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This newsletter is about plant protection chemicals that disrupt our health - lectins.
November 13, 2011
Plant Wars -
the Lectin Story
Hi ,
It's a jungle out there. While dogs aren't eating other dogs yet, everything is being eaten by something, and this has been going on for a long time - a very long time. In fact one of the biggest pieces to the survival puzzle for any species is how well they are able to stay one step ahead of the other critters that want to eat them.
This is just as true for plants as it is for animals. Everybody likes to much on plants, from salad eating vegetarians to caterpillars to molds and fungi. Plants are the most basic food of choice for most of the life on this planet. But if you are a plant, how do you stay one step ahead of your predators if you don't have feet to step with? Answer - chemical warfare.
In the past I was vaguely aware of the existence of natural plant compounds that acted well as insecticides such as the chrysanthemum flowers that release pyrethrins which kill all manner of creepy little bugs. They don't do this because it is useful to us as humans, but because it kills bugs that would otherwise try to eat the chrysanthemum.
I became acutely aware of this recently while doing research for an article on thyme oil. The number of things thyme oil will kill is truly impressive, and when you try to buy it, it is rather expensive. Naturally I figured that it probably takes a lot of thyme plant to extract even tiny amounts of the poison in thyme (called thymol). I was startled to discover that the thyme plant "leaves" contain 28% to 54% thymol. The thyme plant dedicates half its life energy to manufacturing defensive chemicals. If I were that concerned with defense, I would have to carry around 75 to 100 pounds of defensive and offensive weaponry all the time. Defense is serious business to a plant - probably because they can't run away from a threat. They always have to stand their ground and duke it out with every grub, rabbit, and gourmet chef that comes along.
Welcome to the world of Plant Wars. Plants have been fighting this battle of survival for eons. They don't want to be eaten (except for the fruit). They especially want to protect their children - the seeds. Some plants specialized in armor plating to protect their children - like Brazil nuts. (Have you ever tried to open a Brazil nut? Good luck...that seed is well protected.) Other plants specialized in the mass scatter and run technique like dandelions or cattails with their fluffy seeds that fly away when you try to pick them. But by far the most common defense is chemical warfare. The plants will create nasty tasting or simply toxic compounds to coat themselves with to discourage predators from eating them.
We are pretty aware of the obvious poisons like in poison oak leaves, or in various poisonous berries or mushrooms. But there is a much larger class of poisons that don't kill us outright, but only make us sick over time or in large doses. Plants are very clever. While they don't want to be eaten as a general rule, they have other survival needs as well. One of those needs is to spread out into new territory for new nutrients and new growth. They could use the old spread 1-foot a year approach by just growing outward, but they discovered that moving animals and birds could be used to carry the children (seeds) far and wide. So they figured out ways to hitch rides to new territories. One of those ways was to be eaten but not be fully digestible. If the seeds can cause just enough digestive distress to cause you to dump your bowel contents before the seed is broken down, you will have moved that seed to new ground for growing (and left it some fertilizer to boot.)
Enter the lectin. Lectins are plant molecules that attach to the cell walls of animals - usually the gut lining cells - and shut them down. When they shut down they die and inflammation results. If you eat enough lectin you will get sick to your gut and have diarrhea. One famous incidence of this happened at a hospital in England where they served kidney beans at a "health day food festival". The beans had not been properly soaked or cooked long enough and almost half of the people that ate the beans all came down with food poisoning. Being at a hospital, everyone got thoroughly checked out. No one showed any bacteria or virus present in their systems. With much further study they discovered that the kidney beans had unusually high lectin levels in them - enough to make half of the people feel pretty miserable for a couple days.
Lectins have been known about for over a hundred years, but have been primarily used in the lab to cause blood to clot up (agglutinate) in certain ways to help us figure out what blood type a person has. No one stopped to think that something that would do that to your blood might not be the best thing to eat for supper. Well here we are a hundred years later and some researchers are suggesting that there might be a really big problem here.
In a healthy person there are two forms of defense we have developed over the ages to combat the nasty effects of plant lectins - mucus and SIgA's (secretory Immunoglobulin type A). Normally when a lectin get into our gut and starts attacking gut cells, mucus is released and the lectins attach to the mucus and get carried away. But many lectins actually inhibit mucus secretion. In those cases a specialized immune juice put out by our defensive Beta cells called SigA leaks out into the gut to bind up the lectin. The problem is most people are not healthy. Most folks have been exposing themselves so often for so many years to these lectins that the mucus production has been depleted and the level of SigA has also been depleted. Oh oh, now what. (It makes you think twice about colon cleanses to get rid of the mucus in the bowel.)
If you do not have enough mucus or SigA to deal with the lectins, your gut lining cells start being deactivated, dying, and holes appear in your gut. Now the lectins start getting into your blood stream. Lectins will then attach to all sorts of other types of cells - like pancreas cells, thyroid cells, brain cells, joint cartilage cells, lung cells, kidney cells, and so on. When they attach to cells in our body our own immune system thinks the cells they have attached to are enemies and our body starts attacking itself. For instance a large portion of rheumatoid arthritis is caused by a reaction to the lectin found in wheat....the same with the most common thyroid problems. In fact it is now believed that the majority of all autoimmune diseases are actually lectin reactions. Gluten sensitivity can be considered a special type of lectin reaction.
So let us recap here. Plants don't want to be eaten, but they do want their seeds to be spread around, so they coat their seeds with nasty chemicals that make us just sick enough that we will start having gut inflammation and eventual leaky gut problems. These chemicals are really hard to get rid of and cooking usually has little effect on them.
This had little effect on our hunter-gatherer ancestors as they ate tiny amounts of hundreds of different foods and rarely ate seeds, so their gut was able to defend itself against each little dose of lectin it ran into. But when we became an agriculture based society where we ate the same food day in and day out, and usually grains (seeds) we start having troubles. Come to today where not only does almost every food we eat contain either wheat or corn in it, but the amounts of food we eat overrun out gut capacity to handle the food quantities and we end up with an epidemic of leaky guts and auto-immune diseases.
Traditional cultures learned ways to decrease the lectin content of their foods through soaking, sprouting, and fermenting their seeds and vegetables. These techniques really lower the lectin levels...but they take time - something we will not tolerate in our fast pace lives today. They had no idea why soaking, sprouting, or fermenting worked, they just found out through trial and error that they felt better and were healthier from doing these things.
Right now as I am writing this I am drying a batch of raw almonds that I soaked overnight and rinsed several times. This removes much of the lectin coating from the almonds. I then dry them at low temperature for a day and a half (less than 170 degrees) to make them crunchy then add a touch of pink Himalayan Sea Salt and a touch of my Double Sugar Substitute to give them a nice sweet/salty hint. Yum yum - actually a bit too tasty because then I tend to eat too many of them.
So what to do with this lovely information? If you are fit and healthy with no extra pounds around the waist (a sure sign of gut inflammation), and no symptoms of digestive trouble or other organ dysfunction - then just be aware of how often you eat grain based foods and get more variety into your diet. Beans, nuts, and nightshade plants (like tomatoes and potatoes) are also high in lectins.
If you have any chronic pain, joint problems, any autoimmune disorders, that spare tire around the middle, stubborn weight gain, any chronic gut problems, or other inflammation problems then consider that lectins could be largely responsible for your problems. The only answer we have at this point is to avoid those foods you are sensitive to. Since this is not allergy we are talking about, the problems are hard to pin down. One exposure to an offending food might take days to show up as a symptom and keep bothering you for months after only one exposure. This is a tough one.
My personal plan, since I am one of these people that has this sensitivity, is to avoid all the high lectin foods or prepare them in ways that help neutralize the lectins while working on rebuilding the integrity of my gut barrier system. A couple years ago when I tested, my SigA levels were so low they had trouble even measuring them. This is a sure sign of a leaky gut problem. So now I use Repairvite gut repair compound daily along with the ImmunoSynbiotic blend of specific pro and prebiotics for rebuilding the gut lining. I also make a smoothie every morning of glutamine, psyllium fiber, and chia seed with a few other handfuls of various herbs to combat inflammation and remove toxins. It is working slowly, but falling off the wagon for only a few days (my birthday) quickly tells me the healing is not complete yet.
Anything you do to limit the grains in your diet will help. Everyone is different, so just how far you will have to go depends on your body. Give your body a variety of foods. It will love you better if you do.
Take care,
David
Get Your Health Action Plan Outline Here CLICK HERE
Health Challenge #12
Give your digestive tract a rest periodically.
This may be a new concept for many of you, but our bodies were not
designed for the abundance of food we have in this culture. In a
natural environment the human body experiences times with no food. This
is the time the body uses to eliminate toxic waste and heal the
digestive system as well as the whole body. As I emphasized in the last
newsletter - Life is toxic. Living systems produce toxic waste and that waste has to be eliminated or else the system becomes poisoned and disease shortly follows. Your body needs a rest from food now and then. How can we do this in the most effective manner possible?
The answer is fasting.
For 20+ years I fasted every Thursday night to Saturday morning on
water only. This simple little addition to your lifestyle can make a
world of difference in your total health. Many people are challenged
with the idea of not eating for any length of time. For myself my first
water fast was tremendously liberating. I took in water only for 2
weeks when I was a freshman in college. I was astounded by how easy
this was after the first 3 days. I still attended all my classes and
even went to the dinning commons with my friends, but had no desire for
food. It was very freeing to break the hold food had on my life.
I have since come to believe that water fasting is not the best way to fast except in certain medical situations.
The reason has to do with what I discussed last time concerning how the
liver eliminates poisons. Our livers get kicked into high gear with
poison elimination when we fast, but without the fiber in the GI tract
to bind the poisons and carry them out, the poisons get reabsorbed back
into our system. This is not helpful. In a natural environment when
there is little or no food, our ancestors would literally eat tree bark
and any young shoots of grasses they could find. This is major fiber!
To fill this need of our body to get a break from food and yet encourage maximum detoxification I have created what I call The Green Fast.
The toxic stress on our digestive tract comes from proteins and simple
carbohydrates (plus all the food poisons in our regular diet that
hopefully you have learned about in the previous Health Challenges.) So
the idea is to avoid all foods that stress our digestive tract for 7 to
10 days while we heal and clean out. Hunger is not an issue with this
type of fast as you will be stuffing yourself with greens. A little bit
of fat is added to stimulate the metabolism (coconut oil is the best
for this purpose), as well as detoxifying herbs and spices. For the
complete protocol please go to The Green Fast
The real challenge with this cleanse is the first 3 days as you
withdraw from the addictive chemicals in your usual diet. Once you
break the hold these have on you it is clear sailing. You will likely drop 5 to 8 pounds of water held by your body due to inflammation. This addresses the main reason for The Green Fast - to fight inflammation.
You can increase the toxin removal greatly by taking two products from
the office - Bilemin and Metacrin DX which help the liver break down the
poisons and flush them. If you are prone to hypoglycemia, come into
the office first to adjust this pattern.
Many patients have asked me about colon cleanses or the master
fast. In my opinion this is a much better protocol, easier, and a lot
less expensive than what they were asking me about. Take the step to
clean and heal your gut regularly - 2-4 times a year would be ideal.
You will feel better and you will be better.
If you missed any of the previous health challenges
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Ouestions - if you have questions of
a health or growth nature we could discuss in this newsletter, or if
you have comments or ideas about a future newsletter focus please email
me at:
david@fairoakshealth.com
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"This article appears courtesy of Fair Oaks Health News, offering natural and healthy solutions for body, mind and soul. For a complimentary subscription,
visit http://www.fairoakshealth.com"
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On the Wire
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Study links too much sitting to increased breast and colon cancer
 This is a good little video interview with
Dr Siegel about a new study that links spending much of the day sitting down at work or home to greatly increased levels of breast and colon cancer - even if you go to the gym and stay fit. Just the fact that your are not moving around during the day increases the level of inflammation in your body and that increases cancer risk.
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"Success... it's what you do with what you've got."
~ Leroy Van Dyke
These Five Foods May Cause Problems VERY Similar to Wheat...
A class of lectins called chitin binding lectins that are found in nightshade family vegetables (like tomatoes, potatoes, peppers), barley, rye, and rice can produce immune reactions much like wheat sensitivity can. In general we all can improve our health by reducing the consumption of starchy foods like grains and potatoes.
*"The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what a man or woman is able to do that counts."
~ Booker T. Washington
Expiration Dates: Should You Pay Attention?
So what do those expiration dates on the stuff you buy at the store really mean anyway? There are actually very few foods that have actual expiration dates that mean "don't eat this after this date." Most foods have a date on them that tell you when you can expect the product to still be in its optimal condition, but it is still perfectly edible long after that date. These codes are not safety issues, but consumer appeal issues. Safety depends upon how well you preserve the product once you have opened it - such as appropriate refrigeration and keeping the lid closed. If a food gets slime growing on it or starts tasting bad then don't eat it. Plus a huge dose of common sense is needed as the most deadly food bacteria have no taste or smell to them. Here is a nice "keep it or toss it" guide.
"Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do.
Attitude determines how well you do it."
~ Lou Holtz
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About Dr. DeLapp
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Dr. DeLapp has been a philosopher, non-force Chiropractor, medical intuitive, and health innovator for over 30 years. He began experimenting with medical intuition in 1972 while studying physics at UC Davis. In addition to physics he designed and completed an individual major in the philosophy and psychology of education. Shortly after he choose to pursue a career in the only truly health oriented profession available at that time, Chiropractic. He graduated with honors in 1981 with his doctorate and opened a private practice.
Since that time he has continued his research into the effects of consciousness and learning on health.
He developed the Biomagnetic Retraining system for correcting movement abnormalities.
Since 1991 he has focused on developing a powerful system for uncovering and assisting the mind-body connection in health and personal growth. The in-depth coaching, guided by the subconscious direction from the body, is called Heartflow and the simpler mind-body retraining for health and unfoldment he has named Gracework. Both are available at Fair Oaks Health.
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