According to popular belief, those who eat vegetables, fruit and whole grain products every day have a particularly healthy diet – and thus possibly make a dangerous mistake, get fat and sick. The American cardiologist and nutritionist Steven R. Gundry is convinced of this, as he explains in his bestseller “The Plant Paradox”, which has also been available as a German version since this year (Steven R. Gundry: “Bad vegetables. How healthy Food makes us sick ”, Beltz).

Vegetable plants use lectins for defense

Lectins are said to be responsible for the harmful effects of supposedly healthy foods. These are certain proteins that plants have developed for defense so that they are spared from fungi, bacteria and parasites. In fact, lectins act similarly to antibiotics and can be toxic, especially when raw.

The substances can harm people

Lectins make green potatoes and raw beans inedible . The best-known lectin is gluten, avoided by many because it can lead to bowel inflammation and celiac disease . Gluten, known as adhesive protein, illustrates the negative properties of lectins particularly impressively: These proteins are extremely easy to bond, stick to cells and tissues, preferably in the intestine. The mucous membrane cells change, the intestinal wall becomes permeable for pollutants, which in turn can make the entire organism sick.

Sick from lectins – from Alzheimer’s to rheumatism

But not only celiac disease is caused by the harmful effects of lectins. The proteins bind to red blood cells, thicken the blood and thus promote arteriosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases. Steven Gundry also explains many other diseases of civilization with the negative effects of lectins.

Because they can actually dock on all tissues, such as the pancreas, joints, bronchi, nerves, brain, and the immune system attacks them there as intruders, autoimmune diseases would develop: diabetes , arthritis and rheumatism, asthma , Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s .

These foods are high in lectins

The doctor therefore promotes a diet that is as free from lectins as possible (LFE, lectin-free diet). The negative list of foods rich in lectin includes the following products:

• loaf
• Potatoes and potato products
• rice
• pasta
• Beans and legumes
• soy
• tomatoes
• Cucumbers
• pumpkin
• Grain
• Vegetable oils
• sugar

Steven Gundry also largely avoids fish and meat, or at least restricts consumption – because breeding animals are mainly fed with corn and soy. Both types of food naturally contain lectins. If they are genetically modified, however, they provide even more of it to protect the plants from pests even better. With the feed they get into the animal and thus into the meat that is put on the plate.

How to eat a lectin-free diet

The negative list is long, but there are also a number of foods that contain little or no lectins. The positive list of desirable foods suggests, among other things:

• Coconut oil
• Coconut milk
• Hazelnuts
• Walnuts
• Sweet chestnuts
• Olives
• Tigernut flour, chestnut flour
• Dark chocolate
• cream cheese
• Goat cheese
• butter
• cream
• Crustaceans, fish (rare)
• certain types of fruit in small quantities (apples, pears, blueberries, raspberries, kiwi, plums, peaches, citrus fruits)
• Cabbage vegetables of all kinds
• artichokes
• garlic
• Onions
• Meat (no more than 125 gr per day)
• Eggs
• Sweeteners such as erythritol, stevia, xylitol
• 1 glass of red wine per day

Of course, all products should come from organic cultivation or rearing if possible, i.e. have the best organic quality.

Lectin-free diet – new fad diet or serious prevention and therapy?

At first glance, the impression arises: after fructose, gluten and carbohydrates, lectins are now supposed to be the bad nutrients that lead to obesity and make you sick. But the impression is deceptive. Steven Gundry’s observations should probably be taken seriously. There is some evidence for his theses:

• It has long been known that lectins are unfavorable and are therefore even referred to as ” anti-nutrients ” in nutritional science . But this fact has had little impact on nutrition plans and diets until now.
• Initial studies show that lectins can be linked to rheumatism and Parkinson’s disease .

However, there is (still) a lack of larger studies on the extent to which lectins can promote obesity and illness. However, in a self-experiment, Steven Gundry lost 35 kilograms within a year and at the same time lowered his high blood pressure , and the arthritis had also disappeared.

The doctor treated around 1,000 patients on the basis of these positive experiences with the LFE. He observed 200 of them as part of a study . For six months, the patients who all had cardiovascular diseases such as coronary artery disease ate according to this diet. After completing the examination, her heart function and blood values ​​had improved significantly.

Conclusion: It should definitely not be a fashion diet. However, LFE cannot be easily integrated into everyday life, the usual nutrition plan has to be fundamentally redesigned. But to make this as uncomplicated as possible, the doctor gives many tips and simple to fine recipes in his new guide on “bad vegetables”.

• So far there have been various theories about the origin of noise.
• Researchers observed the process in the magnetic resonance tomograph.
• There is no indication of whether the cracking is bad or good for the joints.

The cracking noise when pulling apart of fingers formed according to a study by the formation of a cavity in the joint.

Finger in the magnetic resonance tomograph

In the investigation, Greg Kawchuk’s team from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, took a closer look at a man’s metacarpophalangeal joints in an MRI scanner. The scientists present their results in the journal “PLOS ONE” .

Is there a threat to health?

Some people can crack their joints when they pull their fingers apart. There is currently no evidence as to whether this phenomenon is bad or good for the joints. “So far, no one has ever been able to prove that this  cracking is harmful to health in the long term,” says Professor Jörg van Schoonhoven from the Clinic for Hand Surgery at the Rhön Clinic in Bad Neustadt an der Saale.

Different theories

For a long time there have been various theories about where the popping sound when clicking your fingers comes from. Some scientists suspected that the crackling sound was caused by a bursting bubble in the joint space.

Other researchers hypothesized that the sound is caused by the flapping of ligaments.

Another explanation for the origin of the cracking is what is known as tribonucleation: a mechanism in which the movement of surfaces creates gas bubbles in a liquid.

Study author as guinea pig

To date, there has not been any direct experimental evidence that solidly supports any of the theories. Kawchuk’s researchers wanted to change that. 

For their study, the scientists needed someone who had the ability to crack their metatarsophalangeal joints on request. These joints connect the bones of the metacarpus to the base members of the fingers. The choice fell on Jerome Fryer, one of the study authors.

Pull until it cracks

In the experiment, the researchers examined each finger of the test subject in isolation in a special magnetic resonance tomograph, with which movement sequences can be recorded.

The finger was attached to a kind of tube that was connected to a cable at the other end. Then the cord was pulled until Fryer’s fingers cracked. The entire process in the joint was recorded with an MRI scanner.

Is a cavity the cause?

Shortly before the cracking could be heard, the researchers were able to observe the formation of a cavity in the images.

The scientists therefore assume that tribonucleation has taken place in the joint: “It is a bit as if a vacuum is being formed,” explains Kawchuk in a communication on the study. “If the joint surfaces suddenly separate, there is no longer any liquid left to fill the increasing joint volume. This creates a cavity.” The noise is generated by this event. 

“It is interesting to know what acoustic phenomenon is behind the cracking of the fingers,” said the hand surgeon van Schoonhoven. However, by including only one person in their study, Kawchuk’s researchers would be able to explain the phenomenon only for that person. “The experimental setup does not allow any generalized statements,” said van Schoonhoven.

I don’t know about you, but do you always feel so drained and overfed, especially in the first few months of the new year? Yes? My condolences. I do not anymore. I’m out of the number. But I’ll also be happy to tell you how I did it. Or as my friend Inke said the other day: “You are always so slim – despite feasting. How does that work?”

“Diets are not about the ‘what’, but the ‘how'”

My answer to that, when her eyes got bigger and bigger: “Very simple: In principle you can eat anything, it’s not about the ‘what’, it’s just about the ‘how’. Carbohydrates are okay, even chocolate is perfectly fine. ”And the best thing is: I actually only found that out on the side while I was trying to eat my family and myself as healthy as possible.

For a year I cooked my way through all the usual diet trends: from paleo and superfoods to apple cider vinegar and algae sweets to bog water, I tried a wide variety of methods.

Carbohydrates make us happy and relaxed

Since then, I’ve always shook my head a little when I hear again that Jennifer Lopez and others are calling out “No Carbs Week” on Instagram again. Carbohydrates only bark, but they don’t bite. They are not angry – on the contrary: They make us happy, let us relax and increase our ability to perceive. The brain needs carbohydrates, otherwise it will cook on the back burner.

“But they should make you fat?” My friend Inke explains to me again. Whereupon I have to laugh: “Yes, we all think so. Because we combine them incorrectly. If we only ate one type of carbohydrate per meal and took enough breaks, we would not gain weight at all. ”

Incidentally, a theory that I stumbled across during my research from Hamburg to Hollywood. Even Hollywood stars are taught that – only not the fat average German.

The body needs carbohydrates – but not too much at once

Need an example? Let’s take our breakfast. Hands up, who eats a jam roll in the morning? Mistake number one! Because there are three types of carbohydrates in jam rolls per se. The first is the cereal in the bun, the second is the fructose from the jam and the third is perhaps a refined sugar for preservation.

Our body then thinks: “Great, I know the grain, I’ll use it, but I’ll put the other two carbohydrates on my hip right away. And then I get tired and lie down first. “Hello afternoon low!

So my trick – if it has to be a roll – would be to top it with a neutral hard cheese. This meal doesn’t make you fat or tired. But please don’t use a soft camembert, because it contains lactose.

Now you also know why I never offer my children a few cornflakes with milk and sugar before school. In terms of metabolism, the dwarfs would prefer to go straight back to bed – with such a combination of milk and industrial sugar and cereals, no wonder.

Select carbohydrates specifically

“But that’s terribly complicated – I have to know all the carbohydrates!” Interjects Inke.

Actually, it’s not difficult. Meat and fish as well as vegetables, hard cheese and eggs are neutral. And you wouldn’t actually eat rice, potatoes and pasta together with that. Actually, I just make sure that I only eat one sugar or only one type of cereal or only one starch together. When I fry something, I don’t mix the fats, I stick with one. In the restaurant, I don’t eat the bread basket empty if I’ve ordered potatoes with the fish anyway. And if it should be a glass of wine (also contains carbohydrates), then I enjoy it best after dinner.

Give your digestion breaks

We come to factor two: The ‘how’ does not only refer to the composition of our meals, but also to the ‘when’. In general, I noticed that we are actually digesting continuously.

In the morning we eat our fattening breakfast, which nobody really needs because it takes away all energy, then we drink a carbohydrate bomb in the form of a café latte with lots of milk and sugar afterwards, push ourselves into the canteen, then need it caffeine again because we’re so tired from eating before we go back in the evening.

Our body actually just wants a break. And maybe a green tea, a smoothie, or just nothing so he can send the cleaning crew through. We eat and eat and don’t even know why.

What can you still eat? It is confusing

I admit, everything has gotten very confusing too: gluten is bad, milk full of hormones, meat the devil, everyone is confused. I often hear that you can continue to eat as normal. It is worthwhile to feed in more precisely. If we buy it cheaply in the bakery for twenty cents, the dough can contain additives such as corn, potatoes, glucose syrup, i.e. sugar, and there are also flavor enhancers.

Do you notice what? Again several carbohydrates and chemistry. And immediately we get fat and tired, have a stomachache like we did in the ninth month and in the end even stomach ache, migraines and sleep disorders. With organic you are on the safe side. And with breaks and some kind of carbohydrate too, I think.

Sinning is allowed – but then there is a long pause

And whoever has sinned, simply waits five instead of two hours. Who is perfect and always obeys all the rules? If I am invited to a friend’s house, I sometimes skip five, but I always return to the one-carbohydrate principle. This also applies to snacking: at the moment I like to treat myself to a bar of chocolate in the evening – from Monday to Friday.

Yes you’ve read correctly. Chocolate is my insider tip, because the cocoa practically covers the sugar, which is why chocolate is just one type of carbohydrate. Or as my nutritionist Dörten Wolff once put it: “If you know how to eat chocolate correctly, it doesn’t necessarily work!”

In my case, eating right means: If I notice that I have to put in another chocolate unit in the evening, then I eat meat and vegetables instead of high-carbohydrates for dinner. My dessert, the chocolate, is my carbohydrate component. Without question, it should be high quality chocolate and not cheap, adulterated one.