| Title | : | The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Dangers in Healthy Foods That Cause Disease and Weight Gain |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 412 |
| Publication | : | First published April 25, 2017 |
Dr. Gundry outlines the health hazards posed by lectins. The main sources of lectins in the American diet include conventionally-raised dairy products, beans, and other legumes, wheat and grains, and specific vegetables and fruits
With a full list of lectin-containing foods and simple substitutes for each; a step-by-step detox and eating plan; and easy lectin-free recipes, The Plant Paradox illuminates the hidden dangers lurking in your salad bowl—and shows you how to eat whole foods in a whole new way.
The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Dangers in Healthy Foods That Cause Disease and Weight Gain Reviews
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I'm always leary after reading books like this, because by the time you're done reading it there really isn't much left to eat. I found some of it interesting, but still unsure of the 'lectin' scare. I won't stop eating whole foods like tomatoes and potatoes which don't seem to be a problem for me anyway. This diet is very different from Medical Medium's protocols, and who doesn't love fruit all year round? Fruit is something I can't live without. This doctor's diet just isn't for me. I'm a firm believer that everyone's different, so go with a diet that works for you.
I did still enjoy the book and there's a lot of interesting information here and some good recipes. I'm just not sure if I believe all of what he states.
3*** -
“Plants are both our bane and our salvation.”
There is a lot of really interesting information in this book. I’ve been a vegetarian for a long time, and I’m exactly the kind of vegetarian he describes in this book: I think I’m eating healthy because I eat fruits and vegetables and lots of beans and whole grains. Apparently, according to this, most of what I have in my freezer and cupboards is all wrong for making my gut bugs happy.
One of the many surprising things I learned was that because we can eat basically any fruit all year long instead of when certain foods are in season, our body is constantly thinking it has to store up fat for winter. Once you get through the first six weeks of this program, you’re allowed to eat a little fruit, but you should think of it like dessert. He essentially asks that you hate him for the three days of a really challenging diet to correct the problems in your gut, and continue to hate for the first two weeks of the program, and by six weeks it will become a habit and you’ll feel better, sleep better, shed weight, and your skin will look better, too.
I already knew that cow’s milk was designed specifically to make calves as fat as possible as quickly as possible. I also knew that all the steroids and anti-biotics that are put into the feed of cows and chickens is something that, when humans eat the animals, they’re also eating the drugs the animals consumed. I thought as a vegetarian, I was safe from that, but I didn’t take into consideration that the farmers feed animals corns and grains to fatten them up even though cows should eat grass and chickens should be eating bugs and natural seeds, and to force animals to eat foods their bodies don’t want, that’s part of the reason the farmers have to inject them with a lot of drugs. I didn’t think about eating grains myself as a way to fatten myself up.
I’d encourage you to read this book from beginning to end before you go on any major trips to the grocery store, because if your kitchen is anything like mine, you probably have most of the wrong stuff. I’d also encourage you to download this book electronically so you have the “Do” foods and the “Avoid” foods right on your phone for when you’re at the grocery store.
I mentioned to an acquaintance that I was reading this book, and he said he’d also read it and lost 39 pounds. That’s pretty inspiring when you know someone personally that’s had success.
Dr. Gundry explains why some diets seem to work temporarily. An ex-boyfriend of mine was always on the paleo diet trying to lose weight. (It’s super fun when a vegetarian and a paleo-adherent date). We’re still friends, and I saw recently on social media he’s heavier than ever and has been diagnosed with diabetes.
In America, when you go to the doctor, she’ll ask you if you smoke and how much you drink, but other than that, she doesn’t ask about the foods you eat or what non-alcoholic beverages you consume. In my twenties I was having stomach problems, and, without asking me how much water I drank or what foods I ate, she diagnosed me with IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I kept reading books on health and nutrition and figured out on my own that I didn’t have IBS, I had I-don’t-eat-enough vegetables (fiber) and drink-enough-water syndrome.
Gundry points out that, in America, we spend $8300 a year on health care and only $2200 on food. In Japan, they spend $3300 and $3200 on health care and food, respectively. !
His warnings about several over-the-counter and prescription drugs were terrifying.
Dr. Gundry himself used to be overweight despite a rigorous workout schedule and eating mostly vegetarian with small amounts of fish and chicken. He also used to drink eight Diet Cokes a day, and he explains how the sweetness in a Diet Coke was tricking his brain and making it upset that it wasn’t getting actual sugar, so it kept telling him to go back for more sweetness, i.e. more calories that would anger the good gut bacteria and make the bad gut bacteria throw a party.
Even after reading the book, I don’t completely understand all the stuff about the gut bacteria, brain function, Omega-3 and Omega 6s, but I did understand how we raise crops in this country heavily doused in Roundup. I’ve watched documentaries about corporate farming in this country and the evil, evil Monsanto that owns way too many members of congress. Even the USDA is largely comprised of lobbyists for big business, which is why we had years of “Milk, it does a body good,” advertising despite the fact that a large percentage of indigenous Americans and black folks can’t digest cow’s milk, and even plenty of white folks have trouble with it. Soy milk has other issues. The almond milk I drink has sugar in it, so I need to make some changes there, too.
He doesn’t talk much about alcohol other than to say don’t drink more than a glass of wine, but he also lets us drink coffee and tea, and I feel like I can deal with any plan that enables me to drink coffee.
I don’t have underlying health issues like many of his success-story patients with autoimmune diseases or diabetes and so on, but yes, I’d like to lose weight and not be lethargic and naturally fight low moods, so I’ll give this a shot. I’ve only tried two recipes so far. I’m a terrible cook and one was edible and tasted exactly as healthy as it is; the other was inedible. -
A book could be written on "The Plant Paradox" -- so much so -- I have put off writing anything.
"The Human Microbiome" and how it works --and a diet for 'gut' health -- (related to other diseases --such as heart disease is a 'big' buzz topic in health these days) - Gundry is a Cardiologist -- and while he may have had success with many patients suffering from autoimmune disorders, diabetes, leaky gut syndrome, heart disease, and neurodegenerative diseases, repairing the body --there is a slant to his "clinically proven" writing I don't like. Its also not an easy diet to follow - because it explains how eating the wrong plants at the wrong times hurts our health --(but there was so much confusion.....because one 'can' eat these same foods 'sometimes' (at the right times) -- Who wants to eat 'thinking' about which 'phase' you are in? Phase 1, 2, or 3? If I take out beans in phase 1 --I'm 'rewarded' to add them back in phase 3...
I got a few headaches reading how wishy-washy he was on one page and restrictive on another. --I yelled at him a few times --(to myself of course) > "make up your mind Mr. Dr. Gundry"!
THERE is SOME GOOD INFORMATION -(learning basic information about Lectins and inflammation. ... but -- I have a dozen other books MUCH BETTER --easier to follow-- (no yelling back at the book) --
And when it comes to Autoimmune disorders -- I'm not going to bounce back experimenting (testing) when to eat beans -and when not to -(rewards is such a yucky word anyway) --Gundry drove me bananas!
I'm now reading "Genius Foods" by Max Lugavere. Its 'friendly-readable' - written so that anyone can understand it. AND ENJOYABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 'calming for the brain' --so it must be better for my immune system too! -
As a scientist, the claims presented in this book struck me as over-confident. Science almost never gives clear cut, black and white answers, and dietary science is certainly no exception.
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This is a book that will find you at the doctor's office with a host of problems. I can't believe a medical doctor with a Yale degree can actually go out there and say these things and still sleep at night. Despite being professionally packaged by a big publisher, this book is simply a cheap TV infomercial in print. A simple Google search reveals all the refutations and links to real studies. Gundry's claims were a conference presentation, not a peer reviewed study published in a journal. On page 55 Gundry claims that "most" of his stage 3 and stage 4 cancer patients got better, all without a single publication, or case study? Don't buy these infomercial claims. To dismiss fast food, fatty meats, and sugars, and blame vegetables is outrageous and Harper Collins should be ashamed of themselves for publishing this junk science collection of fictional conspiracy theories. Just go to your public library and look up the real studies in the databases that advocate for a plant based diet. You won't find any of Gundry's claims in the scholarly journals and studies, actually you won't anything by Gundry at all. What a sad attempt to rake in profit, as if medical doctors in America don't make enough cash.
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Not a big fan. The diet seems incredibly difficult to maintain. Plus, I think there's some contradicting information. He states that research shows that the longest living people are vegans, followed by vegetarians, and so on. Yet he says all of these fruits and vegetables are so bad for you. Well, those are the foods those vegans are eating! There were a couple of interesting things that I took away from this book, but it's incredibly wordy and something better left to skimming, rather than reading word-for-word.
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Current seems-scientific-but-is-really-crap du jour. Oh, and the author sells expensive supplements, but I'm sure that's just a coincidence!
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/dr-g...
http://nutritionstudies.org/the-plant... -
I thought this was going to contain some interesting history on the interactions between humans and foods, maybe some fun botany facts -- and it did, for about 50 pages. Thereafter, I found it to be a self-congratulating, Santa Barbara-style food fad book. I pretty much gave up after seeing the phrase, "My good friend, Tony Robbins" twice in 20 pages. Stop. Just stop.
People. Eat food that isn't processed, and try to keep it local and organic. Cook your food at home. Limit grain intake, possibly legumes if you find they upset your stomach or skin. Oh, and nightshades are kind of toxic. Now, pay me millions. -
I was ready to be convinced and I sort of was early on--I know that plants have toxins that protect themselves and I do think we've moved far from the diet we were evolved to eat. But then the book falls into hucksterism. He stops acting like a doctor and a scientist and his sources are bad. I did just a little bit of research and it seems like he's wildly mischaracterizing his studies. It's too bad. I think everyone is looking for a magic bullet these days to weight loss and maybe if you cut out half the food groups, you can lose weight, but I doubt there's all that much real science in here.
Having said all of that, I buy most of the advice when it comes to cutting out sugar, whole wheat, etc. it just doesn’t consider all the ways in which we’ve adapted to these fruits and plants. Also, the book assumes everyone came from Europe and that new world plants will make us sick. But what if you’re from the new world? -
I've read it with interest, always something new to learn. It's obviously written for the USA.
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It's not just what you eat, it's what you DON'T eat. Gundry, a heart surgeon slash nutritionist slash researcher with a lot of experience in autoimmune disorders, arthritis cases, heart issues, stomach issues, and neurological problems, brings his practice and his patients and his research to fruition in this well-written, easy-to-understand text.
In a nutshell, the focus is on lectins, found in plants that don't like to be eaten (not only by little insects but by big ones like you and me). Chief among them are the nightshades and New World veggies (really fruits) like cucumbers, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, etc. Think seeds.
In his view, fruit are a no-no, too. Fructose = sugar = candy. And if you're eating chicken or beef or free-range eggs but are avoiding GMO corn and soy, don't kid yourself. You are what the animal you eat, eats. Period.
Helpful advice not only on food but supplements. A specific 3-day cleanse start followed by Phase 2 and 3 plans. Definitions are provided on things like "free-range" which simply means a door must be open 5 minutes a day. (How many chickens go out of that huge barn.) Like the word "natural," it's meaningless.
Informative and humorous. Doc Gundry seems like the kind of guy you might have a beer with -- only you're only allowed red wine, and that in a very small dose.
All that said, before you buy it, you owe yourself a look at Dr. Gerger's rejoinder (basically calling the book so much horseshoe). See Jamal's link in the comments. -
I had high hopes for this book, but my how they were dashed. The author is reckless with his use of research to the point that it was a crap shoot every time I followed up on any of his citations, whether they would actually support/relate to what he was saying, or not. (And he committed a cardinal sin of citing an abstract with incomplete data that was not accurately portrayed ... yeah, didn't even bother to go into the article to do proper research on that one ....)
Despite his hazy research and his plummeting credibility, I read on, hoping to find some good information. There is a reason that I wanted to read this book. I am indeed very interested in lectins and wanted to learn how they work and see the science behind things. But instead of clear science and objective fact, I got inflammatory language that reached ridiculous levels again and again. He takes many of his points to extreme hyperbole, thus turning his claims and "proofs" into jokes.
For instance, he says that a bowl of fruit salad is equivalent to a bowl of Skittles candy. Yes, the same. On what planet? No, seriously ... how are they the same to the point of equivalency?
So, the one piece of research he offers to back up this Skittles=fruit claim is a rodent study were the rats were fed a diet of 60% fructose. That's right, 60%. This did result in a progression of kidney disease. HOWEVER, drawing the correlation that he does fails on several levels:
1. This is a rodent study, which is useful, to be sure. Rodent studies have taught us a lot, including the fact that they don't tell us everything, because (shocker) rodents are not the same as humans. So, once you go to human trials with various things, the rodent studies don't always transfer.
2. The rodents were fed an enormous amount of fructose (or, for the other group, dextrose). More than half of their diet came from isolated fructose. In his paragraph about Skittles and fruit, the author says, "eating the fructose in fruit causes your kidneys to swell and suffer injury, which can destroy them." This is NOT what was shown in the research he cites. Eating fruit is not what the rodents did. Fruit has fiber and water (and more) which causes satiety after a certain amount of eating. In order to eat this much fruit to get all that fructose, the rats would have expired from overconsumption by volume. The claim of "eating the fructose in fruit" is not what was shown in the study.
There is more I could say here, but I think I've made my point, which is that he is not grounded or ethical in the way he "cites research."
He makes another leap when he claims that a chicken breast "boasts the equivalent of one birth control pill's worth of estrogenic substances!" Yes, he really says that, and no, he doesn't offer a single shred of evidence, research, or reasoning to back this claim. The rest of the paragraph prior to this claim has several other extreme claims ("almost all American chicken or beef contains enough antibiotics to kill bacteria in a petri dish!") with, again, no research to back these excessive statements or the others like it. And it gets very tiring (also, can someone tell him less is more when it comes to exclamation points?). I started to shake my head more and more often as I read until I was turning pages without any hope of finding accurate or usable information (and being appalled when at times I followed up on his research footnotes to find mere websites, such as treehugger.com ... really).
Which is a pity. Because I think he actually did have something to say. He just either didn't trust his message enough to give it without a heavy dose of snake oil (what's with all his promoting of his supplement line, eh?), or he didn't want to put in the work to present his theories and findings properly.
Either way, this book just doesn't make it. Not at all. So, back to the library it goes ...
This is an intelligent and thorough review:
http://nutritionstudies.org/the-plant... -
Hard to rate this book, but it won't be hard to explain why. In terms of thought-provocation, I'd have given it a five. I think it's very possible (maybe even very likely) that the medical information here is true. Dr. Gundry's background and research do qualify him to know what he's talking about. There is no doubt that Western culture has a huge problem, and we've probably brought it on ourselves with diet and lifestyle. If feeding our food-animals GMO corn, if using Roundup on crops and harvesting grains earlier in their cycles than ever before, if disrupting our endocryn systems with our make-up and deodorant and BPA plastics is all adding to our endemic obesity and inflammation and related auto-immune diseases, then this book must be one of the most important pieces of health care literature out there. Again, five stars.
But here's why I only gave it four: the repetition, the sometimes contradictory declarations, and the book's irritating tone. I felt let down by the "but wait! There's more!" infomercial tone, and the barrage of promises. By following Gundry's plan, you may cure yourself of cancer, diabetes (both types), Crohn's, Parkinson's, obesity, anemia, acne, Alzheimer's, ALS, psoriasis, beer gut, stomache aches, and male-pattern baldness... among many others. I hope it does improve people's plights with every one of these awful diseases, and Gundry is right to list them. But the book is 400 pages long, and I think 300 of that is repetition. Less is more, with persuasive writing.
Dr. Gundry addresses serious issues throughout the book, in an accessible manner. I wanted to believe he's delivering very useful, important information. I was primed to pay careful attention, and I imagine many of his readers would be primed like me. Therefore, the shouty repetitive urging that we believe his discoveries felt shallow and manipulative. It weakened the power of the work. However, if you can set aside your aversion to the writing style and examine the work itself, I think this book is well worth reading, and it may just be the solution to what ails you. I do hope so. -
This was a very interesting read and the science was very enlightening. i however found a lot of inconsistencies. For example he cites that billions of Asians eat rice and have no significant levels of obesity and diseases yet his diet categorically excludes rice with no real explanation why. Also he offers no real advice of how to ease in and maintain his extremely restrictive diet. This is very off-putting. I will definitely take some of his advice to heart but I don't know if his anecdotal evidence is really that compelling
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Not sure how to review this since I haven't made any of the recipes before but the content of the book was insightful and does make you question everything we are not putting into our bodies that didn't exist even 60 years ago.
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Impressive and convincing book. Dr. Gundry revisits his earlier diet recommendations but this time he does so based on some convincing biochemistry research. His work with thousands of patients over decades has validated his food recommendations but this recent book adds the information about the actual biochemistry underlying his recommendations. His earlier book relied on a "Paleo" argument which I found less convincing than the material in this book. His recommendations require a major shift in diet even for Vegans eating what they consider a "healthy" diet. The proof will be in whether it produces the results he suggests that it will. I have lost 100 lbs in the last 5 years following the recommendations from the book "Eat to Live". Dr. Gundry suggests that in addition to all the things I have had to give up eating (sweets, meat, pasta) to get where I am now, I have to give up grains, legumes, and fruit. I decided that I would give him the 6 weeks he asks for to become convinced of the health benefits he suggests that will result. If I can resume my weight loss (I want to lose another 50 lbs) and eliminate my Fibromyalgia and my Polymyalgia Romantica it will all be worth it.
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I enjoyed reading this book. I definitely learned a lot and have some great takeaways for myself, but I also remain skeptical about some of Dr. Gundry's recommendations. He shares very convicing scientific research and success stories, yet his program seems to be most successful for people suffering from serious health issues and autoimmune diseases. What I remain uncertain on is whether or not it's the best dietary approach for everyone. I would recommend reading the book with an open mind while also considering both sides of the coin on each topic he covers.
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This is one of the worst nutrition books ever published. It is is written by a doctor who sells dietary supplements. His advice is exactly the opposite of the truth.
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We’ve all heard the saying, “you are what you eat.” But in the era of Genetically Modified Organisms, this maxim can produce a lot of anxiety. That’s why world-renowned heart surgeon Steven R. Gundry, MD has written The Plant Paradox. Here he helps us navigate the world of food so we can eat better and live longer.
Dr. Gundry enlightens us with new thoughts about food consumption so we don’t bloat minutes after eating. Like so many Americans, I try to make sure my family eats healthy. Tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash are normal parts of our diet. Yet, when my husband eats them, he frequently feels bad afterward. I didn’t understand why until now. The answer is lectin.
“[Lectins] are large proteins found in plants and animals, and they are a crucial weapon in the arsenal of strategies that plants use to defend themselves in their ongoing battle with animals,” Gundry explains (pg. 14). Interesting little piece of information, right?
These proteins are considered “sticky” because they bind to the salic acid found in your gut and bodily fluids, which in turn interrupts the messages transmitted between cells causing inflammation. They can also bind very well with virus and bacteria, causing increased health problems and overall sickness. And last but not least, you gain weight from consuming them! Who knew? Certainly not me!
I couldn’t turn the pages of The Plant Paradox fast enough, eager to learn as much as I possibly could to gain a better understanding of how and why I need to change my eating habits. First, Gundry helps us fully understand the verbiage on various packaging labels, such as “gluten free,” “cage free,” and “all natural” (pg. 126-127).
Then he teaches us how to avoid lectins in the foods we already eat. Although the list is extensive, I am convinced that I can eliminate the foods that cause my husband the most trouble so he can lead a more fulfilling life, lose weight and ultimately feel good every day.
If you read one book to improve your health and well being this year, make it The Plant Paradox. Soon, you will discern the changes you can make to feel your very best.
This review was originally published at
JathanandHeather.com. -
This is one of the worst diet/WOE (way of eating) books I have ever read. Food and eating DO NOT need to be as complicated as Gundry makes them out to be.
As far as the writing goes, I hated it. The author starts off in his preface by telling readers that we are not at fault for our health problems. 😒 How validating. It's just what every reader wants to hear. The blame rests with someone else, not him/herself.
The author then goes on to qualify his medical authority by listing many of his accomplishments, most of which are not related to treating patients through food intake. He spends the rest of the book blaming our ignorance for not understanding food at a microscopic level, and explaining a very complicated WOE and system. He endorses intermittent fasting (which is great) as well as keto (too new, not solid, not enough research to back up claims, just a fad diet at this point). (I prefer Dr Jason Fung's book, The Obesity Code, to The Plant Paradox, although Dr Fung also endorses keto, if not directly in his book, through some of his online resources.)
All that aside, Gundry does make a few good points, such as explaining why people who jumped on the bandwagon with gluten free diets like paleo have such a hard time with gluten when they try to eat it, resulting in a self-fulfilling prophecy that they have a gluten sensitivity. When one removes gluten from the diet, the gluten digesting bacteria die off as a result of no food for them. When you later eat gluten containing products, you no longer have the flora and fauna to digest them, thus creating intestinal havoc. This makes sense. He blames people's original digestive and health issues on other causes.
In dietary studies, it is so hard to pinpoint one thing, one culprit. Yet Gundry does so. With his Plant Paradox, his one culprit is lectin. However, we all live so differently from each other, we all have different bodies, different genetic makeup. Because of this, there is no one culprit, and each individual has to find what works for him/her. Perhaps this WOE works for some individuals, but it does not jive with me.
Common sense tells us that eating doesn't have to be (this) complicated. The rules should be simple. It is mankind who has made eating complicated, not nature. As a culture, we are addicted to processed convenience foods. The standard American diet (SAD) influence is spreading to other parts of the world as Western culture is spread. It's no wonder serious health problems such as diabetes type 2, heart disease, and allergies are such an epidemic.
I would prefer to espouse a mostly whole food plant-based (WFPB) eating culture furthered by doctors and writers such as Dr Joel Fuhrman (Eat to Live), Dr Caldwell Esselstyn (Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease), Dr McDougall (The Starch Solution), Michael Pollan (Food Rules, In Defense of Food, The Omnivore's Dilemma), Mark Bittman (Food Matters, VB6: Eat Vegan Before 6:00), Dr Andrew Weil (dietary and longevity doctor behind the menu for True Food Kitchen, and author of several books), Dr T. Colin Campbell (The China Study), Jane Birch (Discovering the Word of Wisdom), and others. Documentaries such as Food, Inc., and Forks Over Knives have brought to attention many of the problems with the SAD and our food supply. The other doctors I mentioned have based their books on long-term experience and studies treating patients with diet, and the people who have followed their WOE have had success for years and years. There is plenty of documentation, as well as testimonials, bearing witness of this. (Gundry's book hasn't even been around for a year, although he claims to have been presenting his findings for 15 years, and therefore his presentations and medical journal publications have made him an acknowledged expert on the human biome.)
A mostly WFPB diet doesn't have to be rocket science. Just eat foods in their mostly natural state, with minimal processing. As Michael Pollan writes, "Eat food; mostly plants; not too much." It's that easy. -
I have been waiting for this book for a long time. For as long as I can remember, I have had an intuitive sense that the micro biome in and on our bodies is intricately related to our health. The Plant Paradox finally articulates that connection with clarity and conviction. I will begin changing my diet and my habits immediately. Stay tuned for progress.
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Dr. Gundry discusses lectins, which are present in many foods and which he says are responsible for a plethora of health problems. I was surprised by his assessment of foods which we think of as "healthful," and believe the book would be especially interesting to people with autoimmune disorders.
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Fascinating, I watch his videos and stopped eating a few of the foods he suggests (nuts, tomatoes and peppers) and am having better digestion and energy. Excited to read the rest of the book
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While Dr Gundry is fully convinced his new way of eating is superior to all other nutritionists discoveries, I remain a bit skeptical. The book is quite repetitive and I found it to be more of an infomercial for him than I would've liked. Still his plant based recommendations shouldn't be totally ignored and I agree that the nightshade veggies do pose challenges for some. It really is just another diet book to add to the hundreds that have gone before!
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I started this book and have gone back to finish it several times and I just can't. I was, at first, very dismayed to learn that there are a bunch of grains, fruits and beans that have lectins in them and that lectins are supposedly bad for humans, so that made me quit reading it for a moment. I bought into the logic the author was using and I gave him some credibility for being a medical doctor, but then I decided to watch an ad of his and I immediately became perturbed. His advertisement is for a patented supplement that you can only get from his website and he lectures for about 40 minutes not revealing any of the information needed to make an informed decision. Since I really felt like his lecture was just a hard sell and he was sounding less and less like he was attempting to get me on the whole food nutrition train, I decided to checkout what Dr. Fuhrman and Dr. Greger had to say about lectins- huh - they dispute Dr. Gundry's claims. Returned the ebook to the library. (Wipes hands together) DONE.
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The author presents us with so many facts and ideas that I’m not really able to outline this book at all adequately. But his main point seems to be that what we generally regard as healthy foods, including fruit and vegetables, contain things called “lectins” that are harmful to us.
These lectins seem to be contained in practically everything healthy, and in practically everything I eat and live on, and my diet is extremely limited to begin with.
If we’re to believe Dr. Gundry, he has healed thousands of patients by presenting them with his special diet, the Plant Paradox Program”, which apparently contains no or few lectins.
His patients lose weight, get rid of food cravings, and are healed of serious illnesses including auto-immune diseases.
One of the important parts of the book is the “say ‘yes please’” list of acceptable foods and the “just say ‘no’ list of lectin-containing foods”. But, unfortunately, these lists do not accord with the precepts of the Medical Medium, Anthony William, which precepts are relayed by “Spirit of the Most High”, Second only to God.
Dr. Gundry also gives us a 3-day-cleanse, but I haven’t bothered with this because I’ve just completed Anthony William’s 28-day-healing cleanse; I would advise this latter cleanse to all overweight persons; I personally have lost about 7 kilos this last month, which I certainly did not need to lose (I’ve never weighed this little in my adult life); I trust that I will now put on some weight again when I begin to eat normally. For this cleanse see Anthony William’s first book “Medical Medium”.
Although it took me 2 loans of the book from the public library, and 2-3 renewals of each loan, if that is understandable, to (nearly) get through it, I found it absolutely readable.
Dr. Gundry seems to have quite differing, absorbing views on diet than other experts, and his results speak for themselves.
He provides many inspiring case histories to keep us reading.
His Plant Paradox Program ostensibly cures all the autoimmune diseases I have, so I may have to buy this book and try the programme.
One of Gundry’s provocative precepts is that “white is right”. The nasty lectins are contained in whole-grain foods. There is apparently good reason in eating white rice (though it gives me a tummy-ache).’
Some good recipes appear at the end of the book, but unfortunately I didn’t get round to them – perhaps next time.
I would definitely recommend that you read this exciting book with its novel ideas. Who knows? – implementing the Plant Paradox Program might save your life.
P.S. My doctors tell me my blood contains far too much D-vitamin and say I should take no more for a year or so - ?? So I will be presenting them with a copy of P. 275 of this book, where the good doctor tells us: “For autoimmune disease, start with 10,000 I.U.s a day. In the last seventeen years I have yet to see a case of Vitamin D toxicity. In fact I doubt it exists.” -
I have read many health and diet-related books over the years, but never one like The Plant Paradox. Dr. Gundry combines history, chemistry, and biology to explain why and how certain plants were never meant for us to eat. However, don't let this dissuade you from reading the book because it does not read like a dry, academic journal piece. I also think it's important that his research has been peer reviewed, and his endnotes are extensive. Much of what he writes about he's known for years to be anecdotally true, but some of the science like "immune system scanners" is relatively new science: the description for these scanners won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2011 and the discovery of the receptors (G-spotters) was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2012. These new discoveries help explain the patterns Dr. Gundry has noted in the immune systems of his patients.
What's really disconcerting is how physicians and the media have erroneously encouraged the consumption of whole grains and other "super foods" that are not healthy at all. Gundry explains why these foods are dangerous to our immune systems, and he lists them so they can be avoided. But the good news is he's included a list of healthy options as well as recipes to get the reader started on a path to a healthier life. Also included in the book: anecdotes from patients who struggled with varying health issues and how changing their diet changed their health drastically for the better.
I don't mean to get off topic, but this book reminds me of my grandfather: He was one of the artists for Jenny Craig's "You Are What You Eat" campaign back during the 80s, and I can remember one of his drawings was a beautiful giraffe made entirely of leaves. While we may not literally be like the giraffe and look like or "become" what we consume, we can certainly be constrained by eating lectins found in so-called "healthy" foods. So instead of "You Are What You Eat," this book teaches us why "You're Sick Because of What You Eat."
I am currently purging our pantry and restocking it with the good choices found in the book. I truly believe that it will make all of us feel better, and I will update my family's progress from time to time here on the blog. I hope you will read this book, and I'd love for you to share your thoughts with me either below in the comments section or via email.
Disclosure:
I received a copy of The Plant Paradox from the publisher via TLC Book Tours in exchange for a fair and honest review.
