The energy of food, just like its attractiveness and tastiness in general, is subjective. Don’t believe the hype.

I love my friend Susie, Boston’s best health coach. You remember her from our popular post on the many benefits of coconut oil. Susie is all holistic and stuff. She once told me that eating apples after a meal would make the apple rot in my stomach (or something silly). Today, I was grilling eggplant and was reminded of the day she told me nightshade veggies have “darker energy because they grow at night and don’t receive energy from the sun.”

Soooo, they stop growing during the day? And, if they grow on bushes, how do they hide from the sun?

Nightshade veggies don’t have “darker energy” (unless you think they do), and they don’t cause many of the conditions reported online. In fact, they have strong nutritional density. From harvesttotable.com:

Eggplant is a small- to medium-sized bush vegetable that produces smooth, glossy skinned fruit that can vary in length from 5 to 12 inches long. Eggplants have large, fuzzy, grayish-green leaves and produce star-shaped lavender flowers with yellow centers. The edible fruit can be long and slender or round or egg-shaped fruit. Fruit is creamy-white, yellow, brown, purple, or sometimes almost black. Eggplants can grow 2 to 6 feet tall, depending on the variety.

Maybe they use umbrellas. Who knows. Suncreen? Whatever.

These aren’t the only myths out there on nightshade veggies. I’ve heard they contribute to osteoporosis, are toxic and cause migraines. Wrong on all accounts. From besthealthmag.ca:

Stephanie Atkinson, a member of the scientific advisory committee for Osteoporosis Canada, says that while oxalates are known to bind calcium in the intestine, reducing calcium absorption, this occurs only when calcium intakes are very low and oxalate intakes very high. Nightshades, however, are not high in oxalic acid, she says. “The alkali contributed by vegetables and fruits is beneficial for bones as it protects them from using bone to neutralize blood acid.

So your bones won’t suffer. What about your brain? It’s safe, too.

Linking nightshades to migraines is also without merit, according to Dr. Jonathan Gladstone, director of the Gladstone Headache Clinic and director of neurology at Cleveland Clinic Canada in Toronto. “I am certain that headache experts internationally would be in agreement that there is no evidence that tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and potatoes cause migraines,” he says. The health benefits of nightshades “far outweigh any risks,” says Piotrowski.

There is one criticism that is fair, however. Eggplant is guilty of being bland as hell. I couldn’t salt my slices enough. I’m all ears if anyone out there has a good grilled eggplant recipe.Strong mind,

Kap