What should you do if you are poisoned by tomatoes?

Tomato poisoning in the warm season is a fairly common problem. Early tomatoes with nitrates, purchased at the market, or unripe fruits picked with one’s own hands, cause intoxication. It is important to know the rules of first aid and the symptoms of tomato poisoning - they differ depending on the reasons that caused the illness.

When tomatoes become dangerous

Tomatoes are healthy vegetables that contain antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and fiber. It is recommended to add them to your diet daily: fresh in season, and canned in winter.

Tomato poisoning does not occur due to the vegetables themselves, but due to pathogenic microbes or toxic substances that have accumulated in their pulp. The cause of poisoning is the improper use of fertilizers, growing tomatoes in environmentally polluted places, violation of storage rules or sanitary and hygienic standards.

1. Using too many chemicals during cultivation—Nitrates, pesticides, and other chemicals may be used to speed up tomato ripening, increase yield, and kill pests. Their concentration in vegetables should be minimal and not have a negative impact on human health, but unscrupulous farmers deliberately exceed the norms of applied mineral fertilizers. Therefore, it is dangerous to buy early tomatoes on the market - to speed up their ripening, nitrogenous fertilizers are used, which accumulate in the fruits in the form of nitrates and can cause serious poisoning. Other vegetables also accumulate nitrates: watermelons, melons, potatoes. Symptoms or containing nitrates are the same as for tomato intoxication.
2. The location of the beds near highways - if vegetables grow at a distance of less than 100-500 m from the highway, they absorb salt from the air and accumulate salt as they grow and mature. Their concentration can be dangerous to human health, especially if his body is weakened.
3. Improper storage and transportation - pathogenic microorganisms can accumulate on the surface of vegetables, and if they are damaged, inside. This happens if the vegetables were collected or sold by people who are carriers of intestinal infections. If, in addition, the processing of tomatoes before eating is carried out carelessly, these microbes will enter the body and cause food poisoning or an infectious disease.
4. Green tomatoes picked early are poisonous. They contain solanine, a toxic substance that negatively affects the nervous system and blood cells.

Poisoning from canned tomatoes

Home-prepared vegetables can also be dangerous if the rules for preparing them are not followed. Canned tomatoes are not a source of botulism, but they can cause severe food poisoning. It occurs if the vegetables and jars were poorly washed before canning, the tomatoes had dents or damage, or the concentration of vinegar in the brine was insufficient.

Avoiding such poisoning is quite simple: Do not eat salted or pickled tomatoes from jars with bulging lids, cloudy brine, bitter taste. You should also not store canned vegetables for a long time after opening the can. Poisoning from canned tomatoes can be much more severe than from fresh ones, so if there is any suspicion that such tomatoes are of poor quality, it is better to avoid eating them.

Symptoms of fresh tomato poisoning

Symptoms of intoxication depend on its cause. When poisoned by poorly washed vegetables, the signs of the disease are the same as with any intestinal infection, but solanine in tomatoes or nitrates cause illness with other symptoms.

If the tomatoes were poorly washed, i.e. When infectious agents or toxins enter the digestive tract, the following symptoms appear:

1. nausea and vomiting
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. abdominal pain
3. temperature rise to 38-39 degrees
4. stool disorder - diarrhea
5. , weakness.

The first symptoms appear 2-6 hours after eating low-quality or poorly processed vegetables. Diarrhea may persist for several days.

Signs of eating too many tomatoes:

1. nausea, vomiting
2. abdominal pain
3. weakness, headache
4. increased body temperature
5. characteristic symptom: blue discoloration of lips and nails
6. darkening of the stool to a dark brown color or the appearance of blood in it.

If such symptoms appear, you should urgently seek medical help, as a sharp deterioration of the condition is possible.

When eating tomatoes containing salts of heavy metals (, , cadmium), the following appear:

1. pain in the stomach and intestines
2. nausea and vomiting
3. diarrhea
4. a characteristic symptom is irritation, redness of the mucous membranes of the mouth, nasal passages, and pharynx.

Exposure to heavy metals in the body can cause the development of kidney and liver failure. There is a violation of urination, severe intoxication, repeated vomiting, loss of consciousness, and blurred vision.

Signs of solanine poisoning (from eating green tomatoes):

1. sharp, severe abdominal pain
2. paroxysmal nausea with vomiting
3. diarrhea with a pronounced, sharp, unpleasant odor of feces
4. increased salivation
5. bitterness in the mouth
6. increased heart rate
7. weakness
8. loss of consciousness
9. convulsions.

Solanine poisoning is very dangerous with a high concentration of poison in the blood, it causes disruption of the respiratory system and heartbeat.

First aid

First aid for tomato poisoning is to immediately call an ambulance or independently transport the victim to a medical facility.

Before the doctor arrives and if it is impossible to urgently transport the patient to the hospital, you can help him at home:

1. Gastric lavage. At home, you need to give the patient to drink 1-1.5 liters of warm water (pure or with a teaspoon of soda added) and induce vomiting by pressing on the root of the tongue. It is important to remove the toxic substance from the body. The procedure should be started when the first symptoms of poisoning appear and repeated until the rinsing waters become clean.
2. Give some enterosorbent - it will help remove toxic substances and toxins from the body. At home, you can give activated carbon at the rate of one tablet per 10 kg of weight, Enterosorb, Smecta, Polyphepan or any other sorbent.
3. Give the victim a drink - with diarrhea and vomiting, a person loses a lot of fluid, and developing dehydration worsens his condition. It is especially important to feed children in the first years of life. In a child under one year of age, dehydration can occur with the loss of 200-500 ml of fluid. To prevent this from happening, the patient needs to drink plenty of fluids. Adults and children over 10 years old can simply be asked to drink as much water or Regidron as possible - the volume of liquid should be at least 2-3 liters per day. For young children, it is necessary to restore water balance under the supervision of parents. To avoid inducing vomiting, the liquid is given in small portions: 1 teaspoon or tablespoon every 5 minutes, continuously for an hour, and then as directed by the doctor.

Treatment of poisoning

Treatment for tomato poisoning depends on the severity of the condition, the age of the victim and the cause of intoxication. It can be carried out in medical institutions or at home. Hospitalization is required for children of the first year of life, pregnant women and those patients whose symptoms of poisoning do not disappear within 2-3 days.

In the hospital, treatment is prescribed depending on the prevailing symptoms and the severity of dysfunction of vital organs: heart, kidneys, liver, and so on.

Typically treatment includes:

1. Infusion therapy - intravenous administration of saline or glucose helps reduce the level of intoxication and restore water-salt balance in the body.
2. Reception of sorbents.
3. Taking enzymes – if digestive processes are disrupted, patients are prescribed pancreatin (Mezim, Creon).
4. Antibiotic therapy - if poisoning is caused by pathogenic bacteria, treatment is carried out with Nifuroxazide, Levomycetin, Cefixime and other drugs.

If necessary, medications are prescribed to maintain heart function, stabilize hemoglobin levels, and so on.

In the first day after poisoning, it is better to completely stop eating, and then follow a diet for another 7-10 days: exclude from the menu fatty, fried foods, strong broths, semi-finished products, dishes with a lot of salt, pepper and other seasonings. Food during this period should be easily digestible and nutritious: porridge with water, liquid soups, boiled meat, plenty of liquid.

It is not recommended to include fresh vegetables, including tomatoes, in the menu after poisoning. This can only be done 2-3 weeks later.

Prevention

Prevention of tomato poisoning consists of observing sanitary and hygienic rules for processing products. Purchasing vegetables can only be done in trusted places: in certified stores, specialized departments or from people you completely trust.

You should not buy vegetables too early or “local” tomatoes out of season, as the likelihood of them containing nitrates or other chemicals increases several times. In addition, there is no need to try to taste an unripe tomato: there are many recipes for preparing dishes from these fruits, when used, the amount of solanine in green tomatoes is reduced to a safe level.