The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Dangers in "Healthy" Foods That Cause Disease and Weight Gain

by Steven R. Gundry

disrupt transmissions between your cells by mimicking or blocking hormonal

18 Hormones are proteins that fit

lectin WGA bears a striking resemblance to insulin.

The Plant Paradox Program is actually a microbiome- and mitochondria-centric program

“vegaquarian”

Cooking partially breaks down many lectins. Plus, it is an easy way to break apart the cell wall of a plant. Previously, only gut bacteria were capable of both feats.

cooking also allowed us to utilize the underground starch storage system of plants called tubers—think of sweet potatoes—by breaking down these previously indigestible plant compounds.

Grazers evolved to consume single-leaf plants (monocotyledons, or monocots, for short), which we tend to think of mostly as grasses or grains.

tree dwellers evolved to consume tree leaves and other two-leaf plants (bicotyledons) and their fruits.

The lectins in one-leaf plants are totally different from the lectins in two-leaf plants, so the sets of gut microbes in grazers and tree dwel...

We humans certainly aren’t grazers,

the human diet shifted from primarily leaves, tubers, and some animal fat and protein to primarily grains and beans.

In 1932, researchers found that putting young children with dental cavities and malformed teeth on a diet free of oatmeal but fortified with vitamin D and cod liver oil for a period of six months resulted in almost complete elimination of both new cavities and regression in the growth of existing ones.

To varying degrees, we can see that the lectins in oats and other grains, legumes, and certain other plants have always been toxic—but given the choice between starvation and some serious health trade-offs, humans will always opt for survival.

fermentation

spontaneous mutation in Northern European cows caused them to make the protein casein A-1 in their milk instead of the normal casein A-2.

beta-casomorphin.

Holstein is the classic example of the A-1 cow,

Guernsey, Brown Swiss, and Belgian Blues are all casein A-2.

use goat or sheep milk products to be safe.

nightshade family, most of the bean family (legumes, including peanuts and cashews), grains, pseudo-grains such as amaranth and quinoa, the squash family (pumpkins, acorn squash, zucchini), and chia and certain other seeds.

soybeans, corn, tomatoes, and rapeseed (canola).

In the last half century, we have abandoned many of the tried-and-true ways of eating and preparing foods,

Corn, soy, and wheat, all packed with lectins, are in most processed foods.

Our present-day food supply looks very different from the one that sustained people for generations.

• More than 43 percent of the average household food budget is spent outside the home, up from just under 26 percent in 1970.

room fresheners, hand sanitizers,

In my original diet plan for my patients, I banished white foods such as flour, sugar, potatoes, and milk, and limited brown foods such as certain whole grains and legumes. But when I subsequently removed all grains and all pseudo-grains (quinoa, buckwheat, and the like) along with all legumes, including tofu, edamame, and other soy products, my patients experienced even greater improvements.

All gluten foods contain lectins, although not all lectin foods contain the particular plant proteins known as glutens.

all grains and pseudo-grains contain glutenlike lectins.

fact, weight gain is a frequent result of going (supposedly) gluten-free.

we all typically have bacteria that eat gluten, but if you omit all gluten from your diet, the food supply disappears, and the gluten-digesting bugs depart. Then if you are exposed to gluten at a later date, as you almost certainly will be, gluten will create problems for you.13

Wheat is addictive, acting like an opiate in your brain.

70.7 percent of American adults are overweight, and of those almost 38 percent are obese.

You’ve already met a stealth villain lurking in wheat: wheat germ agglutinin (WGA). Just to be clear, WGA is not associated with gluten; rather, it is found in bran. This means that white bread contains gluten but not WGA, while whole wheat bread contains the double whammy!

wheat germ agglutinin (WGA).

Hormesis is actually an argument for eating a varied diet. We humans evolved as a traveling species. There is evidence that our hunter-gatherer forebears ate about 250 plant species on a rotating basis.

That’s because yeast ferments and destroys the lectins in wheat,

sourdough bread, made by fermenting wheat with bacteria and yeast, consistently ranks as one of the safest and least injurious breads,

dangerous preservatives such as butyl hydroxytoluene (BHT)

veriditas (green life force). He believed that

the constituents

microbiome,

“holobiome”

holobiome includes not just the microbes in your gut, but also those on your skin and even in the cloud of ...

wall that lines your intestines is only one cell thick.

In fact, if you were born by cesarean section, it takes fully six months to build a normal set of microbes and a functioning immune system—just because you didn’t journey down Mom’s birth canal!

But lectins are adept at prying apart the tight junctions between the cells that make up your intestinal mucosal border.

your immune system perceives this as an attack, goes on high alert, and signals your body to store fat and supplies for the “war” effort.

What impacts that permeability? As we learned above, NSAIDs, antibiotics, acid-blocking drugs such as Nexium