Anti-nutrients
- valentinlouispro
- 27 nov. 2020
- 3 min de lecture
When we deal with our diets, we face a huge amount of foodstuff, some more interesting than others. In some ways, the complexity of nutrition deals with the fact that we have a bunch of options and that this is sometimes difficult to make the “good choice”. The issue is that when we deal with plant based food, we usually find absorption issues.
An anti-nutrient is substance, in plant based food, that interferes with the absorption of nutrients. It means that it can block the absorption of minerals (for example) by the body while they have been ingested.
A DEFENSIVE STRATEGY
In the context of co-evolution, plants live on their own, they don’t need any help from human kind to grow. It induces that plants have their own defensive mechanism. It is whether for a protection from bacterial infections or from being eaten by insects, and to resist to climate. For example, a foodstuff cultivated in a warm and tropical countries might have more chances to be stable after ingestion than the one that have been cropped in cold countries. They tend to be less concerned by their environmental “battle”.
EXAMPLES
Some of the most known nutrients found are as follows:
- Phytate (phytic acid): mainly found in seeds, grains and legumes, they reduce the absorption of minerals. This is one is known a being a main inhibitor of Fe (iron) and Zn (zinc) absorption.
- Lectins: found in food plants, sees, legumes and grains. A big amount of lectins can be the source of diarrhea, nausea, bloating or vomiting. The most problematic sources are: cereals, soya, beans and most of vegetables. Cooking helps avoiding it.
- Oxalates: found in leafy vegetables, nuts, grains and soya. The issue there is that they tend to hinder the calcium absorption.
- Lignans: found in flaxseed, sesame seeds, and raw cruciferous vegetables such as cabbages, cauliflower or broccoli. They tend to generate hormonal disorders.
We also find cellulose, lignin, pectin… that can’t prevent us from absorbing proteins or that increase the endotoxins secretion…
Then, we also find lots of anti-nutrients in wwholegrain rice and pasta, which means there are absolutely no reasons to prefer it to white rice. By eating white rice you will be less disposed to antinutrients and you will avoid digestive problems.
Leave that wholegrain rice packet on the side!
HOW TO HANDLE IT ?
They are different methods to prevent anti-nutrients to be ingested, and to improve their nutritional value. The first thing would be to take care of the way we “treat” them.
1) Soaking: the idea is to soak the plant leguminous in a bowl of water overnight. The fact is that many anti-nutrients are water-soluble, water helps to get rid of them. Most of them are found in the skin.
2) Sprouting: the germination of the seeds, for example, which is a natural process seems to be very interesting in order to reduce the phytates. It has been confirmed by the study of Yuwei Luo & Al (2012) where they dealt about germination and phytate degradation regarding beans.
3) Fermentation: this is a traditional and an ancient method used to preserve food. We can it in the dairy industry with yogurts, cheese, wine…Etc. A study from Carmen Cuadrado & Al (2010) has stated that such process was effective on the phytate and lectins levels from the grains and legums.
4) Boiling: hig heat can also be a method to reduce levels of lectins. It has been precised by KESHUN LIU & al (1987) that boiling eliminated high levels of trypsin inhibitor when dealing with soybeans.
Those methods can be combined in order to reduce the amount of anti-nutrients.
Such processing methods are widely used in societies where cereals and legumes form a major part of the diet.”
Apart from the famous (and old-fashionned) "i am what I eat" maybe should we more consider the following sentence: "i am what I absorb".
In fat, we don’t have the same digestive system as ruminants for example, which means that we don’t absorb the same way the food that we ingest. Indeed, anti-nutrients are found in various foodstuff that we eat on a daily basis, and this is exactly why this is important to take care of it. Cook or boil your food, use fermentation, sprouting or soaking in order to reduce the amount of antinutrients. By doing so, you will better assimilate amino acids, minerals and vitamins.
SOURCES
Thanks for reading :)
Valentin
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