Will eating potatoes with tomatoes or potatoes with eggs cause poisoning? Is this claim true?
Borscht, made with tomatoes and potatoes, is a signature dish of Russian cuisine. Eggs and potatoes are also the most common ingredients in homemade salads. Therefore, the claim that "eating potatoes with tomatoes or potatoes with eggs causes poisoning" is not true.
However, there were indeed online reports of an 8-year-old girl who, three hours after eating a mixture of boiled potatoes and eggs, broke out in a full-body rash and fainted near her school. She died on the way to the hospital. Subsequently, the claim that "boiling eggs and potatoes together is toxic and can kill people" spread like wildfire. But experts have refuted this claim. So, what caused the little girl's death from poisoning?
It's very simple. Both potato sprouts and green tomatoes contain glycoalkaloids (solanine). After consuming either of these foods, symptoms can appear within 10 minutes to several hours. It begins with a scratchy and burning sensation in the throat and a burning pain in the upper abdomen, followed by symptoms of gastroenteritis, including severe vomiting and diarrhea. Additionally, dizziness, headache, mild disorientation, and difficulty in breathing can occur. In severe cases, death can result from cardiac failure or paralysis of the respiratory center.
Therefore, it's not that these two vegetables cannot be eaten together, but rather that one should avoid eating sprouted potatoes and green tomatoes. When cooking potatoes at home, if you find that a potato has sprouted, you must not only remove the sprouts but also cut away the adjacent green parts of the potato. As for tomatoes, be careful not to buy unripe green ones.