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[Jari]

https://www.boostthyroid.com/blog/2018/4/12/why-lectins-are-important-for-your-thyroid


Dr Gundry book The Plant Paradox diet is good. I have a friend who has arthritis in her hands and she has been following this diet properly and has noticed a dramatic change.

Worth looking at if you are suffering any of the above. X

[Kathleen]

Hello Jari.

Thanks for your post and link.

 All the science I've seen states that the more plants we have in our diet the better.  One of the best sites is NutritionFacts.Org where Dr Michael Greger presents all the research data in a very entertaining way that it easy to understand. Well worth a look for anyone interested in the subject.

Take care.

K.

[Wrensong]

With a somewhat heavy heart, as I need a very high fibre diet that includes many lectins, I came across similar while researching Sjogren's recently:-

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1161/circ.137.suppl_1.p238

I have autoimmune thyroid disease & suspected Sjogren's but managing problematic gut health is crucial to me & that's currently under pretty good control, so cannot contemplate excluding the extensive lectin family.  I also recently had bloods done that included an autoimmune profile which was fine (including Sjogrens, but further investigation pending), with no evidence of increased inflammation, so seems my balanced diet with lots of fruit & veg, continually tweaked over many decades, is not aggravating the autoimmune tendencies.  This way of eating, for me, also keeps an earlier diagnosis of gastritis under control - my last endoscopy finding no evidence of gastric inflammation.  So not gonna worry about lectins!

I do follow a low gluten, wheat-free diet, initially advised by a gastroenterologist to help manage chronic slow transit & over time my gut health has improved tremendously for this, to the extent I'm now far better than I've been in a couple of decades.  It's also increasingly being recommended that Hashimoto's patients go gluten-free.

[Hurdity]

Thanks Jari - you might want to post things like this is the Other Health Discussion board which is more appropriate as a general health issue (especially re diet!) - that way more women might see it? This board is supposed to be for alternatives to HRT for menopause, although topics often get mixed up!

Interesting idea I must say - I would always want to see good evidence about and studies into dietary solutions to some issues especially those for which a definite clinical cause has not been established - like with autoimmine diseases.

Wrensong that is a very interesting study in that context. However it was not a controlled study as far as I can see - ie without placebo nor double blinded so although sounds pretty compelling - one would need to have at least the same number of patients without the conditions or markers as controls and for them all to be mixed up and given a particular diet so some got the reduced lectin and some didn't, some were "patients" and some weren't and eg to be told that it was a study of different diets on health etc or something like that! Not sure if the outcome would be the same but would be interesting to see what would happen - and is the only scientific way to demontsrate that the effect was due to the diet (in my view!).

Thing is one can tie oneself in knots trying to work out what diet is best for particular conditions and as you say end up with very conflicting advice depending on the condition you are trying to treat!

Hurdity x

[Sparrow]

I haven't read all the posts but doesn't cooking distroy lectins anyway.  If that is so just avoiding raw foods that contain it should be enough.

[Wrensong]

Thanks for your take on it Hurdity  .  The percentage who achieved remission seems impressive, but in addition to the limitations you highlight, it was only a fairly small study & their conclusion rather sweeping I thought!  As mentioned earlier, I dismissed the idea as completely impractical for me, as similarly to the low FODMAP diet, it would involve excluding too many of the foods I find essential for managing gut issues.  I merely posted the link as Jari's find reminded me of the study & I thought she & others might be interested in it. 

There seem so many contradictory findings as regards diet & health, it's hard to keep up !  I think the best we can do (in the absence of true food allergies where exclusion is imperative) is keep diet varied & balanced, follow long established guidelines about healthy eating & try to read signals from our own bodies to help us gain insight into anything we're eating that may be problematic for us as individuals.  If we have particular health concerns where some elements of diet are considered especially important e.g. osteoporosis or constipation, it makes sense to ensure we read up & take whatever dietary measures we can that may help. 

As quite a few members struggle with thyroid problems I imagine they will be interested in Jari's thread.  So thanks for starting it Jari.
Wx