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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
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The Plant Paradox summary
Steven R. Gundry
The Hidden Dangers in “Healthy” Foods That Cause Disease and Weight Gain
3.4 (204 ratings)
13 mins
6 key ideas
Audio & text
What is The Plant Paradox about?
The Plant Paradox (2017) alerts us to the dangers of eating seemingly healthy plant foods. It explores the differences between our diets and those of our ancestors’ and tells us which food products we should eat and which we should avoid to improve our digestion and maintain our optimal weight.
About the Author
Steven R. Gundry is a former professor of cardiothoracic surgery at Loma Linda University and the director of the Center for Restorative Medicine in California. He is also the author of Dr. Gundry’s Diet Evolution.
Table of Contents
The Plant Paradox
summarized in 6 key ideas
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Key idea 1 of 6
Defensive plant proteins cause confusion and weight gain.
If you’ve ever seen a wildlife documentary, you’ll be aware that animals don’t just sit around waiting to become another animal’s dinner. Instead, prey animals develop defenses like long legs to outrun predators and advanced hearing and eyesight to sense approaching danger. But what about plants? If you have always assumed that plants are any more willing to become your next meal, think again.
Just like animals, the plants we consume also have defensive strategies against predatory attacks. A crucial weapon in their arsenal is a family of plant proteins called lectins, which exist in the leaves, seeds, skins and grains of most plants.
When lectins are consumed, they bind to sugar molecules in the animal’s brain and nerve endings, inhibiting the predator’s cells and nerves from communicating properly. This lack of communication between your nerves and cells results in brain fog, a term used to describe moments when you’re experiencing memory difficulties or having trouble focusing.
Plants produce these lectins in an attempt to teach predators that they should avoid eating those plants in the future.
Unfortunately for humans, some lectins not only stimulate mental confusion, but also cause you to gain weight.
One type of lectin that causes weight gain is wheat germ agglutinin (WGA). Found in wheat, this plant protein causes sugar to enter our body’s fat cells, where the sugar is then transformed into fat, thus making us put on weight.
In fact, these fat-producing properties are the reason wheat was originally favored as the grain of choice by those living in northern climates. It helped them gain and maintain weight in a time when food was far more scarce. Back then, having a “wheat belly” would help you survive the cold winters.
In this day and age, however, with an overabundance of food and the ubiquity of central heating, the weight gained from plant consumption isn’t such a welcome side effect.
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Best quote from The Plant Paradox
Mice and rats evolved as grain eaters 40 million years ago and have had far longer to become tolerant of these lectins: four thousand times longer.
—Steven R. Gundry
Who should read The Plant Paradox
- People who want to lose weight
- Those who want to start eating healthily
- Anyone interested in nutrition
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