96
Views
11
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Review Article

Lectins in Food: Their Importance in Health and Disease

Pages 45-64 | Published online: 13 Jul 2009
 

Abstract

Up until about 15 years ago lectins were thought of as laboratory tools, useful for histochemistry and blood transfusion work. The fact that many common foods are rich sources of lectin was not considered by most biomedical scientists. In the last decade, however, there has been a flowering of knowledge about the interactions of lectins with body organs and tissues, and it has become clear that many lectins are resistant to cooking and digestion and are distributed to distant parts of the body after ingestion. There is now abundant evidence that dietary lectins can cause disease in Man and animals. This review will adduce evidence that such hitherto mysterious diseases as inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes mellitus, rheumatoid arthritis, glomerulonephri-tis, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, retinitis and cataracts in the eye, are all explicable in terms of a lectin aetiology, as are congenital malformations, infertility, IgE-mediated allergies and autoimmune states. Complete proof is still lacking in most cases, but the new hypothesis, if true, offers scope for rational therapy in these hitherto intractable diseases

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.