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

by Steven R. Gundry

Ancient humans developed a host of ways to deal with lectins. Unfortunately, modern humans aren’t so savvy. Instead, if we eat something that doesn’t agree with us or makes us sick, we find or invent something—think Nexium, a stomach-acid reducer, or a drug such as ibuprofen that lessens pain—so we can continue to eat a substance designed to destroy, cause pain in, or at least weaken us.

Half of the foods you have been told to eat for good health are actually New World plants that most of mankind had no prior exposure to, meaning your body, your gut bacteria, and your immune system are ill prepared to tolerate them.

just because the produce you are eating is grown organically doesn’t mean that you were designed to eat that plant.

How do we compare with the rest of the world’s population? Globally, the United States doesn’t fare very well in the life expectancy department, ranking thirty-fifth. Japan, on the other hand, ranks second.

Americans spend on average of $8300 per person annually on health care, but only $2200 for food. The Japanese spend $3300 and $3200 on health care and food, respectively.5 What does that say about our priorities?

Every time you take a course of Levaquin, ciprofloxacin, or another broad-spectrum antibiotic for a urinary-tract or another infection, you kill most of the microbes in your gut. Shockingly, it can take up to two years for them to return. Many may be gone forever. Even worse, each time a child takes antibiotics, the likelihood increases of him or her developing Crohn’s disease, diabetes, obesity, or asthma later in life.

Don’t get me wrong, targeted antibiotics can be lifesaving; but you should be very cautious about taking broad-spectrum antibiotics for anything other than a life-threatening infection.

SPOILER ALERT: Any sweet taste, even from stevia, stimulates an insulin response that makes you want more, as discussed above.

The use of mouthwashes, which kill mouth bacteria as they give you that “minty clean” breath, dramatically increases blood pressure.19 If you use mouthwash and have been told you need to take medication to lower your blood pressure, ditch the mouthwash ASAP.

According to a 2007 federal law, chickens labeled free-range (or cage-free) can be crammed inside a warehouse and fed corn and soybeans as long as a door to a small patch of grass is left open for at least 5 minutes a day. Of course, under crowded conditions, most chickens never see the light of day.

Rule Number 1: what you stop eating is more important than what you start eating.

RULE NUMBER 2: Pay Attention to the Care and Feeding of Your Gut Bugs, and They Will Handle the Care and Feeding of You. After All, You Are Their Home.

RULE NUMBER 3: Fruit Might as Well Be Candy

RULE NUMBER 4: You Are What the Thing You Are Eating, Ate