Dr Gundry Lectin Blockers
A Lectin Free Diet: Lectins to Avoid, How to Remove Lectins from Tomatoes
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Why is lectin bad for you?
Lectins are plant proteins that are found in all sorts of vegetables and are one of nature’s greatest defense systems against hungry animals, including human beings.
Not all lectins are toxic, but the ones that are employ a long-term strategy to harm your health, so you will steer clear of that plant next time you are hungry. That's the whole idea behind a lectin free diet: you don't have to give up plants altogether, just the ones that do the most damage.
This formula is designed to neutralize the harmful effects of lectins and helps reduce feelings of gas and bloating.
Why haven't we evolved to avoid or neutralize harmful lectins?
The discovery of fire
With the discovery of fire and the subsequent development of cooking about 100,000 years ago, humans gained an advantage over other animals because cooking breaks down many lectins. Also, cooking made it possible to eat tubers like yams and sweet potatoes.
The starches from these tubers feed our friendly gut bacteria, known as microbiome. The inhabitants of our microbiome break down the food we eat and extract nutrients from it plus they communicate with our immune system, both alerting it to invaders and doing battle or de-weaponizing harmful substances like lectins.
As our species evolved, so did our good gut bacteria to handle lectins in the plants and leaves we consumed. When our diet consisted mostly of foraged plants and tubers, the average height for males was nearly 5 feet 11 inches, and for females, 5 feet 2 inches.
The last Ice Age ended - loss of animals and plants as a main source of calories
Then, about 10,000 years ago, the last Ice Age ended, and many of the animals and plants that humans relied on as a main source of calories died off. During the journey to find new foods to eat, the tradition of cultivating crops evolved, starting with beans and grains. This proved to be revolutionary, as once harvested, they could be stored for later use. This significant milestone in human evolution also introduced a whole array of lectins into our diet that we were not equipped to digest, and neither were our bacterial populations.
Human evolution timetable requires millennia to adapt to modifications to environmental conditions
Mother Nature’s human evolution timetable requires millennia to adapt to modifications to environmental conditions. We can create new technologies and agricultural innovations at a rapid speed, but our bodies were simply not prepared to consume them and still aren’t. It is interesting to note that after eating this new crop-based diet for two thousand years, the average human height was reduced to five feet four inches for men and four feet nine inches for women.
Our ancestors learned to prepare and preserve foods that made them easier to digest
Our ancestors learned to prepare and preserve foods in ways that, coincidentally, made them easier to digest. Using fermentation to preserve vegetables and dairy products. Some examples are kefir in the Middle East, sauerkraut in Eastern Europe, yogurt in India, kimchi in Korea, and miso in Japan.
Many old-world cooking methods that are still applied today, include removing parts from plants which tend to have the highest concentration of lectins. E.G., peels, hulls and seeds.
Why are we now more susceptible to damage from lectins?
For more than five hundred years, we continued to use these traditional preparation methods to make our foods more digestible, but over the last one hundred years or so, changes in our culture, food supply, and technology have made us more susceptible to the damage caused by lectins.
(3) An increase in the amount of wheat, corn and soy consumed
An increase in the amount of wheat, corn and soy we consume – in the form of bread and animal food (since we essentially end up digesting whatever the animals we consume eat), processed food and vegetable oil.
(4) Decades and Millions of Dollars of Marketing
Exposure to decades of marketing, worth millions of dollars, about the healthfulness of whole grains and vegetable oils (which are essentially lectin bombs) has left us woefully confused about which foods promote good health.
Generations of Americans have loaded up on whole wheat bread and pasta and multigrain bagels thinking they were making healthy choices – while rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease skyrocketed.
When it comes to lectins and their ability to cause harm, some people can simply digest them no problem at all.
Others, however, can’t seem to process even a small amount of lectins without serious negative consequences. Most of us fall somewhere in between.
You might feel somewhat uneasy if you eat a large bowl of lectins, such as wheat cereal or beans, while others will experience constant discomfort and seek medical advice.
A simple way to decipher whether you are lectin-sensitive is to observe your symptoms after you eat food like kidney beans, tomatoes, wheat germ (or any from the lectins to avoid list below)
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Am I experiencing gas, bloating or diarrhea?
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Do I feel nauseous or suffer from heartburn?
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Am I often fatigued?
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Do I seem to have allergic reactions?
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Do I experience a consistent response after I eat (nauseous, headache or breaking out in a rash)?
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Do I feel pain in my joints?
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Each of these questions can lead you to discover other causes for your symptoms, but they are often tied to your body's inability to digest and shield lectins. See more details
Wheat and grains are the most commonly known lectin-rich foods, but here is a list you should either ditch all together or at least consume in moderation if you are sensitive to lectins.
Peanuts and Cashews - In the legume and tree seed families. Not nuts.
Soy - Cook with heat to reduce or eliminate active lectins.
Barley - Submerge in water overnight to break down the outer compounds.
Lentils - Don't eat raw. Boil or soak.
Rice (Particularly Brown Rice) - Concentrated in the outer hull. Cook, leave overnight and reheat.
Lima Beans - Very high in lectins. Must soak and boil.
Red Kidney Beans - Very toxic unless boiled for at least 10 to 30 minutes.
Potatoes (Sweet Potatoes are Fine) - Peel then soak with a pinch of salt.
Split Peas - Soak in water overnight. Throw away the water.
Wheat grain and Wheat Grass - Choose refined white flour and long-fermented sourdough bread.
If you're not ready to cut a food out entirely, there are a few kitchen habits that cut down how many lectins actually make it into your body. Pressure cooking is the most effective single change for beans, tomatoes, and potatoes — it breaks down far more lectins than boiling alone. For anything with a peel or seeds (cucumbers, eggplant, squash, tomatoes), removing both before eating removes where most of the lectins concentrate; for tomatoes specifically, a quick 1–2-minute blanch makes the skin easy to slip off. Soaking dried beans and grains overnight before cooking helps, too, and fermentation — think sauerkraut or fermented vegetables — lets bacteria break down many of the plant's natural defenses on their own. And if you're choosing between rice or grain types, white/refined versions carry meaningfully fewer lectins than their whole-grain counterparts. None of these gets you to zero, but combined they make a real difference — which is part of why I still keep Lectin Shield around for the situations these tricks can't cover.
His recipes are in his Plant Paradox Cookbooks plus his YouTube channel. Also, there is a Facebook support group that shares many lectin-free recipes.
We have modified our existing recipes to exclude lectins plus have picked up tips from his podcasts. Like how to cook a rice or potato dish, refrigerate it, then eat it the following day. Makes for great resistant starch, meaning the fibers resist digestion in the small intestine and are then fermented in the large intestine. Fermentation acts as a prebiotic that feeds beneficial bacteria in the gut.
So we don't miss out on our favorite rice or potato dishes and get to feed our good bacteria with prebiotics.(White rice, of course!)
Dr Gundry Lectins - Summary
Research shows our bodies have not yet evolved new beneficial gut bacteria to deal with new lectins, and we are also not preparing and cooking high-lectin foods the way our ancestors did. As we live in a world where lectin-rich foods are prevalent, we must acknowledge the science and adopt eating habits that enhance our quality of life.
If you are ready to cut out lectins and improve your health and lifestyle, then take a week and survey your symptoms. If it looks like you might be lectin-intolerant, then try Dr Gundry’s 3-phase Plant Paradox program, which starts with a three-day Kick-Start Cleanse, followed by Repair and Restore for three weeks, then Reap the rewards. YES and NO food lists plus lectin-free recipes are provided.
If you feel you aren’t at the extreme level but would like to lose weight and boost your immunity and energy, then still follow the Plant Paradox Diet, but start at the Repair and Restore stage.
Whether you have a high, medium, or low level of lectin intolerance and follow an immaculate, health-promoting diet, your body will reward you for taking the right supplements. Research also shows that you simply can’t get all the nutrients and micronutrients you need from food because the food you eat isn’t able to deliver those nutrients from the soil. Sad but true.
My Conclusion
Dr Steven Gundry, MD, with profound insights into the role of lectins, teaches us to either avoid, remove and/or take a Lectin Shield as a supplement to minimize the effects.
You have to marvel at Mother Nature. The defense systems on Cactus and Stinging Nettle are obvious, but having an invisible, toxic substance is just as smart. Science has exposed the threat; we can choose to adapt our diet and food preparation, or ignore it at our peril.
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Check if you are lectin-intolerent.
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Avoid or consume in moderation depending on your tolerance level.
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Apply the Plant Paradox Diet as it fits your current state of health.
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Keep a supply of Lectin Shield on hand as it isn't always possible to practice avoidance.
"The selection of nutrient-rich over lectin-bombs is a paradigm shift made easy with The Plant Paradox."
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