From: gts (gts_2000@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue May 13 2003 - 01:36:57 MDT
Harvey Newstrom wrote:
> What would be the side-effects of lectins? What are the symptoms?
In some cases the symptoms of lectin consumption include vomiting and
diarrhea, as I described with a case study in the thread titled "paleo diet
criticisms".
I think however that this is the wrong line of thought. Noticeable medical
symptoms are evidence of existing disease -- they are not evidence of future
disease or reduced longevity. In general I leave the treatment of existing
diseases to medical doctors. My health goal is to *prevent* disease and its
associated symptoms with proper diet and health care.
As I've described in other messages, lectins from legumes and grains are
thought to cause or aggravate various diseases of the immune system.
Phytates from soy interfere with mineral absorption. Phytoestrogens from soy
are mild agonists of the estrogen receptor in men as well as women. These
are unnatural processes with implications for the future, regardless of
whether you notice the symptoms in the present.
> Also, doesn't cooking destroy lectins?
Not always, apparently. In the case study I posted in the aforementioned
thread, close to 50% of the employees experienced severe vomiting and
diarrhea simply because the red kidney beans they ate contained more than
the average level of lectins. The beans were cooked, but it seems they were
not cooked enough. Are you willing to guess the amount of cooking necessary
to protect yourself from the lectins in a given batch of beans? Personally I
would rather just not eat beans.
If I cannot in principle eat something raw then I think I should not eat it
in the first place. My ancestors did not cook foods until fairly recently on
the evolutionary time-scale. I inherited their genes.
> I don't eat eggs or cheese unless there is nothing else available when
> I am eating out, then I allow them rather than go hungry.
Yes, well, anything is better than starvation.
Unfortunately however this is the reason the human diet came to include
strange non-paleo foods like grain and dairy and legumes to which we are not
genetically adapted. These foods help to prevent famine. Fortunately most
moderns like us have a choice not to include them.
-gts
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