Should APOE4's avoid Lectins?

[bikerman]

I am halfway through Gundry's book "The Plant Paradox". He makes a compelling case for avoiding all Lectins (grains, beans, legumes, nuts, tomatoes, potatoes, squash, etc.). This seems to be primarily for gut health and digestion. Does anyone know how this relates to APOE4 and AD? In other words, besides the Ketoflex 12/3 diet, do we also need to eliminate or reduce Lectins in our diet? Is there any relationship between Lectin's and AD?

Bikerman

[TheresaB]

Does anyone know how this relates to APOE4 and AD? In other words, besides the Ketoflex 12/3 diet, do we also need to eliminate or reduce Lectins in our diet? Is there any relationship between Lectin's and AD?

Avoiding lectins is not an ApoE4 thing, it’s an everyone thing.

My inflammatory markers went down when I reduced my lectin consumption, so did my husband’s, his rheumatoid arthritis went away, and his congestion, which he’d had since he was a baby, reduced considerably.

There is a possible connection between whole wheat products specifically contributing to AD. In the Plant Paradox book, Dr Gundry discusses a lectin called wheat germ agglutinin. You can have a normal gut lining, no leaky gut, and wheat germ agglutinin which is a very tiny protein can break the gut lining. Wheat germ agglutinin binds to insulin receptors on muscles and insulin receptors in brain and blocks them. Muscles can’t get to the glucose when binds to insulin receptors in muscles so the result is sarcopenia, and in the brain it blocks the effect of insulin, which is needed to facilitate the needs of the constantly energy-hungry brain. Insulin resistance in the brain is common in basically all Alzheimer’s patients and one of the reasons Alzheimer’s continues to be referred to as Type 3 diabetes.

[shacherry]

Avoiding lectins is not an ApoE4 thing, it’s an everyone thing.

Can you give us an example of how you started your reduction of Lectins and what you eat now?

Thanks

[TheresaB]

Can you give us an example of how you started your reduction of Lectins and what you eat now?

Lectins are in a lot of foods, basically impossible to completely eliminate them, but I reduced my lectin intake by following Dr Gundry's Yes/No list of foods. In essence: no grains, no dairy, no vegetables that are nightshades.

Morning: Black Coffee (polyphenols), no food for about 16 hours (per Dr Bredesen) since dinner the evening before

Lunch:
Tree nuts (1 brazil nut for the selenium, macadamia nuts, pistachios, walnuts, a few blanched almonds (the skins have lectins), maybe some pecans
Or
Hemp protein powder in almond milk – especially on days I do my resistance training, with one brazil nut for the selenium.

Plus just under an ounce of 72% dark chocolate (flavonoids – a polyphenol)

Dinner:
Appetizer of plain (no added tomato-lectins) guacamole (healthy fat), using raw jicama sticks (a resistant starch) to dip into the guacamole

Big salad using Dr Terry Wahls protocol of 1/3 greens with three different types of greens, 1/3 sulfurs with three different types of sulfurs (like mushrooms, onion, etc) and 1/3 colored with three types of colors (raw beets, raw carrots, etc) deviating from Dr Wahls protocol by eliminating any high lectin vegetables. The salad always has a half an avocado for more healthy fat.

We cook with extra virgin olive oil (mostly monounsaturated fat and packed with polyphenols) and a generous amount is poured on the salad along with good quality balsamic vinegar (resveratrol).

Small amount of protein in the form of wild caught shellfish, wild caught white fish, Omega-3 or pastured eggs, or vegan protein (hemp hearts, hemp tofu, grain-free tempeh (okay because the soy is fermented, otherwise no soy), unbreaded Quorn products), sometimes bread or pancakes made from allowed products, i.e no grains (almond flour, cassava flour, flaxseeds, psyllium, green plaintains/green bananas-which make really fluffy pancakes/bread). On occasion spaghetti sauce made from fresh tomatoes cooked in the pressure cooker to destroy the lectins poured over miracle noodles (zero calories, zero carbs, gluten free)

A cooked vegetable, usually asparagus, artichokes, sometimes broccoli, cabbage steaks, or "breaded" cauliflower breaded with spices and nutritional yeast.

As a treat, occasional resistant starch as a side dish or mixed in with main protein, say in a stir fry: purple sweet potatoes, sunchokes/Jerusalem artichokes, yucca fries, etc.

We’re pretty boring, there are some amazing recipes in Dr Gundry’s Plant Paradox book and his Plant Paradox Cookbook, I also belong to a couple facebook pages where people share compliant recipes and some of them look incredibly delish.

[Plumster]

I don't think there's a link between lectin and e4, but here's another voice:
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/dr-gun ... -is-wrong/

[shacherry]

[quote="TheresaB"][quote="shacherry"]


TheresaB, I hope you get this reply because I am really bad at using the quotes to ensure a person gets the email notification that they have been referred to in a post.

WOW what a huge amount of useful info you shared with me. I have a bit of a philosophical question. It has been nagging me ever since I began to snoop around this website. That is the end game is to have screening tests blood cognitive tests match what AD experts deem optimal for long-term prevention of dementia and heart disease. So it might not take some people such a restrictive change in diet to reach that goal right? It seems to me its all about our unique sweet spot. I am going to play around with cutting nightshades and see if that feels different in a good way in my body and changes my lipid and inflammation profile. ( mine, as they stand now with the basic tests are in good shape).

Thank you!

[TheresaB]

I have a bit of a philosophical question. It has been nagging me ever since I began to snoop around this website. That is the end game is to have screening tests blood cognitive tests match what AD experts deem optimal for long-term prevention of dementia and heart disease. So it might not take some people such a restrictive change in diet to reach that goal right? It seems to me its all about our unique sweet spot. I am going to play around with cutting nightshades and see if that feels different in a good way in my body and changes my lipid and inflammation profile. ( mine, as they stand now with the basic tests are in good shape).

Sweet spot – you can say that again. It applies to, well, everything! Eat some protein, but not too much. Eat carbs, but not too much. Get exercise, but not too much. Some stress is good, but not too much. You get the idea. Applies to lectins too: some, but not too much - as long as you aren't sensitive and have a healthy, non-leaky gut.

When I said lectins were an everyone thing, that was to say that to my knowledge, ApoE4s are neither more or less sensitive. Sensitivity is individual. Everyone is sensitive to a point. For those with healthy systems (hard to have in modern times) who moderate their lectin intake having an nightshade or diary product here and there isn’t a big deal. But some have great sensitivity starting at birth (my husband). Others develop sensitivity when diet and drugs (NSAIDS, acid-reducers) induce leaky gut.

Increased lectin intake increases lectin sensitivity. I said having a healthy system is hard in modern times because lectin intake has gone up considerably in recent years. This is largely due to the dietary health guidelines advocating eating lots of “healthy” bread, cereal, rice, and pasta., which not only contain gluten/lectins, but are high-glycemic producing insulin resistance, but that's another issue. Additionally, lectin content within foods has gone up as the agriculture industry has hybridized/modified food for such thing as insect damage resilience.

For me, lab tests revealed the lectins were elevating my inflammation, not terribly, but elevated. This was something I couldn’t sense and if I was experiencing symptoms, I paid no attention. I felt great. But my gut was compromised, and I was heading down a path to experiencing noticeable symptoms and developing autoimmune issues. I’m grateful I nipped that in the bud before too much damage/inflammation occurred. I reduced my lectin intake and my inflammatory markers went down and I generally felt better in nonspecific ways.

It’s a little tough at times, I used to grow my own tomatoes every summer and a baseball game without a beer in hand just doesn’t feel right, but my diet is filled with so much other good food it's not hard, especially since my husband follows the same restrictions. Using a pressure cooker and/or peeling and deseeding certain vegetables means those delicious and healthy foods don’t have to be completely eliminated.

Grains, however, should be gone forever, pressure cooking doesn’t destroy the lectins. From an evolutionary perspective, grains have only been introduced to the human diet “recently” and our bodies still perceive them as "foreign." Dr Bredesen (The End of Alzheimer’s), Dr Gundry (The Plant Paradox), Dr Perlmutter (The Grain Brain), Dr Mercola (The No-Grain Diet), Dr Nasha Winters (The Metabolic Approach to Cancer) and no doubt others advocate eliminating grains. But like I said in my previous post, we still eat breads and pancakes, we just use alternative flours or other ingredients. I love Dr Gundry’s lemon-poppy cake from his Plant Paradox Cookbook!

edit addition:

TheresaB, I hope you get this reply because I am really bad at using the quotes to ensure a person gets the email notification that they have been referred to in a post.

Have you checked out the wiki? Using the quote function to respond to another member’s post (and why to use quotes)

[xactly]

Big salad using Dr Terry Wahls protocol of 1/3 greens with three different types of greens, 1/3 sulfurs with three different types of sulfurs (like mushrooms, onion, etc) and 1/3 colored with three types of colors (raw beets, raw carrots, etc) deviating from Dr Wahls protocol by eliminating any high lectin vegetables. The salad always has a half an avocado for more healthy fat.

I love this 1/3 greens (from 3 different), 1/3 sulfurs (from 3 different), 1/3 colors (from 3 different) guideline from Dr. Wahls! I had not seen it before, but I used it yesterday. I like the variety it produces. I have been intending to increase my raw vegetable consumption and variety of sources, and this does both. Thanks for sharing.