Dr. Steven Gundry On Lectins, Grains & Exactly What Type Of Alcohol You Should Be Drinking

It's safe to say that Dr. Steven Gundry knows a thing or two about cardiac health—he has dedicated his entire life to helping patients make their hearts healthier, after all. Before shifting his career to focus on food-based interventions, Dr. Gundry was a world-renowned cardiac surgeon. And now, he's on a mission to get people to eat more plants, less grains and sugar, and eat the right type of chocolate with his new book, The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Dangers in "Healthy" Foods That Cause Disease and Weight Gain.

Gundry is particularly focused on helping people avoid lectins, carbohydrate-binding proteins thought to lead to inflammation and disease. He believes people can do this by eating more plants, less grains (yes, corn counts!), and less red meat—with the occasional square of dark chocolate thrown in there.

In this podcast episode, Gundry opens up about the strong correlation between what we eat, weight gain, and disease. He discusses the real impact of grains on the human body (it's not pretty), which alcohols we should be drinking (go ahead, drink more mezcal!), and why eating super-dark chocolate every day is amazing for the body. He also gets real about just how bad sugar is for us, why not everyone should be cooking with coconut oil regularly, and why green bananas are a whole lot better for you than yellow ones.

Whether you're all about eating plant-based or you're just dipping your toes into the world of more plants and less sugar, you won't want to miss Dr. Gundry's fascinating research and unique opinions on how certain foods affect our bodies and longevity overall.

Most of us have heard of gluten—a protein found in wheat that can cause widespread inflammation in the body. Americans spend billions of dollars on gluten-free diets in an effort to protect their health. But what if we’ve been missing the root of the problem?

In The Plant Paradox, renowned cardiologist and heart surgeon Dr. Steven Gundry reveals that gluten is just one variety of a common, and highly toxic, plant-based protein called lectin. Lectins are found not only in grains like wheat but also in the “gluten-free” foods most of us commonly regard as healthy, including many fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, and conventional dairy products. These proteins, which are found in the seeds, grains, skins, rinds, and leaves of plants, are designed by nature to protect plants from predators (including humans). Once ingested, they incite a kind of chemical warfare in our bodies, causing inflammatory reactions that can lead to weight gain and serious health conditions.