The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Risks in “Wholesome” Meals That Trigger Illness and Weight Achieve (The Plant Paradox, 1)

If you are sick, then it’s worth the try
One can always find grounds for criticism, and that appears to be the case with this book. Critics say his citations are inaccurate, there’s no evidence of peer review, marketing of supplements proves a lack of credibility, anecdotal passages indicate a flawed analysis, the understanding of lectins in the book is incomplete, etc.As a person who has suffered from psoriasis for the past 15 years, I say who cares if it works! I’ve tried going vegetarian, vegan, no carbs, gluten free, Chinese medicinal herbs, intermittent fasting, and just about every topical application including tar. Nothing worked or even helped in the least.Just two weeks on Dr. Gundry’s diet and my psoriasis is showing improvement. I’m definitely not cured, but for the first time I actually see improvement and people notice it. Also, the diet is unfolding just as Dr. Gundry describes. After a while, I started craving the good vegetables, and my hunger is satisfied after eating a salad, and I don’t get hungry again for hours. The thought of eating industrial farm raised animal protein is almost nauseating.But sometimes I go off the diet. Once day I ate pizza, and felt bloated and gained two pounds in one day. After going back on the diet both extra pounds were dropped in a couple days. Another day I ate industrial farm raised beef, and the indigestion was very unpleasant, resulting in gaining one pound overnight and my psoriasis became inflamed.Dr, Gundry does not hide the fact that his diet is the result of trial and error based upon his patients who he calls “canaries”. His book is full of theories and historical observations, but it is obvious that it is all theoretical and not proven using scientific process. This makes the book interesting and helps tell a story and offers possible answers to why certain foods are bad and why certain foods are good. But the heart of the book is his lists of foods to eat and foods to avoid. Take to heart his advice to minimize animal proteins as much as possible. For me, I have never felt better than when I’m on his diet, and that is what counts.update 2/15/18 – After one month on Dr. Gundry’s diet, I took my blood test. All my numbers were good. Prior to the diet, I was pre-diabetic and with high cholesterol. Also, the weight loss continues without effort. The psoriasis is still present, but the patches are slowly clearing. Do yourselves a favor and start eliminating lectins from your diet.update 3/7/18 – This diet continues to work. My psoriasis continues to clear. I can see improvement every week. My weight is still decreasing, about one pound every two weeks. There is no craving to go off diet, so it is easy to enjoy the foods that are recommended. By far the most difficulty with this diet is dealing with a social life. Eating in restaurants is always hazardous, as is dealing with friends and family who give foods as gifts. But the results don’t lie, so it’s all worth the effort.update 10/10/18 – My psoriasis is slowly clearing, mostly around my torso. My weight is stable around 165 pounds. The same amount I weighed in high school over thirty years ago. I stay on diet but I eat as much as I can until I’m very full, but weight never fluctuates. I’ll be taking my blood test again in January and will report back.update 1/24/19 – Psoriasis continues to slowly get better. I would guess that about 20% of my plaque psoriasis has cleared up. My weight is stable at 165. I have been allowing myself to eat more farm raised meat, but I stick to what I consider the core of the diet – no grains, no night shade, no legumes, and no dairy. Here’s another observation of this diet – you need to be ready to go alone on this diet. 100% of all people I’ve spoken with reject this diet. They cannot believe that tomatoes, cucumbers, tofu, whole wheat bread and many others are bad for you. Either that or they don’t care. After a while, you just stop talking about the diet and I avoid answering questions like “why are you so thin?” Just do it for yourself and forget about what everybody says.update 2/19/19 – I should have mentioned the use of supplements to help block lectins. Dr. Gundry sell his “Lectin Shield” which you take when you can’t avoid eating lectins. But you can buy supplements that are in his Lectin Shield that do the same thing for less money. So when I do go off diet, I take glucosamine, D-Mannose, okra, bladderwrack and larch arabinogalactans. These supplements help with digesting lectins so they don’t get into the bloodstream.

Good Book!
The book contains very good information. Might want to discuss some of the aspects covered in this book with your own physician.

Es uno de los libros mas intersantes sobre la nutricion que he leido. Basicamente habla sobre los anti-nutrientes in plantas que es una tema generalmente no explorado en nuestra sociedad. En ingles.

**6 months update. Been stable at 137 ounds for 3 months now, after loosing 80 pounds in around 3 months. ALL my chronic pains are now GONE! Also, all my blood tests are perfect now. 🙂 Inhalo also said I’m not suffering from sleep apnea anymore. Ditching that awful CPAP was one of the best thing in my life.**I’m a pharmacist and a biochemist, so I’m always really skeptical with all those diets on the internet like paleo, Atkins, low-carb high-fat, etc. But at 47, thinking I was eating healthy (grains, etc), I was reaching 225 pounds (5’8”) and my blood tests were getting really worrisome. So I bought this book and BAM, epiphany! After 9 weeks of following this book to the letter, I’m now at 150 pounds! So I lost 75 pounds in 9 weeks (I know, crazy), just following this book to the letter and exercising mildly (walking with my kids and wife!) every second day. What I like about Gundry is that everything is so logical and making sense, and everything is referenced. Dr Gundry takes all those research everywhere and just make a logical plan based on the microbiome and lectins studies of the last 4-5 years, and going in full ketosis like a low-carb high-fat diet. And it’s more of a new way of life then a diet. Avoiding those lectins is really something, and he’s right. He likes to boasts like every doctors I know, and some of those miracle cases he likes to cite that are all rainbows and butterflies are sometimes borderline sales pitch, but if you can get over those, this book is revolutionnary IMHO. But the guys wants to sell a book, so he’s avoiding talking about the ”side effects”, that I know, with my experience with alot of my patients doing paleo, Atkins, ”low-carb high-fat” and ketogenics diets, that some (not everyone, but high probability) people will sadly feel some problems in the first weeks when switching to ketosis.So now let’s talk about some of those ”side effects” of diving head-on in this diet, and also stopping Nexium and Celebrex like he said (ALOT of people are taking anti-inflammatories and proton pump inhibitors or PPIs for years and years, so I know alot will stop them too, like me). Eating so much vegetables, salads and greens, and all those oils and nuts can be tough on the stomach for some people. Also the ”Nexium/PPIs rebound” that is well reported in the literature can take 3-4 weeks to resolve (or more!). So to fix those major heartburns, crazy pain in the stomach area, I did take Rolaids for 2-3 days and then DGL (3:1 deglycyrrhinizinated licorice) 2-3 times a day for 3-4 weeks. That thing does wonder and I was able to fight the Nexium rebound with it. People should taper Nexium really slowly, but if you’re crazy like me and go cold turkey, then try DGL…And it’s only what I did. Everyone should ALWAYS check with their doctors BEFORE stopping those medications 2 kinds of medication. You need to be under the supervision of a professionnal!Also. Like paleo diets, I was really exhausted in the first 2 weeks, and not able to exercise. I also had some crazy painful cramps at nights in feets and calves. I did solve those 2 problems with putting lots of salt in my water and drinking ALOT of salted water all day, and, really important, when full glass of salted water 30 minutes before exercising. And it worked to solve both the cramps and lack of energy.I also got major pain on my ribs, at the bottom, all across for weeks. If it happens to you, don’t panic (I did panic!)! All those muscles were used to support alot of belly fat, so they have to re-organized themselves, and for me it tooks 8 weeks before ”healing” with alot of stetching every morning for 20-30 minutes.Also sitting on a chair for more then 10 minutes was, and still is, soooo painful. Again your buttocks need to adjust, and with no more fat in there, it was (and still is) painful. Some people say it can take 8-12 months before you can sit again for longer period. But I have a trick! I just sit on an heating pad at minimum heat, and can go on for hours watching movies or at work. Cinema and restaurants are still a problem tough…And the constipation. For the first 2 weeks I was really constipated. Pure 100% psyllium husks once a day plus Sennosides (Senokot) 1 tab only every 3-4 days solved the problem temporarily. And after 4-5 weeks I was back to normal with ”long snakes” like he’s talking about, and now I’m only taking Psyllium husks daily regularly.One more thing. The 3 days cleanse with the green smoothie. I love it! and still doing it everyday after 9 weeks! But I have modified the recipe a bit: add 1 Tablespoon of MCT oil, 1 Tablespoon of Ghee butter, 1 Teaspoon of Bimuno and 1 Teaspoon of inulin (both are prebiotics in powder) directly in it before blending everything! This makes for a really energetic (MCT oil + Ghee butter = bulletproof coffee recipe!) full of prebiotics drink. And the Ghee makes the smoothie creamier and tastier. Be careful with Bimuno and inulin and start reallly slowly with small amount for 7-10 days. then gradually raise the amount after that. I got lots of gas and gurgling for the first 10 days. Those gut buddies are fermenting like crazy so go low, go slow.So in conclusion, this book is great. It’s a new way of life, instead of a ”diet, IMHO. If you’re lucky, everything will be rainbows and butterflies, but realistically, you should expect your body to react to such drastic changes in the way you eat. But you can search the net about tricks to solve those problems by searching ”low carb”, ”ketosis”, or ”paleo” diets. But hang in there even if the first weeks are difficult. Results are terrifics. All my patients are so impressed with the results, it’s insane and funny to see everyone react when they see me. 🙂