Nightshade Toxins  Dr. Lebowitz’s Article

Nightshade plants include peppers & paprika, eggplant, goji berries, tomatoes & tomatillos and potatoes (but not yams and sweet potatoes).  The nightshade plants’ green leaves contain a concentration of neurotoxins. The parts we eat contain less toxins than the green matter, but not a zero amount.  The fruit of the nightshades and potatoes also contain vitamin C, which can partly or completely neutralize the toxins. These toxins may exacerbate Autism neural inflammation and dysfunctions.

 

Green potatoes, however contain an unbalance, favoring the toxins over the vitamin C.  Toxins from nightshades in the diet deplete the good form of vitamin C.  Click on the heading, above, to read the complete Nightshade Toxins article.

 

All toxins oxidize the antioxidant vitamin C, which is ascorbic acid (AA), converting it to Dehydroxy ascorbic acid (DHA), a double oxide (an oxidizing molecule).

 

The combined effects of all oxides, food and environmental toxins, allergens, and microbe-generated toxins are additive. Their effects combine in subtracting from AA and increasing DHA.

 

The ratio of the abundance of [AA]/[DHA] is a key indicator of vitality. You can feel this ratio by noting how sick you are feeling.

 

If the ratio is much greater than 2 you feel well.  When it is less than one, you may be sliding down a death spiral ending in toxic shock (lethargy) and anaphylaxis.  You can restore the ratio by frequent (hourly) intake of several grams of vitamin C.  See How Vitamin C Works.

 

The article cites a persistence of the toxins in the body of several months.  In the presence of anti-oxidant vitamins, the toxins will be neutralized, but at the same time disabling the beneficial action of your vitamins and antioxidants.  Thus, the toxins increase the body’s need for replacement vitamins.  Daily intake of nightshades (toxins) requires a daily intake of antioxidants or extra vitamin C to neutralize them, increasing vitamin C dependency.  The long-term persistence of the toxins may explain why a change in diet does not have an immediate effect, especially if you are not taking extra vitamin C to neutralize these toxins each day.

 

In the absence of much anti oxidant vitamin intake, nightshade foods will tip your balance towards antioxidant depletion, so the benefits of the small amount of vitamins you eat will be neutralized.  Taking extra vitamin C each day can reduce the nightshades’ toxins’ effects on the other antioxidant vitamins that you eat, allowing those vitamins to work better.

 

When the concentration of AA in the blood decreases below a critical level, the generation of histamine rises exponentially, allergies flare, cell walls start to dissolve and toxin generation cascades as more H202, OH and NO oxides are generated.  The extreme end-state is the multiple-site hemorrhaging characteristic of Ebola, vitamin C depletion, rapid onset scurvy, aka Anascorbemia.

We noted that some arthritic and allergic persons are "allergic" to nightshade variety foods in our first book,  Rheumatoid Arthritis the Infection Connection.  Nightshade foods dietary-exclusion has helped restore the vitamin C balance for many persons.

 

For a through discussion of Vitamin C and toxins, see Dr Tom Levy's book, Curing the Incurable, Chapter 3, Toxins.

 His newest book is Primal Panacea.  For a comprehensive history of Vitamin C nutrition, See  Dr. Erwin Stone’s   The Healing Factor. 

 

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