# Lectins might be the underlying cause of IBS



## tummyrumbles

I've had a lot of luck over the last month with my own version of a combined Specific Carbohydrate Diet & low FODMAP diet. It's a hard diet to stick to, but when I do, it works very well. The diet is basically meat, vegetables (except starchy vegetables like potato), and fruits. I've know for some time that foods like grains, legumes like baked beans and nuts just don't agree with me and cause incomplete evacuation and gas the next day. All of these foods contain lectins, which can be very inflammatory to the gut. The most toxic of these lectins is Wheat Germ Agglutinin (WGA) in wheat, but similar lectins are in all grains. Brown rice is second to wheat in toxicity as it is high in phytates as well as lectins. Phytates resist digestion and inhibit amylase, the enzyme needed to digest carbohydrates. Brown rice is considered to be a healthy whole food but the most of the nutrients in brown rice can't be absorbed due to these anti-nutrients. (White rice is considered to be low in lectins but white rice is very high in starch. As most of us have a bacterial imbalance this is a food to avoid as bacteria feed predominantly on starch and sugar).

Lectins are a protective barrier for the plant. They're designed to stop animals from eating them. Lectins can cause inflammatory bowel and autoimmune disease. Lectin binds to microvilli of the small intestine.

If you have chronic IBS that you just can't shake, consider removing all grains from your diet. Lectins can have a very adverse effect on IBS because in a lot of cases our guts are inflamed, and this can cause greater lectin damage. Soaking of legumes and grains doesn't remove all lectins, and you really should question whether you should eat a food that you need to soak to get rid of the toxins.

Lectins are resistant to stomach acid and digestive enzymes. Lectins are a known cause of gas, constipation and diarrhea and lectin intolerance is implicated in IBS and inflammatory bowel disease.

Try excluding all grains and potato and see if there's any improvement. The diet I'm on isn't low carb - it's high carb with plenty of vegetables like pumpkin, green beans, broccoli and salad vegetables. You need plenty of saturated fats and fatty meats to get through the day because the diet won't work if you're hungry. Saturated fat is actually better for you than unsaturated. Pork, roast chicken with the skin on are good choices. Try coconut or olive oil with apple cidar vinegar on your salad vegetables (if you can tolerate these). If not, you might need to introduce these to your diet very gradually.


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## tummyrumbles

What sets us apart from normal people? There's no doubt that for Leaky Gassers and most IBSers intestinal gas worses IBS symptoms but why specifically do we get gas from eating the same foods as healthy people?

The answer could be that we are genetically more susceptible to the effects of lectins in the diet.

Lectins are designed to punish the animal that eats them. All lectins bind to sugar molecules. Certain lectins like Wheat Germ Aglutinin (WGA), the lectin in wheat, bind to specific carbohydrate molecules in the gut lining. This binding thickens the intestine, causing an immune reaction in some people. These particles can also force themselves through the intestinal wall and into the blood stream, causing more inflammation and potentially causing Leaky Gut.

Lectins exist in some quantities in all plant foods but some lectins are more noxious than others. Certain lectins are especially toxic. Ricin, the lectin in kidney beans, can be fatal if injected directly into the blood stream.

While all plants contain lectins the worst lectins are the prolamines and agglutinins.

Food sources of prolamines: wheat (gliadin), barley (hordein), rye (secalin) corn (zein), oats (avenin).

Grains are only high in nutrients if you are genetically predisposed to absorbing them. If you're not, then they are not only not nutritious, but these could be increasing the inflammation in your gut as well.

Food sources of agglutinins: wheat (WGA), potato (Solanum tuberosum agglutinin - STA), kidney beans, peanuts, nuts, soy beans, lentils.

Some of us are more sensitive to lectins than others and this could be due to a genetics. IBS is believed to be an early stage of auto immune disease, particularly for IBS-D. Autoimmunity is where antibodies attack the body's own healthy cells.

The easiest test to see if you are lectin sensitive is to try a simple diet excluding as many lectins as possible, in particular wheat and all other grains, nuts & legumes. While many vegetables contain lectins, they are generally much better tolerated.

http://www.thepaleomom.com/2014/01/lectins-bad.html

http://paleoparents.com/featured/how-do-grains-legumes-and-dairy-cause-a-leaky-gut-part-1-lectins/

The Autoimmune Protocol
http://www.thepaleomom.com/autoimmunity/the-autoimmune-protocol

http://selfhacked.com/2014/05/04/elimination-diet-safest-foods-people-sensitive-everything/

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/01/21/grains-causing-gut-leaks.aspx

http://www.meandmydiabetes.com/2011/12/03/loren-cordain-leaky-gut-whole-grain-and-even-potatoes/

http://www.krispin.com/lectin.html

http://www.precisionnutrition.com/all-about-lectins

Potato lectin activates basophils and mast cells of atopic subjects by its interaction with core chitobiose of cell-bound non-specific immunoglobulin E
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1941928/


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