People Were Terrified of Tomatoes for 200 Years (Are You Sh!#ing Me?)

For 200 years, Europeans and early Americans were convinced tomatoes were deadly. They called them "poison apples" and wouldn't touch them. Turns out the tomato was innocent the entire time — and the real culprit is a lot more embarrassing.

In this episode of Are You Shitting Me?, host Brett breaks down the bizarre true history behind the tomato poisoning myth - and nobody ever stopped to ask why. Along the way, Italy built an entire cuisine around tomato sauce and pizza while everyone else treated the same fruit like a biological weapon.

It's a story about food history, class bias, and poisoning all colliding to frame one very innocent fruit for two centuries.

Grab a beer and find out: are you shitting me?

🍅 In this episode:

Why tomatoes were called "poison apples" in Europe and early America

The real reason wealthy tomato-eaters got sick (it wasn't the tomato)

and why poor communities ate tomatoes safely the whole time

New episodes of Are You Shitting Me? drop regularly — weird history, strange science, and "wait, that's actually true?" facts, one beer at a time.

🔗 Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/show/2SrYmUdiCM5PWOCNonDqIW

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