Lectin-Free Recipes
When you’ve chosen to switch to a lectin-free diet, you’ll quickly notice the list of restricted foods. This list may lead some people to throw their hands up in despair, but many delicious alternatives are easy to add to your lectin-free recipe book. For instance, if you’re an avid baker, you may despair that you can’t use wheat flour anymore. However, cassava flour is an excellent lectin and gluten-free substitute that doesn’t suffer from the same flatness and weakness that some other wheat flour alternatives do. Cassava flour also contains tons of minerals and vitamins without loading up on saturated fats. 1
You may have noticed that many diets restrict how much fat you can consume. Not so with a lectin-free diet. Instead, lectin-free recipes will often recommend using healthy oils such as extra-virgin olive oil or avocado oil for cooking. Remember, a lectin-free diet isn’t about calorie control. It’s about controlling the lectins in your diet. So feel free to slather your salad in olive oil or use avocado oil in your daily cooking. They contain healthy polyunsaturated fats that your body needs. By restricting your diet to avoid lectins and incorporating healthy fats, you’ll find a whole host of foods you’ve never tried before. Not only is it exciting, but it can also leave you feeling healthier, more energized, and better than before. Your waistline will likely begin to slim down as well. There is absolutely no need to be a part of the fast food experiment.
These easy lectin-free recipes and gluten-free recipes follow Dr. Gundry’s guidelines to healthy eating and contain everything you need for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even dessert. Now you can have your cake, soups, and breakfast muffins (and eat them too)! You’ll get to try out plenty of new ingredients with these popular recipes that may inspire you to come up with some of your own! Read about a lectin free breakfast as well. And don’t forget about our lectin free soup recipes.
Breakfast
Many people throw breakfast together at the last moment or skip it altogether to get a couple of minutes of extra sleep. Some may scoff at missing breakfast, but intermittent fasting can have some remarkable health benefits.2 Don’t forget, the word breakfast literally means “to break the fast.” The more time between meals, the more metabolic flexibility you develop in your mitochondria (the power stations within your cells). You see, because our ancestors experienced times of scarce food, our bodies have evolved to go much longer in between meals than we’re used to. Because now, thanks to modern advancements in agriculture and technology, food is always plentiful, and we tend to eat way too much of it and all too often.
So, how would intermittent fasting work? Try to go 16 hours each day without eating. It may sound tough, but think of it like this: You finish dinner at 7 pm. You prepare your late morning “break the fast” for 11 am the next day. Or, if you eat at 5:30 pm, you can make your morning meal happen tomorrow at 9:30 am. And when you do decide to break your fast, why not prepare a batch of Dr. Gundry’s Lectin-Free Spinach Muffins. These muffins travel well (so they’re great for a late morning snack at work). They taste great either heated up or cold and will give you an energy boost, as well as help you get in your leafy greens with minimal calories.
Lunch
If you skipped breakfast, you may find that you’re pretty hungry by lunchtime. It’s a good time to replenish some energy and power up your body for the mid-afternoon stretch. By enjoying lectin-free soups or salads or lunch, you can avoid the 3 pm slump and stay alert and productive.
An excellent example of a healthy lectin-free recipe for your lunch meal is Dr. Gundry’s Sorghum Salad. Sorghum is a grain that is commonly eaten in Africa but isn’t so popular in the West. Sorghum is an excellent grain choice because it is packed with vitamins and minerals as well as polyphenolic compounds that may reduce the risk of heart disease.
Dinner
The trickiest recipes to convert to lectin-free are your dinner recipes. If you’ve been following a healthy diet with plenty of vegetables, you’ve most likely gotten used to cooking with tomatoes and other nightshade vegetables. But nightshade vegetables contain lectins. And finding a suitable replacement in your dinner recipe can be tricky.
Fortunately, Dr. Gundry has come up with a lot of lectin-free recipes to make your transition to a lectin-free diet a bit easier. You’ll be surprised how many nightshade vegetables contain dietary lectins, but you’ll soon discover which vegetables, such as cauliflower and asparagus, are lectin-free. And luckily, healthy lectin-free recipes don’t need to take hours to prepare.
Dessert
While you may find it surprising that a “diet” program has dessert recipes, you need to remember that Dr. Gundry’s diet isn’t about calorie control. It’s about making sure that the foods you eat are nutritious and will support your health. Avoiding desserts isn’t fun, and could even put you at risk of abandoning your diet. So why not try some healthy lectin-free recipes for dessert instead?
Dr. Gundry recommends cassava flour as the key to fluffy and light gluten-free baking. Cassava flour is high in carbohydrates and minerals while being low in saturated fats and sodium. What can you do with cassava? Well, you can make waffles, for one. If you struggle to find cassava flour, there are alternative options. By combining almond and coconut flours, you can bake some of the best cakes and muffins around. And not only are they delicious, but they’re also packed with vitamins and minerals to make them nutritious as well. Dr. Gundry’s Plant Paradox friendly recipes are sure to satisfy any craving.
Snacks
When it comes to lectin-free recipes for snacking, the possibilities are endless, from using cauliflower to make vegan buffalo wings to combining lettuce and avocados to make lettuce boats.
You may find that you’re often too short on time to prepare snacks. But that’s when people resort to snacking on the bad stuff. Instead, why not just pack something with a bit of crunch, like raw cauliflower or a handful of walnuts? They’re the perfect antidote for that mid-morning craving and are great for your health as well.
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