In a previous article1, I suggested that nut consumption should be limited or moderated because of the high levels of omega-6 fat many of them contain. But there’s another reason you shouldn’t make nuts a staple of your diet.
One of the main principles of the Paleo diet is to avoid eating grains and legumes because of the food toxins they contain. One of those toxins, phytic acid (a.k.a. phytate), is emphasized as one of the greatest offenders.
But what is often not mentioned in books or websites about the Paleo diet is that nuts are often as high or even higher in phytic acid than grains. In fact, nuts decrease iron absorption even more than wheat bread2. This is ironic because a lot of people on the Paleo diet – who go to great lengths to avoid food toxins – are chowing down nut like they’re going out of style.
What is phytic acid and why should we care?
Phytic acid is the storage form of phosphorus found in many plants, especially in the bran or hull of grains and in nuts and seeds. Although herbivores like cows and sheep can digest phytic acid, humans can’t. This is bad news because phytic acid binds to minerals (especially iron and zinc) in food and prevents us from absorbing them. 3 Studies suggest that we absorb approximately 20 percent more zinc and 60 percent more magnesium from our food when phytic acid is absent4. It’s important to note that phytic acid does not leach minerals that are already stored in the body; it only inhibits the absorption of minerals from food in which phytic acid is present.
As most people following a Paleo diet will probably have heard by now, diets high in phytate cause mineral deficiencies. For example, rickets and osteoporosis are common in societies where cereal grains are a staple part of the diet.5
How much phytic acid should you eat?
Before you go out and try to remove every last scrap of phytic acid from your diet, keep in mind that it’s likely humans can tolerate a small to moderate amount of phytic acid – in the range of 100 mg to 400 mg per day. According to Ramiel Nagel in his article “Living With Phytic Acid”6, the average phytate intake in the U.S. and the U.K. ranges between 631 and 746 mg per day; the average in Finland is 370 mg; in Italy it is 219 mg; and in Sweden a mere 180 mg per day.
As you can see from the table below, 100 grams of almonds contains between 1,200 – 1,400 mg of phytic acid. 100g is about 3 ounces. That’s equal to a large handful. A handful of hazelnuts, which is further down on the list, would still exceed the recommended daily intake – and that’s assuming you’re not eating any other foods with phytic acid, which is not likely. Even the Paleo-beloved coconut has almost 400 mg of phytic acid per 100 gram serving.
[Disappointing side note for chocolate lovers: Raw unfermented cocoa beans and normal cocoa powder are extremely high in phytic acid. Processed chocolate may also contain significant levels.]
FIGURE 2: PHYTIC ACID LEVELS1
In milligrams per 100 grams of dry weight
| Brazil nuts | 1719 |
| Cocoa powder | 1684-1796 |
| Oat flakes | 1174 |
| Almond | 1138 – 1400 |
| Walnut | 982 |
| Peanut roasted | 952 |
| Brown rice | 840-990 |
| Peanut ungerminated | 821 |
| Lentils | 779 |
| Peanut germinated | 610 |
| Hazelnuts | 648 – 1000 |
| Wild rice flour | 634 – 752.5 |
| Yam meal | 637 |
| Refried beans | 622 |
| Corn tortillas | 448 |
| Coconut | 357 |
| Corn | 367 |
| Entire coconut meat | 270 |
| White flour | 258 |
| White flour tortillas | 123 |
| Polished rice | 11.5 – 66 |
| Strawberries | 12 |
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Can you prepare nuts to make them safer to eat?
Unfortunately we don’t have much information on how to reduce phytic acid in nuts. However, we know that most traditional cultures often go to great lengths prior to consuming them.
According to Nagel7:
It is instructive to look at Native American preparation techniques for the hickory nut, which they used for oils. To extract the oil they parched the nuts until they cracked to pieces and then pounded them until they were as fine as coffee grounds. They were then put into boiling water and boiled for an hour or longer, until they cooked down to a kind of soup from which the oil was strained out through a cloth. The rest was thrown away. The oil could be used at once or poured into a vessel where it would keep a long time.50
By contrast, the Indians of California consumed acorn meal after a long period of soaking and rinsing, then pounding and cooking. Nuts and seeds in Central America were prepared by salt water soaking and dehydration in the sun, after which they were ground and cooked.
Elanne and I have been preparing nuts like this for a few years, and I personally notice a huge difference in how I digest them. I used to have a heavy sensation in my stomach after eating nuts, but I don’t get that at all when I eat them after they’ve been prepared this way.
Another important thing to be aware of is that phytic acid levels are much higher in foods grown using modern high-phosphate fertilizers than those grown in natural compost.
So how many nuts should you eat?
The answer to that question depends on several factors:
- Your overall health and mineral status
- Your weight and metabolic health
- Whether you are soaking, dehydrating and roasting them nuts before consuming them
One of the biggest problems I see is with people following the GAPS or Specific Carbohydrate Diets, which are gut-healing protocols for people with serious digestive issues. Most GAPS and SCD recipe books emphasize using nut flour to make pancakes and baked goods. This is presumably because many people who adopt these diets find it hard to live without grains, legumes and any starch. While nut flours don’t tend to contain much phytic acid (because nut flour is made from blanched nuts, and the phytic acid is found mostly in the skin of the nuts), they can be difficult to digest in large amounts — especially for those with digestive issues. I’ve found that limiting nut flour consumption is necessary for most of my patients that are on GAPS or SCD. It’s also best to be moderate with consumption of most commercial nut butters, which are made with unsoaked nuts. However, some health food stores do carry brands of “raw, sprouted” nut butters that would presumably be safer to eat.
All of that said, in the context of a diet that is low in phytic acid overall, and high in micronutrients like iron and calcium, a handful of nuts that have been properly prepared each day should not be a problem for most people.
Better supplementation. Fewer supplements.
Close the nutrient gap to feel and perform your best.
A daily stack of supplements designed to meet your most critical needs.
Thanks for addressing this issue Chris. I’ve had many discussions with paleo and GAPS followers and many (not to say most) of them did not want to acknowledge this fact that PA levels were so high in their beloved nuts (not to mention omega-6s), often a food they use in large volumes to substitute for other comfort foods. Especially, as you note, in the form of “flours”…
Seems like the WAPF is the only large-ish group to have tackled this issue, with their recommendation of soaking and drying/roasting all nuts before consumption.
I’ve been adhering to this method for quite a few years now and, slowly, trickled down my consumption of nuts to macadamia nuts and the occasional cashews. Seems to work well…
Any idea where macadamia nuts score on that list?
982 mg phytates in 654 calories of walnuts (approx.100g)
129mg in 129 calories of white rice
and isn’t Sweden (the group that has the mere 180mg phytate intake) still having a big toll being taken by our beloved diseases of civilization (http://www.nationmaster.com/compare/Sweden/United-States/Health).
There’s a lot more to health than phytic acid intake.
Yea, I completely understand. My point was that maybe, since we have higher overall calorie intakes in the U.S. (30% higher obesity than in Sweden,etc) that’s the reason we have more phytate in our diets; Not that we have a higher phytate intake and that’s causing (however significantly) obesity, disease,etc.
Getting fat drives caloric intake, not the other way around. Any time you are growing you will need to eat more, and fat tissue is a body part just like muscles are.
I wouldn’t be surprised if phytates contribute to fat gain. If they’re binding up minerals in your intake, you need those minerals to maintain metabolic health. We do see more obesity in cultures where more grains and nuts are eaten. We also see more bone loss, shorter stature, etc. Even among the groups Price studied, the bread-eating Swiss had the most cavities of any of the traditional groups. I’m surprised the Gaelic group didn’t rank up there as well; perhaps they had a higher mineral intake.
Seems like one slice of whole wheat bread would have about 180mg – what could they possibly be eating to maintain levels that low?
It could be the way they prepare their grains. Many Europeans use sourdough products and the Scandinavians love their crispbread.
Btw I do agree with you on the the nut consumption of people on SCD and GAPS. I’ve been on both diets. I’m mostly just paleo now. I have a few SCD books and the recipes for baked goods are all nut based.
So is there any other reason to avoid beans and legumes besides the phytic acid? If not, it not it seems that some well-soaked and cooked beans might be a better option?
Lectins are a major factor in why we want to avoid beans. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1115436/
Legumes do contain phytates as well as other toxins, but most of them can be reduced significantly by proper preparation. However, this is much more than just soaking overnight. The preparation required is extensive.
Do you have a link to proper preparation?
The Weston A. Price Foundation might have this information- http://www.westonaprice.org
You mention the Specific Carbohydrate Diet; Gottschall notes that beans may be safe for consumption, provided they have been soaked properly. What compound(s) is/are being removed or consumed by soaking overnight?
So not good to eat often legumes and grain even in moderation?
Please explain
I didn’t see Pecans or Macadamia nuts on your list. Should I presume they are just as problematic as Almonds?
That’s how I prepare nuts too. Soak in water and sea salt for 12 hours(depending on what nut) then dehydrate and roast. No problems so far.
Was wondering the same thing as Steph?
Thanks, Chris.
Does it help if you are adding supplements like zinc to your diet while eating nuts?
Conceivably – but the phytic acid may bind to the zinc and reduce its absorption.
If the phytic acid binds to the zinc, does not the zinc also bind to the phytic aid — and tie it up, take it out of commission, so it isn’t available or able to interfere with absorption of all the other minerals, trypsin, etc.?
So, can’t we cancel out our phytic acid intake by taking plenty of zinc with our meals?
Yes, you can “negate” blocking power of phytic acid by taking larger amount of supplements.
But, you need to know, how much phytic acid blocks how much of zink (or other mineral respectively). To the zink, maybe 30mg would be still not enough, if you eat large amount of phytic acid. It would need to be tested, for precise amounts, otherwise, your dose could be little or large. So right now, you don’t know, how much of which mineral to suplement. There are also negative issues with large amounts of some minerals.
To the magnesium, there is not any risk, but in the iron, zink and calcium, there is.
Also, phytic acid does also other negative stuff in diggestion, not only mineral blockage, so it’s wiser to remove it by soaking… and in todays modern age full of low-quality plants, I would supplement some of the minerals anyway, for prevention.
For sure at least magnesium, which is in great deficit in plants.
and I’ll just add to Steph’s question – coconut milk?
Coconut milk’s made using the meat so it’ll have some.
Also, how important is it to eat organic nuts in terms of the phytic acid issue? Almonds have gotten *so* expensive. Where do almonds fall in the “relatively more/less safe” rankings?
Unfortunately, phytic acid levels are much higher in foods grown using modern high-phosphate fertilizers than those grown in natural compost. I forgot to put this in the post – I’ll add it now.
Great post, Chris. I love all the medical/science-y stuff but sometimes it’s great to have you get back to it regarding FOOD 🙂 Perhaps your phytic acid levels list above along with corresponding n3/6 fats levels warrants another infographic frome me… I’ll put that on my to-do list.
I also have a post on some of the n3:n6 issues with nuts as well asking people to cool it with the almonds when they go “Paleo.”
For the Love of Almonds (and some omega 3/6 fats talk)
http://balancedbites.com/2010/12/for-the-love-of-almonds-and-some-omega-36-fats-talk.html
Same question as Jim’s above. I eat tons of nuts and nut butters. I’m running out of things to eat! (I have impaired glucose tolerance so can’t eat a lot of the filling starches like squash and sweet potato that a paleo diet allows). Nuts are my mainstay.
If you soak and dehydrate the nuts, you should be able to eat a handful per day without issues. Glucose tolerance can often be improved or even reversed – you may want to investigate that.
Can you direct us where to go for improving or reversing Glucose tolerence?
None of this is a medical or dietetic recommendation because I am neither an MD or a dietician. But it’s from what I’ve been reading here, there, and yonder, including at this blog.
1. Get your micronutrient intake squared away. Just about everybody in industrial culture is missing *something.* Frequently it’s some of the minerals and most or all of the fat-soluble vitamins except perhaps E. From my reading I’m learning that vitamin A may be important in glucose tolerance, vitamin D most likely is, and vitamin K2 in the form menatetrenone sets off a chain reaction which directly leads to greater insulin sensitivity, which of course is going to help with glucose tolerance. Several minerals are implicated as well, like magnesium and chromium and possibly even sulfur, which experts are now saying is only short in vegans but I suspect that may not be true.
I’d try to get these squared through diet, but if you don’t have the patience to work all this out or don’t have the time or your funds are limited, there *are* good supplements. Chris can probably point you to a few. Meanwhile, animal is a really good source of most of these nutrients. Run some meats (including liver, especially) and some fats through the USDA nutritional database (easy to find on Google) and you will see what I mean. Bone broth tends to cover the bone-building minerals. Lots of blogs have instructions for making it.
2. Personal habits. Exercise does not have an absolute 1:1 relationship with weight loss the way conventional wisdom says it does, but it does seem to help insulin sensitivity. Getting enough sun helps with the D and possibly helps your body use sulfur well. And get enough sleep, and get it in a dark enough room. Shorting your sleep or sleeping under lights messes up your neurotransmitters and cuts off melatonin production, which in turn messes up your hormone balance. Insulin is a hormone. Sooner or later it will be affected if it’s not already.
3. Atkins, believe it or not. There’s been a lot of not-so-good-natured joking about that diet in the Paleosphere. But you can do it with Paleo foods. Just because Atkins allows a neolithic food in some stage or another doesn’t mean you have to eat that food. Specifically what I am thinking of here is the Atkins-style reintroduction of carbohydrates–just stop short of the neolithic stuff. It would make it easier for you to figure out where your tolerance threshold is, and also to measure whether the other steps you have taken are working to improve it.
But most of all: Don’t get hung up on glucose. People act like it is some sort of a miracle compound, and it is for your few tissues that can’t burn fatty acids or ketones, but that doesn’t describe 95+ percent of your body. Glucose is only “preferred” in the body because it acts as a toxin that the body just happens to be able to burn as a fuel. Alcohol is even more preferred than glucose, for the same reason. (It just happens to kill you faster.) But at the end of the day, fatty acids are preferred by most of the body and that is why you have adipose tissue. It’s your body’s elegant little way of holding some energy to use between meals. In a healthy body, fatty acids are always coming and going to and from the adipose tissue, kind of like money moving in and out of a bank account. Just so happens that in obese people more gets put in than taken out, and in type 2 diabetic people, hardly any gets taken out at all.
Your body’s capable of making the glucose that those few tissues in your body need. Aside from that, it’s useful to maintain some glucose tolerance for those times you just want to eat what everyone else is eating, or maybe in case you go really broke and can’t afford anything but potatoes, but aside from that, it doesn’t really matter.
And keep tweaking. You’ll have the best success if you approach this like an engineer, paying attention to what you do and how your body responds. Even then it’s not easy because you can’t help confounding variables. But if you can get a handle on things it’s totally worth it.
I just don’t understand why one would need to worry about the phytic acid in nuts provided one doesn’t eat them with other foods. Eat them alone, & don’t assume you’re assimilating the minerals they contain – end of story, right? Why count the daily milligrams? Please explain.
Precisely, unless people are eating nuts specifically for mineral content then why does this article even exist?
Please enlighten me I must be missing something…
Is there phytic acid in coconut oil? coconut water?
My hunch is that it’s doubtful at any significant levels.
Not is any significant amount.
Coconut is a fruit, not a nut.
Coconut isn’t a fruit as it doesn’t bear it’s own seeds for reproduction. Banana is a hybrid fruit, grown by man
how about phytates in almond oil?
Glad you asked this as I was thinking the same thing. My guess was that any oil would have little to no anti nutrients since its just the oil. I’ve been wondering about coconut a lot lately. I knew it had a moderate amount of phytic acid but us paleos are crazy about it. I’m not so much lately.
For nuts, I advise people to limit their consumption to 1 oz a day. And, don’t eat them daily. The best seem to be macadamias, pistachios, almonds, hazelnuts and cashews. Lowest in omega 6. I’ve never seen the amount of phytic acid in macas – does anyone know what it is?
There is an amendment to the phytic acid article on the Weston Price site.
http://www.westonaprice.org/food-features/living-with-phytic-acid
At the very last, a couple of studies were listed regarding the mineral binding capacity of coconut. According to that study, it showed that even though coconut has phytic acid content, its mineral binding was minimal. Apparently not every form of phytic acid has the same anti-nutrient properties?
OH! Bummer. Seriously, much as I love them I guess it makes sense in terms of evolution, I’m fairly sure our paleolithic ancestors did NOT have access to bushels of nuts. As long as I have chicken liver mousse made up I’m so much less interested in nuts.
Dear Chris,
Thanks for the interesting (and also disappointing!) blog post. Any tips for overcoming a chocolate addiction?? It is my go-to source of stress relief and over the past few years I am eating a large quantity of dark chocolate everyday (70% or higher). I can easily finish half a Trader Joe’s dark chocolate bar a day. I knew it was probably an unhealthy amount, but I can’t seem to give it up!!!
Vanessa
One other reason you may reach for chocolate is that it’s high in magnesium which can be a potent calming mineral in which most people are deficient. Seek out foods high in magnesium to eat more of in your regular daily diet. Green leafy vegetables and some seafood are a good sources. Perhaps a magnesium malate or glycinate supplement would prove helpful for you as well.
As Diane said, try increasing magnesium intake. Also try eating more fat, and more safe carbs like starch and fruit.
Mmm… fat.
what are examples of “safe starch carbs”? is corn ok?
Chris talks about these in reference mainly I think to recommendations from the book “The Perfect Health Diet.” Safe starches, from what I understand, include white rice (if you tolerate it) and white potatoes along with other “Paleo” starches like squash, sweet potatoes, etc.
I have a list of dense carb sources on a Paleo diet here: http://balancedbites.com/2011/08/paleo-diet-carbs.html
wheat should be weat,as it’s treated like a four-letter word here;however,freshly stoneground organic wheat-flour bread,properly prepared for human nutrition using sourdough ferment,has been a ‘safe starch’ for millenia..
I hope this doesn’t trigger the “oh damn” response in you, but corn is quite toxic. Most commercial corn is now genetically engineered by Monsanto. It is Roundup ready, in other words it can withstand considerable spraying of the herbicide poison Roundup. The active ingredient is glysophate. It is ten times more deadly than DDT, and they banned that several years ago. It causes sterility in mammals and humans, pre-mature births, and deformations. It destroys liver cells and good bacteria in the gut, which results in food allergies and other digestive disorders. Look this up on Dr. Mercola’s sites.
Boy was I bummed out when I heard about this. There went my Mexican restaurant meals and those tasty corn chip appetizers.
So I’ve quit eating all corn and wheat as it is subjected to the same spraying.
When I do eat corn, it’s the locally grown stuff in my area. Local farmers who cater to the community don’t use pesticides on their crops and always test the soil for toxins ( as well as for other nutrients; like any other plant based food, good soil provides good fruits and veggies of labor.)
If magnesium alone doesn’t do the trick, maybe some dopamine support would help. Tyrosine and DLPA are used to make dopamine (Apex Dopatone is a nice formula). Also, L- Theanine works wonders for fast stress relief!
After years of digestion issues due to undiagnosed gluten intolerance and subsequent experimenting with nuts and nut products, I eat nuts and nut butter very sparingly, as they are very tough on my digestive system. I try to eat enough during my meals so I feel full and don’t have to snack in between. I rarely use nut flours, as baked products just encourage cravings for more baked products (for me.) Adding small portions of white/sweet potatoes to some of my meals has helped me avoid snacking on nuts. It’s a tradeoff that has worked well for me, as once I start eating macadamias or almonds, it’s hard to stop. Maybe phytic acid is addicting, too, like gluten/casein/sugar.
I tend to think the food-reward we get from nuts is more of the addictive factor than possibly the phytates, though I don’t know if that’s true or not. The crunchy, fatty, carby combination in nuts is delightful to the palate- add salt to that, and well, good luck resisting! 😉 Right?!
Having been deep enough in ketosis that I had to remind myself to eat, I don’t quite buy the “food reward” hypothesis for, well, pretty much anything. Not hungry is not hungry, and it doesn’t matter how good it tastes–if your body has what it needs, it ain’t gonna want no mo’.
With even some folks following Paleo not getting enough of what Weston Price spoke of as the protective animal foods–mostly muscle meat, too much olive and coconut oil and not enough tallow or lard, and WAY heavy on the veggies and fruits–it’s not surprising to me they still get cravings. We’ve still got a ways to go in straightening all this out. I am not saying people need to be zero carb, though that will hardly kill them if they do try it. I AM saying that with even “healthy” eaters’ diets being the way they currently are, they’re still going to suffer from shortages. Eating more critter and less green critter would give us more nutritional wiggle room. Even Price said the diets he analyzed had many times the amounts of vitamins and minerals as was present in the American diet of his time–and they got more vitamins and minerals back then, at least in the middle classes and upward, than we do now without supplementing.
Diane, I’m so pleased to see your presence and knowledge at yet another destination of my Internet searches! I have come to trust and appreciate the knowledge you offer. I did your 21 day sugar detox, I am a nursing mother and was so pleased with the principals an foundation p the program. Thanks for all you do!
id like to know the above as well.
It would be very easy for me to eat 1 cup almond butter and 2 cups of nuts a day without thinking twice. What do you recommend as an alternative for snacking?
Beef jerky, smoked fish, cheese/kefir/yogurt (if you tolerate dairy), olives, fruit, pemmican, etc.
Yum. If you want to make your own jerky I have a recipe posted here: http://robbwolf.com/2011/05/11/diy-maple-sage-beef-jerky-recipe/
Alternatively, these are the best pre-made jerky items I’ve ever seen. 100% grass-fed and clean ingredients. http://grassfedjerkychews.com/
That recipe looks good. I actually just made jerky for the first time a couple days ago and I am only sad I haven’t tried to make it sooner!
I found I didn’t need a liquid marinade at all. I toss the thinly sliced beef (eye of round) in salt, ground pepper and garlic powder (unfortunately, I didn’t measure carefully, but it was a 2-3 tsps of each, maybe a bit more). I let it sit in the fridge overnight and the next day I put the strips directly on the racks in my oven and cooked them on low, checking for doneness every once in awhile. My oven only goes down to 200 degrees, but I cracked the door with a towel. It took a couple hours, and I removed some of the thiner slices that got done faster.
Not to toot my own horn, but it is the best jerky I’ve every had! I will probably scale back the salt next time and use more pepper. But I think that skipping the marinade sped up the dehydrating process, which was a-okay for me.
Thanks Diane! I just ordered ten packs! BTW… we’re loving your book!
Chris, I know you’ve mentioned how you sometimes get patients with iron overload. Would the combination of eating lots of red meat AND consuming low amounts of phytic acid play any part here? Is it possible that certain people’s genes have better adapted to phytic acid and, therefore, when it’s significantly reduced, their body stores inappropriate amounts of iron?
Men do NOT need iron. Any rationally engineered supplement does NOT supply iron.
younger 1/2 of women bleed out all the time and need a little iron.
Men certainly DO need iron. The main purpose of iron is to help in the transportation and storage of oxygen to all parts of the body. In addition, iron assists in energy production and cell respiration, while also helping the immune and central nervous systems. Men need around 8-10mg although as there is a risk of overdose, it is suggested we get it from food not from suppliments.
Delicious as these foods are, if all I have to snack on is smoked fish, cheese, olives, etc., I’ll just wait until mealtime to eat. I think the reason is that these foods do not have the addictive quality of typical snack foods (including nuts). Galina L. makes a good point below, which is that we probably don’t really need to snack at all. For me at least, I’ve come to accept that just about any snacking is out of tune with my body’s actual nutritional needs. Also, considering that many of us on these forums are probably at least a touch orthorexic (I know I am), setting up our eating patterns to where we’re focusing on food as little as possible can be a very helpful way of avoiding the stress that sabotages all our other efforts.
Snacking is important for me, as a hypoglycemic, as it is for about 30% of pre-diabetic people in this country with hypoglycemia.
Of course, we have to snack the right kind of food for the necessary period (1 year?) until we restore our health. After that, I agree with you 0 snacks are not really a paleo thing.
@Richard, given that you’re pre-diabetic with hypoglycemia, have you considered a ketogenic diet? After a few days of adaptation, it may get you out of the cycle of dependency on sugar, as it by definition switches your body’s primary fuel source to ketones. A side benefit is that it may heal your metabolic issues.
Eating too much smoked anything is implicated in stomach cancer.
There is no Beef jerky in my country? Is it any different from Salami without nitrites?
Beef jerky – contain MSG very often
Smoked fish – too much Histamine
Cheese/kefir/youghurt – too much Histamine, casein, lactose
Difficult to eat anything if you want the perfect food!
these are all engineered, processed foods. I’m not paleo and neither are those foods!
@Jiri Hi, yogurt, kefir and aged cheeses have very little if any lactose (sugar).
I make my own kefir and yogurt at home and culture it until it is lactose (sugar) free as we are diabetic. Many aged cheeses are also lactose free. Kefir, which is easier to make, has 3 times the probiotics of most yogurt and restores the activity of the gut to a healthy state.
We have reduced our need for medication by watching our diet which includes dairy, fruit, veggies, chicken, fish, meat, fermented foods and nuts.
We have a balanced diet and have all the various foods we like. Moderation is key as well as variety. We take a magnesium supplement as the deficiency has been linked to diabetes.
smoked fish – how one avoid all the toxins involved in that?
I understand people believe they need to snack, but they are not. Ween yourself from that carbeaters pattern of eating. Snacking is not paleo, IF and infrequent eating is.
This makes a lot of sense when you consider the hunter/gatherer lifestyle. People had to work very hard (compared to us) to acquire & prepare meals. This is how we were designed to eat. Its difficult to adjust to when you’ve been eating in a carbeaters pattern. The diseases that are so prominent in our culture often dictate that we eat small frequent meals. But it makes you wonder, which came first: the physical conditions that require the small frequent meals or the small frequent meals (snacking) that dictate the physical conditions?
Now there’s “food” for thought……
I was thinking before men became hunters, Adam & Eve had it made picked fruit, ate w/out a struggle before sinning then God said it would be hard etc. But they were in “perfect” bodies then too.
The stories of Adam and Eve are only several thousand years old.
when you combine 2 words- ‘carbeaters’,try hyphenating them;I had a mental picture of someone beating a car…
somehow my mind conjured up an image of a care bear…. maybe I’m over tired.
These 2 comments had me cracking up ,lol.
No. I did too!
Hi Chris,
Does eating phytic acid leach existing minerals from your system, or just prevent the absorption of minerals being digested at the same time?
ie: if you eat your nuts at separate times from other foods, will those other foods be absorbed better?
thanks,
I have heard other bloggers say that Nagel states that they phytic acid in a food only blocks you from absorbing the mineral in that same food, not other food that you are eating. I haven’t read his book directly, though
I have read that the phytate molecule/ion is too big to be absorbed, therefore it goes on thru the digestive tract and out. Therefore it would not leach existing minerals … except minerals that diffuse from the bloodstream into the digestive tract.
Separate times — good idea. Yes.
Do you have any sources for this? I would like to know if this statement is true, because in that case, nuts would be the perfect snack by itself since the phytic acid would not have any negative effect, so yeah eating nuts at separate times and alone sounds like a great idea. Eating grains and legumes at separate times would be still negative because the gluten.
“Leaching” is not part of the animal digestive process. Its a crazy meme…a malinformed urban legend.
Exactly.
No, if you carefully read the article you would no that.
No what?
Hi DancinPete,
In this article, Chris Kresser stated that:
“It’s important to note that phytic acid does not leach minerals that are already stored in the body; it only inhibits the absorption of minerals from food in which phytic acid is present.”
So to answer your question, no, phytic acid does not leach existing minerals from the body, it only prevents absorption of minerals it binds to.
Also, Chris Kresser stated in this article that phytic acid also interferes with digestive enzymes responsible for breaking down starch, fat, and protein.