquote poison by including nightshades in your diet. On a side note, have you ever cut up a jalapeno or chili pepper and accidentally rubbed your eyes? It doesn't feel good. That burning sensation is from the other alkaloid I mentioned, the capsaicin which is present in those peppers. Just a little fun fact.
Now I want to loop back to those two main reasons why some folks choose not to eat nightshades. It is primarily out of concern that they will negatively impact an autoimmune disease they have, or because they're worried it's going to cause further gut health issues. Let's look at the beliefs and the science for a second. Around autoimmune disease and most of this involves rheumatoid arthritis, but it has spread out in wellness communities for any autoimmune disease, the belief is that eating nightshades will contribute to inflammation and make it worse. So what does the science show? The connection between eating nightshades and inflammation is not well supported by scientific evidence. In fact, there's more research to support that people who have autoimmune disease should include nightshades in their diet because they have anti-inflammatory conditions that are positive for them. The second concern is around gut health and digestive issues. The belief is that the components nightshades will negatively impact someone's gut lining and lead to something called leaky gut syndrome. What does the science show? Science does not support this theory. Any support for it is extremely limited. A small portion of the population does have a sensitivity to solanine and it can cause an inflammatory response.
Some folks also do avoid nightshades because of a personal experience eating them. Perhaps they ate one and experienced some negative components afterwards with their gut or with how they were feeling, and they associate it with what they ate. Who knows if that's the root cause of any issue, but I completely understand avoiding a specific food or dish after you got sick after eating it. Guilt by association can be strong. Thanks to anecdotal evidence, nightshade vegetables have earned a really bad reputation for causing inflammation in the body. I'm not saying anecdotal evidence meaning one person's response and or experience doesn't count or isn't valid. Often anecdotal evidence is where scientific curiosity and research starts, so I do not want to discredit that. If you feel you have an intolerance to nightshades or have had a negative reaction to them, before eliminating that whole group of food from your diet, absolutely do consult with your healthcare provider and your dietician to help determine if avoiding them, or perhaps a trial with avoiding them or doing an elimination diet, would be beneficial. I avoid green peppers myself, and it's a personal preference, not because of any issues I have, but because I really can't stand the taste. Red and yellow peppers give me some of those all day. What I'm saying here is that if you don't enjoy some of the vegetables in the nightshade family, you can skip them too. No-transcript.
I want to get back to the natural components of why nightshades are villainized, and the second one is because they contain something called lectins. What are lectins? Lectins are actually a type of protein found in many plants, including nightshades, and, much like alkaloids, lectins provide a protective mechanism for those plants and it helped to fence them against microbes and bacteria and mold. So all that stuff won't grow. Plants need them, but as humans we really don't. They have no nutritional benefit for us. In fact, we don't have the enzymes we need to digest lectins, much like we don't have the enzymes needed to digest insoluble fiber. So what is all this fear and concern around lectins? Where is it coming from? Perhaps you have heard of the Bulletproof Diet. It villainifies lectins and plants that naturally contain them Bulletproof BS, as I like to call it.
Let's look at the claims on why to avoid them, what those beliefs are and also what the science shows. The main quote-unquote health expert and biohackers reason for fear-mongering around nightshades and lectins is the claim that they will dramatically impact nutrient absorption. Lectins are sometimes labeled as quote-unquote anti-nutrients. This implies that they reduce the amount of absorption of some nutrients in the foods that you're eating. Generally, the focus is on nutrients like calcium, iron, phosphorus and zinc all important but unfortunately anti-nutrients is thrown around pretty casually these days and has become a hot topic label that is often misrepresented. What does the science show?
Animal studies, where they gave the animals very large qualities of raw lectins, did show that there was a negative health effect. So high doses of those isolated lectins the raw ones and raw flours they did see a reduction in the absorption of certain nutrients. However, as a human, the amount that you would need to consume each day to get to that level is much higher than any typical diet would include, for example, you would have to eat 20 pounds of potatoes in one sitting. The amounts in these animal studies are not applicable in real life. Looking at human studies, clinical trials using whole beans which were cooked, of course, because that is how they are consumed do not show the same effect as the animal studies and there was no interference or anti-nutrient effect. More to come on this in a minute, because it's an important connection to understand.
And the second reason why lectins in nightshades and plants altogether are fear mongered is because the claim is that they are the root cause of many digestive issues. Yes, as humans, like I said, we don't digest lectins raw lectins Much like fiber. We don't have the enzymes to break them down. For some people, lectins may cause some GI discomfort like bloating and gas, but this really will only come into play if they're eating large amounts of foods that contain lectins that aren't properly cooked so think raw or undercooked beans. Lectins are only active in a raw state.
Let me provide some insight into the reality of lectins in your diet, in our food and nightshades. The most concentrated sources of lectins in our diet are raw beans, lentils and peanuts. Folks, do we eat those raw? No, we do not. Folks, do we eat those raw? No, we do not. There's also an insignificant amount of lectins in fruit and vegetables. Nightshades do tend to have a little bit higher level than others, so I think that's why they are the focus. Spoiler alert most lectins in our food essentially up to 100% are broken down when those foods are cooked. So, quote unquote raw lectins will virtually be eliminated through cooking. We consume minimal amounts of raw lectins. The foods with higher amounts, like the ones I mentioned earlier, are foods that we eat that are cooked. Kind of a moot point, if you ask me around lectins, it's not an issue when it comes to interferon with other nutrients absorption.
Let's get back to that question of the day. Are nightshades bad for PKD? Quite the opposite. Nightshades have a plethora of perks for PKD. They are nutritional powerhouses. They're rich in fiber. They're packed with vitamins, particularly vitamin C and vitamin K, and loaded with minerals, including potassium and magnesium, which are good for your blood pressure Because they are from a plant. They're rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds, so they're nutrient dense and they add a nice variety to what you're eating.
The benefits of including nightshades in your diet and these nutrients for PKD far outweigh the negative effects and trace amounts of lectins and or alkaloids. Low risk folks, but big perks for PKD. So yes, you can and should include nightshades in your PKD diet. Evidence and science don't support the claims that consuming them will increase your inflammation or negatively impact your nutrient balance or negatively impact your nutrient balance. Thank you, faye, for such a great question. If you listeners out there have more questions about your PKD diet or kidney health, feel free to reach out. I would love to answer them in a future episode. I'll drop the link on how you can send me that question in the show notes. Thanks again for tuning in and I'll catch you next time on the PKD Dietitian Podcast.
Transcribed by https://podium.page
