Are Lectins Bad for Your Health? Dr. Gundry MD wants us to Believe 'Yes'
Shocking health claims abound endlessly on social media in paid advertisements for various supplements.
I found myself watching one in particular on Facebook by Dr. Steven Gundry MD on the subject of lectins. If you watch more videos by Dr. Steven Gundry, you start to see a pattern. He is waging a war on lectins.
Paid Advertisements about Lectins
His paid videos hope that you buy into the idea that lectins are bad for your digestive system, in hopes that you purchase his product called Total Restore to lose excess weight and restore gut health.
One of his videos begins with a big, juicy cheeseburger, and asks the viewer, "If you had to remove two things from this freshly grilled cheeseburger to make it more healthy, which two would you choose?"
Can you guess what his answer is?
Nope. Neither could I.
Dr. Gundry then says "I'll bet you'll never guess my answer," and continues his shock-fest that he would only remove the bun and the tomatoes. His reason is that they contain lectins, of course. Most viewers are thinking to themselves, "Are you crazy?"
What are Lectins?
Wikipedia says:
"Lectins are carbohydrate-binding proteins that are highly specific for sugar groups of other molecules."
What foods contain lectins?
Beans, eggplant, fruits, lentils, peanuts, potatoes, tomatoes, grains and wheat.
Are lectins really bad for your health?
Dr. Gundry's Paid Advertisements Wage War on Lectins
Dr. Gundry has waged a war on lectins in all of his videos to sell his nutrition supplement, Total Restore.
He explains lectins in this video found on YouTube:
He claims that "lectins can punch holes in your digestive system."
He claims that "a diet high in lectins can make you feel sluggish, bloated, and foggy."
He claims that removing lectins is good for "better overall health."
He claims that he personally lost 80 pounds over a span of 20 years because of his avoidance of lectins in his diet.
But is it true? Are lectins the cause of leaky gut?
Checking the Sources in his Advertisements
First, I wanted to check his sources, to see if he was telling the truth, or filling us with buffoonery.
I went to one of his sources, a research paper on the dangers of leaky gut. I then did a CTRL + F to find all references of the word lectin in the paper. The only two mentions of the word lectin in his first quoted source are in two of the paper's sources.
I then went to the 2nd source cited in the image above, and there is no mention of the word lectin anywhere in this 2nd source, not even in the sources.
So, while the list of symptoms above could possibly be caused by lectins, nowhere in the actual papers do they mention that lectins cause these problems. In fact, the symptoms described in the screenshot from Dr. Gundry's video are symptoms of leaky gut syndrome, but not necessarily a result of eating lectins.
I find that a bit odd, for someone to quote research papers that do not directly mention the claims about lectins.
Next, I did research to see if there was any actual scientific evidence that lectins are bad for your health. Guess what I found?
The Mayo Clinic says: "No Scientific Evidence Exists"
The Mayo Clinic published an article on Sept. 14, 2018 that states: "No scientific evidence exists to show that eliminating dietary lectins will cure any medical disorders or conditions, including autoimmune diseases." The article says that "Some research seems to indicate that taking in large quantities of raw lectins could have negative health effects" and that cooking food breaks down lectins. Not to mention most of the foods that contain lectins make up a well-balanced diet.
So what the heck Dr. Gundry, are you just trying to sell your nutrition supplement by making unproven claims? The answer is: Yes.
Dr. Gundry's ad uses the 'Bait and Switch' Strategy
Dr. Gundry uses a marketing strategy called bait and switch. He gets the viewer intrigued by his claims that lectins are bad for your health and digestive system so the viewer then believes he is an expert on health and nutrition. Dr. Gundry then presents his product that uses "the best ingredients" from all over the world that is missing from our everyday diets. At this point, the viewer may buy into his cause, because he is now perceived as an expert in nutrition.
Dr. Steven Gundry MD Talks about a Fecal Transplant to Sell a Book of Lies
Dr. Steven Gundry MD talks about many things to sell his book, and this diatribe started with a fecal transplant and obesogenic bacteria.
Ripley's Believe it or Not! should hire Dr. Steven Gundry, because he is truly a magician with words in his paid advertisements. You really need to watch magicians very closely, because if you don't they will literally steal your wallet from your back pocket.
Dr. Steven Gundry MD has been around for a while, maybe you have seen him in infomercials on Facebook (Meta) or YouTube trying to sell his supplements. Now he is trying to sell his book, The Plant Paradox. In this book he will tell you things, for example, Beans and tomatoes are bad for you. Don't eat them.
In his paid advertisements, he takes medical science and in my opinion, adds embellished facts or things that aren't established medical science to sell his book.
Author: "I believe he is playing a dangerous game in order to sell his products."
His Book: The Plant Paradox
Dr. Gundry Talks about a C. diff Infection in an Interview
In one of his YouTube videos (see video at the bottom of this section), Dr. Steven Gundry is being interviewed by Lewis Howes on an episode of The School of Greatness and Dr. Gundry opens his interview saying this:
"5 Raw Kidney Beans will kill a human being in 5 minutes by coagulating their blood." -Dr. Steven Gundry MD
Now this is intended to be a shocking statement; Something to get our attention as a medical expert. But wait…there's more!
"But turns out 90% of all the cells that make you and me me are actually non-human cells. They're bacteria, viruses, funguses, worms that live in us and on us and the shocking thing is 99% of all the genes that make up you and me are non-human genes." -Dr. Steven Gundry MD
Are you listening to him now?
Storytime with Dr. Steven Gundry MD
Dr. Gundry tells a story about a female marathon runner in England that developed a severe infection in her colon called C. difficile — Clostridioides difficile, commonly referred to as C. diff. (Author's note: My grandmother personally experienced this serious condition in 2021, which required a steady regimen of antibiotics to treat.)
Dr. Gundry continues in his interview with Lewis Howes on C. diff:
"The modern treatment for this [C. diff] now is a fecal transplant — taking poop from somebody else and shoving it up your ass…and you try to get a fecal transplant from a family member because believe it or not family members tend to share a lot their bacteria."
"So they found a cousin that was a good match for her [the runner], and she got the fecal transplant and everything went well, her C. difficile went away." -Dr. Steven Gundry
Dr. Gundry then continues with his story, now adding his own opinion:
"In the next year, this marathon runner gained 32 pounds. Her cousin was about 32 pounds overweight (whom she received the bacteria for the fecal transplant). So she was inoculated with obesogenic bacteria…and her bacteria, these little one-celled organisms, controlled her behavior."
I have to stop the video right there, and call him on that.
Author: How does the good Dr. Gundry know that obesogenic bacteria has controlled a woman that he has never met?
Lewis Howes then furthers this bad narrative in this verbal exchange:
Lewis Howes: "So it made her more hungry, more desire…for certain foods?"
Dr. Steven Gundry MD: "Yeah, exactly."
Lewis Howes: "So she changed the way she was eating because she was triggered in a different way?"
Dr. Steven Gundry MD: "Being manipulated, being manipulated."
Lewis Howes: "It's kind of like when you're, you know, I love candy and sweets, I've never been drunk and I don't drink, but my vices are like…I could eat cakes and candy and brownies all day long…if I choose to, and then when I go off of it, it's hard because I just want to keep going back to it. Right? Until I change the habit fully, and then I'm like, 'I don't need it anymore.'"
Dr. Steven Gundry MD: "Right."
Dr. Steven Gundry MD, the "Expert"
Dr. Steven Gundry MD talked in detail about an obesogenic bacteria that he didn't personally test for. He assumes she received this from a fecal transplant. He confidently says she gained 32 pounds from receiving the bacteria, and then goes on to talk about what has happened to her body as a result.
Author's note: While I personally believe there is such a link between gut health, bacteria, and digestion — there was no evidence to show that this female runner received obesogenic bacteria from her cousin, and further Dr. Gundry MD speculated obesogenic bacteria explicitly caused the runner to gain 32 pounds.
I think there is a problem when a doctor makes statements about what happened to a person without doing tests and having definitive proof.
Dr. Gundry's Interview with Lewis Howes (Video):
As a personal endeavor for writing this article, I did further research into the subject of obesogenic bacteria, which the medical community has not fully established yet(the medical community is still on the cutting edge of gathering data on this). I share this because I am not saying bacteria and gut health are not related.
Author: Dr. Steven Gundry MD uses outlandish and unproven claims with stories to come across as an expert on food and nutrition to sell products. I believe this is an abuse of his profession as a doctor.
Research: Two Articles on Gut Bacteria and Weight
I found two articles of interest: One from The Science Breaker, and the other from Science Alert online publications.
In The Science Breaker article, they examined a study of 935 mothers in the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) birth cohort. They first had to successfully identify a gut bacteria passed from the mother to child.
This is what they found:
"Infants born vaginally to overweight mothers were 3 times more likely to become overweight at age 1, while cesearean-delivered infants of overweight mothers had a 5-fold risk of [being] overweight.
The Lachnospiraceae bacteria were observed to be more abundant in the gut of 3-month-old infants born to overweight mothers."
In the Science Alert article, they share information published in the Nature Metabolism journal:
"Medical researchers have discovered a molecule linking the tiny creatures that call our guts home to levels of fat in our bodies."
Their study looks at obesity and obesity-related metabolic disorders linked to the intestinal microbiome, and changes in the microbiome-host interaction that affects energy being metabolized (which is a controversial point).
"We now have a molecular mechanism that provides a starting point to understand our microbiome as a link between our diet and our body composition." -Dean Jones, biochemist at Emory University
They found in their study of mice, that mice had delta-valerobetaine molecules in mice exposed to metabolic microbes, and that delta-valerobetaine decreased the levels of carnitine — which is responsible for transporting long fat molecules into the mitochondria to be broken down into energy. Without enough carnitine, the mice gained weight and accumulated more fat in their livers, but the researchers could not directly make this same correlation in humans.
"This type of information could potentially help someone develop a personalized strategy for weight loss…but there are a lot of things we need to understand better about how delta-valerobetaine functions in context." -Dr. Ken Liu, Emory University
Conclusion
Just because someone claims to be an expert doesn't mean that they are. Many marketers boast unverified claims and unproven medical science to sell their products.
Always do your own research before buying into their gimmicks.
Author's note: I am not a dietician or medical expert. This article was written for informational purposes only. I have an interest in science and facts regarding health and nutrition. I do not like people that take advantage of others for financial gain.
Always consult your physician before changing your diet or taking a new supplement.
Sources
"Gut bacteria orchestrate the transmission of overweight from mother to babe." The Science Breaker. Accessed: 19 June 2022.
Koumoundouros, Tessa. "Gut Microbes Can Cause Obesity, And We're Getting Closer to Understanding How." Science Alert. 6 Feb. 2022.
Liu, Ken, et. al. "Microbial metabolite delta-valerobetaine is a diet-dependent obesogen." Nature Metabolism Journal at Nature.com. 20 December 2021.
YouTube: "The TOP FOODS That Should Be Banned — Don't Eat These Foods!" by Lewis Howes
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