Are Lectins killing us?

Dr. Steven Gundry popularized the lectin-free diet. He is a former heart surgeon who switched his focus to food and supplement-based medicine.

Dr. Gundry describes lectins as the main danger found in the American diet. In response, he has written a book that provides information on how to avoid lectins, alternative food choices, and recipes.

According to the book, Dr. Gundry's plan helps people improve their health and reduce their body weight. The plan also includes supplements Dr. Gundry developed that are sold under the GundryMD brand.

Why? Because apparently everything is trying to kill us.

I really don't know how real this is. I ran into an article one day about this and, like many articles leading to some miracle supplement, sounds credible. But credibility in this industry seems easily faked.

It's easy to feel like you have "leaky gut". I know I feel like that. But does anyone have more knowledge to share on this subject or anyone who has tried a low or lectin-free diet or someone who has used the lectin shield supplement?

One of my best friends is a Lectin. Tried to maim me once but never tried to kill me.

It's curious to me that Dr. Gundry boasts with his academic publications, inventions, and other accolades to establish his credibility, but then completely leaves them out when supporting his actual claims and efficacy of his products, relying on his books and anecdotes instead. Also his somewhat lax use of "energy" is a bit suspect to me, but that may be him being a good businessman and recognizing the kind of audience he is attracting. My education does not qualify me to review much of any of his work myself, so I must instead rely on criticisms from his peers, and when it comes to the things he sells, there seems to be very slim support for their efficacy or indeed benefit so far...

Different people are sensitive to different things. I tend to avoid nightshades and a few others because of the observed impact. Ms Adder had to drop gluten for example, but I'm ok with gluten, and vice versa. Makes for an interesting meal planning experience....

But in our experience these sensitivities (as opposed to allergies) don't really show up until a few decades in on life... as their minor negative effects seem to take time to create bigger more noticeable impacts. The gut biota and gut inflammation factors are a newish area of research so don't expect too many effective studies on it yet.

So given that, there might be some wisdom in listening to trends to take some precautionary avoidance measures... in the absence of available testing to get a picture of your own capacities.

That's good advice. I was thinking about trying his Lectin shield. It seems the whole point of his whole thing is to scare you about an almost unavoidable threat and then sell you a defense to it. I don't think everyone is equally threatened either. I think as long as there are people like me, who have serious questions about their diet, there will always be products like this. But I think at the very least is that there are a number of good ingredients that different doctors are cashing in their credibility for to get their name on a label and, hopefully, they wouldn't do that unless they had at least carefully vetted each one (so as to not get sued). So while I don't think it's magic I do hope it does "something".

Oh I wouldn't be so sure. Sure, most of these magical remedies boil down to one kind of harmless sugar pill or another, but there are people who think cyanide is good for you and vaccines are bad and it's not like they don't have their preachers with real or fake credentials. This case I suspect would be among the more harmless ones, but the fear of punishment may very well be weaker than the lure of money, and it may take more than either to sway a genuine zealot, too. Trust least those who promise the most...

ZealotX wrote: That's good advice. I was thinking about trying his Lectin shield. It seems the whole point of his whole thing is to scare you about an almost unavoidable threat and then sell you a defense to it. I don't think everyone is equally threatened either. I think as long as there are people like me, who have serious questions about their diet, there will always be products like this. But I think at the very least is that there are a number of good ingredients that different doctors are cashing in their credibility for to get their name on a label and, hopefully, they wouldn't do that unless they had at least carefully vetted each one (so as to not get sued). So while I don't think it's magic I do hope it does "something".

Elimination diets are a pain in the butt (no pun intended), but its the only way we've been able to isolate particular foods which lead to positive therapeutic outcomes. Multi-ingredient supplements tended to make that process harder, so I'd go buy the herbs individually, research them, and try them one at a time.... but obviously always consult with the Dr's, especially if having any existing conditions or on any medications... for interactions with medications can have serious side effects and some things in the kitchen cabinet can interact with some things in the medicine cabinet in bad ways (eg SSRI's and MAOI inhibitors).

The trick then becomes knowing which signs are actually the problem, or the effects of the problem. The former will resolve the later, while the later will not. So... in the wisdom of T. Swift, bandaids don't fix bullet holes
So chasing bubbles in a leaking bucket rather then looking for a hole will have you running around in circles. No real advice here other then trial and error and learning more. While Doc's are important sources of important info, they do not know all and will err on the side of medical trials or pain management in lieu of trying to treat something they don't have guidance on how to - neither of which seem like suitable outcomes to me. Often they will simply not know, or be unprepared to discuss 'possible' things, for various reasons - to the extent that we've solved our own problems where specialists were unable.

A large part of this seems to be ensuring bowel transit times are not being extended unnecessarily, so supplementation with psyillium husk and inulin can help IMO. But both of those things tend to make it worse initially or if the diet is high in sugars and red meats, for they tend to be too rich for the gut biota to find its healthy balance. Obviously sufficient water is a must and good posture, some exercise, and enough sleep is required. Mix a bit of barley powder in psyillium husk and it looks like a wet version of the goop Rey was eating in The Force Awakens :silly: Not too much of that stuff though because it swells up!!!!

Kids should probably be universally tested for food sensitivities to maximize their health outcomes through life, but it would probably have to be a DNA and epigenetic test to assess vulnerabilities beyond just the strong allergic reactions.