An explanation on the idea of Lectins that are wrecking your body.

 

You haven’t heard of this yet?  You have, just by a different name..   Lectins are the proteins that get through the gut lining undigested.  They cause the reactive food idea that I’ve spoke about before. Essentially, your body treats lectins like an allergy –  in that it starts an immune response to try and rectify the situation.

 

Ever heard of Gluten?  That’s a Lectin. It’s definitely not the ONLY lectin, just the popular one right now.  Multiple Lectins are prevalent in grains and wheats and even gluten free wheats, corn, quinoa, and in all kinds of foods.  They are also common in Nightshades like potatoes, eggplant and sweet potatoes – all of which light me up within minutes of eating.   You can’t escape them – they are everywhere! Like Freddy Krueger when you sleep, Lectins are there when you eat.

 

Reactive foods

 

I have had tons of results with working on the dietary removal of reactive foods and recently have started playing with extremely low carb/low sugar diets similar to Keto diet.

 

Like I’ve said, lectins are everywhere and Dr. Gundry and others think these are the reactive agents.  The cause of darn near every single one of our ailments, diseases, pains and fat storage.

I have been harping my clients  – it’s all about the diet – all of it.   Your fat belly, your gym productivity, your tiredness, your disease and achy joints.  Your misery. So, the idea of Lectins as the “culprit” to all our misery I find extremely interesting.   

 

By simply removing these foods from your diet and allowing the gut to in essence “heal itself” your body can stop the High alert signals it is sending out over and over again and burning you out.

 

This process is commonly called, “Leaky Gut”   – stuff that shouldn’t get through your guts and into the blood, does.  This is an easy idea to visualize but I dislike the name –

 

My brother, a high school wrestling and football coach went from being tip top and working out daily with high school kids to walking with a cane pretty much within a month.  

The cause?  the auto immune “disease” rheumatoid arthritis.  Although it took me a while to convince him and a few failed attempts, once he controlled the reactive foods in his diet, the inflammation went away and he was back to normal.  If he slips up he gets drilled again and it takes him a few days to respond and get well again. This is a common roller coaster for most auto immune diseases.

 

Think about the disease itself – call it what you will, Lupus, Arthritis, Rheumatoid, Crohn’s, colitis, thyroiditis, tendonitis….I don’t care about the name, without inflammation,  there is not disease. So forget the name, stop the inflammation and the body reaction! That’s how you stop it.

 

Well, as I state over and over again on this page – the healthcare system is in a major leaping step and on fast forward right now and if you snooze you lose – I feel where we are at in healthcare is akin to the first time antibiotics came on the scene in health and revolutionized our entire horizon of healthcare.  Its THAT BIG…RIGHT NOW!

But, just like the last quantum leap, many will be left behind so I preach that it is up to you to be aware of these changes and treatments and see what works for you.  Don’t wait or expect your doctor to be on the same page – it might not be their thing. Yet.

The fasting, the keto, the diet centered treatment for disease, functional medicine, getting back to working out and using the body…we’re there!   I think the Keto idea is fantastic and I like this idea of Lectin a lot. The science is valid. It really seems to be the next step and is easily tested and rechecked and Dr. Gundry is the spearhead in this movement.   If you are interested this is the guy you check out. Just as I feel Keto’s best spokesperson is Mark Sisson and I think a combo of these ideas may be the breakthrough we’ve been needing.

 

As with anything, I think it deserves an experiment – on yourself – right now.  

 

There is however a rub…It seems that all the literature and writeups kind of blow this off as a non issue but it’s a BIG issue.  For most – THE issue. A huge deep breath and gut check prior to just diving in…

 

This is one of those good food/bad food plans..  “Foods with lectins are bad, m’kay” (South Park counselor voice.

 

There is a lot of things, a lot of foods that are on the list.  Like everything. Seriously, I struggle with this idea and the plans that are similar because of how restrictive they are.   There’s just nothing to eat and it seems we are all kind of stuck with eating the same stuff over and over again for infinity.

 

Here’s the response as it should be.

 

“Yeah, that’s right.”

 

Now Gundry wrote a book on this.  He can’t just come out and say “Yeah, thats right” and get famous.   There’s no money in that and its an exceptionally small book if that’s all there is to it. But despite that all of our arguments that food tastes great and our system is the best and “can I make a peanut butter, kale, smoothie, chia birthday cake with paleo frosting?”  it’s still true.

Look,

 

Eating shit makes you feel like shit.  Eating shit makes your body function like shit.   

 

Now nobody else writes like  that so I just did. In fact the food we eat also eats like shit. The stuff we spray on our plants and food isn’t great either and very very few of us actually hunt and gather the majority of our food anymore.

Nor could we.

 

The authors and all the proponents of this life changing, “get control of your body and change your world” have a business to run.  They can’t just come out and call you fat and lazy and seriously, I can’t either. But if you are trying to change your life, such as my baby brother no longer walking with a cane and feeling like he just slept with an  Indonesian Sunbear – type changes – its going to take some serious moves. Cutting out gluten on the odd numbered weekdays aint gonna cut it.

 

Just try it – experiment on yourself – that’s human nature and a line I say daily in my clinic – “you need to become your own best doctor – it’s your body.”

 

Or you can just say screw it, there is no way I’m giving up bread and milk and peanuts it’s just too damn important in my life.  You can always go the route of “I’ll just take the pill for whatever I have and then take a pill for what that pill’s side effects are and then another for that one’s…” on and on forever – If that’s your route –  then 2 things:

 

1. You’re in trouble
2. This is the wrong website for you

 

I hate to throw my dad out here but he’s had amazing results playing with some of this stuff – He did the whole life challenge and lost something like 35 lbs in 8 weeks.  He felt and moved and looked better. His skin issues started to clear.  But it was torture for him.. He couldn’t wait to be done with the 8 week challenge to get back to the shit that was making him feel like crap.  He’s probably the smartest man I know but he’s not in the right place for this kind of thing. He doesnt want someone telling him what to do.

But maybe you do…Or maybe you’re close.  OR – maybe I’m just going to plant a seed in your brain and the idea is there if you or a loved one needs it someday.  I’m just hoping to make you aware here.

 

My idea?   If you try something and it has “miracle drug” type effects then it’s probably something worth internalizing and just learning from.   My dad example – His eczema went away with dropping milk but he’ll try to sneak in other dairy because damn man, he loves ice cream and cheese.

  

Lectin removal?   I’m going to try this stuff because I love the way I feel and the more I experiment with this stuff the more I start to really feel it – almost with each meal.  I’ll not lie and tell you it’s easy – I still love a rum and coke on occasion and I still like a pizza with friends so at this point in my life I’m not on the train hardcore as a lifestyle change – BUT.   a HUGE BUT – I am pretty straight as an arrow with these changes for 6 days at a time and I don’t slack off more than one meal in a row because I feel like crap –

The changes I’ve felt are amazing!

 

On this note – I don’t really have an issue I’m trying to erase from my life either.  I don’t have skin issues, I don’t have arthritis, i dont have brain fog – I just want to look my best naked, be strong and live to be 120.  If I needed the ammo for an issue, I want to know where it is and how to use it.

 

That’s why I bring it up.   That’s why I push you to look into it and see if its your brand of ammo.

I think as we all get older and try to become wiser the old adage “know thyself” pertains to so many different aspects – I guess those Buddha’s and philosophers really were on to something – “know thyself’ in your business, in your relationships, in your emotional and brain game and know thyself in your body and health.

 

It is all too easy to just ignore the fact that coffee makes me explode every morning and somehow I just accept that as normal.    DUDE! Coffee is not good for me – for like 2 years my body has been screaming this to me. I just love caffeine in the morning and conveniently blow off my body’s terrible OVER reaction for a quick jolt.    Experience makes students of us all? Hardly – we just take in whatever we want, listen to what we want to hear and ignore or justify what we don’t.

Here’s just another call out to actually listen for a change and to try new stuff.  New stuff, so you have new information and therefore can make better decisions. Better your life!  

 

That and because this stuff is the future of health care – 100 years from now this will be standard stuff.   Just like we now know cigarettes aren’t actually calming and good for you and a little cocaine in your cola probably isn’t a benefit.    This whole food thing was common knowledge 10,000 years ago and it will come back around again- it IS the future – those of us doing the future of medicine right now are just ahead of the game!