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According to my light research online, I've learned that soaking grains can significantly reduce the amount of phytase (or phytin or phytic acid) in foods.

What is phytic acid: Phytic (phytin) acid is actually an antioxidant found in grains, nuts, seeds and many plants. Phytin is an indigestible enzyme and is a form of phosphorous needed for plants, seeds, etc. to provide themselves with the necessary energy to establish seedling growth and perpetuate their life cycle when the proper conditions are met. Certain animals such as cattle,sheep, goats, deer, camels, and roughly 145 other mammals have the capacity to digest phytic acid because of their multi-chambered stomachs and the special enzymatic actions that come with these ruminant mammals. However, monogastric animals (us humans, dogs, pigs...) don't have the capacity to fully digest phytic acid.

In fact, phytic acid binds with certain vital minerals such as iron, calcium, zinc and magnesium which can lead to deficiencies in these nutrients for us humans. The purpose of soaking grains, nuts and seeds is to reduce the phytic acid and therefore improve nutrient absorption significantly.

Here is a diagram of a ruminant digestive system to give you an idea:


With the regurgitation of chewed food and the enzymatic action of a ruminant digestive track, certain animals do fine with eating grains high in phytic acid. Humans are not one of them, however.

One of the ways to lower phytic acid is to soak grains in either plain water, salt water or water with an acid base. Creating an acid base is as easy as adding buttermilk, yogurt or kefir to the water to help acidify the environment and to improve phytic acid breakdown. This may seem like creating so much more work in the kitchen. But really all is necessary is an extra few minutes and some advanced planning in order to significantly reduce phytic acid in foods before actually preparing them hours later.

Here is a chart that shows the reduction in phytic acid by soaking raw beans in water at a 140 degrees for eight to seventeen hours. Although it is cumbersome to maintain 140 degree water the best thing you can do is to change the water occasionally with hot tap water. By changing the water regularly, you help to reduce the possibility of fermentation and any bacterial buildup, so it's good to change the water in any event. Lastly, it is not recommended to soak beans in an acid base as it has been said that this creates a bad flavor for the beans.



For more reading online on how to soak beans feel free to check out this site:
http://www.rebuild-from-depression.com/soaking-beans

For more directions on how to remove phytase from grains in general, read here:
http://nourishedkitchen.com/soaking-grains-nuts-legumes/

By the way, I tried soaking almonds for the first time in salt water last night and did so for roughly seventeen hours. I changed the water four times. The almonds inflated a bit and after baking them at a low temperature to dry them out (you want to make sure you dry nuts and seeds so as not to promote mold and fungal growth), I have to say that they were totally different. The texture is lighter and easier to chew. They're not as hard and from my observation, it looks like a couple of them tried to sprout also.

So I thought I would share this for those of you that are on the fence about eating beans. Also, for those that eat Paleo diets, one of the things that Paleo enthusiasts warn against is the phytic acid content in foods. However, there is a bit of a contradiction since the Paleo diet advocates the liberal consumption of nuts and seeds (at least some of them do). Most nuts have a very high phytic acid content so it is pointless to eat liberal portions of almonds or other nuts when their phytic acid content is quite high. Luckily there is a method to lower it as I have outlined here.

Happy eating, bitchuuuuzzzzz!

Aren't some dried grains and seeds available presoaked? I'm pretty sure the quinoa at Whole Foods is. If olive oil loses its nutritive value by heating, don't almonds?

eagermuscle saidAren't some dried grains and seeds available presoaked? I'm pretty sure the quinoa at Whole Foods is. If olive oil loses its nutritive value by heating, don't almonds?

I think some foods come presoaked. It will say on the package if it is presoaked or not.

Were you referring tot he drying process that I mentioned after soaking the almonds? I don't think this is too hot. Plus, if you buy any type of nut, more than likely it has had heat applied to it in some way. Unless it specifically says "raw" almonds (or whatever type of nut you buy).

I had the oven on at 250 degrees for ten minutes just to dry the almonds out. That's really not too hot and not for a very long time. In the articles I provided you can also simply put your almonds outside and spread them on a sheet and let them dry in the sun. Ideally I would do this, but I don't have any outdoor space.

The drying is crucial, however you do it, so as to avoid fungal growth.

How do you keep it at 140 degrees? Will a crock pot work? I would hate to leave my gas stove on all of the time. And leaving the oven on all that time does not seem like a very good option either, especially in the summer. hmmmm...sounds like too much work.

eagermuscle saidAren't some dried grains and seeds available presoaked? I'm pretty sure the quinoa at Whole Foods is. If olive oil loses its nutritive value by heating, don't almonds?

I have read stuff that eating raw almonds is better than roasted almonds for the same reason.

metta8 saidHow do you keep it at 140 degrees? Will a crock pot work? I would hate to leave my gas stove on all of the time. And leaving the oven on all that time does not seem like a very good option either, especially in the summer. hmmmm...sounds like too much work.

I have yet to figure that out. At this point I'm simply soaking them in the hottest water I can obtain from the tap. Then throughout the day (when I'm home) I change out the water.

If I figure out a way to keep the water at 140 degrees I'll be sure to post it here.

MuchMoreThanMuscle said

metta8 saidHow do you keep it at 140 degrees? Will a crock pot work? I would hate to leave my gas stove on all of the time. And leaving the oven on all that time does not seem like a very good option either, especially in the summer. hmmmm...sounds like too much work.

I have yet to figure that out. At this point I'm simply soaking them in the hottest water I can obtain from the tap. Then throughout the day (when I'm home) I change out the water.

If I figure out a way to keep the water at 140 degrees I'll be sure to post it here.

You could try using an electric skillet or roaster oven, they all have thermostats on them to maintain the set temperature. Just find a used one at a thrift store, wash and sanitize it with some bleach first, then set it at 140 and do a test with a cooking/candy thermometer to make sure the setting is accurate and adjust as necessary. Easy.

^

use vinegar if you are going to do that. With the exception of a little bit I put in my pond, I don't believe in using chlorine bleach, which is a toxin....especially in the kitchen.

Where did you first read about this? Sally Fallon, at the Weston Price Foundation, has good tips on soaking nuts--which are endorsed by Charles Poliquin, the very accomplished strength coach who happens to be paleo. http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2008/07/soaking-nuts.html

GWriter saidWhere did you first read about this? Sally Fallon, at the Weston Price Foundation, has good tips on soaking nuts--which are endorsed by Charles Poliquin, the very accomplished strength coach who happens to be paleo. http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2008/07/soaking-nuts.html

I just happened to stumble onto soaking grains, nuts and legumes after sniffing around the net for information. I'm a information whore and when I'm not acting like a buffoon here on the threads I'm combing the net for info on all the things that interest me.

beneful1 said
You could try using an electric skillet or roaster oven, they all have thermostats on them to maintain the set temperature. Just find a used one at a thrift store, wash and sanitize it with some bleach first, then set it at 140 and do a test with a cooking/candy thermometer to make sure the setting is accurate and adjust as necessary. Easy.

I'll look into that, thank you.

But I don't think this is going to be easy as most temperature settings have a minimal setting of 200 or so. I temperature of 140 is so low. I can't even set my oven to anything less than 250 degrees.

With raw foods, thy often say that thy do not heat anything over 110 degrees because they begin to loose nutrients. But I have not seen any studies to prove that.

Well from my light research I'm finding that soaking and cooking foods longer can help to reduce lectin in plant based foods which has correlation to inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis.

Great info! I'm a nutrition junkie too. This gives me one more thing to explore. THANKS!

Wow...the more I research in to this, the more complicated it gets.
So many different opinions on it. I have no idea who is correct.

Crock pots get too hot and do not have exact settings.

so interesting! Thanks for posting

Chang, R., S. Schwimmer and H. K. Burr. 1977. Phytate: Removal from whoU>
dry beans by enzyme hydrolysis and diffussion. J. Food Sei. 42(4):1098-
llbl.

http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/IND79045631/PDF


http://alturl.com/4zhuj

http://books.google.com/books?id=sd1VreXCp58C&pg=PA71&lpg=PA71&dq=chang+schwimmer+burr+1977&source=bl&ots=gFWgrDqY04&sig=RL8qmKzd-yHfnUz6qixwV7Tvjkw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=7syeT8ytAYrjiAK-3IyzBA&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=chang%20schwimmer%20burr%201977&f=false


Nutritional quality of legume seeds as affected by some physical treatments
2. Antinutritional factors

". Tannins, phytic acid, TIA and oligosaccharides of mung beans (Mubarak, 2005), cowpeas (Udensi et al., 2007), black gram, red and white kidney beans (Rehman & Shah, 2005) were significantly reduced after boiling,
autoclaving and microwave cooking. Fermentation of cereals and
legumes appreciably reduced their phytate content owing to the
endogenous phytase of seeds and that of added yeast and other
useful microorganisms (Sandberg & Andlid, 2002). Infrared heating
of seeds, called micronization, is applied to cereal grains to improve
their digestibility, reduce their trypsin inhibitors and improve their
palatability for animal feed (Hutton & Foxcroft, 1975)"



"Phytic acid
The effect of different treatments on the phytic acid content of
legume seeds is shown in Table 2. All treatments significantly
affected the phytic acid contents of seeds. There were no significant
differences among soaking, roasting and micronization and among
boiling, microwave cooking, autoclaving and fermentation in their
effect. Soaking caused a 42.82–48.91% reduction in phytic acid
content. This could be due to the fact that phytic acid in dried
legumes exists wholly as a water-soluble salt (probably potassium
phytate) (Crean & Haisman, 1963).
Autoclaving and fermentation were the most effective in
reducing phytic acid content by 65.04–70.49 and 66.83–68.94%,
respectively. In contrast, the lowest reducing effect was that
caused by micronization (31.86–37.62%) and roasting (35.25–
40.15%). The observed reduction in phytic acid content of legume
seeds during heat treatments may be partly due to the heatlabile nature of phytic acid and the formation of insoluble
complexes between phytate and other components (Udensi et al., 2007). Crean and Haisman (1963) reported that in cooking,
phytic acid combines with the calcium and magnesium in the
seeds to form insoluble calcium and magnesium phytates.
Fermentation of cereals and legumes has been reported to cause
appreciable reductions in the phytate content owing to endogenous phytase of both raw ingredients, inherent microorganisms
and that of added yeast which hydrolyses phytic acid into
inositol and orthophosphate (Reddy & Pierson, 1994; Sandberg &
Andlid, 2002). Gustafsson and Sandberg (1995) found that
fermentation of pre-soaked dry beans (P. vulgaris L.) for 48 h,
without the addition of a starter culture, caused a 68% reduction
in phytic acid. The greater reduction was attributed to the
reduction in pH to the levels below 4.5 which enhanced the
hydrolysis of antinutrients (Conn, 1973)."

http://alturl.com/aaiqf

http://193.146.160.29/gtb/sod/usu/$UBUG/repositorio/10311794_Khattab.pdf

I wonder at what levels they are considered to be safe/healthy. No one is saying that they should be entirely removed.

MuchMoreThanMuscle said. I'm a whore

WOW!!!

ECnAZ said

MuchMoreThanMuscle said. I'm a whore

WOW!!!

You, kind sir, have altered my post to make me look trashy. Not cool, betch!

MuchMoreThanMuscle said

ECnAZ said

MuchMoreThanMuscle said. I'm a whore

WOW!!!

You, kind sir, have altered my post to make me look trashy. Not cool, betch!

Maybe wishful thinking on my part..

Well, I used to be one but that was years ago.

Nahz eyz awl virchewez n shi....