Ketchup Was Once Medicine: The Dark and Bizarre History of Food Cures

0:00 Speaker 1: Dear listener, I want you to do something simple tonight,

0:03 Speaker 1: something you've done a thousand times without thinking, something so

0:07 Speaker 1: ordinary it barely registers as a decision, And that is

0:11 Speaker 1: to open your refrigerator and stand there for a moment

0:14 Speaker 1: as the cold air spills out and the quiet hum

0:17 Speaker 1: fills the room, while you stare at rows of condiments

0:21 Speaker 1: bottles lined up like silent witnesses to modern convenience, and

0:25 Speaker 1: among them sits ketch up. Familiar, harmless, something you trust

0:31 Speaker 1: without question, something you squeeze onto fries or burghers without

0:35 Speaker 1: ever wondering how it got there or why it exists

0:37 Speaker 1: in the first place. But what if I told you

0:40 Speaker 1: that this same bottle, this same red sauce, was once

0:44 Speaker 1: sold not as a topping, but as a cure, not

0:47 Speaker 1: as flavor, but as medicine, and not just casually either,

0:52 Speaker 1: but with full confidence that it could heal your body,

0:55 Speaker 1: settle your stomach, and restore your health in ways that

0:58 Speaker 1: sound almost absurd today but made perfect sense to people

1:02 Speaker 1: who were desperate enough to believe it. To understand how

1:05 Speaker 1: ketchup became medicine, we have to step back into the

1:08 Speaker 1: early eighteen hundreds, into a world where science was still

1:12 Speaker 1: figuring itself out, and medicine was often based less on

1:16 Speaker 1: evidence and more on confidence, a world where tomatoes themselves

1:20 Speaker 1: were viewed with suspicion because they belonged to the night

1:23 Speaker 1: shade family and had long been considered potentially poisonous, which

1:28 Speaker 1: meant that convincing people to eat them was already a challenge,

1:32 Speaker 1: let alone convincing them that those same tomatoes could cure illness.

1:36 Speaker 1: But that is exactly what happened when doctor John Cook

1:39 Speaker 1: Bennett entered the picture with a bold idea that tomatoes

1:43 Speaker 1: were not only safe but beneficial, packed with properties that

1:47 Speaker 1: could treat digestive issues, inflammation, and a range of other ailments.

1:52 Speaker 1: And instead of simply encouraging people to eat more tomatoes,

1:55 Speaker 1: he did something far more marketable by concentrating them into

1:59 Speaker 1: ex extracts, pills, and sauces that could be packaged, sold

2:04 Speaker 1: and prescribed, effectively transforming a feared fruit into a trusted

2:09 Speaker 1: remedy almost overnight. What followed was not just a shift

2:14 Speaker 1: in perception, but a full blown trend, because once Bennett

2:18 Speaker 1: began promoting tomato based medicine, others quickly saw an opportunity

2:22 Speaker 1: to capitalize on the idea, and suddenly the market was

2:26 Speaker 1: flooded with products claiming to harness the healing power of tomatoes,

2:30 Speaker 1: many of which had little to do with tomatoes at all.

2:33 Speaker 1: As imitation, medicines appeared that were diluted, altered, or completely fabricated,

2:39 Speaker 1: often containing laxatives or other substances that produced noticeable effects,

2:43 Speaker 1: which people then interpreted as proof that the medicine was working.

2:47 Speaker 1: And so the cycle continued as belief fueled demand, and

2:50 Speaker 1: demand fueled more questionable products, all built on the simple

2:55 Speaker 1: idea that if something produced a reaction, it must be beneficial,

2:59 Speaker 1: even and if that reaction was your body desperately trying

3:03 Speaker 1: to expel whatever you had just consumed. And before we

3:07 Speaker 1: laughed too hard at the idea of ketchup as medicine,

3:10 Speaker 1: it is important to remember that this was not an

3:13 Speaker 1: isolated moment of collective confusion, but part of a much

3:17 Speaker 1: larger pattern in human history where food and medicine have

3:20 Speaker 1: always overlapped in strange and sometimes dangerous ways, because people

3:25 Speaker 1: have always been searching for easy cures, simple solutions, and

3:30 Speaker 1: anything that promises relief without complexity, which brings us to

3:34 Speaker 1: the early twentieth century, when science had advanced just enough

3:38 Speaker 1: to discover something new and powerful, but not quite enough

3:41 Speaker 1: to understand the risks, and that something was radiation, which,

3:45 Speaker 1: instead of being feared, was embraced as a miracle, leading

3:49 Speaker 1: to the creation of products like radium infused water that

3:53 Speaker 1: promised energy, vitality, and rejuvenation in a bottle, marketed with

3:59 Speaker 1: the same kind confidence and authority that once surrounded medicinal catchup.

4:04 Speaker 1: One of the most tragic examples of this belief can

4:07 Speaker 1: be seen in the story of Ebben Buyers, a wealthy

4:11 Speaker 1: industrialist who consumed radium water regularly because he believed it

4:15 Speaker 1: improved his health, strengthened his body, and enhanced his life,

4:20 Speaker 1: only for it to slowly destroy him from the inside

4:23 Speaker 1: out as the radiation poisoned his bones, caused severe deterioration,

4:28 Speaker 1: and ultimately led to his death in a way that

4:30 Speaker 1: was as horrifying as it was preventable. Yet for a time,

4:34 Speaker 1: this glowing liquid was seen as cutting edge wellness. Another

4:38 Speaker 1: reminder that the line between innovation and danger is often

4:41 Speaker 1: only visible in hindsight. And if radioactive drinks feel like

4:45 Speaker 1: an extreme example something so obviously dangerous that it could

4:49 Speaker 1: never happen again, then consider the bizarre world of dieting

4:53 Speaker 1: in the late eighteen hundreds and early nineteen hundreds, when

4:56 Speaker 1: the pressure to lose weight led to solutions that were

5:00 Speaker 1: not just ineffective but deeply unsettling, including the idea that

5:04 Speaker 1: one could simply ingest a tapeworm and allow it to

5:08 Speaker 1: consume excess calories from within, a concept that sounds like

5:12 Speaker 1: something out of a nightmare, but was nonetheless marketed as

5:15 Speaker 1: a legitimate method of weight loss, playing on the same

5:18 Speaker 1: hopes and fears that drove people toward ketch up medicine

5:22 Speaker 1: and radium water. Because at its core, this was never

5:25 Speaker 1: about logic or science, but about belief, about the desire

5:29 Speaker 1: to find something that works without fully understanding how or

5:33 Speaker 1: why it works in the first place. The common thread

5:36 Speaker 1: connecting all of these strange and unsettling practices is not ignorance,

5:42 Speaker 1: but hope, the kind of hope that makes people willing

5:45 Speaker 1: to try something new, something unproven, something that promises relief

5:50 Speaker 1: when nothing else seems to work. And it is that

5:53 Speaker 1: same hope that allowed ketchup to be sold as medicine,

5:57 Speaker 1: that allowed radioactive water to be consumed as a health tonic,

6:02 Speaker 1: and that allowed the idea of tapeworm diets to exist

6:05 Speaker 1: at all, because when people are searching for answers, they

6:09 Speaker 1: are often willing to accept them from wherever they appear,

6:13 Speaker 1: especially when those answers are packaged in a way that

6:15 Speaker 1: feels credible, authoritative, and easy to understand. And here is

6:21 Speaker 1: where things take an interesting turn, because while the idea

6:25 Speaker 1: of ketchup as medicine may seem completely ridiculous, there is

6:29 Speaker 1: a small kernel of truth hidden within it, as tomatoes

6:33 Speaker 1: do contain beneficial compounds like lycopene and antioxidants that contribute

6:38 Speaker 1: to overall health, meaning that while doctor Bennett's claims were

6:41 Speaker 1: exaggerated and his methods questionable, he was not entirely wrong

6:45 Speaker 1: about the potential value of tomatoes. He was simply operating

6:49 Speaker 1: in a time when understanding was limited and marketing often

6:53 Speaker 1: filled in the gaps where science had not yet caught up,

6:57 Speaker 1: creating a situation where something that was partially true became

7:01 Speaker 1: something that was wildly overstated. And speaking of things that

7:05 Speaker 1: are wildly overstated and probably should not be trusted without question,

7:10 Speaker 1: let's take a moment to pause for something that feels

7:13 Speaker 1: just a little too familiar.

7:15 Speaker 2: Are you tired of modern medicine being based on science,

7:18 Speaker 2: research and evidence. Do you long for a simpler time

7:22 Speaker 2: when confidence was all you needed to sell a cure,

7:24 Speaker 2: then you might be ready for Panasa Pantry, the only

7:27 Speaker 2: subscription box that delivers historically inspired remedies straight to your

7:31 Speaker 2: door with absolutely no guarantee that any of them will

7:34 Speaker 2: do anything helpful at all, where each month you can

7:37 Speaker 2: enjoy a carefully curated selection of treatments that once convinced

7:41 Speaker 2: entire populations they were on the cutting edge of health,

7:44 Speaker 2: including radium adjacent water that is definitely just sparkling water,

7:49 Speaker 2: but feels more exciting if you squint, tapewarm inspired gummies

7:52 Speaker 2: that are completely harmless but emotionally unsettling, and medicinal ketchup

7:57 Speaker 2: shots that bring you one step closer to living like

8:00 Speaker 2: it is eighteen thirty four. Again, Panacea Pantry exists because

8:04 Speaker 2: if something worked once for someone somewhere under unclear circumstances,

8:08 Speaker 2: then it probably deserves a second chance, or at least

8:11 Speaker 2: a second look.

8:13 Speaker 1: Dear listener, as we come back from that brief and

8:15 Speaker 1: questionable interruption, it is worth reflecting on how easily the

8:19 Speaker 1: past mirrors the present, Because while we may no longer

8:23 Speaker 1: believe that catchup can cure disease or that radioactive water

8:28 Speaker 1: can restore vitality. We are still drawn to quick fixes,

8:32 Speaker 1: miracle cures, and solutions that promise more than they can

8:36 Speaker 1: realistically deliver. And while the packaging may have changed and

8:40 Speaker 1: the language may be more sophisticated, the underlying desire remains

8:44 Speaker 1: exactly the same, which means that the strange history of

8:48 Speaker 1: food and medicine is not just a collection of bizarre

8:51 Speaker 1: stories from the past, but a reminder that the line

8:54 Speaker 1: between what we consume for nourishment and what we consume

8:58 Speaker 1: for healing has always been blurred. And so the next

9:01 Speaker 1: time you reach for that bottle of ketchup, the next

9:04 Speaker 1: time you add it to your plate without a second thought,

9:07 Speaker 1: take a moment to consider the strange journey it has

9:09 Speaker 1: taken from feared fruit to miracle cure to everyday condiment,

9:14 Speaker 1: and ask yourself not just how it got there, but

9:16 Speaker 1: what it says about us, about our willingness to believe,

9:20 Speaker 1: our desire to trust, and our constant search for something

9:24 Speaker 1: that will make us feel just a little bit better.

9:27 Speaker 1: Because history has shown us again and again that what

9:31 Speaker 1: we believe today may not look so certain tomorrow, and

9:34 Speaker 1: the things we accept without question now may one day

9:37 Speaker 1: become the stories that leave future generations wondering how we

9:42 Speaker 1: ever thought they were a good idea. Sleep well, dear listener,

9:46 Speaker 1: and maybe just maybe read the label first.

10:22 Speaker 2: M bon bon had been bo