bowls of dried lentils and beans

What Are Foods High in Lectins? [2023 Updated]

Thousands of foods have allergic reactions associated with them, and in theory, it’s possible for any food to be an allergy candidate.

However, the actual part of the food we can potentially be allergic to is the proteins and their pollens.

Not all foods have those, or at least not in high concentrations.

Can you be allergic to apples? Yes, but since they contain so little protein content, even if you are allergic, it’s unlikely you will have noticeable side effects like skin rash, hives, or sneezing.

Among those eaten, Gala apples have the least amount of protein, and Starking has the most (1). In skin prick tests, that’s why the latter variety tends to have more pronounced results.

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Epipen boxIt’s not just a coincidence that the 8 most common food allergens are protein-rich (2):

  • Milk
  • Eggs
  • Fish
  • Crustacean shellfish
  • Tree nuts
  • Peanuts
  • Wheat
  • Soybeans

Many within these categories are also foods high in lectins. Is that just a coincidence, or does their presence plays a part in symptoms?

It’s possible that your side effects might not even be from a soy, nut, or dairy allergy. They might be caused by your having an increased sensitivity to a specific form of lectin poisoning.

The most common thing you’ve never heard of

You could spend a whole year reading nutritional websites yet never come across this word once.

Or at least until recently.

Now you may encounter an ad to sell you the Lectin Shield supplement by Gundry MD.

To complement the narrative, Dr. Gundry is also the author of the much-hyped book called The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Dangers in “Healthy” Foods. Kelly Clarkson has touted it.

It seems all you hear on the topic is scaremongering you into buying expensive supplements.

Or someone independent who reports on what Gundry says as gospel.

How about some unbiased insight from other sources?

Lectin intolerance and toxicity affects all of us to at least some degree.

Lectins were discovered almost 130 years ago, in 1888. That’s well over a decade before aviation, something we have since mastered. Yet these commonly occurring compounds largely remain a mystery. And while you may not be flying every day, it’s guaranteed that you are eating foods containing lectin on a daily basis.

Seems like something we really ought to know more about, right?

Glyca-binding proteins (GBPs) are a category of proteins that bind specifically to certain sugar molecules. The “glyca” is the same prefix you see in the word glycation. That describes what happens after a protein or fat binds with a sugar molecule (3).

This binding process can cause inflammation and the creation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs), which are compounds associated with numerous age-related diseases. It’s why the apparent anti-glycation benefits of carnosine are so intriguing.

While some is influenced by diet, most of the glycation in your body will take place no matter what you eat.

how lectins work
Source: Department of Chemistry, UC Berkeley (32)

There are two major categories of GBPs:

  • lectins
  • glycosaminoglycan-binding proteins

That last one is more relevant to pharmaceuticals (like heparin, a blood thinning medication) and how some infectious diseases work (like Streptococcus) (4). Since we’re focusing on food here, this second category will have to be a conversation for another time.

What are lectins?

Lectins are a defense mechanism which all life forms appear to have. Essentially, they are a low level toxin. The purpose of lectins is to discourage other animals from eating that life form. By triggering a negative reaction in the predator, that life form is then viewed as an undesirable food source. Hence, aiding its future survival.

Other names for lectins include agglutinins and hemagglutinins. When it comes to animal lectins, they’re almost always referred to as either agglutinins, glycans, glycan-binding proteins, or glycoproteins.

That’s why if you do a search, almost all of what you will see is related to plant foods.

As part of an avoidance diet, many folks are peddling a lectin-free food list (or so they believe) by axing many grains, vegetables, and fruits. They have suggested intolerance of them is causing weight gain, inflammation, leaky gut, and even major diseases.

That might be happening with some. But only picking on plants is premature.

Does meat like beef, chicken, and turkey have lectins? Yep…

lectin familes
Credit: Division of Molecular Biosciences, Imperial College London (5)

Not only do meats (vertebrate animals) have the same broad types/categories as plants, but they also have others in addition, as seen above.

Whether you’re talking about meat, dairy, or eggs, those coming from animals are some of the least studied and most recent to be discovered.

What we do know, though, is that many of them bind not just to carbs but also proteins and fats (6). That means overall, the animal forms may actually have a greater biological effect on the human body than those which are plant-derived.

milk glassResearch shows that the highest overall animal source appears to be dairy.

Mammals only produce milk during reproduction to feed their newborns.

Since reproduction is an animal’s most important task in life, it’s interesting to note that it also involves their most significant use of lectins – the mother’s milk is loaded with it.

This fends off predators – other species – from considering that milk as their own potential food source. That ensures the newborn is more likely to get this vital source of food rather than someone else.

Keep in mind that predators include microscopic organisms, like bad bacteria and fungal infections, in a baby’s digestive tract.

So why are these milk lectins nutritious for the baby while being potentially poisonous to another species?

That’s how lectins work. They ensure the food is good for whoever should get it, but not good for everyone.

Is lectin the same as lecithin? No, they sound similar but are completely different things. While the former is a sugar-binding protein, the latter – lecithin – is a generic term for a broad category of yellowish-brown lipids (fats) found in plants and animals.

What types of food contain the most lectins?

peanut lectin
This is what a peanut lectin looks like. They are a rather large structure involving dozens of different amino acids pieced together.

That’s not a straightforward answer since each plant and animal has a unique type (or several).

However, if you were treating them all as equal and simply basing your answer on percentage concentrations, these groups represent some of the highest natural sources identified so far.

  1. Nightshade fruits and vegetables – Such as white potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers. Goji berries are also part of the Solanaceae family, which means they’re nightshade.
  2. Grains – Whole grains have more since they are found in higher concentrations in the outer bran.
  3. Dairy – Pasteurized milk and dairy products may be worse because the heat destroys the naturally present SIgA, an immunoglobulin that may help neutralize lectins to some degree by binding to them (7).
  4. Legumes – Beans, lentils, and peas.
  5. Nuts and seeds – Excluding grain seeds, there is not much evidence to suggest that humans are sensitive to the types of lectins in tree nuts and most flowering seeds.
  6. Yeast – It’s worth noting that “only a few reports are available” about the activity of yeast lectins (8).

Just because you don’t see food on the list doesn’t mean it’s safe.

Scientists have only recently concluded that they are found in every plant and animal.

In fact, scientists have yet to identify a single organism, whether that’s something as large as an animal or as small as an insect or bacteria, which does not produce glycan-binding proteins. They find them whenever they have looked for them in a given species.

For example, research published in 2015 found them in dozens of tested fish, including those we commonly eat, like salmon, catfish, trout, tilapia, mackerel, and even eels (9).

Grains, nightshades, and dairy have long been scrutinized as being the worst. However that might be a premature conclusion. Scientists initially focused on those because their percentage content was obviously high. But less doesn’t necessarily mean better, since the types of lectin differ by food. Most have little to no research behind them.

The current mindset might be comparable to assuming a big truck full of dynamite is more dangerous than a small suitcase-sized nuclear bomb.

Quantity aside, the unique effects of each type need to be evaluated.

To give you an idea of their diversity, here is a table of lectins that have been discovered. These 50 are just a sampling of the thousands – perhaps tens of thousands – in our diet, most of which are unknown/unstudied.

With the exception of dairy and wheat, many foods have only had one type researched, even though they may contain several.

List of 50 Foods High in Lectins

(list in alphabetical order)
  Food Lectin Name* Abbreviation**
1. Avocado Persea americana agglutinin PAA
2. Bananas Plantain agglutinin none assigned (BanLec is shortened name)
3. Barley Hordeum vulgare agglutinin HOV
4. California crab Cancer antennarius agglutinin CCA
5. Carrot Daucus carota agglutinin DAC
6. Chickpea Cicer arietinum agglutinin CPA
7. Cocoknut crab Birgus latro agglutinin BIL
8. Corn Zea mays agglutinin ZMA (corn lectin is more often used)
9. Eggplant Solanum melongena agglutinin SOM
10. Elderberry Sambuccus nigra agglutinin SNA
11. Fava bean Vicia faba agglutinin VFA
12. Garlic Allium sativum agglutinin ASA
13. Gourd Luffia actangula agglutinin LUA
14. Jackfruit Artocarpus integrifolia agglutinin (Jacalin) JAC
15. Kidney bean Phaseolus vulgaris agglutinin PHA
16. Leek Allium porrum agglutinin APA
17. Lentil Lens culinaris agglutinin LCA
18. Lobster sialic acid-specific lobster lectin LAg1
19. Mango Mangifera indica agglutinin MIH
20. Milk (mammals, incl. cow) A1 beta-casein (beta-casomorphin-7) BCM-7 (name of 7 amino acid segment unique to A1)
21. Milk (mammals, incl. cow) A2 beta-casein none assigned
22. Milk (mammals, incl.cow) phosphorylated whey glycoprotein PP3
23. Milk (mammals, incl. cow) chitinase-3-like protein 1 (chitinase-like lectin) Chi3L1 & YKL-40
24. Milk (mammals, incl. cow) pregnancy-associated glycoproteins PAGs (numerous subtypes)
25. Mung bean Vigna radiata agglutinin VRA
26. Mushroom Agaricus bisporus agglutinin ABA
27. Mushroom Psathyrella velutina agglutinin PSV
28. Oat Avena sativa agglutinin AS
29. Onion Allium cepa agglutinin ACA
30. Pea Pisum sativum agglutinin PSA
31. Peanut Peanut agglutinin PNA
32. Peppers (incl. sweet bell and hot chili peppers) Capsicum annuum GLP1 CaGLP1
33. Potato Solanum tuberosum agglutinin STA
34. Pumpkin Cucurbita maxima agglutinin CUM
35. Rice Oryza sativa agglutinin OTL
36. Rye Secale cereale agglutinin SCL
37. Salmon Salmon serum lectin SSL
38. Sesame Sesamum indicum SEI
39. Shallot Allium ascalonicum agglutinin AAA
40. Snail Helix hortensis agglutinin HEL
41. Soybean Soybean agglutinin SBA
42. Squash Cucurbita pepo agglutinin CUP
43. Sweet pea Lathyrus odoratus agglutinin LOA
44. Sweet potato Ipomoea batatas lectin IBL
45. Tomato Lycopersicon esculentum agglutinin LEA
46. Winged bean Psophocarpus tetragonolobus agglutinin PTA
47. Wheat Triticum vulgare agglutinin TVA
48. Wheat germ Wheat germ agglutinin WGA
49. Wheat germ Succinyl wheat germ agglutinin sWGA
50. Wine and grapes Vitis vinifera lectins none assigned
  *Name listed refers to the verbiage which is most commonly seen in medical and scientific papers. A given food can and will have multiple names – e.g. avena sativa agglutinin is the same as oatmeal lectin.
**Abbreviation refers to that which is most commonly seen. Some have multiple abbreviations – e.g. SBA and SBL for soy.

Remember, the above-ranked table is in alphabetical order. Not many of them have had their exact percentages determined, which makes a list ranked by the lowest concentration or potency impossible as of today.

If something does have a higher amount, that does not necessarily means it’s the worse type of food.

For example, the dietary issues with tree nuts tend to revolve around their high phytic acid content and allergy-producing proteins. Most research suggests their lectin content is not pro-inflammatory or causes other effects in humans.

If you want to blame nuts for weight gain, it looks like that will fall squarely on their high fat and calorie characteristics.

You will hear many health bloggers advocating for an anti-lectin or lectin free diet. That’s hilarious because there’s no such thing!

Why? Because these sugar-binding proteins are found in everything you eat, to at least some degree.

Some of those listed above, particularly the grains and milk, are singled out for having greater concentrations, but don’t interpret that as meaning meat, seafood, fish, and non-nightshade fruits and vegetables don’t contain lectins because all those do too!

In short, that makes lectin-free eating impossible, especially since some types are not destroyed by heat or gastric acids (more on that below).

Since we’re talking about an unknown number of different types, you can’t put them all under the same umbrella.

If two foods had a 1% concentration but were different types, would you be able to say they are equal?

Not necessarily.

Some types appear to have no effect on humans, while others may be inflammatory or even deadly.

castor beans
castor beans

Ricin is one of the most deadly poisons known to mankind. It is a lectin found in castor beans.

Just an isolated speck of it might be all it takes to kill you.

Literally, a speck on the tip of an umbrella can kill a human.

That’s how Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was killed. During the Cold War, he was assassinated with an “accidental” umbrella poke. (32)

Not always bad?

What about their beneficial effects? Any buzz you may hear is that lectins are really bad for you. That their intolerance makes you fat or has inflammatory side effects.

They often fail to mention that depending on the type, they can have a neutral effect – not being bad or good – or even offer benefits for human health (10).

That’s right, and lectins can be healthy and good for you! You can’t paint them all with the same brush.

It’s kind of like people who start with the premise that bacteria are bad. True, many are dangerous to humans, but many are beneficial and actually necessary for our survival. Without your gut flora, you would be unable to digest nutrients and die.

You can’t avoid lectins entirely. Common sense tells us that if their consumption were entirely bad for us, then no one – humans or animals – would have them in literally everything they eat.

Why do they affect us differently?

lion laying downThe rationale for how lectins work the way they do is actually quite brilliant.

As a human, if you were designing them for your own body, your goal would probably be to make them harmless for your species but toxic to all other life forms who may want to feed off or eat you.

That would be the best approach to ensure your survival, right? Because whether it’s a bear, a lion, a dog, or even a mosquito… none would want to eat you because they would associate you (humans) as being toxic.

Well, if you designed your lectins that way and each species did the same for theirs, what would be left to eat on this planet?

We would all be toxic to one another!

On the flip side, being edible to everyone is having the pendulum swing too far in the other direction. If the berries on a bush could be eaten by every animal and insect, how would it survive? It might not because it would have a bullseye on it from every species who encountered it.

But let’s say you took that same bush and made the berries toxic to mammals but safe for birds.

Now you have a balance. The life of the bush is protected from most, but its life is extended to some as a food source.

No one can know why God works the way God does, but this theory is the best we can come up with using our very limited human minds.

Different effects within the same species

We’re not all clones of each other.

Within the past several decades, science has gained a much greater understanding of the biological differences within the same species. Differences not believed to exist previously, or thought of as rare genetic mutations, or perhaps fringe theories concocted by rogue minds.

For example, sexuality. Thanks to newer MRI technology, scientists have begun realizing there really is a difference in the brains of straight and gay people. The latter exhibit patterns more comparable to the opposite gender than their own.

Naysayers will claim that different brain pattern is due to what they view as years of deranged and deviant sexual behavior.

Then how do they explain the fact that these brain pattern changes are seen in “gay acting” children (who later in life are gay) even before they go through puberty and before they have any type of sexual experiences or even fantasies of such? That negates the deviant behavior theory since the brain changes can be seen beforehand.

lab experimentFurther along, the topic of sexuality is what science now realizes about allergies. What we know and accept today is even different than a couple of decades ago. We now understand how prevalent of problem food allergens are.

Yes, many people are delusional and simply follow gluten-free diets as a fad without any scientific understanding or medical testing done to diagnose a disease/sensitivity.

But even setting those types of people aside, thanks to more research and testing in recent years, the medical community understands that food allergies are really a bigger problem than previously thought. They’re not just rare disorders. They can have serious consequences in our lives and may worsen – if not be directly responsible for – a number of autoimmune diseases and perhaps others.

How this all relates to lectins is that even more recent than these controversial topics is the concept that, yes, lectins really do seem to affect some people differently than others, possibly be a large degree.

Research is starting to find that some people may be affected by nightshades like potatoes, while others can eat them their entire life without any adverse side effects whatsoever.

Or maybe it’s a vegan who can eat beans in abundance with minimal farts or other symptoms, while some people eat just a smidgen and experience a total digestive disaster.

Why are lectins bad?

As mentioned above, you can think of them as low-level toxins. Just like chemical poisons, how they may (or may not) harm you depends on the type and amount encountered, along with your body’s unique biology.

When harmful, lectins and inflammation go together like two peas in a pod, pun intended.

But the cause of this inflammation can differ depending on whether it’s occurring inside of your GI tract or outside of it (in your bloodstream).

boy wearing gas maskGastrointestinal symptoms like flatulence, bloating, stomach aches, diarrhea, and a whole gamut of side effects can occur with beans. Many blame lectins for that, but the oligosaccharides (sugars) such as raffinose and stachyose are causing that. The fact that beans are high-lectin foods is irrelevant to those side effects, at least for most people.

Remember that part we said about foods being edible for some species but having side effects in others?

Humans don’t make the enzyme known as alpha-galactosidase, which is needed to digest when it comes to beans, peas, lentils, and other legumes.

So they ferment in our digestive tract, and that is what’s causing the side effects.

However, many other species, including other mammals, do have the enzymes and can eat them just fine. For us humans, popping a couple of Beano tablets can work wonders at combating gas and bloating since it introduces enzymes to your meal that break down these tough to digest beans.

Due to these missing enzymes, it’s why raw food dieters should avoid most legumes if they’re going to refuse cooking them.

The heat of cooking, at least with legumes, greatly breaks the oligosaccharides. It also destroys lectins. This is why the lectin avoidance diet should really be re-classified as the proper food preparation diet in many scenarios.

Because people are confusing lectin content in beans and the associated side effects when they are largely unrelated. With tomatoes, cooking destroys the content.

In short, the right food prep methods may be just as effective as avoidance.

That’s not to say the irritation and inflammation from lectins in beans can’t be a major problem, though. Certain types and concentrations definitely can be.

red kidney beansRed kidney beans contain the toxic phytohaemagglutinin in a very high concentration. Eating them raw or undercooked will lead to severe side effects 1 to 3 hours later, including vomiting and nausea. That poisoning will happen in anyone. Abdominal pain and diarrhea can result, too.

To put it in perspective, here’s how red kidney beans test out for their lectin content (11):

  • Raw = 20,000 to 70,000 hau (hemagglutinating unit)
  • Fully cooked = 200 to 400 hau

That’s a 99% or greater reduction from the heat of cooking. By that simple act, you have turned them into low-lectin food.

This type of bean is by far the worst dietary offender, as even white kidney beans have about 67% less than their red cousins. Broad beans are 90 to 95% less. The content in soy is bad, but it’s easy to neutralize (more on that below).

The side effects of phytohaemagglutinin in kidney beans take place in the GI tract. Or triggering symptoms that are directly caused by nerve stimulation down there (i.e. feeling nauseous).

man on bench with stomach acheFor Crohn’s disease, IBS, ulcerative colitis, and other GI disorders, it’s easy to understand why any added inflammation in the tract – even if minimal – could be a worsening factor in them, right?

But you hear people blaming lectin intolerance and toxicity for everything from asthma to rheumatoid arthritis and even conditions of the brain like autism and Alzheimer’s. Things like that are clearly unrelated to the digestive system if these lectins are not being absorbed and therefore remain isolated to the GI tract. Right?

Maybe not.

It is correct that most lectins are quite resistant to stomach acids and the digestive process. For that reason, they were not believed to be absorbed. Meaning they could not enter your bloodstream and flow to other parts of the body (like the brain, kidneys, liver, or joints).

The history of lectins really changed in 1989, when it was first discovered that some of these indigestible proteins are instead permeating through the gut wall and then having free reign to run wild in your blood stream. They can then deposit themselves in distant organs (12) (13).

That may not seem surprising to read, but you need to understand that when something is not absorbed during digestion, it’s typically assumed that it does not enter the bloodstream and therefore is harmless outside of the GI tract.

For example, the heavy metal barium, which you drink for CT scans of the abdomen, is highly toxic.

However, in the form of barium sulfate, which is the form used for these radiological purposes, it is not believed to be absorbed in all and therefore is considered safe because presumably all of it passes through the digestive tract fully intact without entering your bloodstream.

That was how scientists previously thought of the indigestible glycoproteins.

When this discovery came about in 1989 that some indigestible lectins may actually be absorbed and entering the blood stream, it changed the whole paradigm of how we must evaluate them.

Suddenly, the fact that our digestive juices and gut flora don’t break them down does not automatically guarantee their safety. Because they still might be entering our bloodstream through what’s been coined leaky gut.

diagram of what leaky gut is
Image credit: BallenaBlanca (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Technically known as a hyperpermeable intestine, a leaky gut is a term used to describe areas of the intestine that are more porous. In other words, they have “holes” in their protective lining; therefore, substances that normally would not be allowed to enter can do so.

Having your average dietary sugars “leak” through your intestinal wall is probably harmless. The concern isn’t about the normal things your body would absorb regardless.

The real worry is about stuff getting through which your body doesn’t want. Toxins, heavy metals, and large foreign molecules that your body has no nutritional use for.

How lectins and leaky gut may be related by making the condition worse. Some theorize these glycans may even be triggering it in the first place in an otherwise healthy GI tract which does not have abnormal “holes” in it.

How lectins function to do this by irritating the intestinal lining.

The tight junctures in the lining are normally closed to prevent undesired substances from getting through. After being irritated by some types, it has been found that these junctures of mucosa cells are stimulated to open up – like a door – allowing unrestricted access for things to flow through and go directly into your bloodstream.

It’s this leaky gut syndrome, so there is evidence piling up to suggest lectin irritation might be affecting seemingly unrelated diseases, too.

Diseases caused by lectins

It’s important to reiterate how little is really known about these compounds. There are thousands of different types of lectins in our diet. Among those identified, only a small fraction have been extensively studied.

Furthermore, thousands of complex carbohydrates (sugars) are used by our cells for signaling.

So not only do we not know how many lectin types there are, but to further complicate matters, we have no clue how even the most common ones interact with all the different types of sugars which they may encounter in the body. Some interactions may be harmless, others not.

Due to the many unknowns, no one can say for sure which diseases might be caused by their presence. Given the many different types of these sugar-binding molecules, it’s a bit too generic to say they are a cause in general simply.

It doesn’t mean all lectins are the problem, even if they do. Most likely, it’s a few very specific types, and even with those, they’re probably only affecting some – not all – sufferers of a given disease.

While unproven, there have been accusations that lectins may have a role – either as a direct cause or a worsening factor – in some cases of the following diseases and health conditions:

ADD/ADHD Adrenal insufficiency Allergies Asthma Atherosclerosis Autism Cancer Candida fungal infections Celiac Crohn’s disease Congestive heart failure Diabetes type 1 Diabetes type 2 Fibromyalgia High blood pressure High cholesterol

Hypoglycemia Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) Low DHEA Low testosterone Lupus Multiple sclerosis (MS) Obesity Rheumatoid arthritis Schizophrenia Thyroiditis Osteoarthritis Parkinson’s disease Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) Ulcerative colitis

Again, it’s important to reiterate not a single one of those diseases has been proven to be caused by glycan-binding proteins. And those proposing such theories are not inferring they are causing every case. With most things on the list, the beliefs are that their role is only as a worsening factor, not a root cause.

Wheat lectin vs. Celiac disease

wheat fieldIn many ways, the gluten-free diet seems like a scam.

Yes, it is true that diagnosing Celiac or heightened gluten sensitivity is complicated. There’s not really a simple test to do so.

Oftentimes, the diagnosis is based on at least two different food allergy tests.

The most extreme is a biopsy of the small intestine to see how the lining has been affected. Since that’s a surgical procedure, more often, it is blood testing used to check for gluten antibodies and/or a “poop test” where the same is done with your fecal matter.

There is also genetic testing to look for certain alleles which correlate with Celiac disease, but that is not a reliable diagnosis in and of itself.

However it’s diagnosed, only a very small portion of the population – in the low single digits percentage – tests out positive for these. Or, to be more technically accurate, tests positive for having either Celiac or substantially higher elevated gluten antibodies (everybody will have at least some antibodies, for all foods).

The exact percentage is highly disputed, but it is a low number. For the sake of math, let’s say 7% of the population has a gluten allergy/sensitivity, which is a figure that’s sometimes cited (14).

If it is only 7% of the population, then why do three times that number – 21% of Americans – try to “actively include” gluten free in their diet. Many of them claim it makes them feel better and helps with weight loss.

That 21% is the average of 19% for men and 23% for women, according to a Gallup poll (15).

Is it because the other 14% are uninformed?

Is it because of the placebo effect?

The answer to both is yes, to at least some degree.

But within that 14%, there is evidence to suggest legitimate reasons why they might experience real improvement in their health, even though their gluten sensitivity is completely normal.

Brain fog from lectins is a common theme you will hear, but the truth of the matter is that even if they’re entering through a leaky gut, that doesn’t necessarily mean they can get into your brain. Your blood-brain barrier (BBB) blocks many things, primarily large molecules.

To get through, large molecules need shuttle-mediated transport (something to latch onto, which can permeate the barrier).

The mass for one type of chicken lectin was found to be 69,000 daltons (16). For tomatoes, one is 65,633 (17). Phytohemagglutinin-L (PHA-L) isolated from the red kidney bean has a weight of approximately 120,000 (18).

Leeks and taro are foods with mannose-binding lectin (MBL), often high molecular weights.

In humans, 600,000 daltons are what one particular lectin specific to mannose and N-acetylglucosamine residue tested out at. A smaller sub-unit of it was still 31,000 (19).

How big can they be to enter the brain?

wheat germ agglutinin
What the structure of wheat germ agglutinin looks like.

400 to 600 daltons are considered the max for being able to penetrate the BBB (20). While some scenarios allow for larger, you’re not talking tens of thousands of daltons.

Wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) is what discourages insects and bacteria from eating the wheat kernal. That’s the size of 38,000 daltons (21).

So how would wheat lectins, which are 38,000 daltons, get through the blood-brain barrier, which only allows up to around 600?

That’s not exactly like squeezing into a tight pair of jeans. You need a magic trick here because if you’re a WGA lectin, it’s like having a butt that is 60x bigger than the opening of the doorway.

Well, there might be a magic trick that can make that happen.

In 1988 it was discovered that wheat lectins could pass through the blood brain barrier of mice and rats through what’s called adsorptive endocytosis.

That was discovered by the University of Maryland (22). In the 30 years since, there’s been almost no research involving wheat germ agglutinin and adsorptive endocytosis. So whether this happens in humans appears to be unknown, and obviously, it’s not easy to measure without opening a human brain or using things like radioactive tracers, which no one in their right mind would voluntarily do.

While there is some evidence that dairy can do the same, when it comes to foods, Dr. William Davis claims that wheat is unique in its ability to cross the BBB.

neurons, brain cellsDifferent than wheat lectin and inflammation in the body, Dr. Davis talks about how when gluten is digested in the stomach by pepsin, it is broken down into various short-chain-sized polyproteins, which have been found to enter the brains of rats. They allegedly bond in the brain because these wheat polypeptides are similar to endorphins.

Dr. David talks about this in his #1 New York Times bestseller, Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health.

If that theory is true, maybe that’s why such a large number of people report less brain fog and other Celiac-like symptoms when they go gluten-free.

Ultimately, research on how wheat lectins and leaky gut might affect the brain is only beginning.

Before you go on a wheat-free diet, it is worth noting that research has found that WGA may actually enhance the natural anti-cancer (tumoricidal) activity of human monocytes (a type of white blood cell). This was seen with select types of cell lines for bladder cancer, melanoma, kidney cancer, and glioblastoma (brain cancer), which were tested in the lab (23).

Like anything, there are pros and cons to consider.

Lectin avoidance diet?

This is one of those topics where both sides need to be humble and admit they don’t know what they don’t know.

The naysayers will call this avoidance diet a hoax, making the argument that foods containing lectins have been part of human history from the get-go.

That is true, but in what quantity?

In the hunter-gatherer days, perhaps a few kernels of wheat, barley, or other grain would be picked by hand. But given the labor involved, you can bet they weren’t depending on it as a staple of their diet.

When milling and the production of flour came about, it was desired to discard the bran (outer shell) of the grain and make the flour using what’s inside. Therefore, much of the grain lectin was discarded.

That’s why the amount of lectin in white rice is lower than in brown rice.

Where did peasant bread get its name? Here’s a clue, it wasn’t made using white flour – that is the most labor-intensive and expensive form to produce.

bread slice with sad face drawn in ketchupUntil just a few decades ago, white bread was considered superior. Basically, the tables have turned – what was considered inferior for thousands of years, whole grains, are now considered preferable and healthier than refined white.

Could this shift have anything to do with the seemingly increasing rates of food allergies OR symptoms masquerading as such, which might be caused by lectins in grains?

You can’t say for sure one way or another.

For that reason, if you are experiencing health issues, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to try a lectin diet. That’s where you selectively remove a type – like nightshades – and see how you do over the period of a few weeks without it.

Then rinse and repeat with other types. You might find you are intolerant to certain types.

But as we said above, lectin-free foods are a misnomer. You can’t remove them entirely, but learning how to reduce lectins in food is a viable diet plan.

If they’re in everything, where do you begin?

Great question.

Just because a given food might have more of them does not automatically mean it’s a problem.

This is because there are thousands of different types in your diet, and their effects on the human body can vary greatly from lethal poisoning like ricin to having no effect at all.

With that caveat said, based on the limited knowledge known today, even though they’re not apples to apples, it does seem logical to start by reducing foods that contain lectins in high amounts.

Sure, if there was a 1% concentration in a milk product and a 1% concentration in a wheat product, that doesn’t mean they’re equal in effect. Nor does it mean they’re better than a food with a 2% concentration of a different type.

In an ideal scenario, you would be able to weigh each type accordingly. But with the exception of a few specific foods like kidney beans, any health effects they may have is poorly understood. For that reason, starting with the elimination of the highest-known sources isn’t a bad idea.

How to reduce or remove lectins

Rather than avoiding these foods entirely, the preparation method is arguably far more important.

Though for some types of foods, cutting them out entirely may be the only effective method for real reduction.

Potatoes

sweet potatoesOn average, the most commonly consumed nightshade potatoes are about 6.5% lectin content, primarily from solanum tuberosum agglutinin (STA) (28).

Whether it’s yams, sweet potatoes, purple potatoes, potato starch, or any other form… they’re all going to contain high amounts of glycan-binding proteins. However, the sweet varieties are not part of the nightshade family.

The potato lectins are very stable under heat, acid, and base solutions. This is believed to be due to its high carbohydrate content and the disulfide bonds formed with them.

The STA can be deactivated under oxidative conditions and is “easily inactivated” by sodium hydrogen sulfite, which is also known as sodium bisulfite (29).

That chemical was a food additive, but for use on fruits and vegetables, the FDA banned it in 1986 (except for making wine and beer).

It was banned because it killed 13 people by triggering asthma attacks and injuring countless others. (30). That rules out its use as a method for reducing lectins in potatoes.

As far as oxidative conditions which might deactivate them, many cooking methods fall under that category. However, the baking and frying of potatoes will produce high amounts of acrylamide, a class 2A carcinogen, according to the World Health Organization.

Dairy

cow in fieldNeutralizing lectins might be helped by unpasteurized milk since more SIgA is said to be present (which can be destroyed by heat).

However, we live in a country where buying or selling unpasteurized milk is a criminal offense in many scenarios. Even if you got your hands on it, there would still be a high amount of lectins in milk, regardless.

The suggestion that grass-fed milk, butter, or ghee contains less is not something that is backed by studies.

This is why forgoing dairy altogether for a while and seeing how you do is a good strategy. Aside from milk, that also means no butter, cheese, ice cream, or other derivatives during your test.

Vegan milk is made with nuts and oils that generally have low lectin, or their forms have little to no apparent effect in humans. Almond milk, cashew, and other nuts appear to be safe.

Intolerance from coconut oil and others used to make them won’t be a problem either since refined oils are pure fats (not proteins).

Be aware of how many almonds are in the milk because it’s not many!

Grains

different kinds of breadWhen the endocrinologist Joseph Charles Aub first discovered wheat germ agglutinin in 1963, its resistance to heat was among the first characteristics noted (24). Yet it was still destroyed after 15 minutes at just 70° C (158° F).

Later research reportedly detected heat-stable lectin activity in gluten from gliadin and the acid-soluble gluten fractions of gluten. This was different from the activity coming from wheat germ, as cross-contamination was ruled out (25).

Whether it’s gluten grains like wheat, barley, and rye, or GF alternatives like oats, sorghum, and millet, you may want to try switching to baked goods and cereals made with more refined flours, not whole grains or bran since those contain high amounts of lectin. There will be an adverse glycemic effect in doing so, so consult your doctor beforehand if you are a type 1 or type 2 diabetic.

White rice is also high glycemic, but it contains fewer glycoproteins when compared to brown rice.

Does quinoa have lectins? Of course, but they have not yet been studied. There isn’t even a designated abbreviation for quinoa agglutinin.

Being a gluten-free seed rather than a grain, it’s possible that quinoa might have an effect similar to other flowering seeds like sunflower, flax, and hemp. Those have no obvious impact on humans. Allergies to hemp are another story.

Like quinoa, buckwheat is another gluten-free pseudo-grain. It’s related to rhubarb. It might be another low-lectin food, or more accurately said, one which is less likely to have dietary side effects when compared to gluten, gliadin, and wheat germ agglutinin. But with no published research on buckwheat lectin, any advantage it may offer non-Celiacs for digestive tolerance is speculative.

Legumes

mung beans in dish
mung beans

How to remove lectins from beans involves soaking them overnight, rinsing and draining them, then thoroughly cooking them. They are not something you want to undercook!

If you don’t have the time to soak canned beans overnight in the fridge, that’s fine, but just make sure you rinse them well before cooking.

The heat will almost entirely destroy lectins in beans, as pointed out in the numbers above for kidneys. You can deactivate lupin, fava, and soybean lectins entirely at 100° C (212° F) for at least 10 minutes (26).

With lower temperatures, that’s not the case. Cooking legumes at 70° C (158° F) for several hours “has little or no effect” (27).

Soy milk is heated (pasteurized) but is that for at least 10 minutes? The manufacturers don’t say. For that reason, veer on the side of caution and avoid soy milk if you are worried there might be active agglutinins in it.

Peanuts are actually a legume. Since this “nut” is always sold roasted, a lower amount of peanut agglutinin (PNA) would be expected.

Try sprouting them before cooking if you’re using prepared fresh or dry beans/lentils. The germination process further reduces the amount they contain.

Raw coffee beans will contain large amounts. Considering how thoroughly those beans are heated – probably more than any other food or drink in your diet – your cup of joe is likely quite safe. Coffee has not been researched through pre and post-roasting.

Tomatoes

heirloom tomatoesVery little is published on pepper and eggplant lectins, but tomatoes have more research.

There is a rumor that tomatoes’ lectins are enhanced with the heat of cooking.

That’s not true.

It’s actually the antioxidant lycopene that has enhanced bioavailability from heating (31).

Since they’re often eaten raw in salads, tomato lycopersicon esculentum lectin (LEL) often bypasses any heat, and for that reason, it has been estimated that the average American consumes 200 mg per year of it.

Now you have two good reasons to pig out on that plate of spaghetti marinara. Maybe even three if you’re using GF pasta made with refined flour. But do please cook those noodles extra al dente (extra firm to the bite, which is slightly undercooked). That can help lower the glycemic impact.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

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179 Responses

    1. Eating “loads” of anything isn’t recommended, since most foods have toxicity levels in high amounts (even spinach). Farm-raised salmon (all is farm raised unless it states it’s wild caught) is getting bad press now due to how many toxins and pesticides the farms use. You may get your omegas (also in flax), and it may have less mercury than some other large fish, but it’s basically like eating fish out of the sewer. The mercury content alone, while lower than other options, should mean eating only about one serving a week.

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      1. You are correct. Everything in moderation. I was eating large amounts of squash, tomatoes,( nightshades ) over this past summer. My stomach has not been feeling right since then. I now have what is termed Functional Dyspepcia. This was my diagnosis after an endoscopy. Maybe the nightshades triggered this. I guess we will have to stay tuned to learn more.😊

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      2. I really wish people would stop recommending Flax as source of Omega 3’s. Humans need EPA or DHA versions of Omega 3. Flax provides ALA, which needs to be converted to EPA or DHA. Unfortunately, the conversion rate is extremely low – less than 10%, so for dietary purposes, Flax is not a significant source of USABLE Omega 3. Instead, please recommend ALGAE based Omega 3’s. This is vegetarian and provides both EPA and DHA. — One other note on supplements, Omega 3 supplements tend to be packed with other oils and fillers. Be wary of the fillers.

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  2. There seems to be so few foods free of them! Please can you let me know some safe lectin free foods. Many thanks.

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    1. You didn’t read the entire article, then? It is impossible to find ANY food without lectin but not all lectins are created equal so not all of them will affect a person in the same way, and not every person reacts to every lectin in the same manner. Please go back and read the article so you can have more of an understanding in order to make use of the info. :-)

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  3. Denise, I think the whole point of the article is that all foods contain some amount of lectin, so you will not be able to find lectin-free foods. Don’t try. Too little yet is known about each individual form of lectin, so making blanket statements about the evils of all lectins is unwarranted. Also, the impact of a given type of lectin may be influenced by unique individual factors such as microbiome, DNA or other factors. Many used to think bacteria were all bad, but now we know differently. More study needs to be done regarding lectins but realize the vast majority of funding for such research will be based on the ability to turn the research into profit.

    I think the current lectin scare is overblown as is the gluten scare. Take such concerns under advisement, but it is more important to take efforts to try to determine whether a given food is more beneficial or harmful to your individual body in the present.

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    1. With respect that you are entitled to your opinion the lectin scare and gluten scare is not necessarily overblown. I used to eat almost anything. A wide variety of very good food. Green chili, squash, potato soup, pasta, peanuts, cashews, pecans, cranberry juice. Fourteen years ago little by little, no more wheat, potatoes, tomatoes, brownies, cakes, shrimp, or lobster. It is because of severe abdominal discomfort if not an all over skin rash that can take weeks to go away. Eliminating wheat, potatoes helped immensely. Now, no more eggs, dairy, peanuts, no tree nuts, and no packaged food. I did all this before I became aware of celiac. Before there were a lot of gluten free foods. Knowing that there is more information these days regarding gluten sensitivities has helped me immensely.

      I think that you are a very lucky individual. Please keep in mind that there are a few of us where nightshades, wheat, nuts, create a lot of serious discomfort. Avoidance seems to my only remedy.

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    2. LOL Nathan but I do wish people like you would stop being so patronising to other people open minded enough to experiment with diets and make their own judgements.
      Giving up Gluten was massive for me ~ I recognise how it had negatively impacted me since puberty, nearly 50 years ago. Reducing Lectins similarly has recovered my knees to the point where I don’t need surgery.
      Thank God I didn’t listen to people like you !

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      1. Marc. Actually Nathan is very much on point, balanced and not so much pontificating as you assume. Denise needed correct guidance. My first impression was that she did not read properly. The background to that is I have candida overgrowth. I had to learn that candida like cholesterol no less is beneficial part of the body’s make up as a whole. Cholesterol can only be managed properly. You will never get rid of candida as it balances your gut flora properly. You cannot cure it, you need to re-balance your physiological processes. You do that by starving the fungus. Until you last breath. Period. A double dose of antibacs (penicillin) last winter triggered mine. As a remedy to the situation you can only manage it by eating less lectins and boosting polyphenols. ANY, Any form of sugar is Fatal.

        This worked for me while I did not have the faintest inkling about any of this science. Cut bread, all dairy, all wheat, coffee, sugar (later read this is the main cause of heart attacks) and processed foods – anything out of a box or a bottle. Oh yes, and for the knees, muscle cramp at 03:00, dry eyes, arthritis fingers and the like pure straight gelatin. Dessert jelly holds 96% sugar. Read the box. Two to four heaped teaspoons in hot water. Dissolve and drink. A little Stevia and get used to the sligth glue smell and there you go.

        Oh yes, these are also not cures as per your FDA laws. These are preventions in proper dietary habits and practices, BEFORE YOU NEED THE CURE.

        You may do very well by reading up on The MicroBiome Project. This follows closely on the heels of The Human Genome Project.

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  4. VERY informative article ! Thank you for providing a truly scientific analysis of the complex impacts, large and small of certain foods, and providing much needed caveats against the current lectin/gluten hysteria. (Food tends to be an emotional topic for many people, which may explain the blind adherence by some to diet fads.) THE most crucial point you bring up is that every physical body is different, with its own complex metabolic sensitivities.

    The best approach is indeed to exclude certain foods, then reintroduce them to ascertain their impact. We live in a society where we tend to blame many societal ills, and the stress that they engender, on simple lifestyle habits that we think we can “change” to make it all better. This article is a refreshing, lucid, and important voice in the midst of the hysteria, on this journey towards a better understanding of what makes us tick.

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      1. That is undeniably NOT wrong. Everything in moderation applies to almost everything… including water and oxygen! If you eat the same food(s) every day, or a lot of them when you do, you’re likely to be doing some level of harm to yourself, whether you perceive it or not, and whether or not it’s a slow, insidious issue or an immediately harmful or noticeable one.

        Also keep in mind that many people (Americans, at least) have NEVER had a healthy diet, so they don’t know what being healthy even feels like! Starting in the 1950’s or so, highly processed food was considered the classiest and healthiest way to eat. And it got crazy enough where people thought that breast-feeding babies was not classy, too sexual, etc… so they gave them “formula” which was extremely poorly understood (and still is) nutrition-wise, and the results were dramatically bad – luckily it only took a decade or three to get that idea back out of society’s head. To top it off, the newly bred wheat they discovered in the 1905s and started using country-wide sure had a high output of wheat compared to natural wheat, but it contains a type of gluten in it that no human or animal has ever had to digest. Guess why, mainly in the US, the gluten free thing is such a big deal? It’s because people noticed huge differences, almost immediately, when they stopped eating it… and they didn’t have diagnosed celiacs disease or a history of it… because people born in the 50s never knew anything else, for one! And then there’s the europeans who travel to the US on vacation or business, eat something with our wheat in it and/or cooked in our highly-processed vegetable oils, and immediately feel quite (almost flu level) sick for a few days after. No wonder!

        Many, likely most, Baby Boomers have NEVER had a healthy diet, ever! No matter how hard they tried to eat healthy as life went on, it was almost always in the wrong direction – for example, the vegan/vegetarian diets – veggies (better if raw, until recently when it’s better if raw on a case by case basis, but often cooking is required to reduce the chances of eating the “bad” lectins, for most people), tons of carbs, and many high-lectin foods that we now know are not good, or even really bad, for most people… and often vegetarian diets were high in highly processed dairy products, beans for protein, etc… all pretty bad for most people. Diet soda, except maybe if made with only stevia in its natural, mostly-unprocessed form (not Coke’s patented version, Truvia, which is almost certainly bad – that’s all coke does, is make bad decisions on how to make their product healthier or at least more desirable to people who are overweight), is far worse for someone than drinking a sweet beverage with cane sugar in it, for example… This is now shown in many studies, including the fact that people who drank diet coke vs regular coke with largely similar diets otherwise, over the long term, were significantly more fat and significantly less healthy than the cane sugar drinkers. Yet cane sugar is bad for you too! So you can imagine how bad aspartame, or splenda, etc are for you – and I assure you they are, studies are showing so on a constant basis now, but only recently.

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        1. As to your comment on Europeans eating American food.
          We have had several European exchange students and not one of them mentioned anything about the American diet that affected them.

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          1. Actually it reminds me of the joke:

            Patient: It hurts when I do this.
            Doctor: Don’t do that.

          2. Guess what they ate in Europe? American? Coke was prohibited in many of them, but here were teak houses all over the place. Duh?

        2. It is definitely wrong for some people. If I ate even a less than moderate amount of nuts or oranges… I’d be dead.

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        3. Tell that to someone who has anaphylactic shock from eating a trace amount of a toxin in their food. It’s always easy to judge when you don’t have any issues with foods. A virus that put me in the hospital when I was eight month’s pregnant trigger my digestive issues. After struggling for years with brain fog, painful bloating, pain in the gut, migrains, and asthma, I learned I carry the DNA marker for Celiac disease, which can be triggered by an illness. It was a no brainer for me. I went gluten-free and I no longer need any medications. I was on three asthma medications with frequent attacks. All my other symptoms have cleared. Before this virus, I ate everything with moderation and had no issues with weight or any of the other symptoms.

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        4. High Five! You got that one right. I lived through that and you history is spot on. Worse came to the worst when grain agriculture was mechanized with the resultant surpluses going to market all over the world.

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  6. Thank you for this article. Learning about what we eat and how our bodies work gives us opportunities to keep ourselves as healthy as we are able. There are many factors that influence our health outcomes. Balance and wisdom are the keys, not fads or superstitons.

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  7. What about the GMO factor? People just recently started looking like butter balls in the last two decades when GMO’s were also introduced. People have been eating both white bread and whole grain breads (eastern Europeans) for centuries and they didn’t start gaining this enormous weight epidemic till very recently!!!

    Reply

    1. GMOs were introduced around the same time agriculture itself started. It was just through selective breeding, and trial and error, back then… not scientific changes to the food with scientific results to back whether it was a bad or good change. I’m not saying Monsanto GMOs are GOOD, by any means, but all foods we grow are GMOs to some level. It’s not GMOs in general… as this article states many times, we don’t understand nutrition or the gut biome well yet at all, and are just starting to… and it doesn’t look good for the American diet. Yet in other countries, where a more natural diet is eaten just due to cost/circumstance in most cases, are rarely overweight or obese and do not suffer nearly as high levels of terrible diseases like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, ADHD, Autism, etc. Yet, they’re eating “GMOs” too, just ones that weren’t made specifically to only increase yield and make agriculture easier, by a for-profit company with a particularly evil management staff. So, what I’m saying is, you can’t blanket term the effects of GMOs because everything we eat now is a GMO and it has been that way for 40,000+ years… they just had more time consuming and crude methods to make their food grow or taste better, not using science and controls to check their results carefully. We now have that ability, and it is a powerfully good ability… we just need the right people doing it, and doing it ethically. Monsanto should be bankrupt by now with all the lawsuits from the human/life/environmental damage their products cause… but instead, they’re more profitable than ever, even with the terrible reputation they have.

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      1. Jared, you obviously don’t know what GMO means. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are living organisms whose genetic material has been artificially manipulated in a laboratory through genetic engineering. This creates combinations of plant, animal, bacteria, and virus genes that do not occur in nature or through traditional crossbreeding methods. Your comment about GMO being introduced around the same time as agriculture could not be more wrong. As an example a GMO plant may have the gene of a fish introduced into it. This would not naturally occur in nature.

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      3. I think it time to squash this little bug, nip it in the bud as it were. GMO’s, short for Geniticaly Modified Organisms, and the term, is definitely NOT the same as the cultivated hybrids and other forms of fruit and vegetables we ate. Those hybrids carried ONLY what was natural to those species although in different forms. Like the American Morgan Horse being a cross between several other types of breeds.

        GMO’S as we know them to day has the distinctive quality of having the genes of other FOREIGN species introduced to them. This is done by chemical splicing or better known as cutting and welding in the steel industry. Same thing, different tools. Gene by gene and even in large sequences. Phenomenal power to change the world. Definitely NOT the same as breeding horses. GMO’s in wheat has the ability to kill weeds, no less. Any different to lectins? This article distinguishes between types of lectins – reason for good management – that may be consumed or not. The GMO ”lectins” do not have this ability to distinguish and kills everything – even in your gut. After you nice Thanksgiving feast. Irony intended. Horrific!

        So, please tell me again, how good is Monsanto? With a class action by 11 000 farmers – last I saw – because of damages from Roundup Weedkiller, it is . . . how to put this politely? . . . do you really want me to believe they all lost their marbles?

        Excuse me, but I beg to severely differ. All hybrid species CANNOT be lumped under one head. Ach, it’s OK. No it’s not all the same.

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    2. a lot of things have happened in the past two decades: grocery stores started putting droves of prepared foods near the counter, everyone started driving everywhere instead of walking and biking, convenience stores filled with junk food proliferated, people got too much in a hurry to prepared their own food and went always for speed and convenience, consumption of soda skyrocketed, the Big Gulp was released in 1976 as an unheard of ridiculously large beverage and now often is a “medium”.

      oh, and about that time charlatans pushing ridiculous dietary claims as an avenue to wealth took off.

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    3. Aww screw the GMO, an AP article in the NYT stated that the majority of those “GMO free” foods were cross-contaminated or had one or more suppliers fudge the certifications. As for me, I’m going on a Sushi-only diet.

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      1. I love sushi too. But, some don’t realize that what Americans call Soy Sauce today has wheat and of course, gluten. To avoid gluten be sure to only use Tamari Sauce, which really does use soy.

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  9. This is great info, but there has to be more to the story. Of course we have to eat, and not eating any food that contains lectins is impossible. I’m not sure what the answer is, but it seems obvious that we have to eat foods with lectins! Since cave man days, people ate food that contained them. We are missing a big piece of the puzzle.

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    1. The big piece of the puzzle is simple. We need good, nutritious, ethically produced food to be a basic right. And also, the scientific community has come up with a ton of major breakthroughs in our understanding of nutrition, since around the time that the Internet, and especially smartphones, became popular… because of information sharing! We will only solve this through good science, and unfortunately, science has been corrupted and always will be to some degree. Luckily, there are people in countries outside the US (and even some in the US, but it’s rare) that are doing the hard work to understand our extremely complex bodies and minds which require extremely complex nutrition/foods. The work is just beginning, but we finally have a good direction going in the non-mainstream science community (and even some in the mainstream of course). Just keep up with the latest scientific studies and do your best with that data… and if you have trouble understanding the studies themselves written by scientists FOR scientists, just find a nutritionist who has a great reputation and a good moral code, and follow their guidance.

      Rhonda Patrick and many guests on the Joe Rogan podcast are great examples of these people. He constantly has guests on who are so smart they should be famous, yet they are just now starting to get the respect they deserve after passing out the wonderful new information they have. Your family doctor is likely NOT one of these people, as the AMA and medical schools are highly corrupt now and literally have about a few hours of nutrition training. The rest is on prescribing drugs, because big pharma is extremely rich and powerful, and they’re only now being undermined by the Internet and information sharing that was not available just 10-20 years ago to the vast majority of people.

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      3. There is very simple solution to all this, Jared. Go back to what Gran always told you to eat. healthy portions of , yes, meat, vegies, some starches not mixed, beans, squash, pumpkin, peas and other greens I never even knew of. Including everything else I said on this blog, this works for me. In Feb-March this year I dropped just under 17 kg, about 37 lbs by losing the mass market diet and going green. I can eat chicken breast and eggs.

        So, seriously you are out on your own. Cut out everything possible, then, in small portions, see what your system will tolerate. Oh yes, be very careful of changing combinations of things. Do it one at a time. Candida has a filthy habit. It builds up; you may eat something for say three weeks, no ill effects. The next morning you wake up in the grave yard. Make note of everything you eat. Keep a meal diary. Check what changed, when, how, why. Be exact.

        Denise Calver and others asking the questions. Guys, girls, you are the guru’s! Find out. Teach yourselves. Educate yourselves. Investigate. Research. Wise up. It is your body. Only you know it best. It is time for us plebs to make the difference.

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  10. Killer lectins… Yet another cash cow for the snake oil, diet and supplement industries. It’s comical. This week’s superfood is next week’s poison and visa versa. Eat a balanced diet and maybe take a multivitamin. If something you eat makes you feel bad, don’t eat it again!!!! Genius.

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    1. Not all guts are equal. I wish u could eat anything but my face blows up like a balloon with gluten and dairy. So stop putting ignorant comments out.

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      1. Nancy, what an amazingly ignorant retort to Ted. Ted’s comment was not more than a couple of sentences but you obviously didn’t care to finish what he said before blurting out your response. Go back and read what Ted said again and I dare say that you will feel a little ashamed of yourself.

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  11. I was disgusted and mad when I learned that the scientific community has known about the effect of lectins for such a long time and I am just now learning about them! As a result I am convinced that there is a government conspiracy to conceal the information to protect the food industry establishment at the expense of the health of the public!

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  12. Dr gundry promotes a pre-biotic that feeds our healthy bacteria, but it is a milk based product which is on the list of lectin high foods. Confused. I still think missing link is related to our blood type per dr. D’adamos work and even Gundry says “I think he is onto something” and most of us don’t even know our blood type.

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    1. Gundry said D’adamos was onto something with his work regarding lectins, but not by differentiating what types can be consumed depending on blood type.

      Mercola doesn’t support the blood type diet either. He tried the diet, but being blood type A with a genetic predisposition for diabetes, he became dangerously close to becoming diabetic on the A diet because it was too high carb. Also D’adamos recommends processed and unfermented soy on the A diet!

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      1. Gundry and d’Adamo have both been debunked. Mercola flips his opinion, as frequently as the wind changes direction.

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    3. Dr. Gundry singles out Beta-casein A1 dairy sources (e.g., Holstein cows) as having a higher lectin content, while Beta-casein A2 dairy sources (e.g., Guernsey cows) have almost no lectins and are considered healthier. Unless you know the source of your dairy products (i.e., truly organic), I would avoid them altogether.

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    4. Hard cheeses do not contain lactose. Tofu is fermented soy yet very different to it. If you have to have it, find out more, or simply avoid it.

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  13. I was just diagnosed with leaky gut syndrome by functional medicine specialist! This article was helpful X 10! I follow whole foods plant based diet; I think one culprit in my diet is goji berries I re-test in three months so we’ll see. A few other adjustments but not a lot so far.

    Reply

    1. mike has this wfp based diet helped
      I have leaky gut and am so sick of being sick…do you follow this lectin scare
      thank you, phyllis

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  14. this is ridiculous. if its not one thing its another. wifi is cancerous. magnets can heal you. scream your cancer away (its a real thing people believe works). provide more definitive research and proof to back it up. stick to the food groups, eat well and sensibly, cook your food if it should be, if your not sure look it up. don’t over eat anything (that’s obvious if you want to be healthy) stop freaking people out. the same thing keeps popping up and that is there is no extensive research on the effects

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    1. As someone who is very informed on what my GI tract is angry about and trying to find out the unknown triggers. I find this article very informative. It disputes much of the misinformation that is posted on this subject of lectins in our diets. This gives me another possible answer as to why I might be in intolerable pain. Last weeks diet was limited to 1 slice of gluten free bread, 1/4 can of salmon, 1 T avocado mayo, and mixed greens. And I could only eat that every 4-5 hours. Don’t start ranting until you get informed!

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  15. Thank you for this interesting, informative, and unbiased article. I have been battling constant, low-grade nausea for years, but was reluctant to try a lectin diet because of what seemed to be a lack of clarity. Thanks to this article, I can try reducing my lectin intake in a sensible way to see if it has any effect on my nausea.

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  16. wow, … been reading and studying up. and i have to go right back to what my father preached, taught his patients, “everything in moderation”, because this is out of hand, eat this, do not eat that, this is good for you, this is not. the value in eating salmon, garlic, tomatoes for men, lol outweighs any issue, and again, “moderation with all”. my aunties used soy rather than HRT for menopause symptoms and to keep estrogen levels regular. HRT prescribed – bad. known fact. getting it naturally – better. (and they lived into the 90’s and 100’s) ate vegetables, fish, and garlic, and used butter. eating bread 3 times a day, a.m. toast, lunch healthy sandwich, dinner rolls, = NO. duh. most folks know this, waistline certainly does. so it is hard for me to believe this is rocket science. my dad was a Loma Linda Grad and believed in preventative medicine. “moderation” is key, and learn your foods and recipes.

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  17. I wonder about the effects of fasting on tolerance and recovery as healing. Intermittent, alternate day, and more than 1 day fasts. Also if there are some foods and herbs which can protect or compensate the’ effects of lectins. Chemical and physical reactions in the universe and the human body are too complex and so far we know so little. For example, how long until excess lectins, oxalates, purines, phytoestrogens, leave the body? For some phytonutrients it appears they leave after 1 or 2 days (in the case of carotenoids and flavonoids). Interesting stuff.

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  18. Found this to be helpful.. Have had several health issues … Got to start eliminating a few bad choices of my food intake. What are your thoughts about the Gundry MD Vital Reds Probiotics!

    Reply

  19. It seems that just cooking the bean or lentil will not destroy the Lectin but cooking with a Pressure Cooker will… I have just purchased the latest book The Plant Paradox by Dr Steven R. Gundry… this book tells you all about the Lectin and at the end there is a diet to follow… interesting the huge list of the illnesses caused by Lectins..

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  20. Feel Dr. Gundry has impeccable medical and research credentials and so his take on all of this is worth considering. His new book is The Plant Paradox is on this subject. What I really appreciate with Gundry his thoughts on the rule of diet on disease have evolved and he is not afraid to admit it.

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  21. I found much in this article to be helpful, but you really do yourself a disservice when you laugh at the idea of a “lectin free” diet. Obviously you can’t avoid all lectins and you don’t need to. That’s not what “lectin free” means and I think we understand that. Some may over simplify things to make it easier for others to quickly grasp, but that is no reason to mock them and make it appear they mean something other than they do or is reasonable to assume. As some above me have stated, Dr Gundry, in his new book The Plant Paradox, does a very good job of explaining why we need to avoid some lectins and not worry about others. But by making such blanket, dismissive comments regarding those who advocate “lectin free” as if they advocate something ridiculous, it just makes it appear the author either haven’t done his own research properly to understand what they mean, or has an agenda to cast those who advocate we avoid the foods with dangerous lectins in a disparaging light. it doesn’t make these people, like Dr Gundry, lose credibility. It is the article that loses credibility.

    To those who doubt the credibility of some of these experts, we can look at Dr Gundry. g=Given, as mentioned by Tom above, Dr Gundry’s impeccable credentials – Cardiologist, Heart Surgeon, Heart Transplant Surgeon, Pediatric Heart Transplant Surgeon (he and his partner have done more pediatric heart transplants than anyone else in the world), Researcher (I’ve located 194 published articles he authored or co-authored at least 20 of which were on Xenotransplantation), Inventor of medical devices used in heart surgery, and pioneer in Xenotransplantation (remember the spinach leaf turned into beating cardiac tissue in the news a couple months ago? – that’s Xenotransplantation) – I think he has more than established his credibility and expertise to be speaking on the subject. I was very put off by how this article was so dismissive of an entire group of people which would include such experts (inclusion by default given the blanket nature of the comments) and that put me on my guard regarding anything else this article had to say.

    As far as those who doubt the validity of lectins being at the root of most of our health problems today, an important tie in is mitochondrial dysfunction – for that is what researchers are now coming to understand is the root cause of all disease and aging. In fact, they are looking at aging itself as a disease. All one has to do is follow Dr Sinclair’s research at Harvard – he is about to come out with a pill to REVERSE AGING – he expects it to hit the shelves in 3 years, it has been developed with a major pharmaceutical company, is in human clinical trials right now and is seeking FDA approval. NASA is excited about this as it hopes to use it to reverse DNA damage caused by cosmic radiation in astronauts in space. His research is based on a form of Vit B3 called Nicotinamide Mononucleotide (NMN) which is the precursor of NAD+ which, when elevated, allows the mitochondria of our cells (thousands in each cell) produce abundant ATP -the energy our cells run on – thus reversing mitochondrial dysfunction. He gave the NMN to 2 year old mice (at the end of their life span). A week later, they essentially had the cells of 6 month old mice. Niagen, which is Nicotinamide Riboside (NR), the precursor to Nicotinamide Mononucleotide, also succeeds in raising NAD+ levels significantly and is available now. I can personally attest to not only it’s ability to reverse mitochondrial dysfunction, but also it’s gradual rejuvenating effects.

    Dr Gundry talks about how we overload our mitochondria leading to their exhaustion. This is what actually caught my attention in The Plant Paradox, and led me to give his book a serious read. All the new discoveries in disease and anti-aging are all pointing to the same thing – dysfunctional mitochondria and metabolic causes of disease. Even cancer research is moving away from looking for a genetic cause of cancer, a search which has failed miserably after decades of intense research, and is shifting to looking at cancer as a metabolic disease. This would help explain why Dr Gundry has seen stage 3 and 4 cancers disappear in patients on his program. Add on top of this our mysterious Microbiome residing in our gut, and it’s ability to not only affect our health, but our weight and even our behavior and how we perceive the world around us, the field of medicine is poised on the cusp of a tremendous revolution and paradigm shift. (See the documentary “The Gut, Our Second Brain” for astounding discoveries.)

    As far as the offending lectins go, many lectins are endocrine disruptors. WGA (wheat germ agglutinin) is a notorious insulin disruptor, one of many. We have been told Type 2 diabetes is caused by having a diet too rich in simple carbs which convert into sugar too quickly in our bodies, rising our blood glucose too high, causing our insulin to spike, both at levels too high becoming inflammatory to the body,, and that this happening repeatedly over time causes insulin resistance, which eventually causes diabetes. But what if the insulin resistance is not caused by the repeated high elevations of glucose and insulin? What if this “insulin resistance” is caused by lectins interfering with insulin, preventing it from doing it’s job? It would look the same – blood glucose would be high, the body would pump out more insulin because the glucose isn’t moving into the cells.

    I decided to put that theory to the test in my own life. I have been pre diabetic for some time. I have used cinnamon to help bring down my blood sugars and have avoided medication thus far. But my blood sugars spike after meals with carbs. So I theorized that if it is really some lectins that are causing my blood sugars to spike, then if I can keep them in the gut where they belong, then insulin should be free to do it’s job, and I shouldn’t see blood sugar spikes. I decided to try a supplement called Lectin Lock.

    1st test. McDonalds 1/4lb cheeseburger with everythin on it, and a large half cut sweet tea. Should see a good sugar spike. Took the Lectin Lock before eating. 1 hour blood sugar in the mid 130’s (below the 140 acceptable high). 2 hour BS 117 (below the 120 acceptable high). I was shocked. I didn’t need any cinnamon.

    Next day. Burgerville Tillamook Bacon Cheeseburger with everything, fried asparagus, and a large raspberry ice tea. – Lectin Lock before eating. No sugar spike – 1 hour lower mid 130’s, 2 hr 112 (this is from memory). And so it has continued.

    My blood sugars have become virtually perfectly controlled using this supplement to block these lectins. The results were immediate. I’ve only seen my blood sugars spike a bit when I ate a dish with unfermented tofu on one occasion, and cereal on another (though I may have not given the Lectin Lock enough time before eating) and a couple of other times, but always the 2 hour BS was in the normal range. Well over 90% of the time, using Lectin Lock , my blood sugars have been perfectly normal. This is a huge change for me and demonstrates to me the validity of Dr Gundry’s position. Now I need to get on the diet and reserve this supplement for when I can’t avoid such foods.

    To those who are skeptical, you truly are only hurting yourselves by ignoring this.

    Reply

    1. Thank you Nina, for that lengthy and informative You sound like you are a doctor yourself. I believe in this Lectin thing, as I am trying to lose a large amount of weight, and have digestive issues too, but I still need to get information on what IS ok to eat to avoid as much lectin as possible. I was listening last night to Dr Mercola and Dr. Gundry talking about this, but am disappointed they didn’t get more specific as to why Dr. Gundry fasts for 22 hours a day, eating in only a 2 hour window. And WHAT does he eat in those 2 hours. This seems to be the opposite of everything I’ve heard previously about eating 5-6 SMALL meals a day to “keep the metabolism going”.

      Reply

    2. Interesting information, Nina.
      Do you know what, if anything, can actually HEAL the intestinal damage that’s already been done by lectins?
      About 15 years ago, I drank soy milk and ate kidney beans and rice each day (in an ignorant attempt to be “healthy”).
      Only did it for about a year (not knowing anything about lectins at the time), and it ruined my life. I haven’t been the same since.

      I’ve tried all the usual suggestions (L-Glutamine, colostrum, bone broth, dietary changes…).
      Looking into Choline at the moment (I’ve read info about choline repairing cells).
      Are you aware of any real repairs for leaky gut?

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    3. Nina, In my neck of the woods we call them the scoffers, the nit pickers or the brownie pointers. you get them everywhere, just kick the leaves on the pavement. To turn a phrase you cannot blanket dismiss them since they are as dangerous as children baking mud cakes to your Sunday whites.

      Reply

  23. Anybody who disputes this informative article, has not been through the pain where you started to consider that suicide, will stop the unbearable pain!
    My background is a volleyball player, dancer, yoga enthusiast, everyday 5km walker, and cyclist, for 35 years.
    That all stopped overnight 10 years ago, when my body stopped moving, I was diagnosed with everything under the sun, EVERYTHING, and not until I eased off from most of the lectins that were affecting me, till I had relief.
    It is true that not everybody is affected in the same way, but I can tell you, it has given me back play dates with my grandchildren, it has given me back painless nights, and although it will take me a couple of years to rebuild my muscles, I’m looking forward to building my life and interests back to my day to day adventures!

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  25. Thank you to the author of this really well written and occasionally humorous article. I am an Endocrinologist, a Diabetologist and also see many children with general Paediatric conditions across the spectrum from ME to urticaria to Crohn’s. Many of those from privileged homes have parents who are convinced that one or other dietary exclusion will cure their child. I have seen many children improve on dairy and gluten free diets, with a variety of complaints which have no diagnostic medical pathology. I have also seen many children become nutritionally deprived, develop Vitamin A, B,C , D and E deficiency on particularly narrow diets and have been bemused and confused by the lack of scientific literature on lectins. I am going to sign post this article to patients as a balanced and informative view. Many Thanks.

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  26. I have recently read the Plant Paradox and come away with the following points:

    1) Red meat should be avoided.
    2) Eating fruit is similar to eating candy.(Minimize fruits)
    3) Lectins should be minimized ( use a pressure cooker to neutralize lectins).
    4) Avoid cows milk ( eat coconut unsweetened yogurt or goat milk yogurt and cheese)
    5) Avoid wheat product. ( Eat sorghum and millet as replacements)
    6) Avoid vegetables with seeds.
    7) Minimize consumption of animal proteins.
    8) learn how to cook and embrace the cooking and learning experience. It’s about the journey not the destination.
    9) Be open minded and evolve with the information.
    10) If your not feeling well and the doctors can’t figure out what the problem is, give this program a try.

    It could be that many of the patients that Dr. Gundry has helped have leaky Gut and as a result autoimmune diseases that have improved once the changes in diet were implemented but we should not wait for difficult symptoms and conditions to seek help. The quicker you recognize a problem and treat it, the better the results will be.

    Get the book and understand why the points listed above have been successful for many patient and then you can make an informed decision if its right for you. Good Luck.

    Reply

      1. This is always the same response we heard. Its nothing to do with vitamin its the high glycemic respond / glucose that release lot of insulin and insulin raise like sugar. Vitamin or not high glycemic in fruits can give troubles like diabetes etc

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    2. If millet is supposed to replace wheat, people might want to be cautious of its effect on the thyroid and not have too much (same goes for tapioca/cassava – gluten-free foods often have that, too).

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    3. Right on! The doctors don’t know. Google Dr Kelly Brogan – allopathic psychiatrist who knew conventional medicine does not have the answers. Ari Whitten – Blue energy, mitocondria. Josh Axe – cancer, candida. Jordan Rubin – candida. Ty Bollinger – cancer. Jonathan Baylor – avoid added sugar. Mary Morissey – diet, motivation and tonnes, tonnes of other authors.

      All these learned people had to walk the talk and they did! Dr Gundry’s skinfixit infomercial on feeding my good bugs gave me a simple handle to deal with the change in diet. To me that is the layman’s explanation on the candida thing. I also now know how the polyphenols feed my good bugs AND how the greens feed the Energy in my body. Simple stuff. Works for me. This is what I needed.

      Thank you this is a well balanced article and well written. Excellent work.

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  27. Outstanding article. I can’t stand the word ‘diet’. ‘Restriction’, ‘elimination’ and ‘limitation’ too. I have no choice, time to try low histamine diet, then if it fails, we’ll see how it goes with reduced lectins. So many years of puzzle, examinations, trips around hospitals etc. it’s been all useless. Stubborn acne and bloating just don’t want to leave this body.

    Back in the days I was able to eat anything, an absolute omnivore. Then… Despite of soo many attempts to target internal root cause, it always escapes. Elusive bi**h.

    It is driving me crazy to be fair, but I know bad days eventually die off. btw ‘diet’ seem to derive from the verb ‘to die’.

    We all probably have to be cautious about what we put into our bodies, that is beyond dispute, being a proponent of healthy life-style is amazing, but… when it becomes never-ending fight…
    I wish everyone to be able to eat what you want to eat without punishments and regrets. Enjoy life.

    Thank you,
    Regards

    Reply

    1. Skin & intestines…I healed my acne and IBS by doing a 3 days water and Red apple fast only. Peel the apples eat as many as you want, more the better. The pectin in the apples takes the toxins off your intestines. IF severe you might need to do it again a month later. You might see the acne get worse for a few days but rest assured its working within a week or two you will see difference and feel a difference! It worked for me totally clear skin ever since 15 years later. Jerry

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    2. “Stubborn acne and bloating just don’t want to leave this body…”

      For nearly 20 years — throughout my 20’s and 30’s — I was plagued with similar issues. By acne, I mean tons of red, painful, ugly inflamed areas all over my face. It was far worse than the average teenagers I saw and the best I could do was try to burn these blemishes by applying strong topical face creams. I thought some of this was related to what I ate, just couldn’t figure out what! I decided to take a long, difficult journey to figure out. First, I went for a period eating only vegetables… and got very sick, face didn’t clear up, similar problems. Then I started looking at what I was eating individually… and boy has it made a difference. I went from having such terrible breakouts (again, lasting for 20 some years) to having mostly blemish free, makeup free, product free skin. When I do experience mild outbreaks I can nearly always tie it to ingesting one of the following things on my no-no list:

      DAIRY – milk, soft cheeses (mozerella, etc.) make my acne flare up terribly. (Interestingly I can eat hard cheese like sharp cheddar). Dairy is just bad news for me. I drink rice “milk” w/ no problems
      CAFFEINE– this has got to be one of the worst things I can do for my body and skin is infuse it with tons of caffeine. (and I used to drink a LOT of coffee)

      It is hard to explain this but weaned off processed / chemical laced foods and start re-introducing foods, some just won’t taste right (even if you previously craved them). Tomatoes, no way – too acidic. Straight black coffee — bitter! So when I follow this “gut sense” (instead of trying to doctor the coffee w/ cream & sugar to make it palatable or combining the tomatoes with something else)

      Combining two bad things… well, that is when things get really bad. Ever heard of the “trigger foods” that millions of people say cause acne flare-ups? 1) Pizza and 2) Chocolate? Well, these have at least one “problem” food — Pizza has both dairy and tomatoes while chocolate is usually milk chocolate, so it has both dairy AND caffeine.

      For decades, a huge number of people have complained that eating chocolate or pizza makes things worse. Despite this, dermatologists will downplay and suggest that there is no link and instead suggest medicated creams. It may well be that for reasons unknown not everyone reacts and so testing the general populace (saying giving a chocolate bar to 100 people) will not result in any statistically significant increase in acne. However, if you give milk chocolate to a group of 100 people who claim this is a trigger and compare it with a group of 100 people who claim this is a trigger and stay off of all dairy for the test period, I think we’d see striking results.

      As many people mentioned, we are not all the same. I think there is a lot of hype (I had friends try rice diets, meat diets, vegan diets, etc.) but there is also a lot of truth that we can share. It seems logical to me to avoid things that don’t seem to jive with the way we were created.

      Reply

    3. Same issues (and lots more) for me.
      Still hunting for a cure. I know exactly when it began. Never had any issues at all until I was 33 years-old. That’s the year I decided to eat “healthy” and started drinking soy milk and eating beans and rice (which, as I now know, all are high in lectins).

      The lectins caused me to get leaky gut, so now I have lots of health issues (including acne). I only drank soy milk and ate high lectin foods for about a year and they destroyed my intestines.

      I’ve tried the usual suggestions to heal the leaky gut (L-Glutamine, Colostrum, bone broth, dietary changes). Nothing has healed my intestinal lining (I’ll know based on symptoms).

      Unfortunately, at the time, I also fed soy milk to my 3 year-old son who, to this day (he’s now 19) struggles with acne. The guilt I feel is…Ugh.

      Currently, I’m looking into choline. Been reading there’a a connection between choline and cell repair. I’ve started eating eggs to get choline. No difference yet, but I’ll let you know.
      Don’t ever give up!

      Reply

      1. Drop the fancy stuff. Go on a green diet. Kale, Spinach. Broccoli, yum scrambled in eggs. Main meal. Braise pumpkin finely cut in coconut oil, add water to steam it first. Add as you slice it broccoli, cabbage, spinach, brinjals, yumm! gives a nice round texture to the leafy greens. Smooth eating. Carrots, give it all time to cook through properly. Destroys the lectins. Soft eating and do not let it cook dry. Plain black or green tea with Stevia.

        Oh yes, watch your salt intake as well. See my other posts on gelatin as well. Got It from a local doctor giving me a dirty look when I complained about cramp. Got a TIA (mini stroke) from drinking too much salt.

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  28. John Crosby, could you please explain how exactly Gundry’s book had an effect on your life ?
    Thank you,
    Zal

    Reply

  30. I don’t find it helpful to call people one doesn’t agree with or who aren’t as educated as oneself “uninformed idiots”. Especially when our understanding is always evolving and so many people have had negative effects from a conventional western diet since childhood.

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  31. I don’t know what to think and believe anymore, except to go by how my own body feels. I know that I’ve lost weight in the past eating almost everything, but sticking to a calorie limit. I’ve regained it because I usually return to my old eating habits. I can not believe fruit is as bad as eating candy and I have a hard time accepting vegetables of any kind being bad in some way. Bread definitely has a negative effect on me if I overeat it, as does anything if we OVEReat it. I know people who eat an unhealthy diet, lots of sweets, and yet they remain thin and “appear” to be healthy. Whether they are, I don’t know. If these “lectins” have been in food always, why then is it a problem now? I’m going to try to reduce my lectin intake just to see if I see a big difference in my life, and I may pick up Dr. Gundry’s book. But in reality, there are so many foods that are off-limits, and I don’t know if it is doable for life. I need to know what foods he says we CAN eat. Good luck to all of you!

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  32. “Things like that are clearly unrelated to the digestive system if these lectins are not being absorbed and therefore remaining isolated to the GI tract. Right?….”

    Have you not heard of the brain-gut connection? There certainly is a connection between what we eat and our cognition and behavior. That you do not know this makes your entire article suspect.

    Lynn M Jenkinson, RN (Ret.)

    Reply

    1. Thanks for the comment. We are certainly not discounting the brain-gut theories. The keyword in that quote is “absorbed” and without that, the brain-gut connection is unlikely.

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      1. Not sure if this is beside the point, but I thought the whole dilemma about lectins was that they cause and then exploit leaky gut. Leaky gut then allows them entry into the body in a damaging way, setting off a cascade of reactions, all of which can indeed effect the entire body, including the brain, via complex interconnecting pathways. Inflammation is multi-system-wide in its impact. Hence to suggest lectins have no effect on the brain is somewhat premature, if not naive. Let’s not overreact, but let’s be more rigorous and nuanced in exploring this topic….not shut it down with simplistic arguments. We are all learning and all in this together, after all.

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  33. “…Peanuts are actually a legume. Since this “nut” is always sold roasted, a lower amount of peanut agglutinin (PNA) would be expected….” Another misconception. Many places sell raw nuts of ALL kinds and plenty of people buy them.

    Reply

    1. Rest assured, we know that very well. Just google jungle peanuts (which are raw) and you will see our research and photos of the raw peanuts in our own kitchens.

      However, when we say “this nut is always sold raw” that is the scenario for all intents and purposes. Not even our local Whole Foods sells raw peanuts, neither conventional or jungle. There are not many places that sell them, at least brick and mortar stores. For other nuts, absolutely, but not peanuts.

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  34. We have had tremendous results with the following generic protocol ( specific testing is however done ) All types of diseases have dissipated and inflammation of all organ systems has drastically reduced.

    WHEN TO EAT

    Only eat in a 2-3 hour window (nutrient dense main meal ) ( Wolf eating )

    WHAT TO EAT ( REMOVE )

    1. No Deadly Nightshades (tomato/potato/peppers / eggplant /chilly/ red pepper/curry )
    2. No Dairy ( except GFFR Butter / Cottage Cheese used in miracle mix )
    3. No Legumes (beans/peas / chickpeas / lentils /peanuts / cashews/ soy )
    4. No Ragweeds (banana / sunflower / cucumber / zucchini / echinacea / camomile )
    5. No artificial sweetener
    6. No sugar or sugar replacement ( except raw Honey )
    7. Max 1 allowed fruit PD
    8. Max 50g net carbs PD

    WHAT TO SUPPLEMENT

    1. Fiber + Pre biotic
    2. Soil based Pro Biotic
    3. Collagen Protein ( in coffee )
    4. Mg Glycinate (300 mg PD)

    Other

    1. Daily alkaline mix ( lemon juice with up to 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda + 1tbsp MCT oil + 1 tsp Raw honey )
    2. Daily juicing ( beetroot / carrot / celery / aragula / fresh turmeric / MCT oil / collagen Protein )( very rich in Nitric Oxide )
    3. Daily Miracle Mix ( budwig) ( Cottage cheese / flax oil / freshly ground flax seeds / tsp of honey )

    Obviously the above is a generic, and specific sensitivities and deficiencies need to be measured for Repair and Rebuild unique Protocols.

    Reply

    1. Larry, could you please an example of a substitute food. Please stop using so many acronyms. For instance is MCT coconut oil? What is budwig? Also what is a name of a collagen protein? thank you.

      Reply

      1. MCT – medium chain triglycerides – they are in coconut oil but not in abundance. You can buy oil with higher amounts of MC. I don’t vouch for this brand but here is an example: Sports Research MCT oil.

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  35. Moderation is the key to any diet and from our own health experiences, we would have to lean a lot towards a Candida overgrowth issue than a ‘lectin’ intolerance. If you were to review the treatment protocol for dealing with Candida it would seem far more manageable than this almost ‘all or nothing’ approach to dealing with lectin’s. Having read excerpts of “The Plant Paradox” and reviews, it would appear that it is an ‘extreme’ dietary approach, not necessarily duplicatable. While intermittent fasting is good, fasting for sometimes 22 hours a day for several months and then cram all your eating into a two hour window seems like it would be extremely hard if not dangerous on the body. I’ll pass on the lectin avoidance and continue in our Candida dietary approach which limits carbs, removes toxins and deals with fungal overgrowth.

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  36. For those of you with ongoing dietary issues, with allergies, with brain fog, with diabetes, arthritis, etc., and suspect lectins may be the root cause, start including milk kefir in your daily regimen. This has been shown to heal leaky gut, sending undigested lectins on down the drain rather than sucking holes in small intestines and slipping into the blood stream. Start slow though, kefir means business and will wreak havoc when introduced to an unhealthy digestive tract. Research milk kefir. It is fermented milk. The fermentation process destroys lectins in the milk, and many who have experienced allergic symptoms to milk tolerate the kefir with no side effects.

    Reply

    1. Yes Marvin. not too many people know about Kefir. As a baby I had chronic bronchial issues. My Uncle put me on a Goats Kefir and prune juice diet. All my symptoms dissipated and only came back to haunt me when I would over indulge with sugar and milk products. Also, bone broth (from scratch) has made a significant improvement with my leaky gut and GI issues.

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  37. Well written article and very interesting comments. Great way to spend a Saturday night.
    As a health care practitioner, educator since late 70’s and author of the Paw Paw Program – A Natural Approach to Cancer, 2010, I have studied diet and nutrition for over 40 years.

    This includes personally trying most type of food regimes: from vegan to paleo, blood typing: Dr. Adamo ( his father’s first book on blood typing, One Man’s Food is Another Man’s Poison & all his son’s books) , body typing (Dr. Abravanel), low carb, from Fit For Life to Atkins, Dr. Bernard Jensen – Master Nutritionist, Arnold Erhart’s Mucousless Diet – one of the best physiological explanations of digestion ever done, the list goes on.

    I thought hard when I had to summarize all this for my dietary suggestions for healing not just cancer, but ALL diseases in my book. In other words how does one create HEALTH? I feel I have done it, by distilling the essence of health garnered from so many different opinions. There ARE basic health principles in most dietary books. These are the ones that are important and if followed this will create health. You can check this out on my website: NaturalPathRemedies.com or in my book. It turns out that the basics I promote do take into account lectins, even before all this research became available. The old masters knew a good diet, even when they may have not had the chemical reaction, biochemical pathways, research to prove it.

    Equally important is the emotional side. We need to listen to what is right for OUR body and relax a bit – some people create so much stress & worry over eating, they have no room for health.

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  38. wait, so according to Dr. Gundry, Tomatos & Fruits are SuperKiller foods??? lol dunno what to believe anymore. Each week, there’s a new finding contradicting the previous one. Sun is toxic, air is toxic, oceans are toxic, veggies are toxic, grains are toxic, nuts are toxic… I mean WTF!!!

    what’s next? The cockroach diet jaja

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  39. Good article. Dr. Gundry’s book is a must read as is the book ” The MICROBIOME DIET” by Dr. Raphael Kellman. You can’t escape lectins, but you can choose the foods that do the most damage to your GUT. You might think you cannot live without certain foods…BUT…you can when you see how much better you feel when not eating high lectin foods and avoiding eating a lot of sugar and foods that have high fructose corn syrup.

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  40. I thoroughly enjoyed this article and almost all of your comments positive or negative! I came away thinking “what a bunch of smart people” interestingly too, was I watched Dr. Gundry’s video by chance and learned about lectins for the very first time. I’ve been eating paleo for some years now, but occasionally crave bread and potatoes…and sure enough I gain weight, experience fatigue and a little brain fog. Thanks to all for your many insights into this subject. 😉

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  41. As I say in painting, in the long history of human art, poison and pigment arise together. If we want beauty, we might have to die for it. But slowly, I think, and certain poisons might be worth it for great beauty.

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  42. You’e totally wrong about avocado as Gundry actually encourages his readers to eat them. Cashews are high in lectins. This article contains too much misinformation to trust.

    Reply

  43. Thank you for this article and discussion. I have taken many excerpts for further research. I am just reading Plant Paradox. Focus on learning about food and its effects began with a hypoglycemic diagnosis in college 40 years ago and am always grateful to make refinements for greater health. I have explored the Blood Type Diet with benefit, Genotype. Ayurveda, Metabolic Typing, cooked vs. raw, green smoothies, juicing, herbs, etc etc and usually try something on my system for a period of time, to see how it works for me. The longest I have juice fasted is 35 days. At 61 am on no medication, no arthritis, have decent energy level, active, have horses to care for, and it could be even better. Would like to keel over dancing in the 100’s.

    All that to say is that I’ve done some exploration and am interested in increasing my health, doing what works best for the time and money. I am currently studying regenerative agriculture. There has been mind-body exploration and application of 35 years.

    Gundry recommends intermittent fasting which I have found to be beneficial. I agree food is first medicine and eating what works for your body is so very important. Yet digestion is emotional as well as physical, they are interconnected. What doesn’t get digested needs to be released. Unprocessed emotions, stress, shocks, traumas and overwhelms can impede the body’s functioning and ability to digest. In The Body Keeps the Score Dr Van der Kolk indicates that doctors are starting to connect the dots with this part of how immune function works or doesn’t. I have my own learning that its not all about food. I am currently re-reading Dr Lissa Rankin’s Mind Over Medicine who says it confounded her that clients who were doing all the right health things could be so sick until she started asking more questions and found out they were miserable, truly miserable in some part of their lives. That those who were happy in their lives could do things that didn’t make sense health wise and yet be healthy.

    Many things changed in time period around WWI and II. We had increased electrical lighting available, see Lights Out: Sleep Sugar and Survival. We stopped growing our own gardens. Chemical applications happened in farming, poisons have been applied to our food and the diversity of heirloom seeds and the biodiversity in the soil has been diminished.

    Health factors only recently being given any credence are the healthy gut biome, the appendix as holding place for gut bacteria not a vestigial organ after all, whole salt is actually good for system as opposed to processed sodium, our culture is iodine and magnesium deficient as well as many trace elements. There is a lot that needs correction. It shouldn’t take this much attention to be healthy!

    All this to say that the lectins are important and I will be making some dietary adjustments: yet if our soil had sufficient trace elements available and excellent micro biome, if we were free from high stress, unprocessed shock and trauma, and truly happy in our lives, and had community, social and economic justice (see Dr Stephen Bezruchka) then we would be doing what creates the greatest well-being for all. Food (lectin free) for thought.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0X2exKyC7k

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  44. There is a lot of good information about lectin on this website. Many are frustrated with lack of more clear information or that the lectin diet did not work for them, while others put their faith in Dr. Gundry viewpoints about avoiding lectin foods. Most of Gundry’s comments are good, but he screwed up when he stated that bad bacteria were in the stomach. Like most medical doctors, he lacks adequate knowledge about nutrition. But he is catching up when he focuses on food as a better medicine than drugs.

    Most comments fall short of realizing that just avoiding lectin foods in the diet will not fix their body problem. It may help but not resolve body problem(s). The reason is because the human body is a nano-hi-tech bio-chemical-electrical delicate, precise and complex machine. There are many pieces to the food-health puzzle. Although we lack all the good information on many of the pieces of the food-health puzzle, most of our body problems are due to a bad lifestyle and bad food choices.

    Here is are several examples of missing information:
    Minerals in the body respond to a delicate and precise mineral balancing system. Minerals work in pairs but also have ties to other minerals as well. Calcium stimulates while magnesium relaxes muscles and the heart in a precise ratio. Such a ratio is close to 2Ca:1Mg although the exact ratio is unknown and today this is guesswork. When a person consumes more calcium than magnesium and distorts the precise ratio, then calcium is slowly deposited in the arteries over time, causing heart disease; or if deposited in the brain arteries, then the result is a stroke. We do not know if there is a connection between minerals and lectin at this time.

    Another shortcoming of the comments made is that lectin does not work by itself. It works with other nutrient helpers or co-factors. When some of these co-factors are missing, then lectin and the body become dysfunctional. Unfortunately, we do not know all the co-factors that are nutrient helpers.

    Comments made also infer a lack of awareness that the body compensates for missing nutrients, co-factors or excess lectin in attempts to keep the body working in a survival mode. When deficient in magnesium, the body borrows it from the bones, causing arthritis and weak bones. We do not know how the body compensates for lectin.

    We just do not have all the research needed to understand how to really deal with lectin. Small pieces of the big picture as Gundry has given are helpful insight but certainly not the whole picture. This lack of complete information is what is causes many to react negatively about lectin.

    Readers can find more information about how the body heals, works and prevents disorders and chronic diseases in the website below.

    Reply

    1. I question how much you know about lectins as you mention the singular “lectin” many times in your comment as if it were one thing. I certainly agree with your assessment of Dr. Gundry although I have not read his book but happened to get sucked in by a “click-bait” ad of his and sat through his interminably long infomercial promoting his overpriced supplements to glean what I could of useful information that he sprinkled in just enough of to keep me engaged… he is a good salesman I will admit.
      This triggered an intense bout of research into what is actually known about lectins which led me here.
      And yes, I believe you are quite right about a lack of complete information being a problem… this seems widespread. So far the best books on popular nutrition I have read are by Dr. Fuhrman. But I have not read yours… yet.

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  45. This was inadvertently left out from the blog above by Sorochan.

    Response by admin: Thanks for the very informative comment. Sorry, we don’t allow for links to commercial websites in comments for reasons you can understand, however we are happy to provide a link to your book on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2yEywd1

    Reply

  46. After reading this article I think I must be from another planet. I have eaten everything mentioned; especially legumes, tomatoes, eggs, meat, fish, whole meal breads and I am still here??? So far I have suffered none of the illnesses described as a result from eating them or any medication. Quite frankly I am fed up with all the advice on healthy eating. Most of it conflicting and not based on a real lengthy research programme. This article just confuses the issue even further.

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    1. I think the body can always handle a certain amount of stressors. But when it becomes too much and inflamation starts happening (not just due to foods, but psychological stress, lack of sleep, pollutants, etc.) that’s when you need to be careful. I used to be able to eat anyting too, but now I can’t. Just be happy you still can and enjoy it.

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  47. Great article.

    If you look at the references provided in Dr Gundy’s book, much of it is light and by implication. If you are diabetic or suffer from an autoimmune disease, the plant paradox diet may help improve disease control. It is certainly not the cure all diet it claims to be.

    Re-introduction of ‘offending’ food groups to see if it causes any symptoms after a period on the diet(he suggests 6 weeks) is a good way of identifying whether the elimination has had any impact.

    For people without any disease to begin with, it is hard to evaluate the effect of being on the diet except you can expect to be more constipated and have difficulty finding food on the ‘yes’ list.

    In any case, any diet where you avoid processed foods and fructose, can’t be doing any harm as long as you eat enough to fulfill your body’s nutritional requirements.

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  48. I have been incredibly I’ll for ten years now. Have seen 21 doctors so far and have been to Mayo twice with no results. Read Dr. Gundry’s work and tried it because I’ve got nothing left to try. Lost 30 pound in 4 months, fasting glucose dropped 15 points and triglycerides were cut in half, so I’m succeeding by a strict avoidance of various kinds of lectins.

    However, I ordered his Vital Reds and reacted badly to them. My hair started falling out by the handfuls again. Gave the Vital Reds to my husband and he did fine on them. Tells me that we are all different in our tolerances.

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  49. I discovered lectins in 2001 when I was diagnosed with some type of rheumatism/lupus joint pain. As long as I don’t eat wheat, corn, or potatoes I’m fine. A few weeks of eating badly will mean extreme joint pain. I’ve ‘tested’ it repeatedly (because I’m human and tempted by donuts!) and these substances are indeed what causes the pain. So, I wouldn’t offhandedly dismiss this as a fad. Doing so may steer someone desperately in need of relief from horrible pain away from the very thing that would cure them, and I’m sure you would not want that.

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  50. Great work and good insight on Lectin, thank you for all research you have done and making this easy for us to grab it from your blog.

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  51. E. McAndrews, I echo your sentiment and experience. I’m 65, excercise intensely and regularly and eat all the things (in moderation) that seem to have wrecked most of the commenters on this site. I’m slightly over-weight but have no mysterious gut-wrenching illness. I think a great majority of people – who are healthy or ill due to identifiable causes – don’t spend their time looking at sites like this. So we have a biased sample here. I happen to be an information hound with leisure time, so here I am. This is a well-written review on the topic. I was unpersuaded by Dr. Gundry when l watched his video. There is so much research lacking on the topic, and it will never get done unless someone can make a lot of money on it. I expect he’s making lots of money on supplements and I hope does fund some further research. Thanks for the effort, Superfoodly!

    Like one of the respondents above, I’m on NAD+ precursor as an experiment as well. Same story – too little research, supplement companies are busy making money on this. After 6 weeks on Nicotinamide Riboside, there has been no impact. Since it’s supposedly keeping my mitochondria supercharged and preventing my cells from aging (sarcasm), I’ll keep going a while longer.

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  52. Been a compulsive eater my whole life. Found Overeaters Anonymous and learned that I have an addiction to food and certain foods are triggers for me. So I haven’t touched white or brown sugar or corn syrup for twenty-five years. I am also relatively gluten-free. Rarely eat bread and keep my crackers to rice, beans or rye (the latter, rarely – I’m not a “grains” person, but make sure I get some every day. Taking off weight slowly and happily – so far ten pounds in two months – without any stress at all – by simply eating three small to medium meals a day, used to eat out a lot, now make most of my meals at home. I am nearly vegetarian now. Just eat a bit of fish once or twice a week, and may stop doing even that. Have delicious meals with fresh veggies, fruits, lots of salads with chunky veggies, clear soups. Don’t eat too many tomatoes, never eat potatoes, won’t eat any processed foods, have a luscious coffee (called “Hawaiian” because it’s got a half tspn of coconut oil and also of ghee) – only use Stevia – and stop eating the minute I feel full. Space my meals five to six hours apart (the coffee is my only “snack” and I use almond milk in it. Never eat any other kind of milk). Only have yogurt as “dairy” but a very small amount like a tablespoon in a fruit smoothie with berries and a banana and a protein powder a few mornings a week. Eat one rice cake a day with a tablespoon of organic peanut butter and some all fruit jam with my coffee for one small meal…maybe a few almonds. Drink large amounts of green or black tea, usually with every meal. Have great energy, a roaring art career and look better than I have in my whole life (now at retirement age). Going to food recovery meetings really helps because all of the wisdom sticks with you. It’s kind of like “ammunition” against the seductive aspects of trigger foods I used to crave. None of this is done with any kind of “discipline.” I just didn’t want to go into old age a fat old lady. My advice: eat what you KNOW is good for you, and that can be different for everyone. Don’t ever DIET. (Think about it. The word DIE is in diet.) Diets are about control, and you can only “control” your body’s needs for so long.

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  53. Man you are saying the same as Dr. Gundry in The Plant Paradox book, you just don’t know it, and he goes much deeper.

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  54. I found this article while searching for the answer to: “does pickling destroy lectins in cucumbers?” Obviously, I got way more information than I needed, and no answers to my question. However, I just finished Dr. Gundry’s The Plant Paradox book today after having been referred to Dr. Gundry and the book by a friend who had recently a heart attack and was looking for a prevention solution based on food alone.
    For anyone who hasn’t already, and like others have stated, READ THE BOOK (and I might add, read the whole book). Dr. Gundry is not looking to make a buck by creating a culture of fear and then selling stuff to alleviate those fears (he was a leading heart surgeon for many years at prestigious medical organizations). He does offer some very potent formulas (with an unheard of 90-day money-back guarantee) but also points the way to Costco and other companies for generic versions of some of the ingredients used in his own products.
    His basic philosophy is: what you don’t eat is more important than what you do. Lectins are very sneaky in how they operate in the human body. They masquerade as human hormones and so are granted admittance to cell receptor sites, preventing your own hormones from “docking” and doing their job. Much of this trouble occurs in the gut and once your gut has been compromised, all manner of bad things get into your bloodstream causing the immune system to go into kill mode. This book reads like a great suspense thriller, and you really get a sense of the scope of the battle that’s going on inside your body.
    This is not a diet book. Far from it. It’s all about choice. Eliminate foods on this list and enjoy foods on that list. The numerous success stories from his patients are proof of the efficacy of Dr. Gundry’s approach, and epitomize what Hippocrates said all those years ago: Let food be thy medicine…

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  55. Ditto to Nina, Randall Michael Tobin, and others that are on the same page.

    For the others intelligence might be a bit lacking as this article is definitely BIASED!

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  56. At 78 years old I was experiencing many of the problems listed in the article when in Jan 2017 I stumbled upon lectins on the internet. I immediately embarked on a lectin reduction regimen and some of the conditions reversed within just a couple of weeks! As time went on I noticed that many more symptoms disappeared and I am not speaking of minor symptoms! These included arthritis, joint inflammation, mental acuity, body odor, toenail fungus,
    enlarged prostate, weight loss, skin tags and candida! I believe that the government is on a mission to suppress this knowledge because of the potential disruptive impact it would have on the economy at the expense of the public’s health! These inflammatory lectins present a very clear and present danger to the health of humans and need to be identified as such and the government needs to establish a department to research the problem and provide nutritional guidance to the public! A good start would be to eliminate the worthless USDA!

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  57. Lectinintolerance or lectin-negatively-influenced, may it be, that one is less than correctly reacting to this substance, if one follows the path evolution has lead us to step. Those who are able to react adequate and aware full will respond reactively and those not, will suffer cause they do not use the senses to register the treath in front?

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  58. “Everything in Moderation ‘ NOT the best remedy… as the article even suggests “LISTEN TO YOUR BODY” would
    In all that I have been reading: This fabulous article and the shared comments. Its all good certainly makes us think. There are people that using the same blade having been used on a bell pepper to cut bread that is given to the sensitive person, or using the same ice cream scoop a from a peanut or strawberry ice cream, or the cooking fumes of pine nuts or garlic can lead some to severe allergic reactions.., severe vomiting flu like sicknesses that take days weeks to make its way out of their system or anaphalactic shock… Seems that the best we can all do is be respectful of peoples individuality, and realize that in most cases it is not an overnight fix… just thru careful self observation and perhaps documentation over days of life cycles of blood & metabolism kmowing not all symptoms come the same day…… over time with the help of open minded well informed professionals, doctors,..and our own diligence, we might get to the bottom of all that we individually need….
    Thank you for the article very helpful as it may be our blood, or individual DNA perhaps that is where our similarities are…. The article was a balancing other puzzle piece to discovering the best remedy and individual lifestyle choices for the each family member LISTEN TO YOUR BODY record the info seek help for interpreting it
    I have found also DR RAPP to be helpful …. as well as the other informative books and studies above. Also just discovered the possible help for some with FOOD GRADE diatomaceous earth NO NOT INHALE NO NOT USE INDUSTRIAL check with your health support team first.

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  59. After suffering from burnout due to stress I could no longer eat the foods that I had normally eaten. My body was inflamed and it only got worse by stress and certain foods. Over the past three years I have experimented with food to try and figure out what my body can and cannot handle. I have tried low FODMAPs, gluten free, dairy free, high protein, etc. until I started to suspect potatoes. After I stopped eating potatoes I slowly started getting better (I ate a lot of potato chips). I then came across an article on nightshades. I already knew that I reacted to peppers and potatoes and after cutting all nightshades from my diet I started getting A LOT better. However, I would still react to some things: sunflower seeds, corn, high amounts of grains and pumpkin seeds, chia seeds plus milk. I had not heard about lectins until this week – three years after starting my own experiment with which foods I can tolerate and not. I had basically concluded that I reacted to nightshades and milk, but also a bunch of other foods and that my food intolerance could not be categorized. However, lectin rich foods seem to be the key!

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    1. We seem to be in a similar boat. I just discovered this lectin idea after years and years of trial and lots of errors. My inflammation signal is red blotches on my face, but I worry that even without the facial inflammation I still have gut inflammation. :-(

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  60. Hello,
    Do egg white contains lectins? could I get my protein safely from them?
    I don’t seem to allergic to eggs, but I’m to dairy products, a respiratory allergy not digestive problems.
    Thank you so much, I’ll appreciate your response
    Teresa

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  61. One article says these things are bad and these are good. Another says just the opposite. Just what are we to believe? I think We are being played. Everyone just wants to sell their product. You really don’t know what to believe.

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  62. mmm
    for me no problem to throw legumes, wheat (and other grains except rice flour), dairy, current diet.
    so sad for potatoes and tomatoes :(
    what about oat flour ?

    pd: scleroderma morphea (and very mild scleroderma) and rhinitis sufferer.
    some day i have to test TNF, IL-1, IL-6.

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  63. I had a grandmother who lived to be 100 years old, my other grandmother 91 and my mother died at 94 in 2016. They all ate beans, rice, tomato, avocado, tortillas, chile, mango, meat, chicken, fish, everything and not one of them had any health problems. They ate in moderation, exercised, went to bed early. Didn’t smoke or drink. My oldest grandmother died of pneumonia, my second grandmother died of gangrene from a foot infection, my mother of natural cause in her sleep.

    I am 70 years old no health problems. I do weigh 15 lbs more than I did when I got married 47 years ago. No one knows what’s best for you, but you.

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  64. I’ll tell you what I am sick of??? The endless reading and posted articles on what is and is NOT good for us to eat these days!! What does and does not cause all the health issues that are running rampant in western society. I’ve cut out as much processed and packaged food as I can and miss a lot of foods I formerly enjoyed, with only minor improvement to my RA, Osteo, AS and Iritis all auto immune conditions. But what I miss most is the Science and research people getting a clue and getting ON THE SAME PAGE with their advice!!! Tell us the facts and make sure they are the same as your colleagues conclusions and stop bouncing us all over the bloody planet trying to improve our health!!!

    Would it be so difficult for a worthy educated panel of experts and scientists to commit to a very large study of all foods and there affects on us? So tired of the ‘opinions’ labelled science these days and the fact we are pulled in so many different directions NOBODY knows what we can and can not eat any more.
    God…Tomatoes?? Really? What next… Cucumbers and celery? Wait never mind…. I will go read another thousand pages of internet tripe and I am sure someone somewhere will be condemning them too and have a supplement on the market to replace our salads with a pill? YES…I read the entire article and I am TIRED of reading to find the truth.

    FED UP NOT BEING FED!!!

    Somebody develop a website and give us an accurate relevant information platform for our diets please and help me stop wasting my time searching for the truth on this god forsaken internet. ARRRRGH!!

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  65. I really enjoyed the article and most of the comments. Thank you! I was a bit annoyed by all the comments about Dr. Gundry. There is so much we don’t know about lectins, including Dr. Gundry. I’m sure his book is informative, but to present yourself as an authority on lectins is just plain wrong! He makes a lot of money off desperate, sick people.

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    1. I find Leslie’s comment the most disturbing on this thread……………..all the comments about Dr. Gundry are testimonies to the fact that his protocol is actually helping some people improve the quality of their lives. Why would you begrudge that? He provides so much free information and avenue for others to provide information through his podcasts. And he is not the first to broach the subject but has brought it to recent light again. My doctor recommended I buy his book because of all my health issues which include Sarcoidosis, asthma. fibromalygia and severe stomach issues which I think were brought on by years of medicines like Prednisone, Reglan, and Methetrexate to treat the sacoidosis. I like many others have tried many many food elimination programs without any success. And like many I would use products that I thought were healthy alternatives like soy in my very rare Starbucks cup of coffee instead of milk………….. I have eaten enough cashews to mosaic my house. My stomach issues get so bad that I belch, my stomach bloats………..over a few weeks it gets into my chest and causes lung infections…………wheezing, can’t breathe…..feels like I am suffocating…….even though oxygen levels are usually normal. Back on prednisone……..although Prednisone has become less effective over time………..so new Year’s resolution was to implement Dr. Gundry’s protocol. I am working into it slowly…..70/30 so I won’t sabotage myself…but can already tell a reduction in my lung congestion in just a few days……….Made his Lemon Chicken and Kale Soup last night but made it a hash more than a soup………..loved it…………made his Green” Egg-Sausage Muffins this morning………..did have some indigestion but i used real pork sausage from the dairy down the road. Had the Sage & Sweet Potato Kale tonight and I loved it………more than my husband :) Best of luck to all…………who are on a journey to improve their health issues mostly caused by greed and lack of ethics………this covers the medical field, pharmaceutical field and major corporations like Monsanto. Cheers.

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  66. I have my whole life needed to watch how I eat. Now for me I propose growing and eating a variety of baby greens, not sprouts or micro-greens but leaf lettuces, spinach, chard, kale, chois, basil, cilantro, dill cumin fennel etc greens, celery and herbs just to name a few. This gives me many flavors and I can eat much of it. If I need something heavier I deseed, skin, cook and/or ferment roots (carrot, parsnip, celery root, cucumbers, winter or summer squash, nightshades (potato, tomato, pepper, eggplant), brassicas (broccoli and brussel sprouts – the easiest to digest, cauliflower, cabbage, radish, turnip, etc. I spice (what I consider food medicine) with garlic, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, clove, fresh horseradish, and whole salts. I consider herbs (oregano, basil, lemon balm – all in the mint family) food.

    This is how I feel best.

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  67. While only a fraction of those who thought those who thought that they were gluten intolerant actually are, and I was one of those, they do get sick on American grains because of a glyphosate contamination. Once I started eating only pasta from Europe (specifically Italy) my symptoms disappeared. This is an important distinction!

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  68. Excuse me if this is covered later in the article, but you discuss whether lectins could pass the brain blood barrier, implying that this would be necessary for brain fog. I’m pretty confident that this is not so. Allergies and viral infections in general can cause brain fog, without the need for the allergen or virus to enter the brain. The body’s own inflammatory reaction is probably to blame.

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  69. This article is old, but it is speaking to me. I have a problem eating anything with a coating on it–any “whole” grain, and especially oils derived from grains, fruits with seeds (blackberries, strawberries, tomato seeds). I get a inflammation on certain spots on my face. It comes in about 4 hours, and takes about a week to calm down. It took me SIX years to figure out what was going on. And, I learned that some olive oil is not pure, but probably has some canola or corn oil in it.
    Even the slightest amounts would set off a facial inflammation. Any amount of canola oil in a cracker would do it. I had to buy crackers made with palm oil.
    I’ve also become crazy sensitive to MSG and all it’s hidden incarnations (yeast, maltodextrose, etc.) I almost never eat prepared food anymore.
    So, I know I’m sensitive to these things, whatever they are. But, I have a cream (Elidel) that stops or suppresses the inflammation on my face. My question: Is my gut still sensitive to these things? I want to eat brown rice, but even though my face isn’t showing the inflammation, my gut might be?
    (I also did a poop test through UBiome, and I have very low levels of gut flora. I’m a mess, and want to eat my way out of it.)

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  70. Stay away from Dairy Products, Alcohol, and salt!! Eat in moderation, all the time !! Exercise at least 30 to 1 hour per day!!! And plant Flowers for the Butterflies and Insects to enjoy – sit back and watch them work , help your stress in your life by helping these wonderful creatures that need OUR HELP!!!

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  72. Fran, nothing I have read suggests a way to destroy lectins in potatoes….not that I have read
    all there is to read! I preferred white potatoes (or yellow or purple even) to sweet potatoes, but
    now eat only sweet potato and enjoy it….just have to accept it until someone, sometime
    comes up with a solution! They make chips out of sweet potatoes, too…..good luck!

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  73. I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis eight years ago. The drugs the doctors gave me made me sick and all I could do for the extreme pain was Naporoxen, a form of Ibuprofen. Two weeks ago I had a colonoscopy and an endoscopy. The colonoscopy was clear and fine, but the endoscopy showed something that I am waiting for the biopsy report as I write this. The doctor gave me a Rx for a drug called Omeprazole, to be taken for one month before seeing the doctor again. Well, THAT drug came with an insert that listed over FIFTY side effects!! There was NO WAY I was going to take it. First of all, even though my biopsy results haven’t come back yet, I am sure that years of taking Ibuprofen foe pain had everything to do with whatever is now wrong in my stomach. THAT did for me! I got off the Ibuprofen (since May 11th…it’s now May 23rd), stopped eating everything except fruit and seemed veggies…no grains, no sugars, (other than what is in fruit) and no legumes. I made my own “dressing” for the steamed veggies by sautéing lots of chopped garlic, using a little virgin olive oil and I added water and Miso paste. What a delicious meal!! I haven’t felt THIS GOOD in five years! I start every morning now with a glass of warm water with one tsp. of molasses and 2 tsps. of baking soda. I have regular bowel movements now, no stomach pain and….get this…NO PAIN, PERIOD! I haven’t used my walker to get around and I am going to keep to this while continuing to learn more about this issues. I eat no tomatoes or citrus, other than lemon.

    Reply

    1. Regarding Omeprazole, I took it for a month or two last year to treat severe acid reflux. It worked incredibly well to heal my upper stomach lining, and I had no side effects. Have not had to take it again. Just saying, in case you are back in a situation where it’s prescribed.

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  74. While watching a video from Dr. Grundy, I found what he was saying very interesting. I have never heard of lectins. All the foods he said to avoid, I’ve been saying for many years that they bother me. Not just GI issues but migraines as well and other issues. Of course at the end of the video he was pushing his product. It was a bit of a turnoff but it didn’t stop me from doing my own research.

    Is it lectins or just a coincidence of another issue with those specific foods? I’m not a scientist, so doing research in a lab is a no go and I will have to just eliminate those foods for myself.

    A few years back eventhough I thought a gluten intolerance was blown way out of proportion, I decided to try an elimination diet. I removed gluten, dairy, eggs, tomatoes, beans and foods that cause inflammation, like spices with peppers. I still was BLOATED and in a lot of pain. So I removed beans, but I ate lentils for the protein. Lentils are high in lectins. Perhaps a coincidence. I honestly don’t know. I even gave a huge list of foods I commonly eat for an allergist to test me for. I have slight mountain cedar allergy. That doesn’t help. :●/

    I assumed many people who removed gluten from their diet isn’t the gluten that made them better. It’s the processed and starchy foods they are so used to consuming. Maybe the reduction of lectin??? Still, I’m not a scientist.

    In this article it states that cooked tomatoes don’t have higher amounts of lectin but lycopene which is good for you. I can’t eat tomato sauce without feeling POISONED! So why is there a rumor about cooked tomatoes and lectin? Is there a correlation between lectin and lycopene???

    So I decided to look up lycopene. It’s another new word for me. I found out there is a such thing as a lycopene intolerance. The symptoms fit me. I am epileptic (partial), have POTS, migraines, GI issues, etc…

    I really hope within the next few years, there is more scientific evidence in regards to these foods. I hate being on meds to keep me from being bedridden.

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  75. There is a huge invisible elephant in the room here! The first book I ever read about lectins was Dr D’Adamo’s “Blood Type” diet around year 2001. The point is that your blood type is detected by using lectins and by the way your blood reacts to them. Any discussion on the effect of lectins on the human body is simply missing the boat altogether unless this issue is primary – because we are talking essentially about the effect of lectins once they get into the blood – and those people affected negatively by specific lectins can be accurately determined.

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  76. I beg to differ that the gluten-free trend is a scam. I had chronic diarrhea for over four years. I couldn’t leave the house before 1030 in the morning because that is when everything in my system passed and I knew I wouldn’t have to run to the bathroom. My doctor tested me for celiac and is was negative. When I read that the test was only 80% accurate I decided to try going gluten free. Within five days my diarrhea stopped. That was five years ago. To today there are times that I still have gluten but if I indulge to many days in a row then the diarrhea comes back full force. My doctor’s explanation was “well you do have quite a few allergies so being sensitive to gluten shouldn’t be surprising as you are probably one of the 20% that the test misses”.

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  78. I my self have been in the Food Industry for 30 years. Great Article and discussion with various views.

    I would like to say one thing;

    When I first met my Doctor over 20 years ago and still have him as a doctor. 3 things he said are ” Wear your seat belt, Don’t smoke and everything else in moderation”

    All the Best.

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  79. “Yes, a lot of people are totally delusional and simply follow gluten free diets as a fad without any scientific understanding or medical testing done to diagnose a disease/sensitivity.”

    While that statement is technically true, it is all the same a great example of stupidity. It’s true because of the “a lot of people.” A lot of people could be 100 or a 100,000. Many more might be somewhat (and not totally) delusional – only because they aren’t really intolerant, they just do a lot better when avoiding wheat for whatever reason! In this regard, every one of us is subject to being “somewhat delusional” when we claim we know exactly what in something is making us feel not so good. While I love the science on food, it has proven itself wrong time and time again (delusional). We are not delusional to see science as a chore. And you know what most people do with chores.

    We struggle reading (skimming) all of the above, trying to sort out the nonsense while looking for bits of information we find useful and will consider. We have to look out for ouselves. We have to read blogs like this, with nameless and unidentified authors (what are they hiding from), and miscellaneous comments. We extract what we want and hope for the best. Most read stuff like this because everything is not so perfect – there are problems we are working on.

    Nuts. I always wondered why is it when I eat just nuts, I usually don’t feel so good – despite that they are so, so healthy. When mixed with other food (that makes up the majority), no problem. Then I learned about the potentially toxic coverings on nuts. So it all made sense. Then I read this article which claims nuts are not shown scientifically to be a lectin problem for us. Maybe it’s something else then about nuts that creates some problem for many. All the people that soak their nuts to remove the coatings must be delusional. (I’m too lazy, I just eat them with food.) Or maybe, all these people correctly find that nuts only agree with them after treatment. I don’t know which is right but I have more faith that people can tell what’s working for them.

    I generally avoid paying for books that make fantastic claims. I’d rather scratch out the good from other places,

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    1. Hear, hear! My sentiments exactly. It is a lot of effort to sift through all the often conflicting information to find the probable truth, and a lot of time to research the credentials of the information sources to give proper weight to the information found when evaluating and collating it to arrive at satisfactory conclusions. But ultimately we must find what works for us as differing individuals. In most cases there is no one right answer.

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  80. Great article on what to many is a confusing and controversial subject. I look forward to exploring the other articles on the site.

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  81. I have been gluten free since some time in 2009. Heard symptoms attributed to “gluten intolerance” described on a radio MD program and thought “It couldn’t be that simple”. I quit eating wheat and 24 hours later was pain free for the first time in several years. Worse yet I’m an RN and had been worked up for gallbladder, had endoscopy, tested negative for celiac all without diagnosis of what was giving me abdominal pain. I felt stupid for not knowing what was wrong with me. My mom was a “health food nut” and I was raised on Brewers yeast, vitamins and supplements, and Adelle Davis “Let’s get well”. Needless to say health and health promotion have been a central theme in my life. Being gluten free has not been the whole solution for me. It did not solve being overweight, having rising cholesterol and high blood pressure (despite diet and exercise). Western medicine gave me meds to lower my b/p and cholesterol, but not much else.

    I only recently heard of the “leaky gut” and lectin connection. I’m having a mixed reaction to this new concept. First, I have hope that If this works I might be able to lose weight and get off my meds. But secondly, I grow vegetables for the farmer’s market, mostly tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers and potatoes. Healthful? I’ll have to tell people how to prepare them to cut down on the lectins in order to feel ok about selling them. I also sell gluten free cookies, breads, and donuts, but already have people that don’t want to even look at the baked goods or “gluten free” because they are used to poor flavor in GF or they are overweight diabetic and desperate to avoid sweets or carbs. How did foods become so booby trapped and cause so much angst? Why are we so fat? Why heart disease and diabetes and dementia? What’s the solution? Lectin blocking pills? Sounds suspiciously like another bandaid like statins or antihypertensives. What foods are safe? What I need is a gluten free lectin reduced healthy lifestyle suggesting cookbook. Anyone see one or should I write one?

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  82. Take a breath people. Part of the problem is the over generalization and reaction to incremental discoveries by just about everyone everywhere. Need I remind anyone of this in light of the great move to demonize fats and the total ignorance of medical practitioners where women’s heart health was concerned. What each individual must realize is that we are all an experiment of one. We know some “food” substances are good, not so good and plain toxic for us but maybe not so much for every one of us. Pay attention to your own gut and like the doctor’s cryptic reply, “If it hurts when you eat that; don’t eat that!”

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  83. Congrats to you all; feeling less than 100% is not great in any event. I do believe that this Dr Gundry has brought forth a gigantic piece of our over all puzzle . My carrier permits me to have a look inside of many food industries. Yes we are and have been beaten up do to the now conditions of our foods. Yes lectins are present in various food areas. I m 60 and my immune system continues to be under stress. Something is causing it . I eat great foods , yet my inflammation is over the top. My fingers get sore and all that helps is iodine. To this point I was working 80 hrs a wk. I love life and people. But what’s happening? I ve taken and recovered fr 6 horrifying Strokes. I m not kidding you. So this is why I say , something is wrong with our foods. Can lectins be the jackpot I do believe so. For I study foods / vit / miner. I eat the best, no fast foods etc. Yet the inflam / blood clots are forever staying with me. Dr Gundrys points on the Olive Oil are spot on people. I m am preve to some infor on that. I just noted that it was t being being brought along in conversation , to the extent that it deserves .Tks

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  84. I was glad to find this well written article in order to share it with my clients who are delving into the Gundry diet. I feel it is always a smart idea to research a topic well, read a variety of books and manuscripts, and use common sense for what “feels right” for your own journey.

    As a bio-resonance technician, I have been offering food sensitivity scans for a number of years. Recently, with a software/programming upgrade I can now scan for lectin sensitivities as well….which is what began to fascinate me on this topic. Understanding which lectin-containing foods are causing imbalances in my client completely makes sense with the “corresponding” foods on the food sensitivity scan.

    It clearly indicates that there is no one size fits all. Lectins are not plant-based only as this article informs – lectins from casein may show up as an inflammatory, as well as lectin from garlic, which we would surmise is a healthy food. Leeks are reported to help with lectin issues, yet for a client, whom I am working with and placing on a pH balanced “diet”, this vegetable is contributing to root cause issues.

    It is hoped that with information from the food/lectin sensitivity lists, which are definitely to be avoided until the individualized homeopathic made for her rebalances the body, that these issues are not long term but rebalance as clients adjust lifestyle choices, and also deal with hidden, trapped cell memories – as emotion so often is playing a role in a person’s dis-ease.

    Having read up on popular lectin shielding supplements I see some people have had terrible reactions… some from shellfish ingredient, another because of an MTFHR gene they carry…so again, I am a firm believer in choosing whole foods that make your body happy and pain free, and avoiding those that tell your body otherwise, in lieu of supplements. There are herbal tinctures (a live food vs. dried capsule) that help calm, and promote digestion/metabolism with bladderwrack, okra extract, and such. Blocked metabolic pathways should always be addressed when the body has problems breaking down foods, as well.

    I appreciate this article, and plan to share it on my facebook business page so that others jumping onto the lectin-free bandwagon can read a bit more to obtain a more well-rounded viewpoint.

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  85. I have been diagnosed with celiac disease, so I found it interesting to read about the lectins in grains, and other stuff. Good article. I read it all.

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  86. Dr. Paul Mason had two presentations on lectins recently and he provided us with very practical and useful information, especially about the ones that follow the vagus nerve up to the brain and cause Parkinson like disease. We now know that some pesticides , like paraquat, attach to these lectins and get a free ride into the brain. I found one study that examined 7 different lectins and found 4 had the ability to follow the vagus nerve into the brain. This makes sense from an evolutionary point of view. Not only damage the intestinal lining so they can get into the blood stream, but also get into the brain where they can stop the behavior that makes us eat them, or eat their babies. ‘Brilliant chemists , you gotta hand it to them!

    ‘As far as Dr. Gundry it is in the peer reviewed publications, usually poster abstracts, that we find his most meaningful contributions. People with severe autoimmune disease would be hard pressed to find more useful information: ” 95/102 patients achieved complete resolution of autoimmune markers and inflammatory markers within 9 months. The other 7/102 patients all had reduced markers, but incomplete resolution. 80/102 patients were weaned from all immunosuppressive and/or biologic medications without rebound.

    We conclude that a lectin limited diet, supplemented with pro and prebiotics, and polyphenols are capable of curing or putting into remission most autoimmune diseases.”
    ( https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1161/circ.137.suppl_1.p238 )

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  87. One of the best ways to destroy lectins in your food is to pressure cook your meals. For example, most of the lectins in beans are destroyed by just 7.5 minutes of pressure cooking. A lot of people have forgotten that traditional British cooking used to boil everything to death. A lot of old cookbooks told you to put food items like vegetables or a chicken in a pot and boil them at least an hour, or even up to three hours. They didn’t do this for no reason. They did it because hundreds of generations of British people found they digested their food better this way. They were unconsciously destroying lectins. I suspect people with British ancestry have genes that make them unusually sensitive to lectin damage, and their cookery developed in a ‘boil everything to death’ manner to deal with the problem. In modern times, new culinary thinking told us it was better to cook food only to the point of al dente, and eat a lot salads with raw ingredients, etc., We also do a lot of microwaving, and microwaves don’t destroy lectins very well. Eating raw food, cooking for short times, or just in microwaves is the absolute worst thing you can do if you have a lectin sensitivity. But most people don’t have time today to boil something a long time, so getting a pressure cooker is the best way around the problem.

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  88. I just have two questions: as someone who pushes through joint pain everyday, have had bilateral hip replacements and experience a new pain it seems daily, and as someone who reads and researches and have tried many different “diets” and currently avoid dairy, peanuts, gluten and sugar as much as is possible, and as someone who exercises regularly, drinks plenty of water, yet still am 40 pounds overweight, I could go on and on; my 2 questions are:

    So I should ditch my daily, deadly snack of raw almonds?
    And I should toss the raw walnuts that I eat on my very green salads several times a week? Oh, and now cucumbers are bad because they have seeds? I also have hypothyroidism and know not to eat nightshade vegetables, soy and other junk.
    All tree nuts are now bad for me?

    I don’t trust the general medical doctors AT ALL. They have NO nutritional education. They’re trained to order tests, then pull out a prescription pad from their white-coat pocket and tell you this is your only option.
    I don’t trust any websites anymore that has all these ads advocating the opposite of what they’re claims are.
    I MIGHT take a look at Dr. Gundry’s stuff, but in reality, I can see it already is impossible to follow. ERRRRR!

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    1. Terri,
      no sugar of any kind or high glycemic starches
      use animal fat for cooking
      muscles, lamb, goat, and cold water fish such as haddock halibut no farmed salmon
      olive oil only on salads
      buckwheat for low glycemic index as carbs
      no tomatoes or potatoes
      cottage cheese or hard farmers cheese only
      leafy greens , cabbage, kale, chard, parsley, red beats (cooked aldente to mimic potatoes) spinach in moderation since it contains oxalic acid ( kidney or bladder stones)
      make your own electrolyte of sodium choride calcium chloride magnesium chloride and potassium chloride in proper amounts
      decent vitamin b complex vitamin d3 5000units
      12 g of vitamin c ascorbic acid in a glass each day ( it has a very strong laxative effect)
      a handfull of tamarinds for hydroxyacid ( apathway to resensitize insulin receptors)
      Don’t fry or barbecue any meat
      buy a pressure cooker
      I should write a book :)

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  89. At this point it would be best if everyone removed Pasteurized Cows milk, cheese, yogurt etc.. from their diet. It’s poison for everyone especially if it’s non-organic as it contains anti-biotics and added hormones. Trust me what is in the milk is a lot worse than you can imagine.

    Another must remove if you want to be healthy is Wheat. It’s being sprayed with roundup pre harvest to dry it out so unless the bread you are buying contains all organic wheat, best to stay away from it. Buckwheat is a nice alternative if it agrees with you.

    Only eat organic potatoes because they too are being sprayed with round up

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  90. i have developed pustules psoriasis this year, I am vegan and eat mostly healthy with an occasional small treat but mostly no sugar. I read all the comments and the article but found everything so confusing and will be hard for me to follow as I am already on a restricted diet. Can anyone please give me a simple list of foods for a low lectin diet replacing wheat as I must admit I do fill up on wholemeal pasta I also fast and eat 2 meals a day in a 5 hour window I like walking and tia chi I try and keep happy but have a lot of emotional stresses in my life which I cannot change as out of my control but I do try to overcome the feelings I hope someone can help me as my psoriasis seem to start getting better then it comes back worse :( thanks

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  91. I have some anecdotal evidence that you may be interested in. I became aware of lectins at the age of 79, old enough that I was experiencing many so called aging diseases. After becoming proactive in managing my lectins many of these conditions reversed. I had what I suspected was arthritis in my left thumb for a few years before but within a couple of weeks of cutting out some of the high lectin foods it went away and has not returned for two years! My brain works better, I don’t have the body odor that I used to have, wounds heal faster, my skin is smoother and more supple, toenail fungus cleared up, I have more energy, etc! Yes, they were aging diseases you could say, caused by constantly bombarding my immune system with inflammatory lectins until it said “enough, I can’t take it anymore”! Oh yeah, and thanks to the government for conspiring to conceal this info from us to spare the economy at the expense of of our health!

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  93. One thing missing in this article is that Round Up is widespread in the food supply now and it causes LOT of problems . Digestive mostly, but also infertility and birth defects. i concede that many foods have lectins which seems to be a broad term for the individual chemicals we know the names of like Phytic acid, and trypsin inhibitors. Sally Fallon has an awesome cookbook including many sidebars on traditional foods lore, But it shows the importance of soaking and sprouting before cooking many foods that traditional cultures have been eating for years.They knew about the lectins and they made ways to get them out.
    But today, with the abundance of food we have available to us at least in the US , never before in history, suddenly, the Obesity Epidemic began in the 1970’s. FOR SOME REASON. Because we were eating wheat and milk, (whole and non homogenized- in the 60’s we still got milk delivered to the doorstep, and it separated). and potatoes (the acrilomization factor may be related to the herbicides and insecticides absorbed by the plant from the soil, so, organic may be different. And remember, the USDA definition of organic is 3 years without spraying. But Dr Don Huber says Round Up has a 22 year half life in the soil. And it escapes notice because they don’t test. Dr Huber says several tons of CA almonds were rejected by Germany because of extremely high Glyphosate levels. THEY tested. The Big Food industry convinced Americans to vote NO on labeling for glyphosate. So that’s what we get. 75% of Americans have digestive problems, so I am not the only one. It takes 0.1 ppb (parts per billion) of glyphosate to destroy gut bacteria. Moms Across America has a few charts by the EPA that show some common foods, and they are all over this. Livestock feed, is way higher, 300-400 ppb. The EPA keeps raising the safe limit not because it is safe but because it is impossible to get the amounts lower,. There is too much used and they don’t want to shut down the industry. So that is where it’s coming from in your meats and dairy, it’s being fed to them in insane amounts.
    I know this is about lectins, but we need to test for glyphosate, and see if that is causing these allergens. The current cheapest dipstick tests are $200 for 5 tests. I can’t currently afford, that. Maybe when I get back to work I will try. I would LOVE to know what is in my food. It put me in the ICU for 2 months and rehab for 3 months, losing 26 cm of my gut. Just before that, I had made falafel for my hubby, and myself, and after research Tony Mitra’s Poison Foods cataloguing 7000 foods and their Round Up content, even organic garbanzo beans are insanely high in Round Up. I was not using organic, just regular. And I soaked them. And I kept wondering why don’t they sprout? Why can I get these things to sprout? That’s why. They were so loaded with herbicide they couldn’t sprout. It killed them. Now I’m not saying that’s the one time I was exposed. I have been battling gut issues since 2003 (and it turns out the MMR vaccine is contaminated by Round Up which was a factor), but Round Up entered our environment in the 1970’s, And so did High Fructose Corn Syrup. And I bet Google won’t let you easily find it anymore, but I used to be able to google fructose rats and come up with incredible studies on fructose causing Congestive heart failure, (CHF), metabolic syndrome, diabetes, fatty liver, gallstones, obesity, and several other signs I can’t remember at the moment, But they sneak this stuff into many things. I have tried to be on a whole real foods diet for years but married a junk food junkie and it’s very hard to keep on a clean diet when hubby loves eating out and what is my choice? Well this is part of messing up my gut. It has to be what caused my duodenal ulcer since 2009. Hospitalized a few times for that. I had aspirations when young of being able to avoid all these health problems by keeping a clean diet. Should have not married a junk food lover. He’s destroyed my heath. Much as I have tried to convert him to clean foods, he persists in the maladaptive behavior of soda pop, and well the reason white bread was discovered to be junk food is that not only are he lectins in the bran, the nutrients are there also. Beri Beri came about and people died from it, because of refining rice. White bread has lost the minerals and B vitamins and the germ which is on the lectin list was used as a nutrient supplement for vitamin E. My mother used it. I feed rice bran (luckily a low Round Up food) to me animals because of magnesium, B complex, selenium, E complex, and they do excellently on it.

    I have a vitamin research book from 1914, that reported many testings of deficiencies ( this was what they were learning about the vitamins and what they did, and what was damaged by their absence), white flour was deficient in the B vitamins, and the human example was a young boy who was not developing properly and they took him off white bread and put him on whole meal bread, and whole milk, and this did much to right his difficulties. SO We have to ask, why was whole grain bread good then and suddenly it’s terrible? And I really want to test my food.

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  95. I need some definitive answers PLEASE! I am severely handicapped right now and can’t stand or even sit upright for more than a couple minutes before having to lay down. I have been avoiding gluten but have been eating lots of hard boiled eggs, clean ingredient lunch meat, shrimp, fruits like peaches, nectarines, plums, apples, apricot and berries, celery and packaged salad, hard cheddar cheese, potato and corn chips, gluten chocolate free chocolate cake, raw tomatoes like cherry tomatoes, packaged salads like potato, chicken, egg salad and such which has mayo, gluten free breads! Pistachios, grilled chicken not fried, steak that is pre grilled and drinking slice which has no high fructose corn syrup but real sugar instead. I see where some of these foods may be causing me issues. I desperately need to know what foods I should be eating and what foods I should be totally avoiding in some easy to understand list. I am 90-95% totally bed ridden and haven’t left my home in over 10 months!!! Someone please help me with my food intake issues please and recommenced good and bad foods I don’t have to process myself!!!

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    1. @D. Skoll,
      Maybe start gradually and up your game from there: First, easy to understand lectin lists are in the Gundry book and all over the internet. Then:
      1. use lots of different net search terms to find exactly what you want to have more of or less of. I use terms and phrases like: lectin free gourmet recipes using 5 or less ingredients, best lectin free recipes, easy lectin free pantry staple shopping list… and hundred of others. Many people have already posted solutions you might love.
      2. just get the Gundry book mail order. Life will be simpler even if you follow only a few tips at a time and the very easy food lists in the book.
      3. stop the glyphosate/Roundup foods now! They are buried in most of what you say you buy. Trader Joe’s claims to have only nonGMO foods. Maybe Thrive Market online too. Remember, organic means 3 years without pesticides, but GMO=Roundup=glyphosate foods have a half life of 22 years. This alone can do you in without even touching the lectin foods. This info has only been available for a few years; everyone is being forced to research and experiment.
      3. your DNA done through the site SelfHacked can tell you exactly what foods may be helping or hurting your health, including your lectin status. This is about the best investment I have ever made: their dna test plus a lifetime membership for all their individualized reports. They are very lectin savvy and refer to Gundy and have consulted with him.
      4. there is no quick fix except jumping in with the book or website and observing and logging your reactions. Improved results can happen quickly but not everything gets fixed after a body has been inflamed for decades! No one can discover how any of this info works for you except you. Most docs are 30-50 years behind the best new info, which even so is often changing. Your intuition and wisely curated research are your best doctors. Stay in touch with the wisest threads, even if everyone admits their info overwhelm and confusion. Expecting quick fixes can discourage you quickly. This is a marathon and not a sprint, as Dr. Amy Yasko has often stated.
      5. quite a few people in this forum have been bedridden for decades from lectin inflammation from individual genetic situations or trauma effects. People are improving quickly or gradually through glyphosate food/ lectin elimination. They then give back by sharing their discoveries; this is part of how our world health/environment improves, individually and collectively.
      6. did you read all of the posts? Many mention that they simply got rid of GMO foods plus potatoes, tomatoes, corn, wheat, other grains, soft dairy, sugars and changed food prep techniques with more quick pressure cooking including the Instapot… and got quick symptom reduction. Maybe take a deep breath, review this thread, order the book, and have more confidence in yourself to do the necessary work even while feeling awful? So many of us here have been forced to start this work under severely disabling disadvantages.

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  96. As someone who has followed a Lectin free diet for three years, I found this article very thorough and well balanced. I have had success losing 65 lbs., reducing arthritis pain and sleep so much better these days. I no longer suffer with fibromyalgia either which had plagued me for over 20 years. I agree we all have different biology and react differently to foods.

    I would encourage anyone to try this lifestyle to see if it helps any of your health issues, just be sure you’re getting enough nutrients. I am now helping people navigate this lifestyle as it can be overwhelming, but with the right mindset you can do it!

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  97. The best thing to do is to eat one single food product for 24 hours, and see what it will happen to your body, and reject this product from your diet if you have symptom(s). Not all lectin food will hurt everybody, everybody has different digestive, gut bacteria level, good and bad yeast, blood type and genetic family past. I have sulfite, celiac and gluten intolerance, with high intolerance to night shade vegetable, peanut, soy, beans and peas familly, and after 20 years in the health system with diet and allergist Doctors, i finally discover that also all mammal who as been feed with seeds and grains trigger the disease, if I can say: disease. The best is to start with one food product for 24 hours, and keep going on until you find the product that do not make you sick. Remember, it take in average 24 hours before the symptoms appear, and if your intestinal system is inflamed, it will take another 24 hours to get back normal, only if you do not eat anything, only water. I hope the best for all of you, because it is a real life puzzle to finish once and for all. Robert

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