What to Make for Dinner with Chicken? - Grilled Chicken with Rosemary White Barbecue Sauce

What Are The Benefits of Eating Chicken?

Chicken meat nutrition. The nutrient content of poultry (chicken and turkey) is similar to that of red meat with a few exceptions. Poultry is lower in iron content, and thus heme iron, than beef. 

Turkey meat is a little higher in several minerals (Ca, Fe, P, K, Zn, and Cu) than chicken. As in red meats, there are considerable amounts of several B vitamins (e.g., niacin, B6, and pantothenic acid) compared to other meat sources, and these are not significantly decreased during cooking.

The fat content of chicken is mostly monounsaturated fat, followed by saturated fat and polyunsaturated fat. Poultry fat, like pork fat, is somewhat more unsaturated than beef fat. Poultry is significantly higher in polyunsaturated fat compared to pork, veal, beef, and lamb.

Is Eating Meat Good for You?

Benefits of eating meat. Meat is a superior source of protein, vitamins and minerals in your diet. However, if you currently consuming more than 90 grams (cooked weight) of red and processed meat a day, health experts advises that you cut down to 70 grams.

Meat foods provide considerable amounts of essential nutrients at levels/concentrations higher than those of most other foods relative to the caloric content provided. Almost all of the essential nutrients are present in animal meat foods at some level. 

Meat foods provide nutrients in a form that enhances the bioavailability of nutrients from both the meat and other dietary sources. It is generally recognized that in diets that lack meat foods, greater care is required in diet/menu selection to ensure that adequate levels of essential nutrients are present and bioavailable.

Grilled Chicken with Rosemary White Barbecue Sauce Recipe

What to make for dinner? You should try this easy chicken recipe. Many cooks in Alabama don’t like red barbecue sauce and finish grilled chicken with a mayonnaise-based slather. 

This recipe version adds garlic and herbs to the formula, and the outcome is a great alternative to the typical backyard bird. 

Like all barbecue sauces, don’t apply it to the chicken until the last few minutes. This one won’t scorch like the sweet tomato sauces, but it could separate.

Makes 6 to 8 servings

INGREDIENTS:

For Rosemary White Barbecue Sauce

11/3 cups mayonnaise (Try this homemade recipe- How to Make Homemade Coconut Mayonnaise - Healthy Coconut Recipes)
Grated zest of 1 lemon
½ cup fresh lemon juice
4 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
2 garlic cloves, crushed through a press

For Grilled Chicken:

Two 4-pound chickens, each cut into 8 serving pieces (preferably organic free range chicken)
1½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

COOKING DIRECTIONS:

1) To make the sauce, whisk the mayonnaise, lemon zest and juice, rosemary, and garlic together. (The sauce can be made up to 3 days ahead, covered, and refrigerated.)

2) Build a fire for indirect grilling in an outdoor grill. For a charcoal grill, leave the coals heaped in a mound in the center. For a gas grill or an electric grill, preheat on high. Then leave one burner on high and turn the other burner(s) off.

3) Season the chicken with the salt and pepper. Lightly oil the cooking grate. Place the chicken on the unheated areas of the grill (that is, on the perimeter around, but not over, the coals in the charcoal grill, or over the off burners of the gas grill). 

How long to grill the chicken? Cover and grill for 20 minutes. Turn the chicken, cover, and continue grilling until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the breast reads 165ºF, about 20 minutes more.

4) Move the chicken to the hot area of the grill (over the coals of the charcoal grill, and over the high burner of the gas grill). Brush the chicken all over with the mayonnaise mixture. Grill, turning and basting occasionally with the remaining mayonnaise mixture, until the mayonnaise has reduced to a mostly transparent glaze, 3 to 5 minutes. 

5) Transfer to a platter and serve hot, with the remaining sauce passed on the side, if you wish.

If you don’t like mayonnaise based sauce pictured above, try this healthy and delicious homemade recipe… How to Make Homemade Smoked Tomato Ketchup- Healthy Homemade Ketchup

Quick and Easy Grilling Tips for Chicken

I tried these easy grilling tips as taught by James Peterson at the French Culinary Institute. James Peterson is a great cook and James Beard Awardee.

Don’t confuse grilling with barbecuing. Grilling just means to cook over the heat source open to the air. 

a) 13 Amazing Grilling Myths That Will Make You Cook Longer, Spend More and an Instant Skxawng

b) Many super markets and groceries only sell birds like Cornish game hens frozen, so be sure to allow time for thawing. The right way to thaw poultry is in its original wrapper in the fridge. Put the birds on a rimmed tray in case of any leaks.

c) Although many grills these days come with covers, authentic grilling is done uncovered in the open air. A cover does give some advantages. If you’re cooking a large piece like a leg of lamb or a whole turkey. Grilling this big piece for the entire time over hot coals can result in a burned exterior before the interior is cooked. 

To crack this problem, you can build the fire on just one side of the grill bed, grill the meat directly over the fire just long enough to brown and flavor it, and then move the meat to the side with no fire, and cover the grill to finishing the cooking process. Though, during this last stage, when you are using indirect heat, you are fundamentally roasting or baking the meat, not grilling it.

d) Covering the grill will roast or bake the food but doesn’t help it grill. The heat source can be a bed of charcoal or a row of gas jets or an indoor electric grill pan. The best grills permit you to adjust the distance of the grill rack from the fire. 

e) On the other hand, a covered grill is also useful if you want your grilled food to have a smoky flavor. Remember to build the fire to one side and use it to brown the food. After that sprinkle the coals with a optimum of wood chips that have been soaked for a couple of hours in water, or put a small sheet of aluminum foil over the coals and top it with a handful of sawdust. Put the food on the side of the rack away from the fire, cover the grill, and finish cooking the meat. This cooking technique is basically the same for gas grills, except that you don’t soak the wood chips. 

f) Many home cooks wrongly think that a good grilled flavor comes from smoke and flame generated when fat from the grilling food drips down on the coals which cause sudden flare-ups. But burned fat gives grilled foods a sooty flavor and is best avoided. 

g) The best woods for creating smoke are hickory smoking chips, mesquite, grapevine cuttings, and fruit woods such as apple and cherry.

h) Some gas grills come with a special smoker box to hold the chips. If not, you will need to put the chips in a perforated foil packet and place the packet directly over the heat. 

i) Thin foods, such as steaks or fish fillets, require extreme heat to form a crust before the heat has a chance to penetrate and overcook the inside part. 

j) If you buy a grill or replace an old one, select grill rack itself is if possible a heavy metal grid that is flat, not round like wire, which ensures attractive grill markets on steaks and chops. Electric grill and gas grills have the advantage of requiring no fire building. A fire prepared with ordinary charcoal briquettes delivers no more flavor than a gas grill—and will still impart a grilled flavor.


Cool people who read and Shared this recipe also viewed one or more of the recipes:

a) Marinated Juicy Chicken Breasts with Grilled Apple Rings Recipe

b) How Do You Cook Chicken Livers? Easy Chicken Liver Pate With Cream Recipe

c) Honeyed Chicken Medieval Recipe- Game of Thrones Food Recipes

d) Salpicão Salada- Chicken and Potato Salad- Brazilian Food Recipes

e) Quick Chicken Casserole- Healthy Recipes

f) Barbecued Whole Chicken



REFERENCES:

Benjamin Caballero (Editor), Lindsay H Allen (Editor) and Andrew Prentice (Editor). 2013. Encyclopedia of Human Nutrition, 3rd Edition. Academic Press. ISBN-13: 978-0123750839

Rick Rodgers. 2008. Summer Gatherings: Casual Food to Enjoy with Family and Friends (Seasonal Gatherings). William Morrow Cookbooks. ISBN-10: 0061438502

James Peterson. 2012. Chicken and Other Poultry: Recipes and Techniques from Cooking. James Peterson's Kitchen Education. Ten Speed Press. ISBN: 9781607743996

How to Make Portuguese Kale Soup- Anthony Bourdain Cookbook Recipes

What are the health benefits of kale?

Kale is loaded with vitamin K. In addition to the benefits typical of the cruciferous vegetables, kale also provides a flavonoid called kaempferol that appears to decrease the risk of heart disease.

In one 8-year scientific study, kaempferol, in combination with the flavonoids quercetin and myricetin, reduced the risk of pancreatic cancer by 23 percent.

Kale is full of antioxidant vitamins A and C, as well as numerous carotenoids, including beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin. These compounds help protect vision and lower the risk of cataracts and age-related macular degeneration.

It is also an excellent source of B vitamins, including thiamine, riboflavin, and B6, and the minerals calcium and iron.

What are Side Effects of Eating Kale Too Much?

Kale is one of a small number of foods that contain measurable amounts of oxalates, so over-eating can cause problems for those with kidney disease, rheumatoid arthritis, vulvar pain, gout, or other conditions that may require a low-oxalate diet.

How to Make Portuguese Kale Soup- (Sopa de Couve com Chouriço)

Another Provincetown classic inspired by the late Howard Mitcham, an unpretentious, brilliant Cape Cod cook and writer whose Provincetown Seafood Cookbook is an out-of-print treasure worth snatching up at any price. Mitcham used white pea beans, better known as navy beans, in his version.

Kale Soup is very popular Portuguese dish, but it is often mistaken for Caldo Verde soup. 

There are many variations of this recipe. Some cooks add red beans, white beans, chick peas or even pasta. If you prefer a thicker style broth, let the soup cook for at least one hour on simmer for the vegetables to dissolve creating a thicker soup.

In this recipe, kidney beans were used. If you don’t like kale you can substitute using collard greens.

Serves 8 to 10

INGREDIENTS:

1½ cups dried red kidney beans
1 large ham hock or comparable soup bone, cut into pieces to allow the marrow to escape into the broth
3 to 4 quarts Dark Universal Stock (refer to stock recipe below); you can substitute your own favorite stock or buy a commercial brand
½ pound Portuguese chouriço sausage, cut into ¼-inch-thick slices
1 pound linguiça sausage, cut into ¼-inch-thick slices
2 bunches curly kale, center stem removed and discarded, leaves washed and coarsely chopped
4 large or 5 medium waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into large dice
Red pepper flakes to taste
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

COOKING DIRECTIONS:

1) In a large, heavy-bottom stockpot, soak the kidney beans for 12 hours in plenty of cold water, or cover the dry beans with 4 cups of water and bring to a rapid boil. Cover the pot, remove from the heat, and let sit for 90 minutes undisturbed. Drain.

2) In a clean stockpot, combine the soaked and/or cooked and drained beans and the ham hock and cover with the stock. Add 1 quart water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for 1 hour, using a slotted spoon or ladle to skim off and discard any scum that rises to the surface. 

3) Add the chouriço, linguiça, and kale, and simmer for another hour. 

4) Add the potatoes, pepper flakes, and vinegar, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Simmer for at least another hour, adding more stock or water as needed to keep all the ingredients submerged. The longer the soup simmers, the better the flavor; Howard Mitcham calls for a minimum of 5 hours.

Try Other Healthy Kale Recipes:

a) How to Prepare Kale Chips Easily? Best Kale Chips Recipes

b) How to Eat Kale? Try These 15 Fast and Simple Kale Salad Recipes

Kale Calorie Counter: Kale Soup

Kale Nutritional Composition. One-half cup of cooked, chopped kale provides 21 calories, 3.7 g carbohydrate, 1.2 g protein, 0.3 g fat, 1.3 g dietary fiber, 4810 IU vitamin A, 27 mg vitamin C, 9 mcg folic acid, 148 mg potassium, 15 mg sodium, 18 mg phosphorus, 47 mg calcium, and 12 mg magnesium.

How to Buy Fresh Kale?

While several varieties of kale are grown in Portugal, the most popular, and the only one used in caldo verde or sopa de couve, is couve galega. The leaves are ideal for cutting into the whisker-thin shavings for the soup.

a) Fresh kale should have firm, very dark green leaves with no brown or dry spots. Smaller leaves will be less tough and strong-flavored than large ones. 

b) Don’t wash kale before storing it in the fridge. It will keep for a few days, though the flavor becomes more bitter the longer it is stored. 

c) For a less bitter experience, trim away not only the stems but the central vein on each leaf.

d) Fresh kale is available at farmer’s markets in the eastern United States near the end of summer and through the winter in California.

e) Kale, mustard greens, collard greens, Swiss chard, and dandelion greens can all be used more or less interchangeably in recipes. 

How to Make Dark Universal Stock (Anthony Bourdain Recipes)

This is one of Anthony Bourdain’s recipes from Appetites: A Cookbook. 

You can also download his other best-selling book, click here now to get a complimentary copy before the promo is gone… Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.

Veal bones are good. Stock and demi-glace made from roasted veal bones are even savory. 

Veal stock made from unroasted bones (which they claim is less bitter), or “demi-glace” made from roasted chicken bones. Chicken bones are certainly easier to come by.

What follows is a perfectly serviceable recipe for universal stock. I encourage you to load your freezer with small containers of it.

It’s as versatile as a blank canvas—a perfect background waiting for you to fill.

As a rule of thumb, you will be reducing this stock with red wine, straining it through a fine-mesh sieve, and infusing or garnishing with appropriate elements depending on the main ingredient.

If, for instance, you’re making a sauce later for lamb, you can jack it with lamb flavor by reducing it with roasted lamb scraps, perhaps some rosemary and garlic, and some red wine. For a duck sauce, throw in some duck bones, heads, and/or feet if you have them, plus some bay leaves and maybe an orange rind. 

Nicely browned turkey bones and a sprig each of sage, rosemary, and thyme will customize it for turkey gravy, and pork bones, pig ears, and red wine or beer will do the job for a porky sauce.

Makes about 6 quarts

INGREDIENTS:

2 tablespoons canola oil or coconut oil
4 pounds chicken bones or as many as will fit into a large heavy-bottom stockpot
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 large white onions, peeled and coarsely chopped
3 medium carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 ribs celery, coarsely chopped
4 sprigs fresh thyme
4 sprigs fresh parsley
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns

COOKING DIRECTIONS:

1) Preheat the oven to 400°F. Oil 2 large roasting pans.

2) In one of the pans, toss together the chicken bones with the tomato paste and flour to more or less evenly coat. Arrange them in an even layer and roast in the oven, turning and stirring the contents occasionally to keep bones from scorching, until the bones are browned, about 60 minutes.

3) While the bones roast, in the second pan, combine the onions, carrots, and celery and roast them as well, stirring regularly, until they are browned, about 30 minutes.

4) Transfer the bones and vegetables, but not any grease or other pan residue, to a large, heavy-bottom stockpot and fill the pot with cold water. Add the thyme, parsley, bay leaves, and peppercorns and bring the mixture to a high simmer, keeping vigilant in the last few minutes and reducing the heat to a low simmer before the mixture boils. 

5) Let simmer for at least 6 hours—better to let it go for 8 or 10—and use a ladle to skim off and discard the foam and oil as it rises to the top. There is no need to stir the stock as it simmers.

6) Remove the pot from the heat. Remove as many bones as you can with tongs, and discard them. Set up a sieve over a bowl or second stockpot—you may need to recruit a helper for this part, as you do not want to slip and lose everything you have just worked for—and carefully strain the stock, either by pouring it or ladling it through the sieve. Repeat the straining process a few times, until you are satisfied with the clarity of your stock. 

7) Transfer the stock carefully to storage containers, and chill in the refrigerator. 

8) Store in the refrigerator for up to 4 days and up to 3 months in the freezer.

If You Like Soups, Just Try One of These Easy and SavorySoup Recipes You Will Not be Disappointed: 

a) Creamy Broccoli- Parmesan Soup - The Food Lab Recipes

b) Sansa Stark's Favorite?: Dorne Lemon-Egg Soup- Game of Thrones Food Recipes

c) Awesome Egg and Lemon Soup- Soupa Avgolemono- Greek Food Recipes

d) Easy Vegetarian Lentil Soup Recipe- (Crock Pot Optional)

e) Healthy Vegan Leek Soup Modern Recipe- Game of Thrones Food Recipes

f) Gourmet Adzuki Bean Soup- Healthy Recipes



REFERENCES:

Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever. 2016. Appetites: A Cookbook. Ecco. ISBN-13: 978-0062409959

Deborah A. Klein. 2009. The 200 Super Foods That Will Save Your Life: A Complete Program to Live Younger and Longer. McGraw-Hill Education. ISBN-10: 0071625755

How to Make Sardinian Braised Beef in Cannonau Wine – Easy Italian Braised Beef Recipe

"Braising is what cooking is truly about--transformation. You start with a tough, often inexpensive, cut of meat, and through your care and knowledge as a cook, you turn it into something tender and succulent and exquisite. That is true cooking, cooking that engages both mind and soul." 

-Michael Ruhlman

What is in Cannonau Wine?

Cannonau di Sardegna Wine - Cannonau di Sardegna is a red wine from the Italian island of Sardinia. It is made from Cannonau, the local name for the Grenache – one of Sardinia's most successful wine grapes.

Cannonau is a wonderful, full-bodied Sardinian wine and is well worth seeking out for this recipe as its robust character really complements the beef if you are braising. Known in Italy as vino nero (black wine), scientific research has proved it contains more procyanidins (antioxidants that are most effective in protecting against hardening of the arteries) than any other wine in the world – one of the fact that could explain the incredible life spans of the island’s inhabitants according to Dan Buettner (you get this book without payment, click now… The Blue Zones Solutions). Blue Zones are those places with the world's longest-lived and thus healthiest people. So cook this and live long!

Is Cannonau the Same as Grenache?

In Italy, Grenache is most commonly found as Cannonau in Sardinia where it is one of the principal grapes in the island's deeply colored, full bodied red wines that routinely maintain alcohol levels around 15%. The Sardinian D.O.C. wine Cannonau di Sardegna is by law at least 90% local Grenache (Cannonau). Grenache is also grown in other Italian regions, under names as Granaccia, Vernaccia Nera, Alicante, and Tocai rosso.

Braised Beef in Cannonau Wine - Brasato di manzo al Cannonau

A successful or delicious Italian braise beef recipe intermingles the flavors of the foods being cooked with those of the cooking liquid. This cooking method dissolves the meat's collagen into gelatin, which can deeply enrich and thicken the liquid. 

Braising is economical (as it allows the use of tough and inexpensive cuts of meat), and efficient (as it often enables an entire meal to be prepared in a single pot or pan).

Since the wine is an essential part of this stew, you should use authentic Cannonau Wine, something you would be pleased to drink too.

Serves 4

BRAISED BEEF INGREDIENTS:

800g beef brisket (100% grass-fed if available), trimmed and cut into 3cm cubes
3 tablespoons coconut oil or vegetable oil
750ml bottle of full-bodied red wine (preferably Cannonau Wine)
250ml hot beef stock
2 bay leaves
4 tablespoons olive oil
3 red onions, peeled and each cut into 6 wedges
2 large carrots, halved lengthways and sliced into 3cm lengths
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper


COOKING DIRECTIONS: 

1) Season the meat with salt and pepper. Heat the vegetable oil in a large, heavy based saucepan or flameproof casserole over a medium to high heat. When very hot, fry the meat in 3 batches until well browned on all sides. Return all the meat to the pan.

2) Pour over the wine and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes or until reduced by half, stirring occasionally. 

3) Pour over the stock, add the bay leaves and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer gently for 1½ hours.

4) Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onions, carrots and thyme and fry for about 8 minutes or until golden brown, stirring occasionally.

5) Tip the cooked vegetables into the pan with the beef and stir to combine. Replace the lid and simmer for a further 50 minutes or until tender. Add a little hot water if needed.

6) Remove the pan from the hob and leave to rest with the lid on for 15 minutes, then serve.


What to serve with braised beef? Serve with plain rice or warm potato salad.


Try Another Easy Beef Recipe:

a) Best Boeuf (beef) Bourguignon by Julia Child is Better than Jamie Oliver's Recipe- Instant Pot - Electric Pressure Cooker

b) Filet de Boeuf Richelieu- Beef Filet Richelieu Recipe

c) Marsala Beef Stew Recipe

d) Flavorful Rib-Eye Steaks with Cognac Sauce- Steak Recipes

e) Beef Flank Steak using Sous Vide Cooking Technique

How to Cook the Perfect Braised Beef: Tips and Hacks

1) How to Buy Fresh Meat? What to Look for When Buying Beef with Pictures

2) Tips to Cooking Meat

3) What is Cooking Loss in Meat?

4) What are the Factors Affecting Beef Texture and Juiciness?

5) How to thicken the broth of braised beef? With a roasting pan of rendered salt pork and beef scraps, the rest of the process is all about assembly, layer by layer—vegetables first, then beef. After adding flour (to thicken the stew) and deglazing the pan with the improvised broth, you prop up the beef with a bed of aromatics (onions, carrots, garlic, porcini mushrooms, and herbs) so the chunks of meat poking above the liquid brown nicely and the surrounding liquid simmers and adds complexity.

Homemade beef broth is the best choice in making braised beef. If you have no homemade beef bone broth, there is no problem. Commercial beef broth is the next best option, but it needs a little help on the flavor front from umami enhancers like tomato paste, anchovy paste, and porcini mushrooms. 

For the broth’s body, stirring in a little powdered gelatin imitates the rich consistency of homemade beef stock made with gelatin-rich beef bones.

6) How to finish cooking of braised beef correctly? This braised beef is called Braised Beef in Cannonau Wine for a reason. A full bottle brings full flavor—but after all that braising, it’s also a bit flat. Opening a bottle on another to splash some in at the end of cooking is downright extravagant. A more cheap solution is to hold back part of the bottle until the final reduction of the sauce, for a noticeably brighter, but not boozy, finish.

7) How to make flavorful braised beef? Cooking the best braise beef in the oven (if you prefer using your oven) is a game changer in terms of time and ease, but it’s important to eke out flavor at every turn. Salting the roast (well-marbled chuck eye is your best choice) seasons the meat and helps it keep moisture during cooking. 

Don’t throw out those scraps when cutting the meat into chunks—brown them with salt pork (the best choice for lardons). The result will be a meaty flavor boost at no extra cost.

8) What about browning the meat or Maillard reaction? We normally think of browning as a high-heat operation that occurs on the stovetop. But given enough time (and there’s plenty of unattended braising time) browning can occur in a cooler environment—like an oven—as long as the beef is exposed to the air. 

Switching from a lidded Dutch oven (the usual vessel for a braise) to an open roasting pan accomplishes this. With the beef arranged on top of the vegetables and other solid ingredients, it can brown quite a lot—and all the while you can do something else.



REFERENCES:

America's Test Kitchen (Editor). 2015. 100 Recipes Everyone Should Know How to Make Well: The Relevant (and Surprising) Essential Recipes for the 21st Century Cook. America's Test Kitchen. ISBN-13: 978-1940352015

Dan Buettner (Author) and Joe Barrett (Narrator). 2015. The Blue Zones Solution: Eating and Living Like the World's Healthiest People, Unabridged. Blackstone Audio, Inc. ASIN: B00UY0DOF4

Gino D'Acampo. 2016. Gino's Islands in the Sun: 100 recipes from Sardinia and Sicily to enjoy at home, Illustrated edition. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN-13: 978-1473619647

Michael Ruhlman. 2015. Ruhlman's How to Braise: Foolproof Techniques and Recipes for the Home Cook. Little Brown and Company. ISBN-13: 978-0316254137



Watch Related Youtube Video: Blue Zones Secrets of a Long Life (Start watching at 13:29 about the good benefits of Cannonau Wine)

Dr. Michael Greger VS Dr. Steven Gundry : Are LECTINS Really Bad for You?

5 min read

We live in Misinformation Age, much of it spread by authority figures, including politicians, religious leaders, celebrity physicians, broadcasters, celebrity chefs, and, of course, blogs, websites and mobile apps.

With so much fake information coming from so many sources, how can anyone be expected to find out the truth? Do you know how to identify bad evidence and poor arguments? Do you know the rhetorical tricks people use when attempting to pull the wool over your eyes?

How much of this are mis- or even disinformation? A lot of it is, and your search engine like Bing can't know the difference. Consequently, a flood of misinformation threatens to engulf the conversation about nutrition and health topics.

For example, some people say you shouldn't eat beans or whole grains because of lectins. Are lectins actually bad for you? Some individuals say it is okay and others say it is bad. And you have no time to peruse all the latest scientific evidence.


Dr. Michael Greger (How Not to Die) VS Dr. Steven Gundry (Plant Paradox)

Which one do you believe between these book authors or books? Dr. Steven Gundry (The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Dangers in Healthy Foods That Cause Disease and Weight Gain) or Dr. Michael Greger (How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease)

Read the provocative and controversial commentary of Dr. Greger about lectins and Dr. Gundry’s book (Plant Paradox) on Youtube (refer to video below).


(Dr. Gundry's THE PLANT PARADOX is Wrong) START READING- Earlier this year, I started getting emails about this book, The Plant Paradox, purporting to expose the "hidden dangers" in healthy foods that cause disease and weight gain, foods like beans, and whole grains, and tomatoes.

Why? Because of lectins, which is a rehashing of the discredited Blood Type Diet from decades ago; they just keep coming back.

Yeah, but this was written by an MD, which— if you've seen my medical school videos— you'll know is effectively an anti-credential when it comes to writing diet books, basically advertising to the world that you've received likely little or no formal training in nutrition.

Dr. Atkins was, after all, a cardiologist.

But look, you want to give the benefit of the doubt. The problem is that it doesn't even seem to pass the sniff test. I mean if lectins are bad, then beans would be the worst, and so bean counters would presumably find that bean eaters cut their lives short, whereas the exact opposite may be true with legumes— beans, split peas, chickpeas, and lentils— found to be perhaps the most important dietary predictor of survival in older people in countries around the world.

As Dan Buettner points out in his Blue Zones work, lectin-packed foods are the cornerstone of the diets of all the healthiest, longest- lived populations on the planet.

Plant-based diets in general, and legumes in particular, are a common thread among longevity Blue Zones around the world—the most lectin lush food there is. And if lectins are bad, then whole grain consumers should be riddled with disease, when in fact whole grain intake is associated with a reduced risk of coronary heart disease, the number 1 killer of men and women.

Strokes, too, and total cancer, and mortality from all causes put together, meaning people who eat whole grains tend to live longer, and get fewer respiratory diseases, infectious diseases, diabetes, and all non-cardiovascular, non-cancer causes to boot. And not just in population studies.

As I've shown, you can randomize people into whole grain interventions and prove cause- and-effect benefits.

The same with tomatoes. You randomize women to a cup and a half of tomato juice or water every day, and all that nightshade tomato lectin reduces systemic inflammation, or has waist-slimming effects, reducing cholesterol as well as inflammatory mediators.

So when people told me about this book, I was like, let me guess: he sells a line of lectin- blocking supplements. And what do you know: assist your body in the fight against lectins for only $79.95 a month.

That's only like a thousand bucks a year— a bargain for pleasant bathroom visits. And then, of course, there's 10 other supplements.

So for only 8 or 9 thousand dollars a year, you can lick those lectins. Oh, did I not mention his skincare line?

Firm and sculpt for an extra $120, all so much more affordable when you subscribe to his VIP club. But you still want to give him the benefit of the doubt.

People ask me all the time to comment on some new blog or book or YouTube video, and I have to sadly be like, look, there are a hundred thousand peer-reviewed scientific papers on nutrition published in the medical literature every year, and we can barely keep up with those.

Ah, but people kept emailing me about this book; so, I was like, fine, I'll check out the first citation.

Chapter 1, citation 1: "Forget everything you thought you knew was true" (diet books love saying that).

For example, "Eating shellfish and egg yolks dramatically reduces total cholesterol."

What?! Egg yolks reduce cholesterol?

What is this citation? This is the paper he cites. And here it is. By now, you know how these studies go. How do you show a food decreases cholesterol? You remove so much meat, cheese, and eggs that overall your saturated fat falls, in this case, about 50%.

If you cut saturated fat in half, of course cholesterol levels are going to drop. So they got a drop in cholesterol removing meat, cheese, and egg yolks. Yet, that's the paper he uses to support his statement that egg yolks dramatically reduce cholesterol. I mean it's unbelievable. That's the opposite of the truth. Add egg yolks to people's diets and their cholesterol goes up. I mean, how dare he say this?

And it's not like some harmless foolishness, like saying the Earth is flat or something.

Heart disease is the number one killer of men and women. This can actually hurt people.

So much for my benefit of the doubt. -END


Now what? Learn more…

I you prefer quick listening than reading books, just download the complimentary audio book of Dr. Greger, click here, How Not to Die. Get this audiobook plus a second book of your choice for free.


Try a Lectin-FREE Recipe: How Make Baked Okra Lectin-Blocking Chips? - Lectin-FREE Recipes



Watch it on Youtube: Dr. Gundry’s The Plant Paradox Is Wrong