It can chelate heavy metal ions in the body, has antioxidant and anti-aging effects, and can prevent diabetes. How to take phytic acid to play a more positive role?
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Dr. Gao Qilong, Director of the First Ward of the Department of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine and Master Supervisor of Henan Provincial Cancer Hospital
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<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > phytic acid is a "double-edged sword"</h1>
Phytic acid is a phosphorus-containing natural organic compound found primarily in whole grains, legumes and nuts, with a variety of important physiological activities. Phytic acid is only found in plant foods, and phytic acid is not found in animal foods.
Some studies believe that phytic acid is a major anti-nutrient component that affects the absorption of mineral elements and can reduce the absorption of specific minerals in food. Phytic acid chelates with certain essential minerals, especially metal ions such as iron, calcium, magnesium and zinc, to produce insoluble compounds, which reduce their absorption from food and affect the body's effective rate of mineral absorption and utilization.
Higher intake of phytic acid may also inhibit digestive enzymes such as α-amylase, β-glucosidase, trypsin, and pepsin, affecting protein digestion. Phytic acid can form complexes with proteins at both lower and higher pH levels, altering the structure of proteins, resulting in reduced protein solubility, enzyme activity, and hydrolytic digestibility.
For people with a balanced diet, phytic acid is not a health problem. In areas where the mineral content of the diet is low, if a large amount of phytic acid is present in the diet, phytic acid will produce these side effects.
Phytic acid is a "double-edged sword" that has both disadvantages and benefits. The hydrolyzed products of phytic acid in the human body are inositol, the former has an anti-aging effect, and the latter is an important component of the human cell. Therefore, phytic acid has health benefits, including anti-inflammatory effects, chelating heavy metals, antioxidants, regulating immunity, preventing and treating cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, anti-tumor and other biological effects. In a varied omnivorous diet, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds are good sources of phytic acid because they also provide other nutrients.
Health Benefits of Phytic Acid:
1 Chelated heavy metals
Although the chelating ability of phytic acid affects the absorption of minerals in the body. In addition to binding to iron and zinc, phytic acid can also bind to toxic metal ions such as cadmium and lead and take them out of the body, which is beneficial to the body.
2 Antioxidant
Phytic acid is also an antioxidant, and some studies have shown that it can help prevent diseases such as cardiovascular and kidney stones, which may be related to the combination of phytic acid with calcium and lowering urinary calcium levels.
3 Anti-cancer and anti-cancer
Phytic acid may be one of the reasons whole grains can reduce the risk of colon cancer. In laboratory studies, phytic acid helps normalize cell growth and prevents the proliferation of cancer cells, affecting cell signaling and regulation of the cell cycle.
4 Prevent diabetes
Phytic acid can also reduce high levels of blood cholesterol levels, promote the release of oxygen in oxygenated hemoglobin, improve red blood cell function, and prolong the survival of red blood cells. High phytic acid intake can also reduce the blood sugar load of food and help prevent type 2 diabetes.
Phytic acid is an important organophosphorus additive, with unique physiological functions and chemical properties, as chelating agent, antioxidant, preservative, water softener, fermentation promoter, metal anti-corrosion agent, etc., widely used in food, medicine, paint and coating, daily chemical, metal anti-corrosion, textile industry, plastic industry and polymer industry and other industries. In the food industry, phytic acid is used for freshness preservation and color stabilizer of fruits and vegetables and aquatic products.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > these methods can reduce phytic acid in food</h1>
Phytic acid is not an essential nutrient for humans, and it is certainly not absolutely "anti-nutritional".
So should I eat more or less?
It is more important to replace refined and processed foods with unrefined foods. This may mean more intake of phytic acid, but a varied omnivorous diet is more resistant to modest changes in mineral supply.
For friends who eat more meat, their bodies will absorb more abundant minerals, and a small amount of phytic acid intake is actually not a big problem. For people who are inherently deficient in minerals, especially vegetarians, the intake of phytic acid is still less. It is recommended that the daily intake of phytic acid should be limited to between 100-400 mg.
Phytic acid is resistant to most cooking methods, and there are 4 easy ways to reduce the amount of phytic acid in cereals, legumes, and nuts:
1 Soak in warm water can remove about 30% of the phytic acid
Cereals or beans can be soaked in warm water before cooking, which is better overnight, and nuts can also be soaked overnight and then dried at low temperatures, which can activate the original phytase in the seeds, thereby greatly reducing phytic acid.
However, because the phytase content in some seeds is very small, the role of soaking may be very limited, such as corn, millet, rice, sorghum, soybeans, mung beans, etc., and their reduction rate of phytate content after soaking is only about 16 to 21%.
2 Germination removes about 50% of phytic acid
The process of seed germination stimulates the production of phytase, which reduces the content of phytic acid. For example, mung beans contain phytic acid, but mung bean sprouts have almost no phytic acid.
3 Fermentation can remove about 90% of phytic acid
During fermentation, some bacteria also produce phytase, which can degrade some of the phytic acid. For example, the phytic acid content of the fermented dough is greatly reduced; the phytic acid content of soybeans is contained, but the content of phytic acid in fermented soybean paste, bean paste and tempeh is reduced.
4 Steep in sour food
Soaking in acids such as lemon juice, yogurt or vinegar can also reduce the concentration of phytic acid.
In addition, foods rich in phytic acid and foods rich in minerals should be avoided at the same time, which can reduce the effect of phytic acid on mineral absorption. For example, snacking nuts between meals can reduce the amount of iron, zinc, and calcium absorbed from those nuts, but not the amount of iron, zinc, and calcium absorbed from a meal a few hours later.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > long-term vegetarians should control their intake of phytic acid</h1>
Friends who take dietary supplements should pay attention to the fact that if they consume a large amount of foods rich in phytic acid at the same time, it may affect the absorption and utilization of nutrients. Those at risk of iron or zinc deficiency should all the more be kept on a varied diet.
There are two types of iron in food: heme iron and non-heme iron. Heme iron is found in animal foods, such as meat, and has a higher absorption rate. Non-heme iron comes from plant foods and absorbs less than heme iron. The absorption of non-heme iron is affected by phytic acid, while heme iron is not affected by it. Therefore, even in the presence of phytic acid, minerals such as iron and zinc can be well absorbed from meat. For those who eat meat regularly, the effect of phytic acid on nutrient absorption is minimal.
Conversely, there are many benefits to eating foods high in phytic acid as part of a balanced diet. If the daily diet is not reasonable, if you are not careful, you may consume excessive amounts of phytic acid, which may cause a lack of trace elements and even affect the health of the intestine. In order to avoid the loss of trace metal elements, long-term single intake of high-phytic acid foods should be controlled as much as possible. This is especially important for iron-deficient people and vegetarians.
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