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The Plant Paradox

the Hidden Dangers in "healthy" Foods That Cause Disease and Weight Gain
Nov 26, 2017gaetanlion rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Gundry is part of the low carb revolution, but he goes further. That is because he reduces or eliminates most animal proteins, especially meats. He indicates there is a strong negative correlation between health and the amount of animal protein people eat. Red meat is a trigger in aging, heart disease, and cancer. A diet low in any animal protein has been shown to extend life. He advances further criticisms of the Keto-, Atkins-, and Paleo-diets because of their heavy reliance on meat protein and fats. Gundry starting point is the gut structure and its microbiome. He indicates this system has not changed in tens of thousands of years. The second key concept is our interaction with our environment. Plants, to defend themselves from predators emit lectins (toxic protein). The lectins penetrate the small intestine wall, when they should not be able to. Other large proteins do not. This causes “leaky gut” when substances can now cross the small intestine wall and triggers all our health problems, including: cancer, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, auto immune disorder, diabetes, weight gains, etc. Our current gut and microbiome structure was made to eat plants from our hunting and gathering days. And, we have not adapted to digesting the new plants with their lectins (that cause leaky gut) from the agricultural revolution. According to Gundry the Agricultural Revolution was only one of several “cataclysmic changes” in the human diet. Another one is the onset of the agribusiness revolution with processed GMO foods including omnipresent corn, corn syrup, and soy in our food supply. This includes the shift of our cattle being fed corn and soy instead of grass. So, when we eat cattle we eat GMO corn and soy packed with lectins and herbicides. The mentioned agribusiness revolution and the “7 deadly disruptors” he mentions have contributed to our health deteriorating over the past decades (obesity, heart disease, diabetes, etc.). The seven disruptors include: 1) Prevalent use of antibiotics in medicine, agribusiness to grow cattle, soaps and other products. This has caused bacteria resistant to antibiotics and contributed to the decimation of good bacteria within our microbiome; 2) Chronic use of NSAIDs. These were invented to substitute for aspirin which hurts the stomach. But, the NSAIDs attack the small intestine wall which facilitates toxic lectins passing through that wall; 3) Stomach-acid blockers (Zantac, Prilosec, Nexium, Protonix). These reduce stomach acids and allow bad bacteria to thrive. Together, these disruptors have contributed to a decrease in good bacteria, increase in bad bacteria, increase in lectins passing through our gut wall, an increase in leaky gut and related diseases. Throughout the book he gives nutrition recommendations on how to avoid toxic lectins, restore the health of your gut and its microbiome. He also discloses many success stories on how many of his patients reversed an amazing array of different chronic diseases they had not been able to resolve by any other means.