 Lekton free snacks. Eat this. Not that. Sunflower seeds. I know you see all the ballplayers eating their sunflower seeds and don't follow their example. Sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds are loaded with lectins. Sunflower oil, pumpkin seed oil loaded with lectins. Instead, use such an inseed seeds. Use boronut seeds, lectin free loaded with protein, or just munch on some pomegranate seeds. Now you'll notice I've talked about a couple of seeds and some people think that I tell you to avoid all seeds. That's not true at all. There are certain seeds and certain nuts that you probably should avoid. On the other hand, there are certain seeds that are really good for you. So just because it says a seed doesn't mean it has lectins. But these are great for you. How about chips? Now I hope everybody watching knows that potato chips are really bad for you. They're usually cooked in lectin-rich oils, omega-6 oils. They're usually made from potatoes, which are lectin bombs in and of themselves. Corn chips the same problem. They're almost always cooked in high omega-6 oils and 70% of my patients with leaky gut have antibodies to the various components of corn. Now there are a number of grain-free chip products on the market. As I've seen through over 20 years with my patients, just because something is grain-free or even lectin- free doesn't make it your first choice for snacking. For instance, this chip is definitely lectin-free. It has cauliflower and carrots and cassava. But it's cooked in sunflower oil and it has chia seeds. But the worst part of this chip and this chip is that it's mostly simple carbohydrates. So just do the math. So eight chips have 140 calories. Okay, that's a lot of calories for eight chips. But there are 19 grams of carbohydrates in those eight chips. There's two grams of fiber. So that means there's 17 grams of carbohydrate per serving. There's four grams of carbohydrate in one teaspoon of sugar. So there are over four teaspoons of sugar in one serving of this packet. So regardless of how healthy it may sound, this is a carbohydrate sugar bomb. The same way, this sounds healthy, cassava, avocado oil, coconut flour. Oop, there's chia seeds. But this has 20 grams of carbohydrate per serving. There's three grams of fiber. This also has 17 grams of carbohydrates per serving. This is not what you think you're getting. And sadly, I see this happen with my patients all the time. They're eating a healthy lectin-limited alternative to a potato chip and yet their triglycerides go up, their insulin goes up, their insulin resistant goes up, all because they're trying to make a healthy choice. Don't be tricked. Now, what about popcorn? Well, popcorn, same problem. It's corn. Every time you pop a grain, you actually expose it to rapid digestion and turns into sugar. Now, I'm a big fan of sorghum popcorn. In fact, I usually have a handful every night, but it doesn't have any lectins, but buyer beware. This is not a health food replacement. So for instance, this is a lot better than these. In a half a cup, there's only eight grams of carbohydrate, one gram of fiber. So there's seven grams of carbohydrate in a half cup. Do the math. There's still about two teaspoons of sugar in each half cup. And believe me, a half cup is not a whole lot. Do what I do when I'm using this treat, pour some olive oil all over it, soak it up with olive oil and use it as a delivery device to get olive oil into your mouth, which is exactly what my wife and I do. Then it becomes a real health food. Number four, hummus. Hummus sounds like the greatest food in the whole world. It's made out of chickpeas. It's going to have some olive oil in it, but hold on. Chickpeas and other beans and legumes are loaded with lectins. And so all that healthy hummus that you see at the store, at the farmer's market, please do yourself a favor, stay away from it. On the other hand, you can get pressure cooked chickpeas in the grocery store. Two companies make them, one Eden brand, the other Jovial, like a happy person. These have been pressure cooked. So they're perfectly safe. Make your own hummus at home. Why? Use the pressure cooked beans, you've eliminated the lectins, and you'll save a lot of money from what you're going to buy in the store. And you don't even know where those beans have been. This is the way to go. So you can replace your store-bought hummus with something you make at home. Another great option is to make macadamia nut hummus. I've actually got the macadamia hummus recipe right here on my YouTube channel. Check it out. So how about almonds, everybody's favorite snack? The problem with almonds is that the peel of an almond has got a pretty nasty lectin that a number of my patients react to. Now, marcona almonds or peeled almonds or blanched almonds are safe for most people, but if you have gut issues or a known autoimmune disease, then you should know that a large percentage of my patients react to all the parts of almonds, almond flour, almond milk, even if it comes from blanched and peeled almonds. So, buyer beware, almonds are not your best source of a snack. There's plenty of other great nuts. As you know, my world-famous gondry nut mix combines macadamia nuts, walnuts, pistachios, and pecans. And put all those into a bowl. You can also, for really fun, and you'll find the recipes in my book, bake them with olive oil and some rosemary and other herbs, toss them around on a baking sheet, and it'll really add a new dimension to your nut mix. Lots of options instead of almonds. Push those aside in the grocery store. Now, many people, when they're looking for a snack, go for yogurt, or they go for Greek yogurt. First of all, Greek yogurt, folks, it doesn't come from Greece. It's made from American cows. American cows have a protein that's pretty mischievous called Kacene A1, and it's an inflammatory protein. Now, Kacene A2 milk yogurt is starting to become available. Goats and sheep contain Kacene A2. So if you're going to have yogurts, make sure it's sheep milk yogurt, or goat milk yogurt, or coconut yogurt, and make sure it's plain, nothing else added. That's your assurance that you're getting the right Kacene A2, that it's been fermented, and that there's no more sugar in there. Now, a lot of you will look and look on the label and say, wait a minute, there's six grams of carbohydrates. No, there isn't. Turns out, labeling laws require the manufacturer to put the original ingredient that you started with on the label. Sheep milk lactose is eaten by the bacteria. So it's not there anymore. So there is no sugar in plain yogurt, despite what you see on the label. Now, with coconut yogurt, quite frankly, there isn't much sugar, and in this case, there's still six grams, but they've actually, the bugs have eaten all the sugar, the same sort of thing. So perfectly safe to have plain yogurts. There's no sugar left because the bacteria ate it. But a word of warning, don't use flavored yogurts. Avoid the fruit, avoid the vanilla. Whenever you see a flavoring, I guarantee you there will be loads of sugar, or even worse, a sugar substitute that's going to wreak havoc on your gut and your microbiome. So goat yogurt, sheep yogurt, coconut yogurt, a two-milk yogurt, you're good to go as long as it's plain. If you want to sweeten it, add allulose, my favorite sweetener of all time, and you'll be fine. Now, there's a traditional snack called ants on a log, and that contains celery, peanut butter, and raisins. Well, celery is pretty good for you in limited amounts, but the peanut butter, electin' bomb, raisins, or pure sugar. So what do you do? Well, I've made ants on a log with macadamia nut butter. You could do it with pistachio butter, you could do it with walnut butter. For the holidays, put some pomegranate seeds on there, and you've kind of got a cute little U-log for the holidays. Number eight, this stuff's gotta go, folks, chia seed pudding. It's everywhere. Everybody raves about chia seeds, and there are things to like about chia seeds. They make a gel that does contain a small amount of omega-3 short-chain fatty acids, and that sounds like a good idea. And there are human studies that show we do absorb this short-chain omega-3 fat from chia seeds. But sadly, there are human studies that giving humans volunteer chia seeds increases one of the markers of inflammation called C-reactive protein, not what you want to do. On the other hand, basil seeds, part of the basil family, which is the mint family, are loaded with antioxidants, also loaded with omega-3 fats, make the exact same nice puffy fiber that chia seeds do, but don't add to inflammation. And they're readily available. This is my favorite company, Zen Basil. If you can't find it, make sure that you're looking for organic basil seeds, and use them exactly as you would chia seeds. And I think you'll actually find you'll like them a whole lot better. Number nine, granola bars. Granola bars are basically a bar of sugar and lectins and glyphosate. Almost every granola bar tested in this country by the environmental working group found fairly high levels of glyphosate, Roundup, the weed killer, and another herbicide that's banned from the United States. So all you're getting is a pesticide herbicide laden sugar bomb. Instead, there's great bar alternatives here at Gundry MD. You can have a honey nut bar. You can have a coconut bar that takes exactly like a mounds bar, in my opinion. You don't have to just reach for the granola bar. There are also a number of other bars that are in the keto category, which I like and approve. And the list is on my yes list in unlocking the keto code and the energy paradox. But be careful with these keto bars. First of all, a lot of them have bad ingredients, like you'll see peanut butter in a lot of them. A lot of them will sneak in Splenda, which is sucralose as one of the ingredients. So read the ingredients very carefully before saying Dr. Gundry approves of keto bars. There are some good ones out there, but please, even the good ones, read the label because they change almost on a monthly basis what the ingredients are. Finally, everybody's favorite snack, peel a banana and eat it. Here's the problem with bananas. Number one, when we do food sensitivity testing on our patients, bananas frequently rank really high on foods that people are sensitive to, not allergic to, sensitive to. That means they actually promote inflammation. Number two, bananas, when they're ripe, the starch in green bananas changes to a rapidly absorbable fructose that will wreak havoc on raising your triglycerides will increase your mitochondrial damage both in your liver and in your kidneys. And it's not the snack you're looking for. On the other hand, buy your bananas green, peel them, and that should be hard to peel. Throw the peeled bananas in the freezer, thaw one out to use, and eat it like a popsicle. It's not going to be as sweet as you're used to, but that green banana contains resistant starches that the bacteria in your gut think is one of the best health foods for them. And if you take care of them, they'll take care of you. If you found this video helpful, I think you're going to love this one. Just doing that four or five days once a month acts as if you were calorie restricted for the entire month.