lectins Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Are Lectins in Food Good or Bad for You?

AHA Publisher — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 07:00:57 +0000

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM via NutritionFacts – Might lectins help explain why those who eat more beans and whole grains have less cancer? Lectins are to blame for the great “white kidney bean incident” of 2006 in Japan. One Saturday evening, a TV program introduced a new method to lose weight. The method was simple: toast some dry, raw, white kidney beans in a frying pan for three minutes, grind the beans into a powder, and then dust it onto rice. Within days, a thousand people fell ill, some with such severe diarrhea and vomiting they ended up in the hospital. Why? Lectin poisoning. Three minutes of dry heat is not enough to destroy the toxic lectins in kidney beans. If you don’t presoak them, you need to boil large kidney beans for a full hour to completely destroy all the lectins, though if you first soak them overnight 98 percent of the lectins are gone after boiling for just 15 minutes and all are gone by half an hour, as you can see at 0:44 in my video Are Lectins in Food Good or Bad for You?. And, indeed, when researchers tested the white beans, they found that toasting them for three minutes didn’t do a thing. It’s no wonder people got sick. But, 95 percent of the lectins were inactivated after boiling them for three minutes and completely inactivated after ten minutes of boiling. Evidently, “‘Do not eat raw beans’ is a traditional admonition in Japan to prevent intestinal problems”—and now we know why. While canning may completely eliminate lectins from most canned beans, some residual lectin activity may remain in canned kidney beans, though apparently not enough to result in toxicity. And, ironically, “How doses of lectins may be beneficial by stimulating gut function, limiting tumor growth, and ameliorating obesity.” What? I thought lectins were toxic. For as long as people have speculated dietary lectins are harmful, others have conjectured that they may be protective. “If this theory is correct, appropriate lectins by mouth should be of use in the prophylaxis [prevention] (and possibly treatment) of colon cancer.” Or, of course, we could just eat our beans. Interest in the purported antitumor effect of plant lectins started with the discovery in 1963 that lectins could distinguish between cancer cells and normal cells. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital found a substance in wheat germ—the lectin in whole wheat—that appeared to be “tumor cell specific,” clumping together the tumor cells, while the normal cells were left almost completely alone. In fact, it is so specific that you can take a stool sample from someone and, based on lectin binding to the colon lining cells that get sloughed off into the feces, effectively predict the presence of polyps and cancers. Subsequently, it was discovered that lectins couldn’t only distinguish between the two types of cells, but also extinguish the cancer cells, while largely leaving the normal cells alone. For example, that same white kidney bean lectin, as you can see at 2:53 in my video, was found to almost completely suppress the growth of human head and neck cancer cells, liver cancer cells, breast cancer cells, and cervical cancer cells (at least most of the way), within about three days—but that was in a petri dish. Those petri dish studies are largely the basis of the evidence for the antitumor activity of plant lectins. How do we even know dietary lectins are absorbed into our body? Colorectal cancer is one thing. The fact that lectins can kill off colon cancer cells in a petri dish may be applicable, since lectins we eat may come in direct contact with cancerous or precancerous cells in our colon, “providing a mechanism” by which bean consumption may help in “the prevention and treatment of colorectal cancer.” Even more exciting is the potential for effectively rehabilitating cancer cells. The “loss of differentiation and invasion are the histological hallmarks of malignant cells,” meaning that when a normal cell transforms into a cancer cell, it tends to lose its specialized function. Breast cancer cells become less breast-like, and colon cancer cells become less colon-like. What these researchers showed—for the first time—is that the lectin in fava beans could take colon cancer cells and turn them back into looking more like normal cells. As you can see at 4:13 in my video, before exposure to the fava bean lectins, the cancer cells were growing in amorphous clumps. But, after exposure to the fava bean lectins for two weeks, those same cancer cells started to go back to growing glandular structures like normal colon issue. Therefore, dietary lectins or putting them in a pill “may slow the progression of colon cancer,” potentially helping to explain why dietary consumption of beans, split peas, chickpeas, and lentils appears to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer based on 14 studies involving nearly two million participants. Okay, but what about cancers outside of the digestive tract? “Although lectin containing foods,” like beans and whole grains, “are frequently consumed cooked or otherwise processed, these treatments may not always inactivate the lectins…For example, lectins have been detected in roasted peanuts….” Peanuts are legumes, and we don’t tend to eat them boiled but just roasted or even raw. Are we able to absorb the lectins into our system? Yes. As you can see at 5:12 in my video, within an hour of consumption of raw or roasted peanuts, you can detect the peanut lectin in the bloodstream of most people. Same with tomatoes. Some of the non-toxic lectin in tomatoes also makes it down into our gut and into our blood. Wheat germ agglutinin, the wheat lectin known as WGA, doesn’t seem to make it into our bloodstream, though, even after apparently eating the equivalent amount of wheat germ in more than 80 slices of bread. And, if you ate something like pasta, the boiling in the cooking process might wipe out the lectin in the first place anyway. In terms of phytochemicals in the fight against cancer, lectins are able to “resist digestion resulting in high bioavailability,” potentially allowing “the cellular mechanisms of the host to utilize the full potential of the…dramatic anti-cancer benefits” lectins have to offer. But, these dramatic benefits have yet to be demonstrated in people. We do know, however, that population studies show “that the consumption of a plant-based diet is strongly associated with a reduced risk of developing certain types of cancer.” People eating a plant-based diet could just be eating fewer carcinogens, but plants do have all those active components that do seem to protect against the “initiation, promotion, or progression” of cancer. So, maybe lectins are one of those protective compounds. We know people who eat more beans and whole grains tend to get less cancer overall, but we’re just not sure exactly why. Now, you could say, “Who cares why?” Well, Big Pharma cares. You can’t make as much money on healthy foods as you can on “lectin based drugs.” This article has been modified. To read the original article click here. For more articles from Dr. Greger click here.

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How to Reverse the Disease of Aging, the #1 Danger in the American Diet, and How to Help Children Develop Healthy Habits from Young with Dr. Steven Gundry

AHA Publisher — Wed, 26 Feb 2020 08:00:59 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – We have all heard the phrase “you are what you eat”, but how true is this? How does what you eat and your lifestyle choices affect how you function on a day-to-day basis, and how you age? In this week’s podcast and blog, I speak with Dr. Steven Gundry, a cardiothoracic surgeon and NY Times bestselling author, about why we may be living longer but not living better, how to reverse the “disease” of aging, how what we are eating may be making us sicker, and why we should help our children develop healthy eating habits from young. Dr. Gundry started researching the link between diet and health as a student at Yale University. When he became a surgeon, he noticed how changing the way his patients eat dramatically affected their health, potentially eliminating the need for surgery. Consequently, he decided to study the link between lifestyle choices and wellness, opening several restorative medicine centers and institutes across the country. These centers focus on teaching people how to make good lifestyle decisions before they need surgery; Dr. Gundry uses his research to create reproducible lifestyle patterns, healthy supplements and easy diet plans that help people age well, or, as he puts it, “die at a ripe young age”. Even though we are living longer than before, most people now see their health begin to decline at age 50. This paradox has become so pervasive that many of us assume we’re meant to spend the second half of our lives in a state of steady decline, but this doesn’t have to be the case! You can take charge of your life and how you age by changing your lifestyle! How? Over the years, Dr. Gundry observed that the modern diet is full of lectins: specific plant proteins that are designed to protect the plant by causing negative side-effects in the animals that eat them. As humans evolved, we developed specific protections against these lectins, most notably our gut microbiome and mucus layer. However, the modern diet is full of new and processed lectins that are affecting our gut health, which, in turn, affects our overall mental and physical wellbeing, because the gut is the center of our health: it is our internal protection from the external world. Moreover, many of the medicines we take and the foods we eat, which are often full of antibiotics, are wreaking havoc on our gut microbiome (as I discuss in my book Think and Eat Yourself Smart). Taking just one ibuprofen, for example, is like punching a hole in the gut lining. As a result, more and more people are suffering from long-term chronic issues and diseases, while the trend of people living longer is slowly being reversed! Thankfully, we can heal this damage by changing the way we live. A healthy diet and lifestyle, as Dr. Gundry notes, plasters the holes in our gut lining, helping us develop a diverse and healthy ecosystem in the gut, which, in turn, protects the rest of the body, from the immune system to the brain. We can do this by: 1. Exercising and moving regularly: For example, studies have shown that, for women, exercising regularly can prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer’s and the dementias, which is why Dr. Gundry tells his patients to get a dog, which forces them to get out and move more. As we get older, it’s all too easy to convince ourselves that it’s okay to exercise less and allow a sedentary lifestyle to creep in. This is what our society deems normal, but the truth is that we have it completely backward. A sedentary lifestyle is what causes us to age! 2. Eat more vegetables: But be careful what you eat and how you cook them! Some people maybe experience more digestive pain from certain plants, so learn to love the foods that love you back. And be wary of highly processed and refined plant proteins—just because it came from a plant doesn’t mean it is good for you! 3. Practice time-restricted eating: Don’t just watch what you eat, but also when you eat! It is always good to limit the amount of time you spend eating in one day, so that your body can properly digest and use what you eat. Dr. Gundry recommends not eating 3 to 4 hours before bed (barring specific health issues that may affect this), since your brain requires a significant amount of blood flow and energy to detox and clean up while you are sleeping, but doesn’t get this if your stomach is still trying to digest food. It is also a good idea to restrict your eating window, spending around 14 to 16 hours a day fasting. This turbocharges the mitochondria in your cells, making them more efficient and helping you age well. 4. Be careful of fad diets: Although you may lose weight and feel better in the short-term, many fad diets can cause all sorts of long-term problems. Think, read, research and explore before you choose to eat a certain way, and, remember, no one diet works for everyone! 5. Protect your gut: A recent study from the China Institute collected and analyzed gut bacteria from more than 1,000 healthy Chinese participants ranging in age from 3 to over 100. They found that a healthy gut is a key indicator of individuals who live past age 100; the health of your gut microbiome is really important when it comes to aging! In fact, our gut bugs—the bacteria that make up the microbiome—largely determine our health over the years. From diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s to common ailments like arthritis to our weight and the appearance of our skin, these gut bugs are in the driver’s seat, controlling our quality of life as we age. The good news is, it’s never too late to support these microbes and give them what they need to help them—and you—thrive. You can do this by eating more foods that contain prebiotics, which feed healthy bacteria, avoiding taking too many medications and antibiotics (when and if you can, depending on certain health conditions), avoiding processed and refined foods, and taking probiotics that can survive stomach acid. 6. Teach your children: Helping your children to make healthy choices like these from young can really benefit them later in life, giving them the ability to take charge of their wellbeing, both mentally and physically, and live phenomenal lives. In fact, with more and more children suffering from illnesses like Type II diabetes and heart disease, it is imperative that we teach them from young how to eat and live well. Of course, at any age it is incredibly important to be proactive when it comes to our health, so cook healthy meals as a family, choose what to throw out of your pantry together (you can make it a game with each person choosing one thing they will no longer eat) and spend time talking about and thinking of ways to improve your lifestyle together, such as going for long family walks and eating meals around the dinner table. You may say you don’t have the time to do this, but you don’t have to spend hours slaving away in the kitchen! Dr. Gundry’s book The Plant Paradox has delicious, fast and easy recipes you can start making as a family, so bon appétit! For more information on diet and lifestyle and how it impacts aging and health, listen to my podcast with Dr. Gundry (episode #129), check out his website, his Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts, and his excellent books The Plant Paradox and The Longevity Paradox. This article has been modified. To read the original article click here.

The post How to Reverse the Disease of Aging, the #1 Danger in the American Diet, and How to Help Children Develop Healthy Habits from Young with Dr. Steven Gundry appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.