Guide to

Steven R. Gundry’s, MD

The Plant Paradox

The Hidden Dangers in “Healthy” Foods That Cause Disease and Weight Gain

by

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Table of Contents

Overview

Key Insights

Important People

Author’s Style

Author’s Perspective

Intended Audience

Overview

The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Dangers in “Healthy” Foods That Cause Disease and Weight Gain (2017) by Steven R. Gundry, MD, reveals how eating plants can actually be harmful to health. Gundry’s “Plant Paradox” diet explains how to prepare and eat plant foods when they’re in season and in the right amounts to achieve optimal health.

The rise in obesity, autoimmune diseases, allergies, and many other health problems has been caused by plant proteins called lectins. While most people have never heard of them, lectins are toxins that plants produce to protect themselves from predators. Although people need to eat plants to be healthy, they often eat plants the wrong way and end up getting sick. This is the plant paradox.

Lectins are often described as “sticky proteins” that bind to sugar molecules in the intestinal tract, interrupt messages that cells send to each other, and trigger an inflammatory response in the body. Gluten is one kind of lectin, but eliminating gluten won’t solve the problem. In fact, cutting out gluten can lead people to replace it with foods even higher in lectins, such as gluten-free flours.

To stop lectins and other toxins from causing harm, the body produces stomach acid and intestinal mucus, in addition to hosting trillions of “good” microbes in the mouth, intestinal tract, and on the skin. This microbe mixture is called the holobiome. It helps humans digest food and protect against toxins, but lectins can still breach the intestinal wall and enter the bloodstream. When a breach occurs, it’s called leaky gut. It causes inflammation, weight gain, and autoimmune diseases.

Before the advent of modern agriculture, humans were taller and had bigger brains. Then they began domesticating grains and beans, which contain more lectins. The human body wasn’t prepared for this dietary change. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have further disrupted the human gut and contributed to human vulnerability to lectins.

Today humans are more sensitive to lectins than ever before. People in the West eat more processed foods and grains and are exposed to a wide range of synthetic chemicals contained in foods and other consumer products. These disruptors make it more difficult for the body to process lectins. The disruptors include broad-spectrum antibiotics, painkillers, and artificial sweeteners.

Humans live in a symbiotic relationship with their gut microbes. When healthy microbes dominate, they feel healthy. When the bad ones prevail, people get sick. Fortunately, it’s possible to heal a leaky gut. To do so, an individual must commit to the Plant Paradox Program, which feeds the good or healthy microbes. Unlike some other low-carbohydrate diets, the Plant Paradox Program doesn’t allow for a return to carbs. Instead, it helps people make permanent changes to their diets that can help prevent and reverse disease.

The Plant Paradox Program emphasizes several points. To begin, what people don’t eat is more important than what they do eat. Next, it’s important to feed healthy microbes in the body. Finally, the adage “you are what you eat” should be extended to the food sources of those food sources. That is, if people eat grain-fed animals, they may as well be consuming those grains.

Phase 1 of the program is a three-day cleanse that eliminates dairy, grains, fruits, sugar, eggs, soy, and nightshade and root vegetables to help repair the gut and revamp gut bacteria. Phase 2 is a six-week program. This repair phase eliminates lectins from grains and legumes, including corn and soybeans; GMO foods; saturated fats; whole-grain products; artificial sweeteners; industrial-raised poultry and livestock; and farm-raised fish. Instead, dieters eat leafy greens, especially from the cabbage family, and omega-3 fats, especially fish oil and avocados. The repair phase sets a daily limit of eight ounces of animal protein, ideally wild-caught fish. After at least six weeks, in an optional Phase 3, dieters can try reintroducing some nightshade vegetables, with seeds and skins removed, and pressure-cooked legumes. Daily animal protein should be limited to four ounces, and dieters are encouraged to fast intermittently. This regime will neutralize the harmful effects of the plant paradox.

Key Insights

1. Health myths pervade the way people think about food.

2. Plant proteins called lectins, produced as a defense mechanism against predators, are destructive to human health.

3. The key to navigating plant foods is learning which ones are healthy and how to prepare and eat them when they’re in season.

4. Most health problems have tiny causes. The microbes that make up the holobiome—the mixture of trillions of organisms in the mouth, intestinal tract, on the skin, and even in the air around the body—are largely responsible for whether a person remains healthy or gets sick.

5. Gluten is one type of lectin—and only one. Wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), which penetrates the gut and causes inflammation, should be avoided.

6. There are seven “deadly disruptors” that make it harder for the body to defend itself against lectins. These disruptors include broad-spectrum antibiotics, painkillers, stomach acid blockers, artificial sweeteners, endocrine disruptors, GMOs, and blue light from electronic devices.

7. What people don’t eat is more important than what they do eat.

8. Health derives from a healthy microbe population. Bad microbes can be starved by denying them sugar, refined carbs, and saturated fat.

9. Fruits are like candy. Fruits instruct the body to store fat.

10. Individuals should eat a mostly vegetarian diet with wild-caught seafood as the main source of animal protein.

11. A pressure cooker will eliminate lectins in legumes, nightshade vegetables, and squashes.

Important People

Dr. Steven Gundry is the author of The Plant Paradox and a practitioner of the Plant Paradox Program.

Clarence V. is a patient of Dr. Gundry’s who cured his type 2 diabetes with the help of the Plant Paradox Program. Clarence had his diabetes under control, but when he was diagnosed with celiac disease and started eating gluten-free products, his diabetes came back.

Tony, another patient of Dr. Gundry’s, suffered from vitiligo, an autoimmune condition in which the skin loses its pigmentation. When Tony started on the Plant Paradox Program, pigmentation returned to his skin. It was Tony’s case that inspired Dr. Gundry to research and identify the cause of inflammation as lectins.

Usher Raymond IV (“Usher”), the American musical artist and actor and a patient of Dr. Gundry’s, successfully used the Plant Paradox Program to meet his weight-loss goals.

Author’s Style

Steven R. Gundry provides an easy-to-read how-to manual for his Plant Paradox Program. Using simple language and helpful metaphors, he makes reading about the human digestive and immune systems accessible and interesting. The Plant Paradox is divided into three parts. The first part explains the science of how lectins breach the intestinal barrier and cause inflammation and disease. The second part lays out the Plant Paradox Program. It includes reference guides, such as “Just Say No” and “Yes Please” food lists. The third part features meal plans and recipes for the Plant Paradox Program, such as a green smoothie, cinnamon flaxseed muffins, lettuce boats filled with guacamole, and arugula salad with chicken. Throughout, Gundry includes short profiles of patients who cured their ailments with the help of the Plant Paradox Program.

Author’s Perspective

Steven R. Gundry graduated from Yale University and Medical College of Georgia. He participated in the cardiothoracic surgery program at the University of Michigan and then worked as a professor of surgery and pediatrics at Loma Linda University School of Medicine. Gundry eventually left conventional medicine and turned instead to restorative medicine. His health care philosophy changed; instead of treating heart disease with surgery, he believed he could help patients prevent it through dietary changes. He published Dr. Gundry’s Diet Evolution: Turn Off the Genes That Are Killing You and Your Waistline in 2008. Gundry’s extensive research and practice in cardiology and immunology has led him to become an expert in preventive functional medicine and the human holobiome. He is both the creator and a practitioner of the Plant Paradox Program.

Intended Audience

The Plant Paradox will interest health-conscious people who would like to make long-term dietary changes to improve their overall health. While the book contains detailed information about cellular processes and the human digestive system, readers need not have any medical or scientific knowledge in order to grasp the Plant Paradox Program.

The Plant Paradox may be of particular interest to people who suffer from chronic illnesses and have had little success managing symptoms through other means. The Plant Paradox includes an entire chapter laying out Gundry’s “Intensive Care Program” for people who have received a diagnosis of a serious condition, such as cancer or Alzheimer’s disease.

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Table of Contents

Overview

Key Insights

Important People

Author’s Style

Author’s Perspective

Intended Audience