The Lectins Dirty Secrets!

While dietary lectins are known in the scientific and nutritional communities, most lay people and even many medical professionals don’t know about them.  Lectins are involved in food allergies/sensitivities, inflammation and autoimmune disease, just to name a few.  For instance, lectins are linked to celiac disease.  Even weight gain and low energy can be linked to lectins.  Lectins are problematic because they are sticky molecules that can bind to the linings of human tissue, especially intestinal cells.   In so doing, they disable cells in the GI tract  keeping them from repairing and rebuilding. Therefore lectins can contribute to eroding your intestinal barrier and result in (leaky gut or diverticulitis).   Because the lectins also circulate throughout the bloodstream they can bind to any tissue in the body in the thyroid, pancreas, collagen, joints, etc.  This binding can disrupt the function of that tissue and cause white blood cells to attack the lectin-bound tissue, destroying it.  This is an autoimmune response.  The lectins in wheat for example, are specifically known to be involved in rheumatoid arthritis.....