lectins
‘Lectin’ might be a new word for you; or perhaps not. Science has known about lectins for a long time, but it wasn’t until Dr. D’Adamo began his research with food lectins and how we react to them that their significance really gained momentum. Here’s how they work:
A lectin is just a small protein. These proteins are naturally occurring in several species of plants and sometimes animals. Plant lectins are used as a defense system to kill fungus and small insects.
Imagine for a moment eating insecticide, which is essentially what lectins are. You’re much bigger than insects, so the lectins don’t kill you—but that doesn’t mean you won’t be affected by eating them. Just like there are hundreds of different kinds of insecticides available to farmers, there are hundreds of different kinds of lectins in food that cause adverse reactions in your body.
Some lectins are bad for everybody, like the ones in castor beans. If you extract castor bean lectins, you end up with a well known biological poison called Ricin.
Other lectins are blood type specific, meaning they only affect one or two blood types, but not the others. This works because lectins are like velcro to your blood cells. If you eat a fruit or seed with a lectin that likes your blood type, it will cause your blood cells to stick together like in the picture below.
This is why, for example, people who are blood type O can eat bananas, yet people who are type A and AB should avoid them. The lectins in bananas don’t stick to O blood cells, but they do stick to A cells:
It’s the same reason people who are type B aren’t allowed to eat chicken. Chicken has a lectin specific to type B and AB, which will cause their cells to clot together. Turkey does not.
Of course there are several foods that cause this reaction, but you can read about them in Eat Right for Your Type. Since an entire website could be built just about lectins, due to their vastly dynamic physiological effects, here’s a small list of their major functions. Click each one to find out more!
Lectins can:
Clot your blood cells together
Cause acute and chronic inflammation
Attach to insulin receptors and cause cells to become insulin resistant and store fat
Slow the absorption of protein and other nutrients
Lectins aren’t all bad. Click here to find out why.
Lectins = Poison
