Lectins are bound by IgA, including that found in breast milk
If you haven't read Eat Right 4 Your Type yet, I recommend it. I read it when it first came out, and then the other night I read most of it again to do a homework assignment for school. We are studying blood types and the more I read up on this, the more I think D'Adamo's ideas are strongly substantiated. I know that I personally can tell the difference in my body when I stick to his diet advisories. Lately I've been eating more potatoes, and my arthritis is quite inflamed. Over the years I keep gradually adjusting my diet, but I think I will once again return to this man's advice. After living another decade I am more convinced than I was when first read it.
Here's a great website I found while doing my homework on D'Adamo's diet by blood type ideas.
http://www.krispin.com/lectin.html
Lots of good info in there, and near the bottom this little gem:
Biol Neonate 1991;59(3):121-5
The high lectin-binding capacity of human secretory IgA protects nonspecifically mucosae against environmental antigens.
Davin JC, Senterre J, Mahieu PR
Department of Pediatrics, State University of Liege, Belgium.
The anti-infectious role of human milk may be, at least partly, ascribed to its content in secretory IgA. As lectins are present in various infectious antigens, the binding of different types of IgA to three lectins (concanavalin A, peanut agglutinin, wheat germ agglutinin) was studied by Elisa. The specificity of those bindings was assessed by inhibitory experiments performed with the corresponding oligosaccharides. The following were found for the three lectins: (1) the lectin-binding capacity of colostrum secretory IgA was markedly greater than that of normal plasma IgA1 (p less than 0.001); (2) the lectin-binding capacity of polymeric IgA1 was greater than that of monomeric IgA1 (p less than 0.001). This property of mucosal IgA may be responsible of a nonimmune opsonization able to prevent the early step of some infectious mucosal diseases, i.e. the attachment of bacteria to epithelial cells by lectin-like bonds and also the penetration into the body of some antigens able to favor the development of allergy. Milk mucosal IgA, present in significant amounts in human colostrum and mature milk - but not in infant formulas - may therefore play an important polyvalent protective role in newborns.