The Truth Behind a Lectin Free Diet + Printable Food List

Depending on how engaged you are in the latest diet trends, you might have heard of lectin. Lectin is a form of protein that’s been much maligned in recent years. Some doctors and health practitioners have argued that lectins are a root cause behind many of our major modern health issues from diabetes to weight gain. Others argue that lectins are misunderstood and cause little harm to most people.

What’s the truth? Does the research show us that lectins are harmful and that a lectin free diet is the way to go? Or is it all a bunch of hype? Another case of people trying to make a buck on our insecurities about our bodies? And what the heck is lectin in the first place? I’ll go over all of that and more in this post.

What is Lectin?

Lectin is found in all plants. There are also a variety of forms of lectin. However, lectin is found in especially large quantities in whole grains, beans, peanuts, and nightshade vegetables like tomatoes and eggplants.

Lectins are a form of anti-nutrient, which makes them sound pretty darn bad. You’d think anti-nutrients would be the villains of the nutrition world. And to a degree they are. Anti-nutrients prevent your body from absorbing certain types of nutrients. For example, lectin can prevent your body from absorbing calcium, iron, zinc, and phosphorus.

Are Lectins Bad for Us?

Why do lectins do this? It’s not to be mean. In fact, they have these abilities because their main function is to protect plants while they grow. They resist acid and breakdown and so keep plants from dying if they’re exposed to stressors like acidic environments. The problem with that is that our digestive systems are acidic environments. Acid in our stomach is what breaks down nutrients and lets us absorb them. So foods that resist acid breakdown will resist nutrient absorption.

This has led many people to posit that high-lectin foods are super bad for us. The most famous of those is Dr. Steven Gundry, who argues that we should eliminate lectin content from our diet. Dr Gundry posits that lectin causes a host of health issues, and by eliminating lectin, we’d substantially lower our risk of a wide range of health issues from cardiovascular disease to joint pain. How much truth is there in this?

Health Benefits of a Lectin Free Diet

There is some evidence to suggest that lectins have harmful effects on our bodies. The absorption of nutrients is, after all, super important. Iron, for example, is vital for the health of our red blood cells and iron deficiency has negative effects on our energy, heart rate, and more. Zinc is key for our immune system, including our body’s defense mechanisms that protect us from wound infections and diseases. Low levels of phosphorus and calcium can affect bone health and a wide range of other bodily processes. Thus, anything that decreases our absorption of important nutrients increases our risk of heath issues.

Additionally, research shows that lectin can bind to our digestive tracts. This can negatively affect our gut health. In the long-term, it may even contribute to autoimmune diseases and inflammation. Some people argue that it can also trigger leaky gut syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and other digestive issues.

Finally, lectins may activate mast cells. Mast cells are part of your immune system and they help trigger an allergic reaction. Consequently, lectins may trigger an immune response that makes things like food allergies worse.

Some Important Caveats

This all sounds like lectins are pretty dang bad. The problem is, like much research on food and diet, there is a heck of a lot of misinformation and misinterpretation. The problem is that while extensive research has been done on the role of lectins in health, much of it has been done on animals. Moreover, much of the research has looked at the effects of lectins in very large quantities and with food preparations that are unrealistic for a human’s diet. Basically, to get a high amount of lectins, you’d have to start getting an intense hankering for uncooked beans and legumes, uncooked potatoes, uncooked soybeans, and uncooked whole grains. 

Additionally, many of the fad diets around lectins neglect to note that there are different types of lectins. And, indeed, some of them show no evidence of being harmful. Perhaps the most famous type of lectin, ricin, is super poisonous and can be found in castor beans. Additionally, the lectin phytohemagglutinin is found in white and red kidney beans and can lead to severe abdominal distress. But many others don’t show any negative health effects. And I’m guessing you haven’t been eating too many raw castor beans and red kidney beans lately.

Last, lectins quickly decompose when they’re exposed to heat. They also dissolve in water. So basically if you soak lectin-rich foods and/or cook them, you quickly remove all or almost all of the lectins. For example, boiling soybeans for 5-10 minutes seems to destroy virtually all of the active lectins. Likewise, soaking beans and boiling them until they’re edible (the recommended time depends on the beans) also gets ride of virtually all lectins. The fad diets around lectins are a good example of how easy it is for misinformation to spread about the best diet for us.

Health Costs

The problem behind lectin-free diets is that they come with health costs. You might have noticed that a lot of lectin-rich foods are also super healthy foods. Beans, nuts, tomatoes, and whole grains have lots of essential nutrients. Plus, they are high in fiber which is super important for weight loss. Perhaps paradoxically, it’s also important for gut health! So unless we have an allergy or intolerance, most of us will benefit from eating these foods in moderate amounts.

Who Is This Diet Right For?

Consequently, it’s a good idea to consult with a doctor and get tested for allergies and intolerances before starting any kind of elimination diet. If you are experiencing digestive distress, have an autoimmune condition, histamine issue, or experience chronic diseases, then sometimes changes to your diet can be immensely helpful. 

Indeed, I am a great example of this. I was tested for Celiac’s as a teenager and tested positive. Eliminating gluten from my diet was a big help for my health and gut microbiome. However, it was pivotal for a gastroenterologist to diagnose me. Further, at least in the case of Celiac’s, diagnoses are not reliable if you haven’t been eating the food in question in a long time.

So speak with a doctor about your concerns first before taking matter into your own hands. A doctor who specializes in nutrition and gut health, like a gastroenterologist, will be especially informed about these kinds of concerns.

How to Reduce Lectin Content in Food

As mentioned above, if you are concerned about lectins, there are a number of preparation methods that lead to dramatically reduced lectin in food. For example, soaking food beforehand helps leach out much of the lectin. This is especially important for beans, which are high in lectins and which are most palatable after soaking for about 12 hours. 

Additionally, cooking, especially with high heat, can eliminate or nearly eliminate lectins. You might boil beans, cook food in an Instant Pot or pressure cooker, bake whole grains, or stew tomatoes into a tomato sauce to get rid of lectins. You can find specific guidance for how long to soak and/or cook lectin-containing foods in resources online.

Lectin-Free Food List

So what foods do not have lectin? You would think that might be a long list. However, all plants and animals have lectins in them. So really a better question is, which foods do not have any of those lectins that can lead to negative health effects? The following foods are recommended by Dr. Steven Gundry, perhaps the biggest proponent of the lectin-free diet and creator of the Plant Paradox Program. These “yes foods” have small quantities of lectin and none of the kinds of lectin that some research has deemed harmful.

• Grass-fed fresh meat and poultry (since grains have more lectins and most farm animals are fed grains)
• Fish and seafood
• Sweet potatoes
• Leafy greens
• Dairy products from buffalo, goats, sheep
• Seeds

• Cruciferous vegetables
• Avocado
• Asparagus
• Mushrooms
• Garlic
• Olives and olive oil
• Dark chocolate

Keep in mind that I am not a proponent of the Plant Paradox Diet. The Plant Paradox Food List above is filled with good food choices, don’t get me wrong! But I think this diet is only right for certain people with certain health conditions. If you have decided to follow this diet, preferably on the advice of a medical professional, you can find the free printable PDF of lectin-free foods below and use it for your grocery store food lists.

High Lectin Food List

The foods below are all high in lectins. Consequently, if you are worried about lectins, these are foods you might want to ask about for allergy or intolerance testing or ensure you are cooking and preparing in a way that reduces lectin content. I want to emphasize again, however, that when cooked and/or soaked, these foods lose almost all of their lectin content. You largely only have to worry about lectins if you consume these frequently in raw forms.

• Uncooked beans. Raw kidney beans are an especially big source of lectins.
• Peanuts
• Uncooked potatoes
• Green bananas
• Uncooked soybeans
• Uncooked whole grains
• Tomatoes

• Eggplants
• Bell Peppers
• Quinoa
• Corn
• Vegetable oils
• Squash

It’s common to have allergies to nightshade plants like tomatoes, eggplants, and bell peppers. Indeed, I’m allergic to eggplants! So these foods are good ones to test for allergies if you have concerns.

Final Thoughts on Lectins

Lectins sound kind of scary. They’re anti-nutrients after all! However, for most of us, our normal diets don’t contain much lectin at all. I don’t know anyone who likes raw beans or potatoes! Simply by preparing high lectin foods in the ways that we usually do, we dramatically reduce or eliminate our exposure to lectins while also getting many of the great nutrients from these foods. 

If you are concerned about your health, experience allergies, autoimmune diseases, or chronic illnesses, then there’s a small chance of a diet with reduced lectin and other high histamine foods could be helpful. However, to find out whether that’s the case, you should consult with a doctor. Our diets and lives in general are so complex, that tying problems to one particular food is very, very difficult. A medical professional can help you best sort out that information and find the best diet for you.

I hope you have found this article helpful! If you enjoyed this post, please consider liking, subscribing or sharing with others, it’s always a huge help! If you’re interested in related content, check out my posts on pairing nutrients for maximum nutritional benefit, the best foods for exercise recovery, natural ways to increase electrolytes in your diet, healthy work from home lunch ideas, and the best hormone balancing foods.

Finally, remember that I am not a medical professional or nutritionist. This information is solely provided for informational and entertainment purposes. Before making any changes to your diet or health, speak with a medical professional.