In my last blog, I’ve helped you identify different antinutrients and how we can lessen these. Now, let’s go through different foods to build the immune system.
Boosting Fruits, Veggies, Nuts & Seeds
- Get Rid of the Skin & Seeds – The skin (or hull) and seeds of fruits, nuts, seeds and vegetables tend to contain the highest amounts of antinutrients. For example, seeds and skins from peppers and tomatoes contain lectins and tannins that can cause indigestion and leaky gut but if you remove them by blanching the skin and cutting out the seeds you can avoid most of the toxic lectins. A good example would be tomato paste or tomato sauce, which doesn’t have skins or seeds. Almond skins can also be problematic. Try buying blanched almonds or blanching them yourself.
- Eat Fermented Veggies – Fermentation creates healthy bacteria that reduce harmful antinutrients in vegetables while at the same time rebuilds your forest and can be eaten daily in staples like kimchi, sauerkraut, cucumbers, carrots, and other veggies.
Boosting Grains
- Get Rid Of The Hull – According to Dr. Steven Gundry, the hull of the rice grain contains all the dangerous lectins, which means you should avoid brown rice. So while white rice (preferably jasmine) may not have much nutritional content, this carb heavy food can be eaten in limited quantities.
- Fermented Bread – Fermentation also reduces harmful lectins in the hull of wheat when baking sourdough bread, which effectively breaks down most of the gluten and other harmful lectins. Just make sure you eat fermented sourdough in moderation as it does not have much nutrition and can eventually drain your power.
Boosting Beans, Grains & Seeds
- Sprouting – By sprouting or buying sprouted beans, grains and seeds you can deactivate some but not all lectins and there are exceptions. For example, by sprouting alfalfa legumes the lectin content is actually enhanced. Nuts, seeds and grains seem to benefit most from sprouting.
- Use a Pressure Cooker – By using a pressure cooker or buying pressure-cooked foods you can neutralize many antinutrients from foods like beans, legumes, tomatoes, potatoes and quinoa. You can also buy organic BPA free canned beans from Eden Foods, which have been soaked, sprouted and pressure-cooked (check www.ChadScottCoaching.com/resources for more recommendations). Just keep in mind, there are exceptions, where pressure cooking alone can not remove lectins. This includes: wheat, oats, rye, barley and spelt. Again, if you’re a grain lover, don’t worry, we’ll talk about some tasty replacements shortly, which will help you restore full power.
Note: Slow cookers, which cook at low temperatures, are insufficient to remove most lectins.
If you do not see a power surge after 3 months on The Power Diet, try eliminating all “Power Limiting” foods as well as all “Power Draining” foods.
Power Boost: The power boosters include whole foods that do not have high levels of antinutrients, which your body readily absorbs and assimilates without any adverse effects. This includes:
- Nuts – almonds (blanched), walnuts, pecans, pistachios, macadamia, pine, brazil, chestnut
- Seeds – Sesame, hemp, flax
- Vegetables – Avocado, broccoli, asparagus and cauliflower. Romaine, butter leaf and red leaf lettuces. Olives, celery and bok choy. Cooked kale, chard, collards, beets, spinach and Brussels sprouts. Parsley, cilantro, fennel, jicama, onions, leeks, frisee, cabbage, dandelion greens, radishes, artichoke, endive, radicchio and arugula.
- Tubers – Carrots, sweet potatoes, yams (these are exceptions to the nightshades and do not have overly reactive lectins).
- Fruits – coconut, low sugar fruits like apples, pears, apricots and berries when in season
- Fermented Foods – kimchi, sauerkraut, coconut yogurt and apple cider vinegar.
- Fish – Choose wild caught low mercury versions including sardines, sockeye salmon, anchovies, mackerel, cod haddock and petrale sole.
- Oils – Olive, coconut, macadamia, MCT, avocado, perilla, walnut, red palm, rice bran, sesame, cod.
Take Action – Limit or Eliminate Antinutrients
Once you’ve gotten clear on what foods you need to limit and eliminate, the quickest way to boost your power is to start eliminating the other Power Draining Foods for at least 30 days then retest your power.
Removing problematic foods one at a time is crucial! If you’ve been eating a lot of these your whole life it could be quite challenging to suddenly stop eating them all at once.
For example, if you love eating whole grain cereal for breakfast then a sandwich with tomatoes, pasteurized cheese, packaged meat and whole wheat bread for lunch, it could be challenging to eliminate all of these at once.
While you can indeed eliminate and replace them with some of the power boosting options, if this seems like an overwhelming task you can start by just eliminating all the grains with lectins that have been shown to create inflammation and simply can’t be removed with preparation.
Specifically, I recommend removing wheat, brown rice, corn, oats, rye, barley and spelt. Occasionally, you can eat fermented sourdough bread or white rice, which have had most of their power draining lectins removed. Just keep in mind, these are high in carbohydrates, which as you’ll soon learn can drain your power as well; so make sure you limit them.
To avoid the power drain from these grains, your new goal on The Power Diet will be to replace these “Power Drains” with power boosting starches like yams, sweet potatoes, carrots and other tubers as well as grain alternatives like cassava, coconut and almond.
We’ll talk specifics on recipes and exactly what will be in your daily Power Meals later, for now, it’s important to take action by removing these power drain grains for at least 30 days and notice if you feel a power boost with more sustained energy throughout the day.
If you’re working out (hopefully with my Fired Up program) you should also notice more power, stronger workouts and better sleep. And make sure you check your libido. If you’ve been diligent in removing the power draining foods, you’ll most likely feel more sexually potent.
Next, once you’ve removed those toxic grain drains, go ahead and remove your proteins from the “Power Drain” lists above. Just follow the recommendations for another 30 days then assess your overall power again and ask yourself that all-important question we listed earlier:
Did This Food Give Me Power Or Take It Away?
Continue doing this 30-day cycle of ditching “Power Draining Foods” until you’ve ditched them all.
Eventually, what you’ll most likely notice is a craving or temptation to go back to some of those Power Draining Foods. This isn’t something to be avoided. In fact, I recommend retesting yourself with some of the Power Draining Foods to confirm they really are draining your power and wreaking havoc on your mind, body and quality of life. This pain should be a powerful reminder not to eat them again.
Keep in mind, this cycling phase may take more than 30 days, so be patient and remember… it took months, if not years, to get to where you are now. To change all that history of toxification and sugar burning may simply take more time, so just keep going and give yourself a good 3-6 months to fully feel the effects of lifestyle changes.
Eliminate at least 1-3 power draining foods
every 30 days!
To learn more about antinutrients and ways that can help lessen these, check out the most comprehensive and easy to use guide: “The Power Diet” by Chad Scott.
