dfmcapecod wrote:Being in my 40's, cutting lectins out hardcore could have a major major impact on me one way or the other, and there seem to be quite a few people that puke on Gundry's own citations in his book. Not to mention the impact on the diets of those around me, who are not 4/4's.
On the subject of diets, there is no perfect answer. I have the sense that Gundry plays a little loose and fast with things to make it easier for people to understand what not to eat. I personally cringe every time I hear that cashews are bad because they are a legume.
But, I think the point of any of the diets out there, be it MIND, Mediterranean, Gundry, etc, is to reduce the inflammatory burden on your body by generally eating foods that are not processed. Everyone has different genes and gene expression, so maybe I can eat cashews and someone else might not.
That said, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 2009, and for some time have followed the work of Sarah Ballantyne, who holds a PhD in medical biophysics. Her first book was an eye-opener for me on how food could overstimulate my immune system. She has a blog and several books, and currently working on a book about the microbiome. Her blog posts and books are filled with citations useful for any rabbit hole you want to dive into. Although science-based, her writing is accessible to non-scientists.
Here's a post about the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP), of which she is credited with creating:
https://www.thepaleomom.com/start-here/ ... -protocol/. Her view of lectins is more nuanced than Gundry's, looking at specific types of lectins and why some foods might be bad (hint, lectins are in all foods, but certain kinds wreak more havoc). For example, squash stays on her to eat list. And following AIP showed improvement for those suffering with IBD in
a recent study.
I also like that in following her work, I can piece together the puzzles of why certain foods bother me. I gave up dairy 20 years ago and felt immediately better, and when my joints started aching 10 years ago, I gave up gluten and felt immediately better. Then I recently read through one of her post that explains why I likely feel better without dairy, gluten, yeast, corn, rice AND potatoes, which has nothing to do with lectins per se, but cross-reactivity to protein snippets:
https://www.thepaleomom.com/gluten-cros ... ing-it-up/. Certainly makes sense for me with a hair-trigger immune system that my antibodies are loaded and looking for bear.
Now the difference for me is that I'm an E4, so I go easy on the red meat and saturated fat part of the AIP diet. They just do scary things to my lipids, so that's my personal departure from AIP to stick to more fish, poultry, avocado and EVOO.
So, you'll never find a consensus on any of these diets, because you have to try, tweak and see what works for you, your genes and your gene expression. Gundry patients on the forum often say that he wants them to be very compliant and once their labs improve (and they do get improvements), then they can experiment with adding back foods.
And impacting those around you. Yep, it's real. My husband is a 3/3, loves and can eat pasta like no tomorrow, and his A1c and triglycerides both stay low. So, he makes his pasta and I make my spiralized veggies with pesto. But he also has learned to love a lot of the recipes I now make and says he feels healthier for it.
So, I hope you don't throw your hands up in frustration. Just focus on eating whole foods, cutting back on the processed ones and see where that takes you on the road to better health. Try a couple weeks without wheat products or dairy or something else you suspect gives you problems and see if you feel any different. As we say here, it's all an N=1 when it comes to what works for our own health.