Which Plant Foods Have Lectins? Your Smart Food Choices

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Which Plant Foods Have Lectins? Your Smart Food Choices

Gundry MD Team

October 2, 2020

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There are many bad-for-you foods out there; making it pretty hard to know where to begin when it comes to eating for optimal health. And the truth is, labels like “natural,” “healthy,” and “light” can be misleading. If these so-called ‘healthy foods’ contain plant lectins, their calorie content won’t matter because they’re still damaging to your health.

Dietary lectins are antinutrients found in all sorts of foods like wheat, whole grains, raw kidney beans, nightshade vegetables, and more. Familiarizing yourself with the lectin content of lectin-containing foods may help you lower your lectin levels and support your digestive tract.

But one question remains: Which plants have lectins? And can a lectin-free diet help address weight gain, autoimmune disease, bloating, and digestive tract issues?

Table of Contents

•What You Should Know About Lectins

•What To Eat And Avoid On The Lectin-free Diet

•Diet Guidelines And Tips: Plant Foods To Enjoy On A Lectin-free Diet

•Smart Plant Food Choices For Lectin-free Living

What You Should Know About Lectins

Lectins are plant proteins that bind to carbohydrates and sugars on the surface of most of the cells in your body.¹

Lectins are not part of the plant’s good-for-you vitamins or minerals. And though they are technically proteins, they have absolutely no nutritional value.

The problem with plant lectins is that your digestive enzymes can’t properly degrade them. Not only that, but lectins also typically like to attack your gut epithelial cells, and those types of attacks can bring about effects that make it feel like you’ve experienced food poisoning.² They can also cause damage to your immune system, digestive tract, and heart health when consumed in high amounts.³

Some of the acute effects that might occur after you ingest lectins are —

Nausea
Vomiting
Diarrhea^4,5

Furthermore, lectins prohibit your body’s immune defenders, from proliferating or growing.⁶ Yet another vote in favor of eliminating lectins from your diet.

It’s also important to recognize that when animals eat (or are fed) high lectin-level foods (and many farmed animals are), you’re not only ingesting the protein but the lectins the animal consumed before it ended up on your plate.

At this point, your best course of action should be clear: do whatever you can to avoid lectin-filled fruits, vegetables, animal proteins, and grains. But, for the purposes of this article, let’s focus on plant foods that contain lectins.

What To Eat And Avoid On The Lectin-free Diet

Let’s start with high-lectin foods to avoid on a lectin-free diet. The following foods are absolutely bursting with lectins and should be avoided as much as possible.

Nightshade vegetables are some of the worst lectin-offenders out there. These consist of the following plant foods:

Potatoes (white/red)
Tomatoes
Eggplant
Tomatillos
Bell peppers
Jalapeno
Chili peppers
Hot peppers
Curry powder
Chili powder
Cayenne powder
Red pepper
Paprika
Pimentos
Tobacco
Goji berries
Ground cherries
Ashwagandha

Along with lectins, nightshade foods also contain a significant amount of solanine, a natural chemical that some healthcare officials think could aggravate the swelling and discomfort connected to rheumatoid arthritis.⁷

Nuts and legumes make up another broad category of foods to avoid, though there are some lectin-friendly ways to prepare legumes (namely by using a pressure cooker). There are also a handful of lectin-friendly nuts. You’ll find those below. For now, try to avoid these nuts and legumes:

Cashews
Chia
Peanuts
Pumpkin
Sunflower
Lentils
Lentil pasta
Chickpeas
Beans
Edamame
Peas
Pea protein

Grains are another biggie. When trying to consider the types of grains to avoid, it’s much easier to list the two grains you can have instead of the laundry list of grains (wheat, barley, rye, et al.) that you should steer clear of.

So, if you’re hungry for grains, you can allow yourself to consume millet and sorghum. Every other grain (and that means grain-based foods like cereals, rice, pasta, and bread or cakes) should be avoided. While this may make you wary of a lectin-free diet, rest assured that there are hundreds of recipes for lectin-friendly and lectin-free bread, desserts, and breakfast foods.

Diet Guidelines And Tips: Plant Foods To Enjoy On A Lectin-free Diet

Luckily, there are so many wonderful plant foods you can still enjoy. You’ll notice the list below is full of fantastic resistant starches, cruciferous veggies, and leafy greens.

Just look at all of the beautiful vegetables, plant oils, spices, herbs, and plant foods you can sink your teeth into, even while limiting your lectin intake. (Let’s start with the fun stuff).

Champagne (6 oz /day)
Red Wine (6 oz./day)
Dark Spirits
Dark chocolate (72%+ and 1oz/day)
Millet Cereal
Baobab fruit
Cassava
Celery root
Coconut
Green bananas
Green mango
Green papaya
Green plantains
Jicama
Millet
Parsnips
Persimmon
Rutabaga
Sorghum
Sweet potatoes
Taro root
Tiger nuts
Turnips
Yams
Algae
Artichokes
Arugula
Asparagus
Bamboo Shoots
Basil
Beets
Bok choy
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Chicory
Chinese cabbage
Chives
Cilantro
Collards
Dandelion greens
Dill
Endive
Escarole
Fennel
Fiddlehead fern
Garlic
Ginger
Hearts of palm
Jerusalem artichokes
Kimchi
Kohlrabi
All leafy greens
Leeks
Lemongrass
Lettuce
Microgreens
Mint
Mushrooms
Mustard greens
Napa cabbage
Nopales cactus
Okra
Onions
Parsley
Perilla
Radicchio
Radishes
Raw sauerkraut
Rhubarb
Romaine
Scallions
Sea vegetables
Seaweed
Spinach
Swiss chard
Tarragon
Water Chestnuts
Watercress
Almonds
Coconut
Chestnuts
Flaxseeds
Hazelnuts
Hemp seeds
Macadamia nuts
Pecans
Pine nuts
Pistachios
Sesame seeds
Walnuts

If you’d like to see the entire list of Dr. Gundry-approved plant foods, click here.

Smart Plant Food Choices For Lectin-free Living

Once you familiarize yourself with lectin-heavy foods, you’ll know what to avoid. And again, lectin-free plant foods are everywhere. You just need to know where to look for them. The lists above is a great start.

No matter what your health goals are, a lectin-free life can offer support. If you’re struggling with weight loss, swelling, or stomach discomfort, try eliminating lectins and see how your body responds. You’ll likely be pleased you made an effort.

Looking to supercharge your energy, digestion, and metabolism? You may enjoy a polyphenols supplement.

Learn More:

Nightshade Vegetables

Lectin Toxicity

Sources

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6603809/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7115788/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1933252/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1933252/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK453032/
https://www.nature.com/articles/280239a0
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3825642/

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