Phytic acid, a compound present in beans and even some nuts, is called an anti-nutrient because it interferes with the absorption of minerals.
When you ingest beans in your GI Tract, the phytic acid in them latches onto mainly iron but also zinc and calcium, and removes these minerals from the body.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Foods high in phytates are soy, pinto, kidney beans and peanuts. They have double the amount of phytate found in peas, lentils, chickpeas, white beans, walnuts and mung beans.
Solution: Soak The Beans
The phytic acid is released and removed from the bean when you soak for a minimum of 12 hours.
Whole mung (my favourite legume, the most sattvic/pure and an anti-flatulence bean/lentil) – soak for 2 -12 hours.
Split yellow mung – Soak for 1-5 hours.
Do not cook with the soaking water.
Soaking not only makes the food easier to digest and more nourishing, it makes the cooking time WAY quicker!
You can literally cook Kitchari in 10-15mins. (Kitchari is an essential Ayurvedic dish with mung and rice, recipe on my website). What more is that adding heat and cooking beans also helps eliminate phytic acid.
Again, the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda, which has always said soak beans, lentils and nuts and cook them for optimal digestion, has now been proved by modern science. I mean it’s obvious right. You can feel it the difference.
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Note phytic acid also has health benefits, so nature organised the soaking to remove only a percentage of the phytic acid from foods.
So don’t just avoid these foods, you must learn how to TRANSFORM every food/substance/plant/herb. This is the science of Agni. This is the science of Ayurveda.
What’s your favourite legume, nut or bean? Got any tasty tricks to share? Comment below
