Grow your own? Why you could be eating killer courgettes
No, it’s not a daft scare story. Hundreds have been laid low –and there’s even been a death
WHEN the pandemic left millions stuck at home, lots of us took to our gardens to grow our own vegetables. What could be healthier than being out in the fresh air cultivating delicious home-grown veg — just like Tom and Barbara in the 1970s classic TV comedy series The Good Life.
Not only does it bolster our mental health, it also reduces our weekly shopping bills at a time of economic uncertainty.
But according to some worrying reports, growing your own veg can seriously damage your health, rather than improve it.
Dozens — possibly even hundreds — of gardeners are thought to have been poisoned in recent months by eating home-grown courgettes laden with harmful toxins. Symptoms range from crippling stomach cramps, violent vomiting and diarrhoea to, in some cases, severe trembling, fever and terrifying hallucinogenic dreams.
Earlier this month, 64-year-old music management company director Mike Andrews, from Yorkshire, told how he fell ill within hours of swallowing just a single mouthful of home-grown, cooked courgette.
‘I was desperately ill, shaking and sweating and having mad, hallucinogenic dreams,’ he said.
‘It knocked me out. It’s the worst illness that I’ve ever had and I lost 10 lb in just four days.
‘The courgette looked great, you would never have imagined there was anything wrong with it. But after that experience I don’t think I will eat another ever again.’
Mike is far from alone. On an online forum run by the Brighton And Hove Allotment Federation, for example, about 30 people have reported being violently ill in the past few months from eating home-grown courgettes.
One sufferer said: ‘I was up all night. I cannot remember ever feeling so wretched from food — the stomach cramps were appalling.’
Another wrote: ‘I had to call an ambulance at 4am as my wife collapsed four times and was very ill.’
And for the elderly and frail, the effects are potentially very serious. Another keen gardener told the forum: ‘This happened to my 87year-old mother and she was violently ill. I had to call 999 in the middle of the night and a week later she’s still not back to normal.’ Others even tell of accidentally poisoning dinner party guests by feeding them courgettes from the garden. Data on courgette-related poisonings is sparse. However, a 2018 investigation in France uncovered more than 350 cases linked to toxic vegetables over a four-year period, according to a report in the Journal of Clinical Toxicology. A quarter were linked with homegrown veg.
In very rare cases, it can even be fatal. In 2014, a pensioner from Hildesheim in Germany died after eating a stew made with courgettes given to him by a neighbour. So how can chemical-free, home-produced veg be so bad for us?
First, it’s not just courgettes that are the problem, they just happen to be a more popular grow-yourown option. Cucumbers, squash and pumpkins can all have the same effect — in fact, the condition has been dubbed Toxic Squash Syndrome.
They all come from a family of plants that naturally contain high levels of chemicals called cucurbitacins, which protect them against insects and disease but which are toxic to humans — even when boiled, roasted or fried. Commercial vegetable growers use seeds genetically engineered to be free of these chemicals, which also removes their bitter flavour, so that the end product is palatable. That’s why cases of poisoning from eating supermarket vegetables are unheard of.
Some experts warn that heat stress — such as the hot, dry conditions experienced in April and May — can drive up toxin levels in the veg. However, many gardeners collect seeds from their vegetables at the end of the season and save them to grow new plants the following year. Normally this is not a problem, unless the plant — whether it’s a courgette, cucumber, squash or pumpkin — has been accidentally cross-pollinated. This is when it has come into contact with pollen from another plant of the same family that still has high levels of toxic cucurbitacins.
‘Many gardeners like to grow what we call ornamental gourds,’ says Guy Barter, chief horticulturist at the Royal Horticulture Society. ‘These are non-edible types of squash, pumpkins or courgettes that are very bright and colourful and are grown as a form of decoration around the garden.’
But unlike their edible cousins, they retain high levels of toxins.
‘Problems arise when the same bees pollinate both the ornamental gourds and the edible vegetables,’ says Barter.
But how can gardeners tell if their vegetables are toxic?
‘It’s only by taste,’ says Barter. ‘If you are worried, I’d recommend cutting off a tiny slither to taste — raw or cooked — and if there is the slightest hint of bitterness, discard the fruit immediately and remove the plant from your garden.’