Lectin-Based Food Poisoning: A New Mechanism of Protein Toxicity
 

I've been avoiding beans all year as part of my anti-inflammatory diet. But I didn't think one cashew would hurt me. I was wrong.

I was so tickled to find something in the breakroom that I could eat that I grabbed a handful of nuts to go with my coffee. I ate ONE cashew at 9 AM and minutes later I started feeling nauseated. By 11 AM I had to hurry upstairs to get dill pickle spears from the cafeteria. Then I sipped mint green tea all day.

Deviled eggs for lunch went okay, and just now, a steak. And this article explains so much:



Ow. I knew cashews are beans, not nuts, but I'm going to be super careful from now on. Further delving helped me figure out why those frozen cauliflower crust pizzas upset my stomach so very much:

Lectins – Are Your Food and Diet at Risk?



I do not get along with peanuts, and now I know why.



Cheese I get along with. I avoid milk.

Cauliflower is low in lectins, yet I can't go near the frozen cauli-crust ones. It's the brown rice flour. Loaded with lectins.

That's okay. I'd rather eat what's good for me.

Just like gluten, the more I'm away from it, the more violent my reaction when I do get exposed.

Ouch - I didn't. I knew peanuts were off limits for me, and now I know why eating cashews doesn't end well for me. At least I can still eat pecans! Pricey little buggers, but I like them better than walnuts, and I can eat them in moderation.

Me too, I've had really bad reactions with cashews but I didn't know it wasn't a tree nut but a legume.

So the cali-crust pizzas have rice flour in them? I tried it a couple of times last year and it was OK but I can't remember if I had reactions to it.

My inflammation is at 0 and in fact my rings almost fell off yesterday.

I stay away from all sugar free stuff as I react badly to it. It makes my GI really sick, probably inflamed.

This is the frozen prefab ones. Even the one slice was bad news! Better off with an omelet.

Dr. Steven Gundry's Plant Paradox book focuses on the dangers of and lists a lot of plant lectins and ways to avoid them. Articles on his website around the time his book was being promoted have lots of info on lectins without needing to purchase or read the book. Just be aware he worked many years with Loma Linda University and shares their Adventist views of meat being a negative thing, which doesn't happen to be my own view.

I gathered such. I also ran across a lot of whining about soaking the beans and cooking to deactivate them and really it is pathetic.

There's no such precautions needed for meat!

Werebear - thanks for posting this information on Lectins. I was completely unaware of this issue. Makes a lot of sense - explains a lot.

I have always preferred my vegetables raw - now I have to re-think

Werebear, I'm not sure if you were the one who posted about lectins a couple of weeks ago, but I have been looking into them ever since. I have never noticed an issue with peanuts or cashews but apparently cashews are supposed to be even worse for us than peanuts. I haven't really been eating non-animal product food lately, but I was considering it because I've been eating cheese, which I know inflames me, and I was thinking if I varied my diet with a little tomato sauce and peanut butter I wouldn't miss the dairy so much.

Very interesting post to me. Thanks!

The point about rice not having the same reactions as other grains makes a lot of sense since rice is hulled rather than ground like all other grains. And if the lectin is in the outer protective hull of grains, they would contain the lectin in the hull.

What about cream, yogurt and cottage cheese? Do they contain the same amounts of lectin as milk? I guess I will have to look them up.

This cooking method allows my teenagers to eat beans. The many rinses helps, and high temp cooking like commercial canning makes the beans an option.

Re dairy, Boborama wrote a story about the effects if European dairy vs American on his wife.

Also, there is a surprizing amount of antibiotics in U.S. dairy products despite rules to prevent this. I dont know if organic milk products are a better option or not.

In the US, milk products are usually supplemented with vitamin D3, so its worth adding supplemental vit D3 if dairy has been eliminated from the diet.

Lately I have been making yogurt in my instant pot with A2 milk. My asthmatic son, whose breathing does not do well with store bought yogurt, is fine on it. I'm not sure if it's simply that it has less sugar or if the A2 is some sort of magic milk formulation, but I'm not messing with it. :)

A2 is a type of protein. In the U.S. , the most popular dairy breed has become the Holstein. She is a big effecient producer. She is NOT an A2 producer. It is the old breeds ,that are also smaller, like Jersey, that is A2 dominant. Most of tge European dairy breeds are still the local breeds not tge Holsteins.

Making the milk into yogurt removes much of the lactose. And by starting with fluid milk, it must have D3 added.

As Ariel explained it's a protein in the milk of US breed of cow,
So buy imported cheese too.

Goat and sheep milk are very tasty. Expensive, but so intense a little goes a long way flavor-wise.

Plus, I seem to get along with dairy. Went without it for years, through a misdiagnosis. Resumed with Atkins and it's been fine since.