High Lectin Foods to Avoid

Introduction

What are Lectins?

Lectins are a protein that binds onto certain carbohydrates. Heat is a good thing that actually helps to destroy these lectins. But lectins can be very compromising to people's health especially if you have an autoimmune disorder. 

Why are they Unhealthy?

So very commonly if you've got Hashimoto thyroiditis a low thyroid function which is autoimmune.  Maybe you have Lupus, maybe you have Graves disease and hyper thyroid condition. This is something that you definitely want to be a little bit more vigilant in terms of being able to decrease your lectin exposure in your diet. It's going to go a long way to help not only your gut health, but can also help with your autoimmunity.

Foods to Avoid 

Now here's a food that is supposed to be a great health food; quinoa. You may have eaten quinoa, maybe you love quinoa maybe you've not yet tried it. Well what you didn't know about quinoa is that when it was originally prepared by the ancient Incas, they actually first soaked it and then fermented it before cooking it in an effort to actually reduce its potential toxicity. Here's something that we usually don't hear about quinoa and the fact that it actually should be fermented before we're eating it. Quinoa is very high in those lectins and probably isn't one of the really healthiest foods because of its high lectin content. 

Now another food group, the nuts, so especially cashews and raw peanuts so in their raw natural whole state they do have a lot of lectin and are high in lectin so what you can do is you can roast your peanuts or cashews and typically peanut butter is made from roasted peanuts so you don't have to worry so much about the high lectin content when these foods are heated. 

Now another food group that I often talk about in terms of GMO and glyphosate toxicity is corn as well as soy and especially if they are GMO they are more resistant to pest but also with higher lectin content. The nightshade family is often problematic for people who have chronic inflammation. So if you have any type of arthritis, the nightshades includes peppers, eggplant, potatoes, tomatoes, if you react to these foods especially the seeds and the peels of these foods that could be very high in that lectin content and can aggravate what's going on for you with your health.

Now for some foods that you may have thought were unhealthy but are actually healthy, I want you to check out another video that I have called ‘3 Foods You Thought Were Unhealthy but Are Actually Healthy’. 

I'll see you there!

Connect with Dr Janine Bowring N.D