WHAT ARE
LEKTINS?
FRIEND OR FOE.
EDIBLE OR INEDIBLE?
I like to talk about the so-called "diseases of civilization",
diseases that have only emerged in the last few hundred to thousand years. What if there was something in our food that didn't kill us immediately, but nevertheless put a strain on our health and at some point led to an overload and thus to the outbreak of disease?
Lectins are proteins that occur in plants and - in layman's terms - protect them from their predators or, for example, ensure that their seeds are protected from digestion in the digestive tract of mammals. If you look closely, you will notice that these are all plants that humans did not originally have on their menu: cereals, pulses, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, pumpkins, zucchinis, cucumbers, to name just a few prominent examples. When I list which foods fall into this category, it regularly leads to a huge outcry. Understandably so, as these "foods" are at the very top of our society's diet.
There is a simple experiment to demonstrate the effect of lectins: C-Reactive Protein, or CRP for short, is one of the inflammatory markers and can be determined by any GP. Omitting lectins from the diet usually leads to a drastic drop in the value; reintroducing them immediately causes the value to rise again. Dr. Christian Gersch, whose opinion I personally value very highly, told me: "The CRP value should actually be below the detection limit. In my opinion, the fact that most laboratories set the normal value at 0.5 mg/dl (or 5 mg/l) has to do with the fact that this is quite simply the average for the population. (As a reminder: almost 40% of Austrians over the age of 15 are considered chronically ill). In any case, science is quite unanimous on the matter: the higher the CRP value in the long term, the higher the probability of death. Doesn't that sound convincing?
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35225715/
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1161/circ.129.suppl_1.p354
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1161/circ.137.suppl_1.p238
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0011-5029(09)00034-0
Lectin-free foods
That's exactly what I eat every day?!
When you list which foods contain lectins to which our immune system potentially reacts, many people are shocked. Yet there are so many foods that are safe to eat according to the latest research.
And there are even solutions for those who don't want to give up their tomatoes and potatoes, as these lectins can be denatured. Other lectins, however, such as those in corn, soy and cereals, do not denature with the usual preparation methods.
Examples of foods that are naturally free from lectins:
Vegetables
Broccoli, cauliflower, romanesco, olives, capers, artichokes, chard, fennel, cabbage sprouts, cabbage, red cabbage, white cabbage, pointed cabbage, celery stalks, celeriac, onions, spring onions, shallots, leeks, asparagus, carrots, kohlrabi, horseradish, radishes, radishes, sweet potatoes, parsnips, beet, parsnips, mushrooms, garlic, wild garlic...
Meat, eggs, dairy products
Wild-caught fish, meat fed exclusively on grass, hay or green fodder, quail eggs, eggs from pasture-raised chickens, sheep products: Milk, cheese, yogurt, curd cheese, butter, cream, ghee, clarified butter, Jersey raw milk butter (A2 casein)
An extensive list and inspiring recipes with dishes that are popular in Austrian households can be found in the book.
IS LECTIN-FREE THE SAME AS GLUTEN-FREE?
GLUTEN IS A LECTIN.
If you eat a lectin-free diet, you are therefore also eating gluten-free. But not the other way around: many gluten-free products actually contain large amounts of lectins, which can be relevant for our immune system.
We have written a separate article about this >
Gluten (like all lectins) can also cause problems in the body that are not primarily associated with nutrition, such as mental illness:
DO LECTINS ALWAYS CAUSE PROBLEMS?
NOT ALL:
SOME PEOPLE CAN EAT LECTINS WITHOUT ANYTHING "HAPPENING"
Lectins bind to practically everything. That's why there are even studies that prove that lectins bind to tumor cells.
If there is good mucin formation in the intestine, the lectins can bind to the carbohydrates in the mucus layer and are excreted with it. In this case, the body does not notice anything.
One problem: many people do not have good mucin formation. The reasons for this are manifold and can be summarized under the umbrella term "modern lifestyle" - with all the resulting consequences: Low soluble fiber/prebiotics, antibiotic drugs and pesticides, dysbiosis of the gut microbiome, too little formation of postbiotics...
If lectins come into contact with the intestinal mucosa for whatever reason, they trigger the so-called "tight junctions" there. These "sluices" are actually there to quickly absorb water molecules past the cells of the intestinal mucosa into the bloodstream. If the tight junctions are opened in an uncontrolled manner, things that do not belong there can enter the bloodstream: "large" proteins, complex carbohydrates, fats etc. which, if not broken down, really have no business being there.
Our body has a great defense mechanism for such cases: our immune system.
This now switches on and fights the supposed intruders. To speed up the process in future, the immune system produces targeted immunoglobulins against these food components. And voila: From now on, every further intake of this food is associated with an activation of the immune system...
"PRACTICALLY ALL MY PATIENTS BECAME DEMONSTRABLY HEALTHY THANKS TO A LOW-LECTIN,
-FREE DIET.
THEIR INFLAMMATION LEVELS FELL BELOW THE DETECTION LIMIT.
DR.MED. CHRISTIAN GERSCH
LONGEVITY PHYSICIAN
DIFFERENT (DOCTRINAL) OPINION ON LECTINS.
Knowledge about the danger posed by lectins is old.
Below I would like to link to a few examples of how controversial the topic has been recently.
https://science.orf.at/v2/stories/2966762/
https://www.bfr.bund.de/de/presseinformation/2021/32/bohnen_nur_gegart_geniessen-277639.html
I have a few more thoughts on the subject of COUNTER-TIMES...
Risk characterization for the "healthy" general population
What does the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) say?
The (German) Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) is a scientifically independent institution within the remit of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL). It advises the federal government and the federal states on issues of food, chemical and product safety. The BfR conducts its own research on topics that are closely related to its assessment tasks.
At the beginning of 2024, the BfR wrote a statement or assessment on the topic of lectins. The original article is publicly available for download:
https://www.bfr.bund.de/cm/343/lektine-in-pflanzenbasierten-lebensmitteln-gibt-es-ein-gesundheitliches-risiko.pdf
The BfR concludes that lectins pose only a low risk to healthy people. I take a similar view and would like to go into a few of the BfR's statements in more detail below. These can all be found in the original article in section 3.
[....] As sugar snap peas and peas only contain a small amount of lectins, they are exempt from this preparation recommendation and, according to the German Nutrition Society (DGE), can also be eaten raw in small quantities (DGE, 2016; BZfE, 2020). This also applies to many other lectin-containing foods such as tomatoes, mushrooms and bananas. If consumed in moderation, most lectins are not expected to be harmful to human health[....].
In contrast to the popular opinion that you should eat lots of tomatoes, for example, the BfR sounds much more restrictive here and at least drastically limits the recommended quantities.
[....] Lectins are glycoproteins that occur in various plant-based foods. Depending on the quantity and the specific lectin, they can damage the microvilli (protrusions) of the intestinal mucosa and disrupt the absorption of nutrients as well as cause clumping of the red blood cells.
[....]
The fact that most people have no lectin-related damage to the intestinal tract, even though they regularly consume lectins with their food, could be due to the low intake levels, the protective layer of the intestinal epithelium consisting of carbohydrate-protein compounds (glycoconjugates) and the ratio of intestinal surface area to the amount of lectins from food[....]
This is a very good explanation why lectins have no immunological relevance for some people.
[....] In view of the possible toxic and sometimes allergenic (see 3.3) potential of lectins in combination with the expected increase in plant-based diets, the further development of analytical methods that can easily and efficiently detect lectins in food would be desirable in principle [....].
In my opinion, it makes a lot of sense to think about the (negative) consequences of a dietary recommendation to consume more plants.
[....] In addition to their possible toxic properties, some lectins also appear to have allergenic potential (Barre et al., 2020). For example, lectins in the following six foods are classified as potential food allergens by the WHO/IUIS (World Health Organization/International Union of Immunological Societies) Subcommittee on Allergen Nomenclature (allergen and associated lectin in brackets): Banana (Mus a 2, class I chitinase), wheat (Tri a 18, wheat germ agglutinin), maize (Zea m 8, class IV chitinase), beet (Bra r 2, chitin-binding protein), chestnut (Cas s 5, chitinase) and avocado (Pers a 1, class I chitinase) (Pomés et al., 2018). The underlying mechanisms of action, the exact extent of the possible allergenic potential and clarification of whether other lectins from other types of fruit and vegetables are also potential food allergens requires further scientific investigation.[....]
The 6 SENSES CUISINE is not a diet, but a philosophy of life for people who want to stay healthy, happy and strong for a long time.
But of course also for all those who want to become one.
You can find SEELENHUNGER in the TOBIO webshop and in bookshops.
Enjoy
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