Lectin-Free Diet (Plant Paradox)

Back in 2017 a new diet hit the scene and it was all the rage. Dr. Stephen Gundry, a cardiologist heart surgeon, wrote a book called “The Plant Paradox.” In it he describes a way of eating called the Lectin-Free Diet.

What is the Lectin-Free diet?

It was his research on ‘healthy’ eating, from what he learned in school as well as on throughout his career. He saw great improvement in people (and hearts) when they followed a particular way of eating.

Of course, there’s always a fad diet. Something will cure what ails ya. Let me give you the ‘brief’ rundown of this particular diet.

Explaining the name

Lectins (“lek-tin”) are proteins found in plants. They help protect plants from diseases. Particular kinds of them are hard on the human gut. Hence, this diet is also referred to as “Lectin-free.”

Also known as the Plant Paradox diet (because of the name of the book), the paradox lies in the fact that plants are, on one hand, so good for us. Yet on another hand some contain harmful components.

What it fixes

The Lectin-Free aka Plant Paradox diet aims to restore gut health. Harmful lectins, bad fats, chemicals, and processed sugars wreck havoc on our digestive system and intestines. Some people can handle these things just fine with no ill effects. Others develop symptoms of a struggling system.

What develops is a ‘leaky gut,’ in which damage has been done to the intestines and the in/out balance is messed up. Good things are supposed to go from the gut to our bodies (vitamins, proteins, etc), while bad stuff stays in the gut and gets removed. In leaky gut, the wrong things get through into our bodies and cause trouble.

Most symptoms are GI related. Think cramping, diarrhea, constipation, bloating, excessive gas, pain, irregularity with bowels, etc.

Other symptoms of leaky gut can include general inflammation which causes autoimmune diseases, joint issues, skin problems, fatigue, brain fog, and general blah-ness.

The nitty gritty of the diet

This diet was a huge learning curve for me because what we could & couldn’t have wasn’t intuitive. Dr. Gundry starts off by giving general diet advice.

Eat healthy fats including olive and avocado oils (extra virgin), coconut oil, and animal fats.
Stay away from processed and hydrogenated oils and fats. (and all processed foods)
Stay away from sugars, especially processed ones.
Eat only quality protein, including grass fed red meat and pasture raised chicken and eggs,
Eat wild caught seafood.

The rest gets complicated.

No-go plant groups are pretty much anything with seeds, as well as potatoes. No night shade categories (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, peppers), and no fruiting veggies (peas, squash, cucumbers, beans). Along with this comes eliminating most grains. (Sorghum, millet, and teff apparently have none of the harmful lectins and are ok.)

Good vegetables include cruciferous ones like cabbage, broccoli, & cauliflower. Leafy greens are great such as lettuces, bok choy, spinach, kale, swiss chard, etc. Roots are also good like radish, garlic, onion, rutabaga, sweet potato, etc. But beets and carrots are only supposed to be eaten raw technically. (See how we deviate from the plan below.)

It’s broken down into 3 phases.

Phase 1: A gut cleanse, in which you eat a LOT of vegetables. Avoid eggs and carbs for 3 days, high emphasis on veggies. Essentially a restricted version of the keto diet. Not easy.

Phase 2: Add in:

eggs
cassava & coconut flour
approved dairy (A2 protein only – here are his dairy instructions)

Phase 3: Add in:

approved grains (sorghum, millet, teff)
some white flour (not whole grain) if it is fermented (think sourdough)
some vegetables cooked a specific way to minimize lectins
Beans can be sprouted over the course of a few days, and then pressure cooked to remove a good amount of their lectins. Tomatoes can be de-seeded and de-skinned and then well cooked for them to be ok.

Phase 4: NOTE: This phase does not exist in Dr. Gundry’s diet plan. He instructs folks to continue on phase 3 forever. I believe that after the gut as been cleansed and it’s been at least a month, it’s ok to start adding foods back one at a time.

By adding foods back one at a time, we can determine which foods are the most problematic for our specific bodies. Maybe you can have cucumbers, maybe I can’t. Perhaps my system can process properly cooked beans while yours can’t. You get the picture. More on this in the recommendations section.

How I modify the diet

I’ve alluded to it a few times, but I do not agree with everything Dr. Gundry does. He is very much against fruit. This is not due to lectins, but the carbohydrates they contain – their sugar load. Fructose doesn’t give us the “full” sensation so it’s easy to overeat on them.

If your focus is weight loss, maybe avoiding fruits altogether is important for you. Our goal was to heal our guts, without a weight loss focus.

We do not eliminate all fruit. We did for 2 months when we were resetting our guts, but after that we added them back one at a time. They did not bother our guts. We are simply mindful of portion size.

Carrots and beets are only supposed to be eaten raw. This is because the starches in them turn to sugars when they are cooked. Again, not a lectin issue. After our first month we had cooked carrots and beets and have done great.

Meat. Organic beef is expensive. Especially the kind that is 100% grass fed (a lot are grass fed but “grain finished” – that’s bad). We mostly do this as we buy beef in bulk from the cattle owner but some still comes from the mainstream store at mainstream prices and grain-eaten animals. Pork is similar, we have some we have raised ourselves and is “clean,” but most of it still comes from the store and we can’t buy organic and grain-free. Poultry is better, as we raise our own, but again we don’t furnish all our poultry and supplement with cheap stuff. Just do what you can here and buy a little better than you used to but don’t try to go too many steps at once.

Quantities. Dr. Gundry has a book with recipes and meal plans. Clearly he is not in his middle years raising rambunctious kids, as we eat at least double his portion sizes, and sometimes more. I recommend NOT following his serving suggestions. If losing weight is a goal, that will happen simply by being on the diet (especially in phases 1&2).

He specifies that animal proteins are not good for you in large quantities, and follows a fairly low-protein plan. For this he gives only anecdotal references, and I believe just goes by general knowledge and previously reported guidelines from the government. We disagree here – I think large amounts of meat is ideal! And have done extensive research to come to this conclusion. Of course, every body type is different and for some a low-protein diet will be ok. If you don’t agree, great – simply eat what you feel is best for you!

What I Recommend

I would recommend the Plant Paradox aka Lectin-Free diet for anyone dealing with gut symptoms. I would not say everyone out there should do it. Not everyone needs it in my opinion. It’s a great resource and a huge relief to those who are pre-disposed to gut problems, but if that’s not you I really doubt you’d get a lot of benefit from the diet.

If you struggle with other inflammatory issues like auto-immune diseases, skin problems, joint pain, etc I would say go ahead and try it. Maybe it’ll help. I do believe it restores gut health and function which is a good thing for anyone. Give it a go for a month and see what happens, why not?

I would recommend everyone follow healthy eating habits with occasional and intentional splurges. Eat healthy fats, consume a moderate (not high) amount of carbs, get good quality protein, and eat fruits/veggies.

Ready to start? What to do now?

So, here’s what this looks like. Start with a 3 day cleanse, eating only phase 1 foods. Follow that with a solid month of phase 2. After that, do phase 3 and beyond, introducing one new food every 2-3 days.

If you react to a food, don’t eat it again and wait until your system returns to normal before adding any further new foods.

You’ll know you react based on your ‘normal’ symptoms. Why did you start the diet? What was your main symptom, or complaint? Diarrhea, constipation, bloating, etc. Whatever is your most intense symptom is probably what your body will revert to when it doesn’t like a food.

For more information, check out some of the following resources:

Dr. Gundry explaining the 3-day cleanse of Phase 1:
https://gundrymd.com/plant-paradox-cleanse

Dr. Gundry’s article on dairy products:
https://gundrymd.com/dairy-substitutes

Dr. Gundry’s condensed book for a 30-day challenge (with recipes and meal plans):
https://drgundry.com/plantparadox30/

Dr. Axe’s opinion of the Plant Paradox diet (it’s great but not for long-term):
https://draxe.com/nutrition/plant-paradox-diet-review/

Dr. Gundry’s health YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1oeKfBmzH3brm73DSPTtfe4MHLotcHw5

Recipes from Dr. Gundry’s website:
https://gundrymd.com/c/lectin-free-recipes

Articles from Dr. Gundry about healthy eating:
https://gundrymd.com/c/healthy-foods-eating

Books by Dr. Gundry:
https://gundrymd.com/books