Question of the Day #107 · July 8, 2026
In the mid-1830s, what common condiment was manufactured and sold as a medicinal cure for indigestion?
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Ketchup
The familiar claim that ketchup was sold as medicine oversimplifies the history. In 1834, physician John Cook Bennett promoted tomatoes as a treatment for dyspepsia (indigestion), and by 1837 sellers were marketing concentrated tomato pills with sweeping medical claims.