Theseus went to Crete to fight with Minodorus, and he successfully won the fight.

And in his way back to Athens, he stopped in the Ilos to offer something to Deos Apollos for this success.

And apparently from this long trip that they had from Crete to the Aeos, there was nothing else left other than beans.

So this is the first mention that they prepared like these beans to and offered it to a pollen.

Welcome back to Science on the menu. In this episode, we will be discussing a group of substances called lectins.

They can be beneficial to plants, but also quite harmful to humans.

To help us understand this topic a bit better, I'm joined

today by Irini Kulura, a scientist in EFSA contaminants team. Welcome, Irini. Nice to have you.

Nice to be here, Maria. Thanks a lot for inviting me. My first question for you is,

what are lectins and why do we care about them? So So lectins, as you mentioned, is diverse group of proteins.

They bind specifically to carbohydrates.

So lectins naturally are produced by plants in order, like as a part of their defense mechanisms,

are protecting plants from pests and other pathogens. However, in this sense,

they are harmful sometimes for humans. Okay. In which foods exactly do we find the lectins?

Yeah, that's a good question. So we have lectins almost everywhere. We have them in plants and other organisms as well,

in let's say fungi, in marine organisms, like all organisms have lectins, but specifically

plants, lectins in several, let's say, parts. So we find lectim seeds, the fruits, in leaves. So we can find lectins in all plant-based

food. Some examples. So in legumes, in grains, in vegetables and fruits, everywhere you can find

lectins. Okay. All of these lectins equal, are they all the same?

That's a good question, so no.

Replies no.

So all those lectins are not the same.

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