Luke Marcus
GSW 1110
September 19, 2014
Phytic Acid. What’s the Scare? Recently, nutritional guidance has gone far beyond a balance of basic vitamins, calories, proteins, fats and carbohydrates. The search for better health has led people in many directions, looking at food contents such as micronutrients and antioxidants which have been used as recommendations for finding the healthiest ways to eat. A recent trend in personal nutrition has been for individuals to follow the Paleo diet. The Paleo diet is a template for dieting based off what our ancestors ate thousands of years ago. This diet essentially eliminates dairy and grains, instead recommending high amounts of leafy green vegetables, moderate amounts of grass fed meats, starchy vegetables,…show more content… Eating these foods as staples in one’s diet then leads to nutrient deficiency compared to alternative food sources, hence the Paleo guideline to generally remove them. Although there is scientific support to this effect it is not always addressed as such a threat.
“it turns out that that phytic acid in the food is most commonly bound to a metal ion already….it just means that if you look at, say, the iron content of kale, well, you’re not going to absorb all the iron that you see because some of it is bound to phytic acid” (Lalonde, Matt. Interview by Chris Kresser).
The point taken is that the phytic acid itself binds into the foods not into the person and while there is truth to it not allowing all nutrients to be absorbed it will not provoke any personal deficiency in nutrients. This would mean that the nutrition in certain legumes will not exactly meet its labelled expectations giving some truth to the argument on side of the Paleo diet but does not classify these foods as unhealthy by that…show more content… Those in support of the Paleo diet agree with this as well as by those who find phytic acid to be mostly irrelevant. Soaking legumes like lentils or beans is one of the most basic methods but only slightly reduces phytic acid levels. “The best way of reducing phytates in beans is sprouting for several days, followed by cooking...Lentils soaked for 12 hours, germinated 3-4 days and then soured will likely completely eliminate phytates.” (Living with Phytic Acid,2010). In order to fully or mostly remove the risk of phytic acid, a tedious process is ahead, although it seems to be fairly successful. “At a minimum, beans should be soaked for twelve hours, drained and rinsed several times before cooking, for a total of thirty-six hours”(Living with Phytic Acid,2010). With the breakdown of phytic acids in legumes they would be processed into a more nutritious state, where they are among the most dense for fiber and plant based