Clipping Board » Illness Enters through Mouth ─ The information that has been made public is often just the tip of the iceberg...
Overview
▲ Many lectins are pro-inflammatory, immunotoxic, neurotoxic, and cytotoxic. Certain lectins may also increase blood viscosity, interfere with gene expression, and disrupt endocrine function.
▲ With proper soaking and cooking, high-lectin foods like legumes and grains can be safely consumed. Sprouting, fermenting, peeling, and removing seeds also help reduce lectins in the diet.
**What Are Lectins?**
Lectins are sugar-binding plant proteins that attach to cell membranes, potentially contributing to weight gain and poor health—even when eating a healthy diet. In fact, since lectins are present in most plant-based foods, they may be a hidden culprit if you consume whole foods but still struggle with weight gain and/or persistent health issues.
Many lectins are pro-inflammatory, immunotoxic, neurotoxic, and cytotoxic. Certain lectins may also increase blood viscosity, interfere with gene expression, and disrupt endocrine function.
If a lectin-free diet were recommended, it would require eliminating most plant-based foods, which typically make up the bulk of one’s diet. Additionally, some lectins can be beneficial, so completely avoiding them is neither practical nor ideal.
The key is finding the right balance—avoiding the most harmful lectins while reducing the impact of others through proper preparation and cooking methods.
**Health Risks of Lectins**
Before outlining strategies to reduce dietary lectins, let’s first understand what lectins are and why they matter. As explained in Dr. Steven Gundry’s book *The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Dangers in "Healthy" Foods That Cause Disease and Weight Gain*, some plant lectins bind to receptor sites in the intestinal lining, causing leaky gut and interfering with nutrient absorption through the gut wall.
Thus, they act as "anti-nutrients," negatively impacting gut microbiota by disrupting bacterial balance. One of the most harmful lectins is wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), found in wheat and other seeds.
Compared to WGA, gluten is a minor issue. Gundry states that WGA is actually one of the most effective ways to induce heart disease in lab animals. Generally, lectins are strongly linked to autoimmune diseases, so anyone with immune dysfunction should seriously consider trying a low-lectin diet.
One way lectins harm health is through molecular mimicry. For example, by mimicking proteins in the thyroid or joint spaces, lectins can trigger the body to attack the thyroid or contribute to rheumatoid arthritis.
These disease processes involve lectins—along with their co-traveler lipopolysaccharides (LPS, also known as endotoxins, which provoke strong immune responses)—penetrating the gut lining.
**Best to Avoid High-Lectin Foods Completely**
While avoiding all lectins is nearly impossible since they’re present in most plant foods, the first step is eliminating the worst offenders. If you have any conditions exacerbated by lectins, it’s best to avoid the following foods entirely:
● Corn
● Corn-fed meats—This includes most commercially available meats. To avoid factory-farmed, corn-fed meat, opt for American Grassfed Association-certified grass-fed meat.
● Casein A1 milk—Casein A2 is the normal protein found in milk from sheep, goats, buffalo, and some Jersey cows.Unfortunately, most cows today produce casein A1. The majority of milk sold in stores is A1, even organic milk. A1 protein is metabolized in your gut to produce beta-casomorphin, which can attach to the beta cells of the pancreas and trigger an autoimmune attack.
Many people who think they are lactose intolerant are actually just reacting to the casein A1 in milk. If you choose to drink milk, opt for organic, grass-fed, raw milk from cows that produce casein A2 (Holstein cows produce A1 milk and should be avoided).
● Peanuts, cashews, and unfermented soy products — If you want to consume soy, make sure it is traditionally fermented.
### Eat Fewer High-Lectin Foods
The following foods are also high in lectins, but at least here you have a choice: You can avoid them entirely or consume them in moderation, ensuring they are properly prepared and cooked.
Research shows that sprouting, fermenting, soaking, and cooking high-lectin foods significantly reduces lectin content, making them safe for most people. These foods include:
● Legumes (plants with seeds in pods, such as peas and beans)
● Grains, especially whole grains
● Nightshade fruits and vegetables (e.g., tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, bell peppers, and goji berries)
● Squash (gourd) family fruits, such as pumpkins, butternut squash, and zucchini
Among legumes, some varieties have lower lectin levels than others, making them safer. Foods with moderate to low lectin content include adzuki beans, black-eyed peas, fava beans, lupin seeds, Great Northern beans, and the Pinto III cultivar. The safest options with the lowest lectin levels are Polish pea varieties, cooked and raw green beans, and lentils.
If you are particularly sensitive to lectins, it’s best to avoid high-to-moderate lectin foods like white kidney beans and soybeans. Red kidney beans have the highest lectin content. For comparison, white kidney beans contain about one-third the toxic phytohemagglutinin units of raw red kidney beans, while fava beans contain only 5–10% of the lectins found in red kidney beans.
### Legumes – Proper Preparation and Cooking Guidelines
If you choose to eat legumes, proper preparation and cooking are essential. While not an absolute requirement, a strong warning applies: Never eat raw or undercooked legumes, as they can have acute toxic effects.
As few as five beans can cause symptoms resembling food poisoning. To safely consume legumes, always:
● Soak beans in water for at least 12 hours before cooking, changing the water frequently. Adding baking soda to the soaking water will further help neutralize lectins.
● Rinse the beans and discard the soaking water.
● Cook at high heat for at least 15 minutes. Cooking beans at too low a temperature may actually increase toxicity levels by more than fivefold. Avoid recipes using dry bean flour, as oven-dry heat does not effectively destroy lectins. The best way to break down lectins is by using a pressure cooker like an InstaPot.
### How to Optimize the Health Benefits of Potatoes
The lectin content in potatoes (a member of the nightshade family) can also be reduced through cooking, though these lectins are more heat-resistant than those in legumes. Cooking decreases potato lectin levels by 50–60%. You can further enhance the nutritional value of potatoes by cooling them after cooking.
This increases their resistant starch—a fiber that resists digestion in the small intestine and slowly ferments in the large intestine, where it acts as a prebiotic to nourish healthy gut bacteria.For example, in potatoes that have been baked and cooled, there are 19 grams of resistant starch per 100 grams of potato, while steamed and cooled potatoes contain 6 grams, and boiled and cooled potatoes contain only 0.8 grams.
Additionally, because they are not easily digested, resistant starches do not cause blood sugar spikes. In fact, research shows that resistant starch helps improve insulin regulation and reduces the risk of insulin resistance.
**Safe Lectins**
Among plant-based foods, the safest options in terms of lectin content are asparagus, garlic, celery, mushrooms, and onions. Other excellent choices you can consume without restriction include:
● Cooked tubers (root vegetables), such as sweet potatoes, yuca, and taro
● Leafy greens
● Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts
● Avocados (Although avocados contain high amounts of lectins, these lectins are safe and healthy. Research shows that the type of lectin found in avocados—avocado lectin—is not specific to carbohydrates; it interacts with proteins and polyamino acids.)
● Olives and authentic extra virgin olive oil
**Other Ways to Reduce Lectins in Your Diet**
**How to Reduce Lectins**
Aside from avoiding the highest-lectin foods and properly cooking certain high-lectin foods, other methods to reduce lectins in your diet include:
● Peeling and deseeding fruits and vegetables, as the skins, husks, and seeds typically contain the highest lectin levels. For example, if you're following a low-lectin diet, you can eat peeled almonds but should avoid the skins.
● Choosing white grains over brown—This advice from Gundry contradicts the common recommendation that brown foods are healthier than white. However, in this case, white rice and white bread may actually be better.
Keep in mind that the only way to safely consume bread on a lectin-restricted diet is if it is traditionally made using yeast or sourdough, which effectively breaks down gluten and other harmful lectins. Such bread is difficult to find in local grocery stores, so you may need to purchase it from an artisanal baker or bake it yourself.
You should also ensure the food is organic, as most non-organic wheat grown in the U.S. is desiccated with glyphosate. This toxic herbicide worsens the effects of gluten—even in people who are not gluten-sensitive—and interferes with the liver’s ability to produce active vitamin D.
It also chelates essential minerals, disrupts the shikimate pathway, damages the microbiome, and exacerbates leaky gut, allowing more LPS to enter the bloodstream.
● Sprouting seeds, grains, and legumes can deactivate lectins, though there are exceptions. For example, when alfalfa sprouts, its lectin content actually increases.
● Fermentation can also effectively reduce harmful lectins. For soybeans, fermented soy products are the only ones worth consuming. Sourdough is another fermented product that partially neutralizes lectins, making bread safer. Of course, various vegetables can also be fermented to enhance their health benefits.
● Using a pressure cooker—Cooking food in a pressure cooker is the most effective way to neutralize plant lectins, making this handy kitchen tool a worthwhile investment. Many people trust the Instant Pot multi-cooker. Avoid slow cookers, as low-temperature cooking can increase lectin content.
One study compared the phytic acid content of soaked peas cooked normally versus in a pressure cooker and found that pressure cooking reduced phytic acid by 54%, whereas regular boiling only reduced it by 29%. Pressure cooking also preserves more nutrients compared to other cooking methods.Limit but don’t completely avoid lectins
In summary, while I believe lectins have the potential to seriously harm health, completely avoiding them is neither possible nor ideal. An online search for "lectin-rich foods" will yield a very long list, essentially covering the entire plant kingdom. You can’t avoid them entirely, and because some lectins have health benefits, you wouldn’t want to either.
The key is to identify the plants with the highest lectin content, avoid those, and ensure you prepare and cook high-lectin foods properly to make them safer. Of course, your personal situation will determine how strict you need to be. Many people, especially those with autoimmune diseases, tend to be particularly sensitive to specific lectins in certain foods.
Therefore, some experimentation may be needed to identify them. As a general rule, if you currently eat a healthy, natural diet but still experience health issues, I recommend paying special attention to lectins. While success isn’t guaranteed, avoiding or reducing lectins might be the missing key to your wellness.
Source: https:/ / www. drmercola. cn/ % E5……% E5% 87% 9D% E9% 9B% 86% E7% B4% A0/
How to Reduce Lectins in Your Diet
▲ Many lectins are pro-inflammatory, immunotoxic, neurotoxic, and cytotoxic. Certain lectins may also increase blood viscosity, interfere with gene expression, and disrupt endocrine function.
▲ With proper soaking and cooking, high-lectin foods like legumes and grains can be safely consumed. Sprouting, fermenting, peeling, and removing seeds also help reduce lectins in the diet.
**What Are Lectins?**
Lectins are sugar-binding plant proteins that attach to cell membranes, potentially contributing to weight gain and poor health—even when eating a healthy diet. In fact, since lectins are present in most plant-based foods, they may be a hidden culprit if you consume whole foods but still struggle with weight gain and/or persistent health issues.
Many lectins are pro-inflammatory, immunotoxic, neurotoxic, and cytotoxic. Certain lectins may also increase blood viscosity, interfere with gene expression, and disrupt endocrine function.
If a lectin-free diet were recommended, it would require eliminating most plant-based foods, which typically make up the bulk of one’s diet. Additionally, some lectins can be beneficial, so completely avoiding them is neither practical nor ideal.
The key is finding the right balance—avoiding the most harmful lectins while reducing the impact of others through proper preparation and cooking methods.
**Health Risks of Lectins**
Before outlining strategies to reduce dietary lectins, let’s first understand what lectins are and why they matter. As explained in Dr. Steven Gundry’s book *The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Dangers in "Healthy" Foods That Cause Disease and Weight Gain*, some plant lectins bind to receptor sites in the intestinal lining, causing leaky gut and interfering with nutrient absorption through the gut wall.
Thus, they act as "anti-nutrients," negatively impacting gut microbiota by disrupting bacterial balance. One of the most harmful lectins is wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), found in wheat and other seeds.
Compared to WGA, gluten is a minor issue. Gundry states that WGA is actually one of the most effective ways to induce heart disease in lab animals. Generally, lectins are strongly linked to autoimmune diseases, so anyone with immune dysfunction should seriously consider trying a low-lectin diet.
One way lectins harm health is through molecular mimicry. For example, by mimicking proteins in the thyroid or joint spaces, lectins can trigger the body to attack the thyroid or contribute to rheumatoid arthritis.
These disease processes involve lectins—along with their co-traveler lipopolysaccharides (LPS, also known as endotoxins, which provoke strong immune responses)—penetrating the gut lining.
**Best to Avoid High-Lectin Foods Completely**
While avoiding all lectins is nearly impossible since they’re present in most plant foods, the first step is eliminating the worst offenders. If you have any conditions exacerbated by lectins, it’s best to avoid the following foods entirely:
● Corn
● Corn-fed meats—This includes most commercially available meats. To avoid factory-farmed, corn-fed meat, opt for American Grassfed Association-certified grass-fed meat.
● Casein A1 milk—Casein A2 is the normal protein found in milk from sheep, goats, buffalo, and some Jersey cows.Unfortunately, most cows today produce casein A1. The majority of milk sold in stores is A1, even organic milk. A1 protein is metabolized in your gut to produce beta-casomorphin, which can attach to the beta cells of the pancreas and trigger an autoimmune attack.
Many people who think they are lactose intolerant are actually just reacting to the casein A1 in milk. If you choose to drink milk, opt for organic, grass-fed, raw milk from cows that produce casein A2 (Holstein cows produce A1 milk and should be avoided).
● Peanuts, cashews, and unfermented soy products — If you want to consume soy, make sure it is traditionally fermented.
### Eat Fewer High-Lectin Foods
The following foods are also high in lectins, but at least here you have a choice: You can avoid them entirely or consume them in moderation, ensuring they are properly prepared and cooked.
Research shows that sprouting, fermenting, soaking, and cooking high-lectin foods significantly reduces lectin content, making them safe for most people. These foods include:
● Legumes (plants with seeds in pods, such as peas and beans)
● Grains, especially whole grains
● Nightshade fruits and vegetables (e.g., tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, bell peppers, and goji berries)
● Squash (gourd) family fruits, such as pumpkins, butternut squash, and zucchini
Among legumes, some varieties have lower lectin levels than others, making them safer. Foods with moderate to low lectin content include adzuki beans, black-eyed peas, fava beans, lupin seeds, Great Northern beans, and the Pinto III cultivar. The safest options with the lowest lectin levels are Polish pea varieties, cooked and raw green beans, and lentils.
If you are particularly sensitive to lectins, it’s best to avoid high-to-moderate lectin foods like white kidney beans and soybeans. Red kidney beans have the highest lectin content. For comparison, white kidney beans contain about one-third the toxic phytohemagglutinin units of raw red kidney beans, while fava beans contain only 5–10% of the lectins found in red kidney beans.
### Legumes – Proper Preparation and Cooking Guidelines
If you choose to eat legumes, proper preparation and cooking are essential. While not an absolute requirement, a strong warning applies: Never eat raw or undercooked legumes, as they can have acute toxic effects.
As few as five beans can cause symptoms resembling food poisoning. To safely consume legumes, always:
● Soak beans in water for at least 12 hours before cooking, changing the water frequently. Adding baking soda to the soaking water will further help neutralize lectins.
● Rinse the beans and discard the soaking water.
● Cook at high heat for at least 15 minutes. Cooking beans at too low a temperature may actually increase toxicity levels by more than fivefold. Avoid recipes using dry bean flour, as oven-dry heat does not effectively destroy lectins. The best way to break down lectins is by using a pressure cooker like an InstaPot.
### How to Optimize the Health Benefits of Potatoes
The lectin content in potatoes (a member of the nightshade family) can also be reduced through cooking, though these lectins are more heat-resistant than those in legumes. Cooking decreases potato lectin levels by 50–60%. You can further enhance the nutritional value of potatoes by cooling them after cooking.
This increases their resistant starch—a fiber that resists digestion in the small intestine and slowly ferments in the large intestine, where it acts as a prebiotic to nourish healthy gut bacteria.For example, in potatoes that have been baked and cooled, there are 19 grams of resistant starch per 100 grams of potato, while steamed and cooled potatoes contain 6 grams, and boiled and cooled potatoes contain only 0.8 grams.
Additionally, because they are not easily digested, resistant starches do not cause blood sugar spikes. In fact, research shows that resistant starch helps improve insulin regulation and reduces the risk of insulin resistance.
**Safe Lectins**
Among plant-based foods, the safest options in terms of lectin content are asparagus, garlic, celery, mushrooms, and onions. Other excellent choices you can consume without restriction include:
● Cooked tubers (root vegetables), such as sweet potatoes, yuca, and taro
● Leafy greens
● Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts
● Avocados (Although avocados contain high amounts of lectins, these lectins are safe and healthy. Research shows that the type of lectin found in avocados—avocado lectin—is not specific to carbohydrates; it interacts with proteins and polyamino acids.)
● Olives and authentic extra virgin olive oil
**Other Ways to Reduce Lectins in Your Diet**
**How to Reduce Lectins**
Aside from avoiding the highest-lectin foods and properly cooking certain high-lectin foods, other methods to reduce lectins in your diet include:
● Peeling and deseeding fruits and vegetables, as the skins, husks, and seeds typically contain the highest lectin levels. For example, if you're following a low-lectin diet, you can eat peeled almonds but should avoid the skins.
● Choosing white grains over brown—This advice from Gundry contradicts the common recommendation that brown foods are healthier than white. However, in this case, white rice and white bread may actually be better.
Keep in mind that the only way to safely consume bread on a lectin-restricted diet is if it is traditionally made using yeast or sourdough, which effectively breaks down gluten and other harmful lectins. Such bread is difficult to find in local grocery stores, so you may need to purchase it from an artisanal baker or bake it yourself.
You should also ensure the food is organic, as most non-organic wheat grown in the U.S. is desiccated with glyphosate. This toxic herbicide worsens the effects of gluten—even in people who are not gluten-sensitive—and interferes with the liver’s ability to produce active vitamin D.
It also chelates essential minerals, disrupts the shikimate pathway, damages the microbiome, and exacerbates leaky gut, allowing more LPS to enter the bloodstream.
● Sprouting seeds, grains, and legumes can deactivate lectins, though there are exceptions. For example, when alfalfa sprouts, its lectin content actually increases.
● Fermentation can also effectively reduce harmful lectins. For soybeans, fermented soy products are the only ones worth consuming. Sourdough is another fermented product that partially neutralizes lectins, making bread safer. Of course, various vegetables can also be fermented to enhance their health benefits.
● Using a pressure cooker—Cooking food in a pressure cooker is the most effective way to neutralize plant lectins, making this handy kitchen tool a worthwhile investment. Many people trust the Instant Pot multi-cooker. Avoid slow cookers, as low-temperature cooking can increase lectin content.
One study compared the phytic acid content of soaked peas cooked normally versus in a pressure cooker and found that pressure cooking reduced phytic acid by 54%, whereas regular boiling only reduced it by 29%. Pressure cooking also preserves more nutrients compared to other cooking methods.Limit but don’t completely avoid lectins
In summary, while I believe lectins have the potential to seriously harm health, completely avoiding them is neither possible nor ideal. An online search for "lectin-rich foods" will yield a very long list, essentially covering the entire plant kingdom. You can’t avoid them entirely, and because some lectins have health benefits, you wouldn’t want to either.
The key is to identify the plants with the highest lectin content, avoid those, and ensure you prepare and cook high-lectin foods properly to make them safer. Of course, your personal situation will determine how strict you need to be. Many people, especially those with autoimmune diseases, tend to be particularly sensitive to specific lectins in certain foods.
Therefore, some experimentation may be needed to identify them. As a general rule, if you currently eat a healthy, natural diet but still experience health issues, I recommend paying special attention to lectins. While success isn’t guaranteed, avoiding or reducing lectins might be the missing key to your wellness.
Source: https:/ / www. drmercola. cn/ % E5……% E5% 87% 9D% E9% 9B% 86% E7% B4% A0/