Phytic acid and anti-nutrients in foods.

Hi everyone,

What is an anti-nutrient? is is natures way of protecting itself as plants cannot run away so plants need to be washed, soaked or cooked to render these anti nutrients harmless. As anti nutrients bind to minerals like iron and prevent their absorption. So we need to know how to prepare foods and especially raw foods.

I first came across anti nutrients with quinoa as you had to wash the saponins out before cooking and eating, raw soy beans have to be soaked and cooked or sprouted to remove the anti nutrients.

With the recent warning by the EFSA on eating ground flax seeds here's an interesting article about how if foods are prepared properly the anti nutrients are broken down.

Please see:

badgut.org/information-cent...

[Zest]

Hi Hidden

Thanks for this, I hope to read it over the weekend, when I have a little more time, but your post made me think of an incident when I was reaching in the fridge for an aubergine, and it 'spiked' me - there were some sharp barbs there, and I thought to myself, "This aubergine doesn 't want to be eaten!" - I realise that's a flippant analysis, but I do think that fruit and veg protect themselves from being eaten in numerous ways!

Zest

[Hidden in reply to Zest]

Absolutely Zest like apple seeds contain cyanide.

Jerry 😊

[Zest in reply to Hidden]

You've reminded me, we are going to harvest our apples later today - so we'll be chopping and coring them, to remove those pesky pips, and I might be stewing some of them.

Those apples will be eaten sometime!

Zest

[Hidden]

Hi Jerry

Thank you very much for sharing this. I've read the first part about nutrients and fresh, canned and frozen vegetables, I've yet to read the rest which I will do sometime tomorrow. I'm looking forward to reading it in full.

It l9oks to be a very good article.😀

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Thanks Alicia, our fore parents knew how to prepare foods and passed this knowledge from generation to generation. And now we are having to re learn these basic skills...

Enjoy the article I find nutrition really interesting. 😀

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

They certainly did know. My mum always grew her own vegetables and they had a taste all if their own. As far as I'm concerned they are the best and very tasty and organic, what's not to like.

I'm looking forward to readingvrhe section on nutrition.😀

[Lesley1234567]

Thank you Jerry that was quite an interesting read. Although frozen vegetables are as good as or better than fresh I prefer fresh over frozen. I’m sure there are additives added during the process of freezing. And I do wonder what quality they are in when they are eventually taken from the field. I will never forget a summer job I had in a canning factory, the carrots were rotting before they entered the process. You guessed it I never eat tinned carrots, only fresh ones for me.

[Hidden in reply to Lesley1234567]

Thank you Lesley1234567 I agree about fresh veg but do keep a small selection in the freezer so I can have the best of both worlds. I buy tinned pulses like black eyed beans butter beans.

The carrots at the canning factory sound yuk...🤢

Jerry. 😊