Why I Don’t Recommend Nuts, Seeds, Grains, or Legumes
Nuts, seeds, whole grains, and legumes are often promoted as health foods — packed with fiber, protein, and “healthy fats.” But if you're dealing with gut issues, low thyroid function, hormone imbalances, or chronic fatigue, these are the last foods you want in your diet.
Behind the wellness branding is a harsh biological reality: seeds are the most chemically defended foods in nature. And your body knows it.
🌱 They're All Seeds — and That’s the Problem
Whether you’re eating almonds, oats, black beans, or quinoa, you’re eating a seed. From an evolutionary standpoint, seeds are how plants reproduce — and they don’t want to be eaten. So they defend themselves with compounds designed to injure or deter predators.
In humans, that means:
Phytic acid — binds to essential minerals like zinc, magnesium, and iron, making them unavailable
Lectins & saponins — damage the gut lining and increase intestinal permeability
Enzyme inhibitors — impair digestion and reduce protein absorption
PUFAs (omega-6 linoleic acid) — suppress thyroid function, slow metabolism, and promote inflammation
These defenses don’t just block nutrients — they actively signal danger to your gut, liver, and endocrine system.
🦠 Gut Damage Starts Here
The modern rise in autoimmune disease, food sensitivities, IBS, and even anxiety and depression is directly linked to gut integrity. And seed foods are one of the primary offenders.
Their anti-nutrients inflame and weaken the intestinal lining, feed dysbiotic microbes, and block the nutrients your gut needs to repair itself.
If you’re using biofilm disruptors, antimicrobials, motility agents, or collagen — but still eating seeds — you’re working against yourself. I’ve seen client after client stay stuck in their healing until we remove nuts, seeds, grains, and legumes completely.
🔥 PUFA: The Root of Modern Disease
Polyunsaturated fats — especially omega-6 linoleic acid from seeds — are the single most damaging input in the modern diet. These oils are not just linked to hormone issues or sluggish thyroid. They are a primary driver of all chronic disease: obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, autoimmune conditions, infertility, neurodegeneration, and more.
PUFAs are highly unstable and oxidize easily, creating cellular damage, mitochondrial dysfunction, and chronic inflammation at every level of the body.
Here’s what linoleic acid — the dominant omega-6 fat in seeds and seed oils — does to your system:
Inhibits the conversion of T4 to active T3 (slowing thyroid output)
Increases estrogen and lowers progesterone
Suppresses fat burning and increases fat storage
Damages mitochondrial respiration
Drives oxidative stress and inflammatory cascades
Alters cell membrane function and impairs detoxification
Sunflower seeds and almond butter are surprisingly concentrated sources of linoleic acid — the same inflammatory omega-6 fat found in industrial seed oils. A tablespoon of sunflower seeds contains roughly 4–5 grams of linoleic acid, while almond butter provides around 2–3 grams. For comparison, a tablespoon of soybean oil contains about 7 grams. These ‘health foods’ can quietly add up, pushing your total PUFA intake into disease-promoting territory — even without touching a bottle of oil.
Chronic disease formation begins when daily linoleic acid intake exceeds 5–10 grams. But studies show that insulin sensitivity can return within 30 to 90 days when total LA intake drops below 5 grams per day. Since even high-quality whole foods like eggs, poultry, and red meat contain small amounts, most people are already halfway to that limit — meaning there’s no margin for seeds, nut butters, or hidden oils if healing is the goal.
PUFAs are the Trojan horse of the modern health food industry — and until they’re removed, true healing remains out of reach.
🦜 You’re Not a Bird — You Don’t Have a Gizzard
Birds evolved a gizzard — a muscular organ that grinds up seeds with swallowed stones. Some animals produce enzymes that help them break down seed-based toxins. Humans have neither.
Most wild seeds are toxic or indigestible to humans in their raw state. Without processing, they are unsuitable as a regular food source. We simply don’t have the anatomy or enzymatic profile to eat them safely in large quantities.
🌍 What Traditional Cultures Knew
Ancient peoples were aware of this — and they respected seeds accordingly. Over generations, they developed methods to reduce seed toxicity: soaking, sprouting, fermenting (like sourdough), nixtamalizing corn, or removing the anti-nutrient-rich bran from rice to produce more digestible white rice.
Even with these precautions, seeds were never the centerpiece of ancestral diets. They were backup foods — used in times of scarcity, to stretch calories, or consumed in small, infrequent amounts.
The modern obsession with seed-based foods — nut milks, oat bars, flax smoothies, chickpea pasta — is completely unprecedented. And it’s come with a cost: metabolic collapse, digestive disease, hormonal breakdown, and chronic fatigue.
🧠 Hormones, Mental Health, and the Gut-Brain Axis
The damage seeds do isn’t just physical. Seed toxins affect neurotransmitter synthesis, stress hormone regulation, and blood sugar stability — all of which impact mental health. Gut permeability (leaky gut), triggered by lectins and saponins, allows inflammatory compounds into the bloodstream and brain, driving symptoms like brain fog, mood swings, anxiety, and insomnia.
PUFAs, meanwhile, suppress progesterone and promote estrogen dominance — a hormonal pattern tied to PMS, infertility, low libido, and autoimmune flares.
🚫 What to Do While You’re Healing
If you’re actively working to rebuild your gut, restore thyroid function, or reverse chronic illness, seeds don’t belong in your diet. Even properly prepared versions — sprouted oats, sourdough, white rice, nixtamalized corn — should be minimized until your digestion, hormones, and immune function are stable.
Once your system has healed, you may tolerate a small percentage of your calories from traditionally prepared seed foods — just as our ancestors did. But during the healing phase, the fastest results come from removing them entirely.
✅ What to Eat Instead
A true healing diet is anti-inflammatory, pro-digestive, and metabolically supportive:
Pro-metabolic proteins: dairy, collagen, bone broth, eggs, high-quality meats
Digestible carbs: ripe fruit, honey, maple syrup, white rice, cooked potatoes
Safe fats: butter, coconut oil, cacao butter
Gut support tools: gelatin, mineral salt, raw carrot, and targeted antimicrobials
This approach supports the gut lining, balances blood sugar, restores hormone production, and increases energy — without the inflammatory baggage of seeds.
🔊 Ray Peat Wisdom
“Nuts and seeds are rich in unsaturated fats and enzyme inhibitors, which are stressful to the body and interfere with digestion.”
“Plants don’t want you to eat their seeds — that’s why they load them with toxins, allergens, and irritants.”
“The increase in degenerative diseases in the 20th century parallels the increase in seed oil consumption.”
⚡ Final Thought
Seeds are not sacred — they’re plant defense mechanisms. If you’re struggling with gut issues, metabolic slowdown, hormone imbalance, or unexplained fatigue, seed foods are a hidden driver of stress.
Remove them, rebuild your system, and you’ll be shocked at how quickly things start working again.
Want help creating a seed-free, gut-healing, pro-metabolic plan?
Book a consult. I’ll show you how we combine collagen, anti-microbials, food-based healing, and macro strategy to help your body finally heal.
