960 You'd Be Shocked to Find That These Foods Are Killing You

This is Five Minute Friday. Over the past few years, I've been lucky enough to interview renowned health expert Dr. Steven Gundry three times. Every time I speak with him, I learn critical new information about how to approach nutrition to get the most out of my body and mind. And our conversation from April of this year is a must listen. But I keep coming back to our first podcast back in when he enlightened me on the foods you need to avoid to live longer. If you've heard this before, it's definitely worth a re-listen. If this is your first time, enjoy and go check out the full interview when we're done.

Up until 10,000 years ago, we lived primarily on the leaves of trees and we ate two birds that grew in the ground, like a sweet potato for a yam.

Love those.

12,000 years ago, 10,000 years ago, we switched over to things that we had never eaten before. And those were the grains of grasses and beans. Now, the reason we'd never eaten them before is number one, we didn't need to. There's never been a documentation of an ape eating grass or grains. Beans are so lethal that five raw kidney beans will kill a human being in five minutes by coagulating their blood. What? Five raw kidney beans.

Raw kidney beans.

In fact, you know, most people have heard of the poison ricin. So ricin is the lectin of the castor bean, and we'll talk about lectins next. A lectin is the plant defense system. These are proteins that are designed to basically kill us in one way or another. And so ricin is so powerful that about four molecules of ricin will kill a human being instantaneously.

So, no beans.

No beans.

Zero beans.

Unless you use a pressure cooker. Pinto black. None of it, we shouldn't be eating it. Shouldn't be eating it. You weren't designed to eat it. You have no defense system. No matter how it's cooked. If you pressure cooked, pressure cook it, it's fine. Pressure cook. The modern pressure cooker is as easy as a rice cooker. Got it. It's one touch, it's not your grandmother's pressure cooker that blew up in the kitchen. So then it's okay to eat. Yeah, so you can pressure cook beans. Now the other thing, we weren't designed to eat grains. For instance, everybody heard about gluten.

Yes.

All right, so gluten is a lectin. And again, a lectin is a plant's defense system. It's a protein that actually is designed to act like incoming guided missile attacks on the inside wall of our gut. And these things actually pry open the lining of our gut. and actually break through the border. Really? Yeah, they really do.

That's what causes eczema and breakouts. Bingo.

Yeah, exactly. Acne, brain fog, irritable bowel. This is actually all part of that process.

Wow.

And so it's fascinating to see people who either have come to see me or have even read the book and then write on Amazon, oh my gosh, you know, I had this horrible eczema and now a month later it's all gone and all I did was, you know, take grains and beans and nightshades away from my diet and everything got better. So that brings us to the second kind of group of things we shouldn't eat. All of us are not from the United States, America. We're actually from Europe, Asia or Africa, every one of us. So, and even our Native Americans are actually not Native Americans. They're from Asia. get over it. Right. So none of us were exposed to an American plant until 500 years ago when Columbus started trade. So getting to know a new plant, a new lectin in 500 years is speed dating in evolution. I just don't think it can be done. For instance, the Italians refused to eat tomatoes for 200 years after their native son Columbus brought them back. because they knew how dangerous they were. They were part of the deadly nightshade family. And they, when they started eating them, they always peeled and de-seeded their tomatoes because the peels and the seeds actually have the vast majority of the lectins. And it's interesting. Years ago, I was did my fellowship in children's heart surgery in London, England, and I had a house officer from Italy and he invited me up for pasta and tomato sauce. So I brought, you know, it'd be nice if I bought a couple cans of canned tomatoes, you know, help out.

Sure.

And he looks at it, he says, why did you bring me this? We can't use this. So I said, what do you mean? Canned tomatoes? He says, It's got peels and seeds. You can't make sauce with peels and seeds. He says, Ah, Mama Mia, what am I gonna do with you? He says, you, can't use peels and seeds. Why? He says, They're deadly. And I said, Really? And he says, yeah, everybody knows that. Now, there's two American beans that everyone should stay away from. Peanuts are not a nut, they're a bean. 94% of human beings carry a pre-formed antibody against the peanut lectin. We can take rhesus monkeys, our cousins, give them peanut oil and they will develop Atherosclerosis, heart disease. Really? If we take the lectin out of the peanut oil and then give them the peanut oil, they will not develop heart disease.

So, if you get lectin-free peanut butter.

There is no such thing.

Dang it. Okay.

So, get almond butter instead. Yes, it's much better.

No peanut butter.

No, stay away from it.

You should eliminate 100% from your system.

Absolutely. We can take, and this has been done, men feed them peanuts, take their bowel movements, feed them to rats, and you will grow cancerous cells in the rat colon because they've been exposed to the peanut lectin. Yeah.

Love peanut butter. Oh, you know, so I can have as much all I want.

And I went to medical school in Georgia, you know, Jimmy Carter, you know, man, peanuts or everything. Sandwiches, you know? Yeah, nope, sorry, eliminated. Gone.

Thank you so much for listening and I hope you enjoyed this Five Minute Friday. As always, check out lewishouse.com for more School of Greatness inspiration and find me on social media at Lewis Howes. And as always, you know what time it is, it's time to go out there and do something great.