anti-nutrients

About specific vitamines, minerals or fiber, for example
Post Reply
van
Posts: 26
https://cutt.ly/meble-kuchenne-wroclaw
Joined: Sun 20 Aug 2006 22:11

anti-nutrients

Post by van »

What about anti nutrients in vegetables. I'm particularily interested in those anti-nutrients in dark leefy greens and various grasses like wheat grass.
What do these anti-nutrients do to the body specifially?
What will the harm be should one juice or eat kale? Thanks, Van
1111
User avatar
RRM
Administrator
Posts: 8164
Joined: Sat 16 Jul 2005 00:01
Contact:

Post by RRM »

All foods contain some anti-nutrients (eg thiaminase in fish, naringin in grapefruit), but plant foods contain relatively high levels as part of their defense system.
Fruits contain lower levels than other plant foods, as it is part of their reproduction strategy to be consumed,
to spread the seeds contained in their flesh.
Anti-nutrients in general inhibit digestion or bind to nutrients, limiting the uptake and/or utilization of nutrients.
Its not really that they cause damage (though some do), but mainly they 'only' upset your digestion, leading to less nutrients inside the body and causing gasses and cramps.
Initially, the whole purpose of food processing was to eliminate anti-nutrients.

Particularly grasses contain lots of different anti-nutrients (such as phytate, protease-inhibitors and glucosinolates). Kale is one of the greens that contains not so many (mainly some inositol phosphates, I believe).
Thats why sometimes enzymes such as xylanase and phospholipase are supplemented to pigs; to improve the digestibility of wheat based diets, so that they can utilize the nutrients better.

In this study they concluded that:
It is concluded that the formulation of a recommended diet cannot be based only on nutrient content values of individual food components due to interactions between nutrients and anti-nutrients in the diet
Even fiber is an anti-nutrient
From this study:
Anti-nutrients, such as polyphenols, dietary fiber, and phytates, inhibit absorption of iron and zinc
van
Posts: 26
Joined: Sun 20 Aug 2006 22:11

anti-nutrients

Post by van »

Where it is that you have read that dark leafy greens such as Kale, will either block minerals or nutrients from my body, or cause a net loss of nutrients?
Greens don't cause me to fart or get a distended belly. And I ususally don't hear that from others either.
Let's look at the juice of say Kale, when considering it as a 'healthy' adjunct to one's diet makeup.
1111
User avatar
RRM
Administrator
Posts: 8164
Joined: Sat 16 Jul 2005 00:01
Contact:

Post by RRM »

van wrote:Greens don't cause me to fart or get a distended belly. And I ususally don't hear that from others either.
The more greens you eat, the more you are prone to do so.
Animals do.
All animals that live on greens have big swollen bellies and they fart.
let's look at the juice of say Kale, when considering it as a 'healthy' adjunct to one's diet makeup.
From Souci SW et al, Food compositon and nutrition tabels. Medpharm Scientific Publishers, Stuttgart 1994, page 676-677:

Kale, 100g

caffeic acid: 51 mg (at least 3 times more than in fruits)
para-coumaric acid: 2.5 mg (at least 5 times higher than in fruits)
fumaric acid: 22 mg (only traces in fruits)
ferulic acid: 21 mg (at least 20 times more than in fruits
nitrate: 101 mg (at least 33 times more than in fruits)

"At least ...times more than in fruits" means that there is at least 1 fruit that contains this compound too, with the highest level found used as comparison. Fruits contain low levels of phenolic compounds predominantly in their skin, as that is the only line of defense aginst insects and worms etc.

Phenolic compound are synthesized by plants for defensive purposes.
Phenylpropenoic acids (/Phenolic acids) such as ferulic acid and para-coumaric acid have phytotoxic properties.
Jia C, Kudsk P, Mathiassen SK. Joint action of benzoxazinone derivatives and phenolic acids. J Agric Food Chem. 2006 Feb 22;54(4):1049-57.
Wells JE, Berry ED, Varel VH. Effects of common forage phenolic acids on Escherichia coli O157:H7 viability in bovine feces. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2005 Dec;71(12):7974-9.
Caffeic acid, ferulic acid and para-coumaric acid may cause moderate thyroid gland enlargement, and influence thyroid hormone levels.
Khelifi-Touhami F et al, Goitrogenic activity of p-coumaric acid in rats. J Biochem Mol Toxicol. 2003;17(6):324-8.
Para-coumaric acid inhibits pyruvate transport into the mitochondria, inhibiting gluconeogenesis.Lima LC et al, Metabolic effects of p-coumaric acid in the perfused rat liver. J Biochem Mol Toxicol. 2006;20(1):18-26.
Fumaric acid kills bacteria.
Kondo N, Murata M, Isshiki K. Efficiency of sodium hypochlorite, fumaric acid, and mild heat in killing native microflora and Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella typhimurium DT104, and Staphylococcus aureus attached to fresh-cut lettuce. J Food Prot. 2006 Feb;69(2):323-9.
Ferulic acid and para-coumaric acid inhibit colon cell proliferation (and thus also proliferation of colon cancer cells, which makes them 'anti-oxidants')
Janicke B, Onning G, Oredsson SM. Differential effects of ferulic acid and p-coumaric acid on S phase distribution and length of S phase in the human colonic cell line Caco-2. J Agric Food Chem. 2005 Aug 24;53(17):6658-65.
Their antioxidant properties come from their oxidation potential.
Neudorffer A et al, 4-hydroxycinnamic ethyl ester derivatives and related dehydrodimers: Relationship between oxidation potential and protective effects against oxidation of low-density lipoproteins. J Agric Food Chem. 2004 Apr 7;52(7):2084-91.
Dietary nitrate may result in endogenous formation of cancerous N-nitrosamines.

Kale also contains a bunch of glucosinolates that are metabolized into isothiocyanates. So, I will look into that the next time.
User avatar
Oscar
Administrator
Posts: 4350
Joined: Mon 15 Aug 2005 00:01

Post by Oscar »

Animals that do eat leaves and grasses (herbivores) have a different digestive tract than we have, to accomodate for that kind of food. For instance cows have 4 (or more, depends how you define it) stomachs.
The digestive tract of humans is different than that of monkeys. For instance chimpanzees have a longer colon than we have.

Here is an excerpt from an article taken from BeyondVeg.com:
A footnote on Chivers and Hladik [1980, 1984]: Human gut morphology

Sussman [1987] describes the analysis of the gut of 6 human cadavers using the measures defined in Chivers and Hladik [1980, 1984]. Analysis of the human gut data using the coefficient of gut differentiation (a measure of gut specialization) placed humans in the frugivore range, along the margin with the faunivore category. However, analysis of the same data using the index of gut specialization (yet another measure of gut morphological specialization) placed humans squarely in the faunivore range.

Note that the frugivore classification above came from using the coefficient of gut differentiation, which is an intermediate result in Chivers and Hladik [1980, 1984], hence presumably less desirable (from a certain analytical viewpoint) than the (faunivore) classification achieved using the end result of Chivers and Hladik [1980, 1984], i.e., the index of gut specialization. Also recall that the term frugivore does not mean or imply that a diet of nearly 100% sweet fruit (as advocated by some fruitarians) is appropriate. Recall that all frugivorous primates eat at least some quantities of animal foods, even if only insects. Thus the result that humans appeared to be frugivores by one measure and faunivores by another suggests a natural diet for humans that includes both animal foods and fruits.
(my emphasis).
Marty
Moderator
Posts: 84
Joined: Tue 29 Aug 2006 13:21

vegetable juice

Post by Marty »

The perspective that calls for optimizing one 'anti-nutrient' (fiber) by chopping something up finely does not really address the other components that will persist no matter how much you blend and sieve the original substance.

From an energy perspective, green vegetable and their juices have very few sugars; from a nutrient perspective, see the above.

I have not understood in this discussion how liquefying or otherwise changing the composition of something filled with anti-nutrients would somehow change the chemistry of those anti-nutrients. If anything, with the exception of fiber, it concentrates them.
User avatar
RRM
Administrator
Posts: 8164
Joined: Sat 16 Jul 2005 00:01
Contact:

Re: anti-nutrients

Post by RRM »

Tannins are a particular type of anti-nutrients, widely present in plants,
to protect against predation and also to regulate growth, decomposition and nitrogen recycling.
Its a bitter polyphenolic compound that due to its hydroxyls or carboxyls readily binds to amino acids (including those in digestive enzymes) and metals,
and many other compounds.
Logically, tannins have anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-parasitic properties.
Particularly legumes, herbs, nuts and berries contain tannins.
Tannins are well absorbed (particularly gallic acid).
Some fruits (apples, pomegranate, persimmon, but not citrus fruits) also contain tannins (mainly in the peel; 22 - 25 mmol), which (if in the flesh) mostly get eliminated as the fruit ripens.
Pomegranate also contains (pro)anthocyanins (incl. 156 mg cyanidin-3-glucoside / L), other polyphenols and flavonoids (incl. 636 mg quercetin / L). Gallic acid (a tannin) is up to 3.3 g. / L juice. El Kar C et al Pomegranate also contains high levels of ellagitannins Borges G et al (also tannins (incl. punicalagin), metabolized into ellagic acid and urolithins). These tannins decrease digestibility of protein and fat. Oliveira RA et al
Persimmon (or "sharon fruit", a botanical berry) contains high levels of tannins (incl. catechin, gallocatechin and shibuol (which may form a trapped gluey coagulum)), and also betulinic acid and (pro)anthocyanins Xu SF et al.

Total tannins in juices from apples and berries in grams / L. From Improved Winemaking
Apples 0.2 (Newtown, Jonathon) to 4.5 (Medaille d'Or)
Blackberries 2.1
Gooseberry 2.1
Loganberry 2.6
Strawberry 1.9
Raspberry 1.35
Post Reply