In the wellness world, things youve already heard areboring.
Its much more interesting to watch somebody tell you secrets that mainstream medicine doesnt want you to know.
Ready to dig in?
Plants dont want to be eaten.
So they make toxic compounds, the better to kill off anyone who tries to eat themincluding you.
The plant evolves a toxin; the plant-eater evolves resistance to that toxin.
Have they never planted a garden and watched it feed all the neighborhood insects, slugs, and squirrels?
Do they think we are more fragile than insects, slugs, and squirrels?
I have so many questions.)
Are vegetables actually bad for you?
Mountains of scientific evidence back up the idea that the more vegetables you eat, the better.
But even so, the results consistently and overwhelmingly point to vegetables reducing our risk of many health conditions.
(There was also a 60% reduction from five servings of fruit.)
So whats the deal with these supposed toxins and anti-nutrients?
As the above studies on vegetables and health show, the good outweighs the bad.
People dont get sicker the more vegetables they eat; they are healthier.
Lectins
Lectins are plant proteins that bind to carbohydrates.
They can prevent absorption of some nutrients, and can sometimes cause gastrointestinal illness.
(Canned beans have already been cooked enough to destroy the lectins.)
Cooking destroys or significantly reduces the lectin content in foods.
Its unlikely that youre even getting much lectin content in your food at all.
Is it possible that some people are sensitive to the effects of certain lectins?
But are lectins found in vegetables ruining our health in any kind of universal or widespread way?
Its pretty clear they are not.
Foods that contain lectins include legumes (beans, lentils) and whole grains.
Rhubarb leaves are notoriously high in oxalates.
Other vegetables, mainly leafy greens like spinach (but also potatoes!
), contain oxalates in smaller amounts.
But, again, most of our grocery-store vegetablesdont contain enough oxalates to be a health issue.
Cooking reduces the oxalate content further.
(Not avoid them entirely, as TikTokers would suggest, but simply enjoy them in small doses.)
TikTokers can, of course, attempt to weaponize this information to scare us away from perfectly harmless vegetables.
The part about sunburn is true!
(The part about poison is not.)
A woman developed a severe reactionwhen she ate anentire pound of celerybefore heading to the tanning salon.
This does not mean it’s crucial that you avoid celery entirely.
(This isthe 100-year-old your guts are full of stuck poop mythall over again.)
In conclusion, vegetables are still good for us, no matter what TikTok says.
I wont make you eat themIm not your mombut yo dont believe the online fearmongering.
