Happy Gut

Myth #3: A Lectin-Free Diet is the Only Solution.

Last week, we learned that the status of your gut health is a major factor in your ability to tolerate lectins. But is a lectin-free diet the only solution to healing lectin issues and your gut?

Considering all of the uncomfortable side effects of lectins — like nausea, bloating, and abdominal pain — you might wonder whether avoiding lectins altogether is, in fact, the ONLY answer to lectin intolerance. But in my mind, this is not necessarily true. In fact, I could go as far as to say this is an unsustainable and even narrow-minded solution.

So, this week, I’ll be debunking our third and final lectin myth for August: The myth that a lectin-free diet is the only solution to lectin intolerance.

Why we shouldn’t take an “all or nothing” approach to lectins

Many people think that lectin issues can only be solved by following a very restrictive diet, but the truth is, the research just doesn’t support that conclusion. As the authors of a paper published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology wrote “As a result of their potential for toxicity and their ‘anti-nutritional effects’ it is almost inevitable that lectin exclusion could well become a big food fad.” And just as they predicted, lectin-free diets have become increasingly popular and trendy. However, the researchers also write that: “Consequently, now is the time to resume research on this ubiquitous family of proteins so that we fully understand their role in health and disease.” ³⁴

In other words, we need more human studies on lectins before we can say that lectins should be completely avoided. Most of the research on lectins is relatively old, and most are animal studies, which means the results of those studies will not necessarily apply to humans. ³⁵ Additionally, most animal studies used very large amounts of lectins — much more than you or I would actually eat in a single sitting or even one day.

And as we learned when we debunked Myth #1 that “all lectin-containing foods are bad for you,” the concentration of lectins in food matters, as does the type. For example, in most of these studies the animals received lectins from raw legumes, which are the most irritating type of lectins and a type of lectin that I can safely say that humans should never eat raw.

In addition, some foods high in lectins also contain other plant compounds that can irritate the gut. For example, peanuts are high in lectins, but they may also be contaminated with aflatoxin, a mold that can potentially be a liver carcinogen in animals and even humans. ³⁷ Likewise, wheat is not only lectin-rich, but also contains gluten, which the research of Dr. Alessio Fasano shows can contribute to a leaky gut, inflammation, autoimmune disease, and more. In other words, it isn’t just the lectins in wheat that are problematic. The picture is much more complex than what it may seem to us if we’re looking for a simple explanation.

And even if you do ingest lectins and other irritating ingredients, if you have a healthy gut, you may still be able to tolerate them just fine.

Why a lectin-elimination diet is smarter than a lectin-free diet

Research shows that those with a healthy gut microbiota — a gut with a healthy balance of the right gut bacteria — are capable of eliminating problematic substances such as, lectins, gliadins from wheat, mycotoxins from peanuts, and other common gut irritants. ³⁹ Problems occur, however, when a patient has an unhealthy gut (we learned all about this last week when we debunked lectin myth #2 — “everyone has a lectin issue”).

When someone with a lack of adequate digestive enzymes eats too many lectins, it can lead to nutrient deficiencies, poor digestion, gut damage, and more. ⁴⁰ For example, if you have underlying digestive problems like irritable bowel syndrome, you might be more sensitive to lectins and have side effects. ⁴⁴ For those patients, the body eventually makes antibodies against lectin, ⁴¹ which can lead to autoimmune diseases due to shared similarities between the lectin amino acid sequences and body tissues. ⁴² For people with gut problems, eating too many lectins can also impact the microbiome, further augmenting and contributing to any underlying dysbiosis or other gut imbalances. ⁴³

However, the way this cycle plays out can vary greatly from patient to patient, and therefore, you never know exactly how you’ll react to different types of lectins. Some patients, for instance, have trouble with nightshade vegetables, which can cause inflammation in patients with underlying inflammatory disorders, such as arthritis. ⁴⁶ These vegetables, which include eggplant, produce alkaloids. For most people, they aren’t a problem but for people with inflammatory conditions, even tiny amounts of nightshades can activate the immune system and increase inflammation and pain in the body.

For sensitive individuals, instead of eliminating all lectins for good, I often use an elimination diet to determine which lectin-containing foods are creating the real trouble ⁴⁵

Almost everyone benefits from eliminating other lectin-containing foods and a lectin-free diet does provide some benefits. It might lower gut inflammation, for instance, which will decrease the body-wide inflammation that contributes to most diseases. ⁴⁷ However, in my opinion, it is just a path to healing the true underlying issue — your imbalanced gut health.
In other words, I don’t believe that everyone needs to follow a lectin-free diet forever to be healthy. A lectin-free diet can feel incredibly restrictive, especially if you’re a vegan or vegetarian. You’ll miss out on all the other nutrients that lectin-containing fruits and vegetables provide, including dietary fiber. ⁴⁸ Dietary fibers in these foods feed your good gut bugs, increasing their number and diversity and creating a stronger gut wall. Meanwhile, a healthier gut wall lowers inflammation, protects against obesity, and so much more. ⁴⁹

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In addition, as I said before, lectin-containing diets have often been characteristic of the Blue Zones, where people live to 100 years old and above. How do you explain that?

Any health practitioners saying that lectins are the sole culprit and that they should be avoided completely are doing you a disservice.

They are also failing to mention the very important fact that how you prepare lectin-containing foods matters.

Because as it turns out, there are ways to prepare lectins that make them easier to digest and less harmful for your body.

How to make lectins less harmful to your body

If you eat lectin-containing foods, such as legumes, uncooked, they can cause an upset stomach. That explains why you may have felt sick if you’ve ever eaten beans that aren’t fully cooked. ¹³ But throughout the ages, traditional food preparation techniques have evolved to minimize the lectin content of certain foods and therefore, minimize their harmful impact on humans and their guts.

For example, cooking legumes partially neutralizes the lectins. ³⁶ This works, because when you cook a plant food, heat breaks down the starch into smaller carbohydrates that are easier to digest. When lectins attach to these smaller carbohydrates, the body can more easily remove them. ⁵¹ The same process will occur in other non-heat methods, too. Listed below are my top five favorite ways to do just that.

5 Ways to Make Lectin-Containing Foods More Gut-Friendly

…So You Can Enjoy Lectin-Containing Foods Again

Carefully preparing and cooking lectin-containing foods can reduce their negative impacts. For someone with a healthy gut, the concentration of lectins in foods prepared in these ways would be far too low to create problems. ⁵⁵

The bottom line on lectin issues

Like with many debates in the nutrition world, when it comes to lectins, we have to challenge existing beliefs: Are all lectins REALLY bad? Does everyone have a lectin issue? Is a lectin-free diet the ONLY solution? As it turns out, these are all myths — the lectin issue is much more nuanced than we’ve given it credit for.

We simply cannot demonize a food group solely based on animal and in vitro studies, without looking at the human gut terrain.

Based on my experience as a functional gut specialist, I have found that an unhealthy gut and imbalanced microflora, with its health consequences, including a leaky gut, is what really makes people susceptible to the ill-effects of lectins. A lectin-free diet is not a permanent solution; it’s merely a bandaid for the real problem — a disordered gut microbiome and damaged gut lining.

Myth #2: Everyone Has a Lectin Issue.

Are you enjoying the abundance and diversity of produce available in August? This time of year I look forward to my weekly trips to the farmer’s market. And yet, what good would it be if you can’t eat the foods you most enjoy? Last week, we debunked the pervasive myth that all lectin-containing foods are bad when we learned that lectins come in different forms and that some may even have health benefits.

But before you go stocking your reusable shopping bags with tomatoes, peppers, and black beans, we have to face the reality that even though not all lectins are equally bad, many of us still experience extremely unforgettable symptoms — like bloating, gas, headaches, and even vomiting — after eating them. What gives? 

Answering this question forces me to challenge yet another extremely common lectin myth, which is that everyone has a lectin issue. Does everyone REALLY have a lectin issue? And if so, why has this become a problem recently when it seemingly hasn’t been in the past?

The simple fact that not everyone experiences side effects from lectins should be the first big hint that ‘No, we don’t all have a lectin issue.’

I’ve long suspected there’s another unseen factor working behind the scenes and causing some to develop an intolerance to lectins, whereas others do not. 

But what is this factor? 

This week, we’re diving into what I believe is the true root cause of so-called lectin issues. And surprise! It doesn’t have much to do with lectins at all, even though lectins can contribute to the problem. 

In my practice, I’ve seen dozens of patients go from being lectin intolerant to lectin tolerant by healing their gut, which I believe is the underlying factor in many lectin issues.

Understanding the Gut-Lectin Connection

I’ve observed firsthand what a huge role your gut plays in how damaging lectins can be. You see, your gut harbors about a hundred trillion microbes, which include up to a thousand different species of bacteria, a few dozen types of yeasts and fungi, an unknown number of viruses, and an occasional worm. Collectively, these are called the “gut microbiome.”

Our understanding of the human gut microbiome is still in its infancy, but newer research shows that it can impact human health and illness in many different ways, including affects our mood, immune systems, energy levels, and our ability to tolerate various foods, including lectins. 

In a healthy gut, everything functions optimally and there is a healthy balance between beneficial bacteria. On a day-to-day level, this means the gut houses a world of friendly, diverse good bacteria that help us digest our food, produce vitamins, and keep unfriendly gut organisms in check. 

When the gut is healthy, it also: 

• Tells you when you’re full. A healthy gut sends accurate signals to the brain when you are full so that you do not overeat, which means you feel satiated but not overly full after meals. Check out last week’s blog to learn about the connection between leptin and lectin intolerance. 
• Helps you break down food into absorbable nutrients. A healthy gut secretes just the right amount of digestive juices at the right time, which means that all your food is digested into its component parts. This includes the ability to break down and digest foods rich in lectins. 
• Supports a healthy gut barrier. A healthy gut has a discerning gut barrier, which means the gut wall allows nutrients to be absorbed but is able to block bacteria, yeast, and other ingredients from entering the bloodstream and causing damage. 

Unfortunately, many of us don’t have a healthy gut. If your gut is unhealthy, you will inevitably suffer from dysbiosis—an imbalance between good and bad bugs in the gut. You may not even know you have a dysbiosis, but what you do know is you feel bloated, icky, tired, mentally foggy, and achy all over. 

But what causes an unhealthy gut in the first place? There are certain lifestyle factors that can impact the health status of our guts. For example, how often you have bowel movements and the medications you take can impact the growth of gut bugs. In fact, antibiotics are probably the number one worldwide culprit for dysbiosis, because while they do the important job of killing harmful bacteria in the body, it can also wipe out the beneficial ones. As you might already guess, what you eat also has a massive influence on your microbiome ¹⁶; some foods — like healthy fats and fiber — are great for your microbiome health and other foods, like processed sugars, raw cruciferous vegetables and lectins can irritate the gut and either cause or exacerbate an existing gut issue. I talk about gut-friendly and gut-harming foods extensively in my book, Happy Gut.

Leaky gut and lectin intolerance

If your lifestyle doesn’t support your gut health, you will develop dysbiosis, which will create the ideal environment for another common gut condition, called leaky gut.

Think about it like this: Your gut lining acts like a security guard that determines who can come in and who stays out of your bloodstream. When you have a leaky gut, it’s like that security guard has nodded off and anyone can come and go as they please, including lectins. And while that doesn’t sound like the end of the world at first glance, when lectins and other toxins and molecules from food enter the bloodstream, the immune system does not recognize them so it attacks — and that is what causes the terrible symptoms like gut pain, nausea, and bloating. 

The trickiest part is that you may not even be aware of these sensitivities. Food sensitivities don’t always manifest as digestive distress; in fact, they can cause seemingly unrelated body symptoms, such as hives, allergies, chronic sinus inflammation, and migraines without any abdominal pain, bloating, or bowel movement problems, and only eventually become the triggers for irritable bowel syndrome and autoimmune disease.

You can probably see where I’m going with this. It’s my belief that lectins often get the blame for problems that really should be blamed on leaky gut. A healthy gut, which includes a healthy balance of gut flora and a strong gut wall, can handle lectin-containing foods better and prevent this immune system attack.

If your lifestyle doesn’t support your gut health, you will develop dysbiosis, which will create the ideal environment for another common gut condition, called leaky gut. Leaky gut is characterized by a “hyperpermeability” of the gut wall, which exposes your body to partially digested protein molecules from food and toxins. Think about it like this: Your gut lining acts like a security guard that determines who can come in and who stays out of your bloodstream. When you have a leaky gut, it’s like that security guard has nodded off and anyone can come and go as they please, including lectins. And while that doesn’t sound like the end of the world at first glance, when lectins and other toxins and molecules from food enter the bloodstream, the immune system does not recognize them so it attacks — and that is what causes the terrible symptoms like gut pain, nausea, and bloating. 

The trickiest part is that you may not even be aware of these sensitivities. Food sensitivities don’t always manifest as digestive distress; in fact, they can cause seemingly unrelated body symptoms, such as hives, allergies, chronic sinus inflammation, and migraines without any abdominal pain, bloating, or bowel movement problems, and only eventually become the triggers for irritable bowel syndrome and autoimmune disease.

You can probably see where I’m going with this. It’s my belief that lectins often get the blame for problems that really should be blamed on leaky gut. A healthy gut, which includes a healthy balance of gut flora and a strong gut wall, can handle lectin-containing foods better and prevent this immune system attack.

Revealing the true problem with lectins

As a doctor who specializes in gut health, I’ve observed that if you have a healthy gut with balanced gut flora, the amount of lectins that could create issues is far higher than what most people would eat. That’s because a healthy gut lining produces digestive enzymes that break down lectins and lectins are not allowed to slip through into the blood stream. ¹⁹

In other words, while lectins get associated with autoimmune disease and gut imbalances. It’s the other way around!
I’ve found that gut imbalances are often the problem, not just lectins.

As we learned last week, some lectins damage the gut more than others. Kidney bean lectins, for instance, can especially damage the cells within your gut wall, cause bacterial overgrowth, and create nutritional deficiencies. ²¹ Meanwhile, in people with a healthy gut, some lectin-containing foods such as tomatoes and other fruits are healthy. ¹⁸ Clearly, classifying all lectins as “harmful” oversimplifies this broad group of foods.

To be fair, lectins do create problems for patients who have dysbiosis. For these people, lectins can:

• Interfere with nutrient digestion and absorption
• Adversely impact the immune system within your digestive tract ²²
• Affect the health of cells in the gut and its ability to heal itself

These issues should not be ignored or underestimated. Let’s say you eat legumes, for example. The lectins in those legumes will resist being broken down in your gut, because they can withstand the acidic environment of your stomach. ²³ They end up binding to cells within the gut wall lining.²⁴ If you eat large amounts of them, they can irritate the gut wall, creating symptoms like diarrhea and vomiting, and exacerbating leaky gut, which allows them to slip through the gut all and enter your bloodstream. This sets off the inflammatory response that has a domino effect, resulting in a host of problems. Basically, when you are internally inflamed, more of the calories that you eat are stored as fat and weight gain happens right before your eyes. In addition, an irritated and inflamed gut lining may also interfere with the absorption of other important nutrients. ²⁵

Over time, as lectins get through the gut wall, they can bind to all sorts of tissues in your body, including brain, thyroid, liver, and pancreas, even possibly leading to autoimmune disease. This is the fuel to the fire of autoimmunity. Inflammation leads to a wide range of conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis and type 1 diabetes. ²⁶ I call this phenomenon the lectin-autoimmune connection. But as you can see, this is a complex and multifaceted issue. Blaming lectins and lectins alone for all these problems dramatically oversimplifies the issue at hand.

In my practice I find that my patients with lectin intolerance typically start out with a damaged gut.

And while eating lectins may have worsened their condition once the gut became damaged, those lectins alone didn’t actually create the damage in the first place.

Healing lectin intolerance by healing the gut

When lectins attach to the gut lining, they can contribute to leaky gut. ²⁰ That’s the bad news. The good news is that once you fix your leaky gut and rebalance your gut microbiome, you can better tolerate lectin-containing foods (especially when prepared the right way), many of which can be considered a healthy part of a balanced diet. 

So how do you fix leaky gut and rebalance the gut microbiome? You’ll be surprised, the remedy is not all about what you eat, but also about how you live.

7 Steps To Heal Your Leaky Gut

…So You Can Enjoy Lectin-Containing Foods Again

As you can see, there are a ton of steps you can take to heal the gut and reverse a lectin intolerance before you think you have been sentenced to a lectin-free diet for the rest of your life. I mean, in all honesty can anyone do that? 

The truth is to simply cut lectins out of your diet for good is missing a big part of the whole picture. They say you can’t see the frame if you’re in the picture. Well, in this case, gut health is the framework for enjoying the bounty of delicious, lectin-rich foods in the ideal picture of summer. At the end of the day, if you don’t turn your attention towards healing the gut, you are missing the root cause of many health problems, including lectin intolerance. And that’s why I called this series The Lectin Paradox.