A friend of mine (you know who you are) sent me an article where a registered dietician addresses the "rumors" that lectins are an anti-nutrient, meaning that they can interfere with how well your body absorbs nutrients from food or that they can increase gut permeability and drive autoimmune diseases.
So... below are the 5 bullets from the dietician addressing all of these issues. I find them points maddening, but maybe I am mad. Maybe her advice is fine for a healthy person, but for a person with health issues trying to reshuffle the deck, to me this advice is awful.
After each bullet I am going to note what gets my goat (in bold underline):
- "First off, there’s no conclusive evidence that a lectin-free diet has any health benefits. In fact, many high-lectin foods (such as legumes and whole grains) are rich in important nutrients and can be key for maintaining a balanced diet. Thus, the risk of not eating these foods probably outweighs the risk of consuming them."
Bolt: "No conclusive evidence" means there is evidence. Then she says the risk of not eating lectins "probably" outweighs the risk of eating them. She might as well of just said "I don't know if lectins are bad for your health and I don't know if you would be better off eating lectins or not eating lectins".
- "It’s important to note that lectins are mostly deactivated through cooking. For this reason, you’re very unlikely to eat enough lectins to cause harm."
Bolt: I read this bullet as "Cooking food does not deactivate all lectins so there is a possibility that even after cooking you may still be harmed by the lectins in the food".
- "In fact, boiling legumes in water eliminates almost all lectin activity. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends that dried beans should be soaked in water for at least 5 hours and then boiled in fresh water for 30 minutes."
Bolt: I read this as "Not even soaking beans for 5 hours and boiling them deactivates all lectins, and God forbid you eat beans not this thoroughly processed or you will get even more lectins".
- "Some rat studies suggest that lectins may cause damage to the gut lining, putting people at risk for inflammatory bowel conditions. However, the mechanism of how the lectins cause damage is largely unaddressed. Studies also do not provide evidence in humans or determine a safety limit."
Bolt: I read this to say "Rat studies have shown lectins damage the gut lining and put us at risk for inflammatory bowel conditions. We don't know why this is, we only know it happens in rats and we have no idea what amount of lectins is safe for humans to eat.
- "Other animal studies suggest that eating high doses of isolated lectins or raw legume flours can reduce the absorption of other nutrients. However, since we don’t generally eat foods containing lectins when they’re raw, these findings aren’t applicable to humans."
Bolt: So in this bullet she says animal studies show eating raw foods with lectins interfere with the absorption of other nutrients, but then says not to worry because humans don't "generally" eat raw foods containing lectins. This is wrong in so many ways. For one thing, we eat tomatoes raw. They are high in lectins. For another thing, we already established that cooking foods high in lectins does not deactivate all lectins. The studies show lectins to be an anti-nutrient. The fact that human cook most of our food that contains high amounts of lectins does not change the evidence that lectins are an anti-nutrient.
My point is not that people should avoid lectins. I avoid lectins but you do you.
My point is just be careful when you read expert advice. A lot of people giving advice are just giving their best guess and frequently doing so very casually as if they don't really care if they are correct or not. A dietician's job is to regurgitate the middle of the road knowledge they have been taught. They get paid by the hour regardless of the advice they give. They are not trying to throw a deep pass to a receiver being double covered because they are not trying to save their life. I kind of envy healthy dieticians and their bliss, but I don't take their advice.
Nrf2 activation : anyone tried it?
