The old joke is that the difference between those who eat meat, and vegetarians is that vegetarians eat foods that can’t run away. While plants don’t run away, they do protect themselves by making plant toxins designed to kill or immobilize and insect. These same toxins or lectins eaten in our “healthy diet”, over time, make us sick and tired.
It turns out that the ability of lectins to mimic other proteins in our body and confuse the body’s systems plays a role in many of our current health problems including obesity and many diseases.
When I was in medical school, I heard during orientation that half of what I would be taught would be wrong – we just didn’t know which half. Therefore, the need was to continue learning. I am grateful to Steven R Gundry, MD for his most recent book, The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Dangers in “Healthy” Foods That Cause Disease and Weight Gain, for providing this new information about lectins in our foods.
Dr Gundry also provides information on lectins in his online article “15 Ways to Reduce Lectins in Your Diet”. For example, something as easy as pressure-cooking beans will reduce harmful lectins in beans, peas and lentils.