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The Living Well Without Lectins Cookbook: 125 Lectin-Free Recipes for Optimum Gut Health, Losing Weight, and Feeling Great

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Millions of people say they feel better when they eat lectin-free. This cookbook makes lectin-free cooking fun and delicious!

For people who take their health and well-being seriously, gut health is a top priority. Optimum gut health means more than just a well-working gastrointestinal tract. It means you have more energy, you simply feel better, and, not least, you’re not gaining unwanted pounds.

Among diets that address gut health, lectin-free is the fastest-growing, mainly because following it means your intestines absorb more nutrients and your gut is populated by fewer bad bacteria . Its many adherents range from people with specific disorders, like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis (and other autoimmune disorders), and “leaky gut,” to people who simply feel better without lectins. Easier weight loss or weight maintenance is an added benefit!

Claudia Curici is the talented writer and photographer behind the pioneering lectin-free blog Creative in My Kitchen. The 125 nourishing and imaginative recipes she has created for this book are all sugar-, grain-, and lectin-free , and they are delectable and easy to make. Many are dinnertime main courses, from a Moroccan Chicken with Broccolini and Almonds to a One Beef Kebab Platter to vegetarian options like Cauliflower Gratin with Pecans and Healing Vegetable Soup with Kale and Broccoli. There are lectin-free superfood smoothies, too, among other drinks and snacks, along with soups, salads, sides, and even desserts, including an easy-to-prepare Summer Berry Crumble.

Nourish and protect your gut with these diverse and delightful dishes!
 

224 pages, Paperback

Published February 25, 2020

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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
Profile Image for Alicia Bayer.
Author 10 books253 followers
January 8, 2020
On the bright side for this cookbook, it has some really lovely pictures and most of the recipes do incorporate some healthy vegetables. That's most of what I like about it, unfortunately.

When I requested this cookbook to review, I had no idea what lectins were. They sounded nefarious if we were supposed to need a cookbook to avoid them, and I figured this would be a good way to get educated on the matter. I know now that lectins are apparently plant proteins and they are the new "bad guys" for folks who are getting sick and fat and are looking for something to blame. (The author apparently reached middle age and was dealing with weight gain and health issues, and read a book that turned her onto this diet. Of course it helped her health and she lost weight, as she couldn't eat store bought or restaurant foods and had to make her own foods with a very limited variety of expensive, organic whole foods. That doesn't mean she actually needed to cut all those other foods out of her diet. Many of these foods like tomatoes, garbanzo beans and eggplant are mainstays of the Mediterranean diet whose people are among the healthiest and longest lived on the planet. Anyway...)

This cookbook offers incredibly restrictive dietary advice. You cannot have most grains or "pseudo-grains" (no wheat, corn, rice, oats...), dairy that is not from specific varieties of cow (or animals like buffalo), nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, eggplant), legumes or beans other than pressure cooked lentils, pumpkins, sugar, almonds, cashews, peanuts, most seeds, most oils or conventionally raised meat, among others. You can only eat bananas if they're green.

Be prepared to spend a fortune to make these recipes, and to invest in some pretty fringe ingredients. As an example, here are the ingredients you need for the first recipe in the book, an Avocado and Collard Greens Superfoods Smoothie: collard greens, avocado, coconut milk, cacao nibs, frozen wild blueberries, maca powder, spirulina, lion's mane powder and pomegranate powder or Vital Reds by Gundry Wellness and filtered water.

Recipes in the book include: Japanese Cabbage Pancake with Duck Eggs, Pecan Butter, Tabbouleh with Millet and Hemp Hearts, Creamy Shrimp and Cauliflower Soup, Seafood and Okra Gumbo with Sorghum, Curried Sardines in Radicchio Cups, Sauteed Dandelion Greens, Parsnip and Chestnut Puree with Chives, Green Plantain-Tigernut Flour Breakfast Cake, No-Bake Green Banana and Millet Bars, and Coconut-Pistachio Fat Bombs.

Specialty ingredients you'll need to purchase for recipes in the book (assuming you already have things like grass fed ghee, almond meal, flaxseed, coconut flour, figs, microgreens, a wide variety of herbs and spices, etc.) include: green banana flour, tigernut flour, monk fruit sweetener, yacon syrup, casava flour, millet, marine collagen, sunchokes, cacao nibs, maca powder, hemp hearts, green plantains, macadamia nuts, spirulina, lion's mane powder, pomegranate powder or Vital Reds by Gundry Wellness, Hungarian paprika, hemp milk, coconut butter, arrowroot flour, cauliflower flour, psyllium husk flakes, teff flour, tapioca flour, hazelnut flour, nutritional yeast, purslane, sorrel, champagne or prosecco vinegar, sliced turmeric root, red palm oil, Miracle noodles, nigella sativa seeds, goat yogurt, sorghum, almond cream cheese, coconut aminos, prosciutto di Parma, ras el hanout spice mix, sumac, pomegranate arlis, taro roots, mirin, French butter, toasted sesame oil, saffron, chestnuts, miso paste, cacao butter, puffed millet, sorghum flour, xanthan gum and erythritol, among others.

There is no nutritional information provided for any of the recipes. Photos are provided for about 1/4 or 1/5 of the recipes. All recipes are gluten free. Meat and dairy is featured fairly heavily, though there are a lot of vegetable and salad recipes. Some vegan recipes are included.

If you are already on a lectin-free diet and are looking for new recipes, this will probably be a great cookbook to meet your needs. After reading it, I'm fairly positive that I will not be adopting a lectin free diet.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

Profile Image for Beth.
1,190 reviews31 followers
December 20, 2019
Some of the recipes sounded good, but since I'm on the AIP diet, it looks like I won't be able to eat most of them (at least at this point). I guess I was hoping for more paleo/Whole 30 type of recipes, since they also cut out lectins I believe, but this book centers only on removing lectins (as the title says - guess I should've assumed!).
Profile Image for Natalie  all_books_great_and_small .
3,201 reviews177 followers
December 23, 2019
I received an advanced reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

This is just as the title suggests - a book jam packed full of recipies that cut out lectins from your diet.
I loved the section of chicken recipies and cant wait to try afew of these out. I also loved the variety in the deserts section too.
A brightly pictured, scrumptious cookery book - I just hope my meals look as tasty as these when i make them.
Profile Image for Kitten Kisser.
530 reviews21 followers
March 31, 2020
I ordered this book anticipating that I would love it because I follow an Low FODMAPs AIP (Autoimmune Protocol) diet. I never read 'The Plant Paradox' (it was on my wish list). Now after reading this book, I am likely to only read 'The Plant Paradox' if my little rural library ever decides to carry it. I no longer plan to purchase it.

As I started to read this, I decided to jot down a few things that I didn't care for. She recommends stainless steel cookwear (which is great) over cast iron claiming you can get too much iron in your diet if you use cast iron. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure this was debunked. That you don't actually get large amounts of iron from iron cookwear. Yes, you do get some, but nothing to get excited about. After pushing to use safe cookwear, I later came across a recipe saying to use a non stick pan. What!?!

This book uses only fake sweeteners basically Keto sweeteners. That's great if you are Keto, but if your not, & if you are AIP like I am, fake sweeteners of all types (including stevia) get a big fat NO.

The information on nightshades is painfully wrong. The author lists foods that are NOT in the nightshade family! It is really hard to take other information in this book seriously when I am seeing such a glaring mistake. Cucumbers & zucchini are not nightshades they are in the cucurbitaceae family. Eco farming is my full time job. It's a lot of work & takes a lot of careful planing. Knowing what family veggies belong in is critical for proper crop rotation. I'm just floored that something so basic is wrong especially when considering the book tells the reader to avoid these two healthy vegetables because they wrongly believe they are nightshades. How the heck can I take anything seriously from this book?

There are no basic kitchen staple recipes for things like broths, mayonnaise, or seasoning blends.

The author fails to mention that canned lentils are another healthy option to eat "safe" lentils (if you are Low FODMAPs, you know all about canned lentils). Using an InstaPot isn't the only option for lentils.

Also, I guess this is a Keto book. No mention of that on the front or the back cover. I'm not Keto. The author mentions having your body in ketosis. The thing is there are some recipes that seem pretty high carb to me. Is it Keto or not? Mixed messages here. There are NO nutrition facts, so I just have to use common sense as to if something seems like it might be high carb. I noticed that I react poorly to some high carb foods, but not others.

The recipes:
I had to make the few I've tried so far work for me as best as I can due to my food intolerances. Thankfully, I don't have to eliminate all high FODMAPs. Through trial & error, I've learned over the years which foods my body reacts badly to & take care to adjust recipes where needed. As for the dessert (ahem, Sweet Treats) recipes, there is not one single recipe that appeals to me. I have never come across a cookbook that didn't have even one dessert recipe that I wanted to try - & I've made Keto desserts that I love!

The recipes I've tried so far:

Brazilian Sun-Kissed Bread - This intrigued me because the author states they are best fresh out of the oven & explains how you can freeze the uncooked dough to pop out of the freezer as needed. She also states you can shape the dough into other shapes to suit your needs. Since I was making this for the first time I followed the original recipe of just making balls. The taste of these was okay. The texture was very dense & chewy. I am undecided if I will make them again. I put the uncooked balls on a cookie tray (uncoated stainless steel), making sure they didn't touch & froze them in my freezer. Once hard, I transferred them to a freezer bag (plastic :( ).

Tarragon Chicken Salad - This was just okay. I thought I would love it. The taste was surprisingly bland. I probably wont make it again.

Chicken Pot Pie - This was a huge hit. I cannot even remember the last time I had real pot pie. This is the closest I've ever come to the real deal. It was a lot of work! I'll probably only make it again if I really want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen working on one dish (this from a woman who dedicates every Sunday to cooking enough food to feed my family for the entire week).

Chicken Schnitzel - Such a disappointment. Even following the directions to the letter, the coating wouldn't stay on the breasts. The flavor was bland & unappealing. The only good part about this was how tender the breasts were thanks to using a manual meat tenderizer on them. I will not make this again.

Recipes I have on my "To Try" list:
Sweet & Savory Green Pancakes
Tigernut Pancakes (tigernut flour is the bomb!)
Romanian Style Beef Soup
Mustard Green & Sweet Potato Soup
Crunchy Tuna Salad
Meatloaf
Beef Stew
Liver Pate

My takeaway is to take the medical advice in this book with a grain of salt. A low FODMAPs diet is an actual medical diet. These others are not, not even my beloved AIP which has been so helpful for me. If you would like to learn more, I strongly suggest reading 'The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease, Heal Your Body' & 'Paleo Principles: The Science Behind the Paleo Template, Step-by-Step Guides, Meal Plans, and 200+ Healthy & Delicious Recipes for Real Life' both are by Sarah Ballantyne PhD. She actually went to medical school. My favorite cookbook by her & another is 'The Healing Kitchen: 175+ Quick & Easy Paleo Recipes to Help You Thrive'. For fabulous recipes for comfort foods, I highly recommend 'The Autoimmune Protocol Comfort Food Cookbook: 100+ Nourishing Allergen-Free Recipes' by Michelle Hoover

While this book has many flaws, I haven't given up on it entirely. I plan to make the recipes on my "To Try" list to see if they are worth it. If they produce lackluster results, I'll likely copy the Chicken Potpie recipe & remove this book from my library. If on the other hand, they turn out great, I'll continue to try other recipes (just not the desserts!) &, keep it - of course.

As long as you understand that this book is suitable for the recipes alone, & the rest of the information is questionable, you should be good to go.
653 reviews17 followers
March 2, 2020
I'm always interested in cookery books, but didn't have a clue as to what a lectin was, let alone living well without them. The media talks about fats, good and bad, protein, gluten, sugar, carbs but never lectin. So before I review the book, what the heck is a lectin I hear you cry? It is a protein found in plants which reduces the bodies ability to absorb essential nutrients and can cause inflammation in the body. They are found in most plants, but are higher in grains, legumes, tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergine, courgettes, and potatoes.

Mmm, does this mean a plant based diet is now no good for you and you should eat white rice instead of brown? Blimey eating is getting complicated! Anyway on with the review...

This book includes a useful introductions, explaining lectins and the authors background, and also includes recommended equipment (nothing too fancy), cooking methods and a clean-eating shopping list, which includes the foods you can eat.

The book is divided into 11 chapters (no of recipes in brackets):
- Breakfast & smoothies (11)
- Crackers, breads & savoury treats (9)
- Small bites & appetizers (6)
- Sauces, dressings & spreads (7)
- Salads (9)
- Soups (9)
- Main Courses
Fish & Seafood (9)
Chicken (13)
Beef or Pork (11)
Vegetables & Vegetarian main courses (23)
Sweets & Treats (19)

The recipes have both imperial and metric measurements. Not all the recipes come with a photograph, though to counter this, there are some included on the first page of the relevant chapter. There is no nutritional values shown with each recipe, but does with serving sizes and time to prepare and cooking times.

Some of the ingredients you cannot get at your local supermarket, such as psyllium husk or tigernut flour, so you would have to go to a specialist wholefoods type of store for that, which potentially could make the meals less than budget friendly.

It's certainly an interesting cookery book and something I would certainly look into, especially as the middle age spread has begun even though I try to eat well (most of the time)!

I received this book from Netgalley in return for a honest review.
Profile Image for Brittney // brittysbooks .
478 reviews9 followers
February 26, 2020
This was a wonderful cookbook. It’s laid out so nicely and user friendly. With lots of photos and easy to follow directions. I had to go to unique stores to get some of the ingredients but it was worth it.
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