"Living
with phytic acid" is one of those cases, where importance of culinary
tradition comes to the forefront. As society, we act boldly, and we
are not afraid to try new things, almost like children. In order to
do so, we discard years of experience accumulated by older
generation, so we can experiment with new things. This has been seen
through history and the recent revolution is a very good example.
With the advent of new technology we have created a “better world”
for ourselves. And in many aspects, it is a better world, but we
became also more alienated and started to rely on processed food to
be able to work harder, harder and harder...
As the case of “living with phytic acid” shows us, a closer
inspection of our traditions is needed, before decisions to abandon
some of them can be made. As it turns out, we cannot always rely on
the assumption, that when it comes to food “faster is better”.
Food teaches us to slow down from time to time, in order to put our
interest ahead of any other. We failed to do so with phytic acid and
more precisely with food that contains it, grain, seeds, nuts and
legumes. As a result, the society we live in, has become profoundly
sick, because it is nutrition deficient.
It
comes as a surprise to us..., because we strongly believe in our
abilities and potential. And it is nothing wrong with that.
Thankfully, we slowly acknowledge, that the root cause of our chronic
health problems come from our diet and our attitude to life in
general. What “living with phytic acid” teaches us also is, that
adding few healthy food to our diet does not necessary mean, that we
will automatically be healthy. Instead, we should re-examine our
culinary tradition and re-visit the culinary process of our ancestors
again.
Phytic
acid, by some is called the mineral thief and by others a potent
anti-nutrient. Its reputation comes from the fact, that it is present
in most nutritious food known to man. As I mentioned above, it is
present in grain, seeds, nuts and legumes, the food that man grew up
to rely on for nutrients. However, when processed incorrectly the
food, that is nutritious, becomes its worst enemy. Phytic acid, as
any other acid, has the tendency to bind minerals to form salts. What
this means for us is, that all minerals found in food containing
phytic acid will be eliminated from our system..., as waste.
Precisely, it binds to magnesium, iron, calcium zinc and copper, so
by consuming such food, we become deficient in those minerals.
Nature, however, comes in different colors and shapes, so it also
provided us with an antidote, an enzyme called phytase. When
activated, this enzyme breaks down, or in other words neutralizes the
acid, hence frees the minerals for absorption. The trick is to know,
what to do, to activate the enzyme to do the dirty work for us.
Things
to keep in mind when “living with phytic acid”
1.
THE MOST IMPORTANT TRICK TO HAVE UP YOUR SLEEVES: Phytase is
activated in acidic environment. Food containing phytic acid should
be “fermented” in acidic water for at least 20 hours. Ideally it
is recommended to add yogurt to water, because it contains whey plus
bacteria, which can produce additional phytase needed to neutralize
phytic acid found in our food. Our ancestors somehow knew about that
and they fermented legumes, or even sprouted them, before they
processed them for consumption. This trick has been lost and hopefully
will come back again.
2.
Adding onion, garlic or carrots to food containing phytic acid can
have neutralizing effects and can enhance absorption of minerals.
3.
It has been shown that people with healthy gut bacteria can tolerate
phytic acid better than those who have gut problems. Part of the
reason is attributed to healthy bacteria, which produce phytase to
neutralize phytic acid. Thus, including yogurt into diet consisting of legumes will help you with digesting phytic acid containing food and absorption of minerals.
4.
There is also evidence showing, that phytic acid can act as powerful
anti-oxidant in our gut, so staying away from food containing it
should not be our prerogative. Instead, we should ferment it, to
enhance our chances of absorption of minerals, and what is not
neutralized can be then used to keep our gut healthy.
If
you want to read more about phytic acid I strongly recommend the
following link. It is a comprehensive description on the topic and
provides some basic information about our mineral thief (but I have
to warn you, it is actually quite scientific):
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