DEAR DOCTORS: I was happy when I saw on the news that tomatoes help your gut microbiome. I love tomatoes, but my wife keeps them out of our diet. She says they're a nightshade plant and thinks they make arthritis worse. I'd like to know more about this new pro-tomato research.
DEAR READER: Tomatoes have a fascinating and somewhat fraught history. The fruit, which many mistakenly call a vegetable, has its origins in South America. Historians say that its use as a food dates back to the ancient Mayans. Tomatoes are a member of the nightshade family of plants, some of which are toxic. This has contributed to caution, and even fear, about eating them. In the United States, from the time tomatoes were introduced in the early 1700s and up until the mid-1800s, they were widely considered to be poisonous.
