How the Misrepresentation of Tomatoes as Stinking ‘Poison Apples’ That Provoked Vomiting Made People Afraid of Them for More Than 200 Years
www.smithsonianmag.com
The long and fraught history of the plant shows that it got an unfair reputation from the beginning
  • teyrnon@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    351·
    6 days ago

    That is because they ate out of pewter, a lead alloy, and the acidity of tomatoes leeched lead out into the food.

    This often lead to lead comas, and people were thought to be dead and then buried. They for some reason dug some up and found claw marks on the inside of their coffins, and started to attach a string connected to a bell on the surface.

      • ClanOfTheOcho@lemmy.worldEnglish
        15·
        6 days ago

        I’m too lazy to make the meme, myself, so imagine an image of Zack Morris looking confused, and the text, “I thought it came from boxing?”

      • teyrnon@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        5 days ago

        Is it? I am dumb forgot that one, too much leaded something perhaps. There is an epidemic of lead deficiency, but no one led us to any curative solutions sadly.