Has anyone tried the Dr. Gundry Lectin-free diet? I finished reading his Plant Paradox book and feel optimistic that his clinical trial with autoimmune patients had a 90% success rate for taking people off their meds. I’ve had previous success with Gluten free and dairy free, but was already eliminating these from my diet by the time I was diagnosed with Sjogrens, so it obviously wasn’t doing enough. For anyone who isn’t familiar with the Lectin-free diet, it removes gluten, most dairy, potatoes, rice, corn nightshades, many fruits, many types of oils, peanuts, cashews, and beans, and has additional requirements for the type of chicken(pasture raised), eggs(omega 3), and fish(wild caught) you can eat. It also involves taking various vitamins and doing intermittent fasting. It’s going to be super difficult to adhere to these restrictions, but I say its worth it if it reduces my Brain fog, fatigue, low-grade fevers, intestinal issues, and reduces my chances of developing additional autoimmunes(I’m high risk for lupus). I would love to hear about other people’s experiences/challenges/success with this diet if you’ve tried it!
How long would you have to stick with it to determine if it’s helping? That’s a super restrictive diet indeed.
Hi Stoney! I think the amount of time it takes varies from person to person. I’m starting with his 3 day cleanse(optional part of the diet). It still involves solid food(green smoothie, salads or veggies with 4oz of chicken or fish, and avocados on romaine for a snack). Apparently the cleanse will speed up the results, and then the next phase will be at least 6 weeks(but he recommends staying on this phase for people with autoimmune). The following phase consists of reintroducing some lectins, but some people do end up staying in Phase 2 indefinitely
Update if anyone reads this later on! I’ve been following the “spoon theory” lately and it’s very hard not to use up all of my spoons on meal prep/finding things I’m allowed to eat after having not prepped meals ahead of time. Before this I was getting heathy takeout for most meals(GF and dairy free but not lectin free) I’m definitely out of spoons and have been crippled with fatigue, parotid, and neck aches today. I hope it’s a good use of my spoons, but we will see.
Fingers crossed this is all worth it
So you are starting to see some results? Or you’re so exhausted from meal prep that you can’t tell?
Seeing excellent results with brain fog clearing up and have had the best gastro health I’ve had in years. I think my flare up over the past few days was triggered by exhaustion from doing too many things in a day, not enough sleep, and having a few drinks on the fourth of july(the diet allows some alcohol in moderation). After I started seeing positive results I acted like the diet was giving me extra spoons, and ended up overexerting myself.
I’m learning that this diet is not a substitute for self care, so I have to make time to cook and get plenty of rest. For the past year, I’ve been mostly eating takeout because grocery store runs and cooking are pretty tiring. I think for someone who already prepares their own food, this wouldn’t feel as draining because Gundry’s recipes really are quite simple. After 2 days of rest I’m already feeling better and ready to keep fighting the good fight.
So, Hifelicia, I’m just reading this — what are you ALLOWED to eat? It seems everything is ruled out. Can you name say a dozen reasonably attractive foods?
I recommend looking into the diet on your own because I’m too lazy to make many of the recipes. There’s a blogger with great recipes called lectinfreemama.com and Gundry has a lot of delicious ones on his website and in the book. I usually eat avocados, olives, cooked veggies other than nightshades, sweet potatoes, plantains, pasture raised eggs and chicken, massive salads with cooked vegetables and berries, and fish. I waited awhile before reintroducing dairy to my diet, because it previously made me ill but I do now eat goat cheese, buffalo mozzarella, real Swiss cheese, and real Parmesan. For breakfast and dessert there are a bunch of easy and delicious muffin recipes in his book. You can also have over 70% dark chocolate. My go to dinner is Curry Fried cauliflower Rice with mushrooms, onions, broccoli, wild caught shrimp and/or wild caught canned crab meat and Coconut Aminos instead of Soy sauce. My go to snack food is Paleo Puffs(made from all healthy stuff). I’m a picky eater so if these sound unappealing to you, there really are lots of other things you can eat. It’s a big lifestyle change, but remission is worth it.
Thanks!! Actually that’s quite appealing!