Dr. Gundry’s The Plant Paradox Is Wrong

Dr. Gundry's THE PLANT PARADOX is Wrong Earlier this year, I started
getting emails about this book, The Plant Paradox, purporting
to expose the "hidden dangers" in healthy foods that cause
disease and weight gain, foods like beans, and whole
grains, and tomatoes. Why? Because of lectins,
which is a rehashing of the discredited Blood Type
Diet from decades ago; they just keep coming back. Yeah, but this was
written by an MD, which— if you've seen
my medical school videos— you'll know is effectively an
anti-credential when it comes to writing diet books, basically
advertising to the world that you've received likely little
or no formal training in nutrition.

Dr. Atkins was, after
all, a cardiologist. But look, you want to give
the benefit of the doubt. The problem is that it doesn't
even seem to pass the sniff test. I mean if lectins are bad, then
beans would be the worst, and so bean counters
would presumably find that bean eaters cut
their lives short, whereas the exact opposite
may be true with legumes— beans, split peas,
chickpeas, and lentils— found to be perhaps the most
important dietary predictor of survival in older people in
countries around the world. As Dan Buettner points
out in his Blue Zones work, lectin-packed foods are
the cornerstone of the diets of all the healthiest, longest-
lived populations on the planet.

Plant-based diets in general,
and legumes in particular, are a common thread among
longevity Blue Zones around the world—the most
lectin lush food there is. And if lectins are bad, then whole
grain consumers should be riddled with disease, when in fact whole
grain intake is associated with a reduced risk of
coronary heart disease, the number 1 killer
of men and women. Strokes, too, and total cancer, and
mortality from all causes put together, meaning people who eat whole
grains tend to live longer, and get fewer respiratory diseases,
infectious diseases, diabetes, and all non-cardiovascular,
non-cancer causes to boot. And not just in
population studies. As I've shown, you can randomize
people into whole grain interventions and prove cause-
and-effect benefits.

The same with tomatoes. You randomize women to a cup
and a half of tomato juice or water every day, and all that
nightshade tomato lectin reduces systemic inflammation,
or has waist-slimming effects, reducing cholesterol as well
as inflammatory mediators. So when people told me about
this book, I was like, let me guess: he sells a line of lectin-
blocking supplements. And what do you know: assist your
body in the fight against lectins for only $79.95 a month. That's only like a
thousand bucks a year— a bargain for pleasant
bathroom visits. And then, of course, there's
10 other supplements. So for only 8 or 9 thousand dollars
a year, you can lick those lectins. Oh, did I not mention
his skincare line? Firm and sculpt
for an extra $120, all so much more affordable
when you subscribe to his VIP club. But you still want to give him
the benefit of the doubt. People ask me all the time to
comment on some new blog or book or YouTube video, and
I have to sadly be like, look, there are a hundred thousand
peer-reviewed scientific papers on nutrition published in the
medical literature every year, and we can barely
keep up with those.

Ah, but people kept emailing
me about this book; so, I was like, fine, I'll
check out the first citation. Chapter 1, citation 1: "Forget everything you
thought you knew was true" (diet books love saying that). For example, "Eating
shellfish and egg yolks dramatically reduces
total cholesterol." What?! Egg yolks
reduce cholesterol? What is this citation? This is the paper he cites. And here it is. By now, you know
how these studies go. How do you show a food
decreases cholesterol? You remove so much
meat, cheese, and eggs that overall your saturated fat
falls, in this case, about 50%.

If you cut saturated
fat in half, of course cholesterol
levels are going to drop. So they got a drop
in cholesterol removing meat, cheese,
and egg yolks. Yet, that's the paper he uses to
support his statement that egg yolks dramatically reduce cholesterol. I mean it's unbelievable. That's the opposite of the truth. Add egg yolks to people's diets
and their cholesterol goes up. I mean, how dare
he say this? And it's not like some
harmless foolishness, like saying the Earth
is flat or something. Heart disease is the number
one killer of men and women. This can actually
hurt people. So much for my
benefit of the doubt..

Video Transcript – As found on YouTube

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