This post comes from Nutritional Twins.com
If you’re like our friends and our clients, you’re wondering if cutting out lectins from your diet will help you with weight loss and make you healthier, or if it’s just another fad diet. If you’re thinking about trying it, here’s the scoop, including what foods to eat on a lectin-free diet as well as which foods are highest in lectins.
What exactly is the lectin free diet? And what is the thinking behind cutting out foods with lectins?
Lectins are a type of protein that exist in most plants and in dairy foods. In plants, lectins protect the plant as they grow from bugs and insects. Lectins are highest in foods like nightshade vegetables (bell peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes, cayenne and chili pepper), legumes, grains, nuts and dairy products. The goal of the lectin-free diet is to cut back or completely eliminate lectins from your diet. Lectins have both good and bad properties when it comes to health, and although the lectin-free diet is controversial and more research is needed, the diet is super trendy and that’s why everyone has been asking us about it. It was developed by a cardiologist named Steven Gundry who feels that cutting back on lectins and taking the supplements that he sells will improve health and help with weight loss.