Cover Image: The Living Well Without Lectins Cookbook

The Living Well Without Lectins Cookbook

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Member Reviews

Warnings about lectins as an adverse element for health seem to have come to the forefront over the last couple of years or so. At least I only became aware of it that recently. This cookbook would be helpful for those of us who want to go lectin-free at least for a time to find out our own reaction to it.

The recipes look really interesting to me. For example, I can’t wait to try the creamy shrimp and cauliflower soup! Sounds so unusual and delicious!

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I'm always interested in cookery books, but didn't have a clue as to what a lectin was, let alone living well without them. The media talks about fats, good and bad, protein, gluten, sugar, carbs but never lectin. So before I review the book, what the heck is a lectin I hear you cry? It is a protein found in plants which reduces the bodies ability to absorb essential nutrients and can cause inflammation in the body. They are found in most plants, but are higher in grains, legumes, tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergine, courgettes, and potatoes.

Mmm, does this mean a plant based diet is now no good for you and you should eat white rice instead of brown? Blimey eating is getting complicated! Anyway on with the review...

This book includes a useful introductions, explaining lectins and the authors background, and also includes recommended equipment (nothing too fancy), cooking methods and a clean-eating shopping list, which includes the foods you can eat.

The book is divided into 11 chapters (no of recipes in brackets):
- Breakfast & smoothies (11)
- Crackers, breads & savoury treats (9)
- Small bites & appetizers (6)
- Sauces, dressings & spreads (7)
- Salads (9)
- Soups (9)
- Main Courses
Fish & Seafood (9)
Chicken (13)
Beef or Pork (11)
Vegetables & Vegetarian main courses (23)
Sweets & Treats (19)

The recipes have both imperial and metric measurements. Not all the recipes come with a photograph, though to counter this, there are some included on the first page of the relevant chapter. There is no nutritional values shown with each recipe, but does with serving sizes and time to prepare and cooking times.

Some of the ingredients you cannot get at your local supermarket, such as psyllium husk or tigernut flour, so you would have to go to a specialist wholefoods type of store for that, which potentially could make the meals less than budget friendly.

It's certainly an interesting cookery book and something I would certainly look into, especially as the middle age spread has begun even though I try to eat well (most of the time)!

I received this book from Netgalley in return for a honest review.

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Interesting book. Relevant pictures are given too. Unfortunately I did not get time to test the recipes, but it looks good. All the best to the author (who has a running blog on lectin-free diet) and thanks to the publisher for the ARC.

I personally think it's a tad difficult to cut-off all kinds of grains and flours and legumes in hectic daily / weekly plans, but this book is a good effort for diet conscious people or ones suffering from autoimmune diseases who aspire to reduce inflammation by reducing 'negative reaction' foods.

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On the bright side for this cookbook, it has some really lovely pictures and most of the recipes do incorporate some healthy vegetables. That's most of what I like about it, unfortunately.

When I requested this cookbook to review, I had no idea what lectins were. They sounded nefarious if we were supposed to need a cookbook to avoid them, and I figured this would be a good way to get educated on the matter. I know now that lectins are apparently plant proteins and they are the new "bad guys" for folks who are getting sick and fat and are looking for something to blame. (The author apparently reached middle age and was dealing with weight gain and health issues, and read a book that turned her onto this diet. Of course it helped her health and she lost weight, as she couldn't eat store bought or restaurant foods and had to make her own foods with a very limited variety of expensive, organic whole foods. That doesn't mean she actually needed to cut all those other foods out of her diet. Many of these foods like tomatoes, garbanzo beans and eggplant are mainstays of the Mediterranean diet whose people are among the healthiest and longest lived on the planet. Anyway...)

This cookbook offers incredibly restrictive dietary advice. You cannot have most grains or "pseudo-grains" (no wheat, corn, rice, oats...), dairy that is not from specific varieties of cow (or animals like buffalo), nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, eggplant), legumes or beans other than pressure cooked lentils, pumpkins, sugar, almonds, cashews, peanuts, most seeds, most oils or conventionally raised meat, among others. You can only eat bananas if they're green.

Be prepared to spend a fortune to make these recipes, and to invest in some pretty fringe ingredients. As an example, here are the ingredients you need for the first recipe in the book, an Avocado and Collard Greens Superfoods Smoothie: collard greens, avocado, coconut milk, cacao nibs, frozen wild blueberries, maca powder, spirulina, lion's mane powder and pomegranate powder or Vital Reds by Gundry Wellness and filtered water.

Recipes in the book include: Japanese Cabbage Pancake with Duck Eggs, Pecan Butter, Tabbouleh with Millet and Hemp Hearts, Creamy Shrimp and Cauliflower Soup, Seafood and Okra Gumbo with Sorghum, Curried Sardines in Radicchio Cups, Sauteed Dandelion Greens, Parsnip and Chestnut Puree with Chives, Green Plantain-Tigernut Flour Breakfast Cake, No-Bake Green Banana and Millet Bars, and Coconut-Pistachio Fat Bombs.

Specialty ingredients you'll need to purchase for recipes in the book (assuming you already have things like grass fed ghee, almond meal, flaxseed, coconut flour, figs, microgreens, a wide variety of herbs and spices, etc.) include: green banana flour, tigernut flour, monk fruit sweetener, yacon syrup, casava flour, millet, marine collagen, sunchokes, cacao nibs, maca powder, hemp hearts, green plantains, macadamia nuts, spirulina, lion's mane powder, pomegranate powder or Vital Reds by Gundry Wellness, Hungarian paprika, hemp milk, coconut butter, arrowroot flour, cauliflower flour, psyllium husk flakes, teff flour, tapioca flour, hazelnut flour, nutritional yeast, purslane, sorrel, champagne or prosecco vinegar, sliced turmeric root, red palm oil, Miracle noodles, nigella sativa seeds, goat yogurt, sorghum, almond cream cheese, coconut aminos, prosciutto di Parma, ras el hanout spice mix, sumac, pomegranate arlis, taro roots, mirin, French butter, toasted sesame oil, saffron, chestnuts, miso paste, cacao butter, puffed millet, sorghum flour, xanthan gum and erythritol, among others.

There is no nutritional information provided for any of the recipes. Photos are provided for about 1/4 or 1/5 of the recipes. All recipes are gluten free. Meat and dairy is featured fairly heavily, though there are a lot of vegetable and salad recipes. Some vegan recipes are included.

If you are already on a lectin-free diet and are looking for new recipes, this will probably be a great cookbook to meet your needs. After reading it, I'm fairly positive that I will not be adopting a lectin free diet.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

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Some really interesting ideas here, especially the vegetable soups and dishes, but I was a little disappointed in some of the ingredients, just that they were a little more uncommon or hard to get or I'd have to get them and wouldn't have much else use for them beyond a recipe or two here.

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I received an advanced reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

This is just as the title suggests - a book jam packed full of recipies that cut out lectins from your diet.
I loved the section of chicken recipies and cant wait to try afew of these out. I also loved the variety in the deserts section too.
A brightly pictured, scrumptious cookery book - I just hope my meals look as tasty as these when i make them.

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Some of the recipes sounded good, but since I'm on the AIP diet, it looks like I won't be able to eat most of them (at least at this point). I guess I was hoping for more paleo/Whole 30 type of recipes, since they also cut out lectins I believe, but this book centers only on removing lectins (as the title says - guess I should've assumed!).

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This was a wonderful cookbook. It’s laid out so nicely and user friendly. With lots of photos and easy to follow directions. I had to go to unique stores to get some of the ingredients but it was worth it.

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