Phytic acid and Bioavailibility

[sen2two]

First off, this is my first time posting on this forum and over the years I have had many questions answered by people on this site by using the good old fashioned Google search. So I finally decided to sign up. Hopefully I can be a help to some and learn from others.


DISCLAIMER: DO NOT POST IF YOU HAVE NOTHING USEFUL TO ADD. Do not waste yours, mine, or others time posting useless nonsense. Try to keep it fact based.

If you are not 100% serious about what you eat, what it does for you, and how to get the most out if it... Just move on.


I have been doing a lot of research about Phytic acid, phytates, Bioavailabilty, Nightshade vegatable, ect. With reducing Phytic acid in foods being the main concern. And I thought about something I could not find an answer to, which I will get to at the end. But first an intro...

Incase this is the first time you hear of Phytic acid, here's a VERY simple discription. Phytic acid, or phytate when in salt form makes important minerals like zinc, iron, calcium and magnesium, plus others unabsorbable. For example, even though you have taken in X amount mg of iron from a bowl of oats, really you are getting much much less if any at all. Also bioavailability of foods differs from food to food on how much you can absorb. But Phytic acid actually bonds to and "steals" these important minerals away not giving your body a chance at absorbing them. The higher the Phytic acid content, the more it will rob nutrients. This is common in nuts, seeds, legumes, beans, and grains and oats. There is some slight good news though. Through proper preperation, you can reduce and even eliminate Phytic acid in some foods, but not all foods.

There is loads of information on Phytic acid on the internet. There are complete books written about Phytic acid as well. A simple Google search will turn up tons of research papers as well as food lists with amounts and how to get rid of, or lower the Phytic acid content.


Now, bioavailability is basically the rate at which you absorb nutrients. Again this is a VERY basic description. There's much more to it than that, and again... Google is your friend if you want to learn more. As an example, Gemma Pea protein has a bioavailability rate of 90-95%. So you will actually get 90-95% of the nutrients listed on the nutrition facts label.

Now I left out tons of information and kept it very basic. And I will say a 3rd time, Google is your friend if you want to learn more. If you know this stuff already and are upset that I left out important information, you are welcome to explain it here. I left a lot out because this is already long enough. Also, I do not know it all and I am still learning and would love to become educated further on the topic. Which is why I am posting it here.

Ok, now with things like Phytic acid bonding to nutrients and making them unabsorbable. And most foods/supplements not being 100% bioavailable. Then it is easy to become nutrient deprived if you do not prepare, plan, and eat accordingly. Even when you are a strict eater and count everything. Not knowing or accounting for Phytic acid /bioavailibility can set you in the wrong direction very quickly. I'm basing this on an highly active athletic person since this is what is relevant to myself. And since this is a "health" forum. I'm guessing most would be as well.

So my question is, in hopes that someone here is knowledgeable on this topic. In foods that contain a high amount of Phytic acid, are you still absorbing the calories? Coupled with the effects of bioavailibility, I wouldn't think so. But I have yet to find any information on this where it mentions calorie absorbtion. But if you are still consuming the same amount of calories, but not getting the benefits of the nutrients, proteins, ect. Then eating a bowl of steal cut oats with blue berries is an empty high calorie meal despite its seemingly nutritious qualities. (Off topic: (Not to mention that all grains cause inflamation and all berries reduce the risk of healing)

So, if I was to eat a few of the higher Phytic acid foods and consume them in one meal. Which are generally thought to be highly nutritious. Another example ill give is an actual meal I use to eat quite a lot of. Quinoa and black beans with red peppers. Seems like a perfect fit for a post workout meal. Good quality comlex carbs with quality protein and foods that are thought to be packed full of nutrients.But 2 are extremely high on the Phytic acid list. While peppers are not, they are considered a nightshade vegetable. (Which also reduce the rate of healing) And even with very time consuming preparation, most of the Phytic acid still remains...

Ok, I can go on and on here and even get into a lot of other things. I am posting this to enlighten others who are as strict of eaters as myself it even more so. And in hopes of being further educated. And ill end it here and open it for discussion.

[ClevageGobbler]

Thanks for the info. I've never heard of phytic acid or nightshade vegetables so it looks like I have some reading to catch up on.

[Lionology]

Cliffs?

[sen2two]

Thanks for the info. I've never heard of phytic acid or nightshade vegetables so it looks like I have some reading to catch up on.

It's made a huge difference for me. Just remove all the foods from your diet for 30 days and see how you feel...

[sen2two]

Cliffs?

There's ton of info out there. This one seems to be the most complete...

(I attempted to post a link here, but my post count is to low and it will not let me)

I am not saying give up all foods with Phytic acid. But make adjustments to get the most out of your important foods. As in, don't put oatmeal in your protein shake. Don't take your multi vitamins with beans and rice dinner. Don't eat a peanut butter sandwhich on whole grain bread and think you are getting a nutritious meal.

Understanding Phytic acid will completely redesign your way of eating, if you are serious about what you consume

[Tom550]

Interesting

[sen2two]

There are also other anti-nutrients out there as well. For example Avidin. Which is hidden in the all powerful egg whites which bonds to biotin. But not to worry, Avidin is easy taken care of through cooking. but excessive heat will kill almost all of the biotin and lecithen anyway. And the scrambling of eggs oxidizes the cholesterol which is what makes it bond to your artery walls.

so what's a guy to do?

Easy, just don't care and keep eating them any way you like. No big deal. You still get some benefits. Or hard boil them. But you get the most benefits from soft boiling.

This has nothing to do with bio-availability or Phytic acid. I'm just giving another example of properly preparing food to get the maximum benefits from it.

[lift4lifer]

I have been reading alot on this lately and gonna try revive this thread to see if anyone else has some good insight. As far as calories I don't believe it would effect it. It bonds with metals and minerals with its chemical make up. What disturbed me was the old body building diet of the wholer the grain the better really isn't so if this is the case. Too much will rob u of needed calcium. The good news is it will also bond with unwanted metals and supposed cancerous things and remove them. Any other info on how harming this acid could be would be appreciated

[BULLandTERRIER]

There's so much misstatements, untruths and nonsense in the OP ... it's not even funny.

Contemplating about how harming phytic acid could be in a well balanced diet is much more harming than the actual effect of phytic acid on nutrition bioavailability.

[KLMARB]

The mechanism of this issue is fairly simple. Phytate is a divalent ion. That why it bonds easily with the other ingested mineral ions in the digestive tract. Once that bonding occurs, bioavailability is reduced and out it goes in the feces..

[judojosh856]

There's so much misstatements, untruths and nonsense in the OP ... it's not even funny.

Contemplating about how harming phytic acid could be in a well balanced diet is much more harming than the actual effect of phytic acid on nutrition bioavailability.

Care to elaborate?

[BULLandTERRIER]

The ability of phytates to reduce mineral bioavailability is content and context-dependent, in a balanced diet and particularly, diet containing animal protein, phytate is not considered a risk in terms of mineral supply.

"Cereals are the primary sources of copper, manganese, and selenium in most diets and the major source of zinc in many vegetarian diets; flesh floods are the primary source of zinc and secondary source of selenium in omnivorous diets. Despite the apparent lower bioavailability of zinc, copper, manganese, and selenium in vegetarian diets because of the high contents of phytic acid and/or dietary fiber and the low content of flesh foods in the diet, the trace element status of most adult vegetarians appears to be adequate." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8172126

"Although it is clear that vegetarians have lower iron stores, adverse health effects from lower iron and zinc absorption have not been demonstrated with varied vegetarian diets in developed countries, and moderately lower iron stores have even been hypothesized to reduce the risk of chronic diseases." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12936958

"In conclusion, wheat products, except for wheat bran, do not have a negative impact on calcium absorption from the diet." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1941185

"In conclusion, the absorption of zinc was high and not affected by addition of oat bran." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10702590

"Addition of 16 g bran/d to the diet does not seem to impair the mineral absorption from the small intestine except that of Zn." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6288067

"It is concluded that wheat bran and, in particular, the cell-wall polysaccharides of bran, are unlikely to exert a significant effect on mineral absorption in man, in amounts customarily eaten, independently of the effect of phytate present in the bran." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6315050

"Plasma lipids, serum magnesium, ghrelin, and adiponectin concentrations, as well as substrate utilization and body weight, were not significantly changed by fiber intake." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16567814

And yes, you are absorbing calories from grains and legumes, and yes, you can put oats in your protein shake.

[KLMARB]

"The ability of phytates to reduce mineral bioavailability is content and context-dependent, in a balanced diet and particularly, diet containing animal protein, phytate is not considered a risk in terms of mineral supply."

"Context and context-dependent" is the key. The term "balanced diet" is what is subjective. So, as always, it comes down to amounts consumed and frequency of consumption. And how that pattern interacts with a person's specific biochemical responses, depending upon individual genetics. Sensitivity will vary from individual to individual.