health and wellness - Kristen Ann McLaughlin

Lectin-free cooking: beginnings

I didn’t begin the right way. When I headed off on my lectin-free cooking adventure, I hadn’t read Dr. Steven Gundry’s “The Plant Paradox.” If I had, I would have discovered his three-phased approach to this diet.

Instead, I simply found his “Yes” and “No” lists, copied and carried them with me to the grocery store and used them to choose my produce. Then I decided what to make for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Advice: read “The Plant Paradox” first.

The lectin-free experiment, part 2

It’s been about nine months now since we started this experiment, and several months since my last post about how and why we began, but after eating this new way for most of the year, I can say with certainty that we’ll never go back to “the way it was.”

Not that this new diet doesn’t come with its drawbacks, most notably in the area of eating out, whether at restaurants or at the homes of friends, which can be challenging. Being “gluten free” had its challenges, too, such as the lure of French or Italian baguettes and “real” pasta (in which case I usually indulged and simply ached in my joints for a few days afterwards), but being “lectin free” means, in addition, trying to avoid dishes containing ingredients such as white potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, peppers, and other potential gut disruptors.

The pursuit of health, part 2

In 1962 Rachel Carson published her book “Silent Spring,” which detailed the effects of DDT and other pesticides on wildlife, the natural environment, and humans. Many years after its publication I read that book and began wondering if some of my health problems were due to the widespread use of these pesticides in conventional farming.

Becoming interested in the foods we were consuming led me to Adele Davis, now considered the most famous nutritionist in the early to mid-20th century. Her books praising the value of natural foods and criticizing the diet of the average American include “Let’s Cook it Right” (1947), “Let’s Have Healthy Children” (1951), “Let’s Eat Right to Keep Fit” (1954), and “Let’s Get Well” (1965).

The pursuit of health

My health problems began as an infant, starting with the DPT shot (otherwise known as Diptheria-Pertussis-Tetanus) I received as part of the usual childhood round of vaccinations. My parents tell me I was immediately rushed to the ER with breathing problems. They didn’t know if I’d survive.

Fortunately, here I am, but not without a history of physical problems along the way, such as allergies and asthma, acne, and migraines.