The Lowdown On Lectins
Little known to the public at large. Little understood by the health community. Omnipresent in our conventional food culture. Proven to be at least mildly detrimental for everyone and downright destructive for the more sensitive (and often unsuspecting) among us. We’re talking lectins today: common natural agents on the one hand, cloaked thugs of the anti-nutrient underworld on the other. Our popular health media, if they’ve heard of lectins, certainly never make mention of them. Famous health gurus never deign to speak of them. In short, lectins thrive in the American diet basically unfettered, unscrutinized. Make no mistake, however. They’re a menacing power to be reckoned with. I’ve addressed them on Mark’s Daily Apple in the past (Why Grains Are Unhealthy) and in my book (The Primal Blueprint), but I still get a fair number of emails and forum questions asking for more info. As I always say, let’s break it down….
What Are They?
Before Monsanto, Mother Nature had her own pesticide strategy. (Humans being among the “pests” to be warded off.) In order to avoid being completely decimated by insects, foraging animals and Groks, plant species evolved assorted anti-nutrients that would make said pests regret their gorges with a variety of mostly digestive related ailments. Low grade toxins, in a sense. A workable balance developed between plants that were able to safeguard their species’ survival and the “pest” patrons that were able to benefit from the plants’ nutrition but learned to partake more sensibly from their supply. Given that our primal forefolk foraged widely and ate a surprisingly diverse diet, the system worked.
Lectins are essentially carb-binding proteins universally present in plants (and animals). Just as they protect plant species from Grok-sized predators, lectins also support other immunological functions within plants and animals (against pathogense, parasites, etc.) They also assist in other functions like protein synthesis and delivery in animals. They’re relatively sticky molecules, which makes them effective in binding with their sought after sugars but undesirable for our digestion, in which their binding powers can lead them to attach to the intestinal lining and wreak havoc. (More on this in a minute…)
Given their omnipresence in nature, a certain amount of lectin consumption has always been inevitable. To the benefit of the plants, lectins are also hard to break down. Regular old digestive enzymes only do about half the job. Human ingenuity evolved across traditional cultures to “predigest” lectins through food preparation practices (fermenting, soaking, etc.). In our contemporary dietary culture, however, we too commonly skip these practices yet rely on the highest lectin-containing foods for our primary food sources.
What Foods Contain Them?
The short answer here is basically all plants and animal products (PDF) to varying degrees. Nonetheless, lectins are concentrated more in some sources than others. Foods with the highest lectin activity include: grains of all kinds (especially wheat), legumes (especially soy), nuts, dairy, and nightshade plants (e.g. eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, etc.). Add to this list the oils and other derivative products from these food sources. And yet another, lesser known category: GMO food, since lectins are often spliced into modified varieties in order to enhance “natural” pest and fungal resistance.
What Do They Do To The Body?
Let’s go back to the intestine again. (Some field trip, eh?) Lectins’ stickiness allows them to bind with the lining, particularly the villi, of the small intestine. The result? Intestinal damage (with impaired cellular repair potential), cellular death as well as compromised intestinal villi, which means reduced absorption of other nutrients, including minerals and protein. Add to this altered gut flora, which can allow certain harmful bacterial strains like E. coli to run rampant. Furthermore, because the body is now responding full-time to the needs of the injured gut lining, proteins and other resources are redirected from other basic growth and repair processes. Furthermore, lectins have been associated with leptin resistance, a pre-diabetic condition linked to obesity.
Perhaps the most insidious impacts lectins can leave in their wake is this: leaky gut. Leaky gut is a term for the breach in the intestinal lining created by lectins hand in hand with other antinutrients. Once the intestinal breach exists, lectins and other particles (like partially digested food, toxins, etc) can “leak” into the bloodstream.
Once lectins open the door, so to speak, out of the small intestine, they and other fugitive particles are now free to move about the body and bind to any tissue they come across (anything from the thyroid to the pancreas to the kidneys). Of course, the body reacts to these invaders by directing an attack on these particles and the otherwise perfectly healthy tissue they’re attached to. Enter autoimmune mayhem. That’s why lectins are linked with autoimmune disorders like IBS, Crohn’s, colitis, thyroiditis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and arthritis. Specific lectins have been associated with particular ailments (like wheat with rheumatoid arthritis), but more research is needed to trace and confirm these connections. What is clear, however, is the potent autoimmune destruction that can result when the intestinal lining experiences this level of damage.
Primal Advice For Limiting Lectins
As mentioned, lectins are literally everywhere. Although it’s impossible to eliminate them altogether, you can significantly reduce your intake.
- Purge the worst offenders. That means grains and soy more than anything, but I’d add other legumes to the list as well. Eliminating the foods that contain the highest lectin activity will slash your overall lectin intake – and impact.
- Cut back on other higher lectin sources. Not everyone wants to nix every dairy or nightshade option. Look at how you can reduce your overall intake of these items while keeping enough to enjoy their flavor and nutrient advantages.
- Gauge your sensitivity. For those of us who are most sensitive to lectins, more dramatic measures might be needed. If you know or believe that you’ve already suffered some serious intestinal damage, you might do well to steer clear of as many high and moderate lectin level foods as possible. That means perhaps forgoing nightshades, dairy, legumes and even nuts and eggs in addition to all grains and processed foods. Reintroduce desired foods back into your diet by “family” (e.g. dairy, etc.) and be mindful of any physiological effects (however minor) that accompany them.
- Take up old traditions like soaking, sprouting and using bacterial fermentation techniques for any moderate/high lectin foods like beans you choose to keep in your diet. Fermentation methods are especially effective, virtually eliminating lectins in one study of lentils. All those kitchen rituals you remember from Grandma? They’re adaptive, essentially pre-digestive techniques practiced by traditional cultures around the globe. Going old school on your favorite nut varieties, for example, cuts those lectin levels dramatically.
- Don’t go wholly raw. Yes, there are legitimate reasons to enjoy raw plants in your diet, but I don’t support the practice as a movement or exclusionary principle for eating. Humans have been cooking for well over a hundred thousand years. Some nutrients are enhanced by heat. Some anti-nutrients (like lectins) are at least partially “disarmed” by it. Cooking methods with a mind toward maximizing overall nutrient value and bioavailability make good Primal sense and can lower your exposure to lectins.
- Diversify! Restrictive diets make us even more susceptible to the downsides of our foods. (Soy formula fed babies being a dramatic example of this principle.) Make Grok proud and forage more widely for your dinner. Research shows that simply rotating primary foods was enough to limit lectin-related damage in rats that were given rounds of soy feed. A healthy, mostly low lectin diet will offer enough balance and protective nutrition to blunt the impact of the occasional moderate level lectin sources.
- Avoid GMOs. Hidden lectin is just one more reason to leave GMO products on the shelf.
- Maintain good overall gut health. Our modern existence sometimes seems like one giant assault against our digestive tracts. Minimize cumulative negative effects and increase positive, protective factors. Eat a healthy diet with Primal doses of probiotics, prebiotics and good fats. Limit stress and the use of medications like aspirin, NSAIDs and antibiotics (as well as secondary exposure through antibiotic-administered livestock). A healthy gut will be better equipped to weather the effects of inevitable but reasonable lectin intake.
Now it’s your turn – for your comments, questions and anecdotes about lectin impact. Let me know your thoughts, and thanks for reading!
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Posted By: Mark Sisson
Hi, I am new to this website and trying to get a handle on what to try with my daughter who is 7 and has IBD (diagnosed at 4yrs). We cut out dairy, citrus, chocolate, pork. Been in good health until a stomach bug which has causd a flare up.
I recently had some wheat germ which I was allergic to. This brought me to WGA, lectins etc. Then I have that blood group book and have just seen the SCD.
I want to eliminate lectins as it seems to make sense. Then stumbling on SCD and trying to correct the bacteria balance also makes sense. Where the 2 seems to diverge in my limited knowledge so far is the mucilanginous foods and herbs like okra, slippery elm, aloe etc. In papers I have read they act as lectin decoys which is great. N acetylglucosamine acts as a decoy or binds with wheat lectins etc. But in SCD it says these are illegal.
I am confused and can anyome shed some light please. Thanks
If you have a pressing medical concern here is my advice…. You need to get yourself into ketosis by just eating protein once or twice a day… You feel anxious and weird at first because repressed emotions will come to the surface…. all carbohydrates repress feelings (hence our addiction to them) so eventually the body develops illness… If you get yourself into ketosis by following an atkins (but eating right for your type protein selection ) every medical problem will go away forever.. it’s just if you’re willing…..
hey everyone, love all the comments…i was wondering if anyone has had any experiences like mine…i’m 30 years old and after suffering from bowel problems for over 10 years, i’m finally having part of my small bowel removed in a few weeks from what was diagnosed as crohn’s a few years ago. I went paleo for a while but didn’t have a lot of success because all the fiber from the fruits and veggies had a hard time getting through the scar tissue built up in my intestine. i plan on starting again and wondered if anyone had any success with this sort of thing. i really don’t want to be on meds the rest of my life like they’re telling me…
Here’s the deal Steve… Carbohydrates are non essential and you don’t need them… fruits and vegetables are non essential… no one can dispute this…..they are the most gentle carbohydrate that exists so if you can not eat them don’t eat carbs at all.. Flours, sugar, beans, legumes.. all are more assaultive on the body itself and you may not feel the hit on your gut right away because veggies are like a slow knife so it hurts (warning warning), but sugar, wheat and processed stuff is like a super sharp fast knife so there is trauma, but its almost so quick and insidious your body doesn’t know how what happened…. (does this make sense at all?)
You just need protein with a little fat… and you don’t need to eat three meals per day… If you eat a little bit of a protein source that is right 4 your blood type (red meat if type 0) once for breakfast and once for lunch… you will fall into ketosis and your levels of butyrate will skyrocket… (butyrate heals the intestines)…. butyrate is inversely related to carbs in the diet….
Fact- You will release held up emotional resistance…. Do not eat when anxious and do not eat anything at night…… If you want to make progress prepare for some emotional “releasing.”
Are society is an emotion denying one that treats symptoms and not at the level of which they have been caused… If you stop eating at night and allow fasting periods throughout the day (by only eating 2 meals).. emotions will release from your body ….. anger, fear, sadness…….
Emotional resentment begins the disease process which always takes its toll on the physical body eventually… no one can escape this… we all are responsible for the physical because it ultimately starts mentally…..
As crazy as this sounds you a life force/energetic being within the human “machine.” Healing begins with your mind… Food really is just an illusion and people (like me in the past) have become obsessed with it as the answer…. Ultimately you need very little food for survival…. and the longer you go between meals the better… (even skipping days at a time through fasting) – with limited water intake
I’m dealing with something similar because I am having to choose whether I want to feel my old emotions, ) or deal with the physical consequences of not……. many people choose not to deal with the emotions and choose surgery and meds.. nothing is “wrong” with this but it ultimately doesn’t create happiness and freedom in your life… If you can solve the problem mentally and emotionally and with only 1 of 2 meals of the right protein /day… you will rapidly regenerate… the body is always regenerating… the only one interfering with this is you…
Affirmations of love, support and encouragement from your mind actually radically decrease inflammation in your intestines …. use gratitude and love as high vibrational words … expressed in a journal …. even just chanting these words ( saying them over and over for several minutes) effects levels of pain and gut flora….
I wish you the best and pray you have the courage to change…. a feeling of joy and contentment you have never known before is waiting for you on the other side…….
Love,
Steve
(actualize81@gmail.com)
Hey ya’ll,
First wanted to say I’ve been paleodieting and crossfitting for about a year and I totally love it. My body has completely changed and it’s awesome. My friends give me a lot of flack though, especially when it comes to legumes and stuff like quinoa. I try to tell them about the lectins and phylates but they don’t believe me especially when they put articles like this one on my facebook wall.
http://drclydewilson.typepad.com/drclydewilson/2011/02/paleo-diet-is-incompetent-legumes-are-not-anti-nutrients.html
What’s the deal with cooking legumes? Does cooking neutralize all of the anti nutrients? Do lectins, when consuming a moderate amount of legumes, actually eliminate cancerous cells? Are we primal people crazy for not wanting to eat legumes? And what the heck is up with quinoa?
Thanks and sorry if my questions have been answered a million times already!
Thank you, Mark, for all the information this article provided!
I had the I-95 allergy panel done in December and it showed me to be highly allergic to beef, casein, egg whites and kidney beans as well as moderately allergic to garlic, strawberries, pineapple and green beans.
I am currently on a modified juice fast while on the elimination diet because water and juice are simpler. I drink carrot juice, lemonade (lemon juice and agave syrup in water), and sometimes fruit juice mixed 50/50 with water during the day at work, and then I prepare baked meat (chicken or pork usually) along with potatoes and vegetables in the evening when I get home. I am not eating much pasta, as I want other things to go with it that I am not allowed to eat, so again, easier.
I was drinking herbal tea because I like dairy in my coffee but I cannot have dairy right now, and soya milk is so gross, but on a friends advice I have been buying chocolate flavored soy milk and drinking coffee again. I also add blackstrap molasses to my coffee for the iron, as I have iron deficiency anemia and cannot afford to let my iron stores go down while on the diet and iron pills are hard on my tummy.
I do slow burn strength training on Mondays and Thursdays and some kind of cardio on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (before work), and I have no problems going without food or even liquids until after the workout. I have been drinking 2 liters of water daily for years. I am getting stronger, my clothes are looser and I have more stamina.
Problem is, I got the allergy test because I was diagnosed with H.Pylori last summer and treated with antibiotics, but I still have bouts of stomach problems- mostly gas and bloating and a general pain. And I still have the stomach problems while on the elimination diet as well.
I had the best health in my life with the Atkins induction phase, which is quite paleo. What I liked best about it was the philosophy of the many people I met in forums who just said don’t try to make substitute food, just learn to not eat bread or muffins or high G.I foods, and that made sense to me. If bread is bad, why keep trying to eat it in some form? There are lots of foods out there to eat.
So here I am on an elimination diet, eating bread because I am not allergic to it (???), as well as potatoes, tomatoes, peanut butter (usually on a sprouted wheat bread) and feeling crappier than ever. As soon as I am officially done with the “elimination” diet, I am going to eliminate the items on the lectin list that I have been eating to see which one is offending my stomach the most. I appreciate that you put this information forward, and I enjoy reading all the newsletters I get from MDA- especially the most recent ones on fasting
And for the blood type debate, I am A- and I tried that diet but I want to eat red meat and I like it. And obviously it is not the cause of my stomach troubles (or at least not all the cause). I think I do best with meat, veg and berries and the odd piece of sprouted bread, toasted with ghee. I can live without coffee and cream if I have to (the jury is still out on that one), but do not take away my t-bone steak!!
As someone with myriad food sensitivies, the scales fell from my eyes when I discovered lectins. Though I gave up grains and soy decades ago, I’m currently using okra to mitigate the harmful effects of lectins and have ordered via the internet some stuff that’s supposed to counteract their harmful effects. I’ve passed this information along to my children, who are also trying to cope with food sensitivies.
Instead of focusing on diet, I focus on wealth and success. My sensitivities have all gone by the wayside since I incorporate the advice that’s on my website…
Kind advise to visit Jack Kruse’s site. Our health is compromised by more than the wrong food. You need a 3-way health strategy:
1: the rigt food (paleo; agreed)
2: food timing in line with circadian rythm
3: cold adaptation to re-awake that other build-in biochemistry that 90% of all living creatures on this planet use to thrive.
There is more than just food. For your own good: take a look at jackkruse.com. Very fascinating stuff.
Excellent post! We will be linking to this particularly great article on our website.
Keep up the great writing.
Yes, avoiding lectins and eating primarily does wonderful for your health, mood, and finances too. I’ve certainly noticed a huge increase in my cash flow
Sorry if this has already been asked, but should wheat grass, such as that used in green powders, be avoided?