If you’ve been hanging around the traditional or real food worlds for any length of time you have heard about the detriments of phytic acid. It’s been called an anti-nutrient by many, while some claim health benefits due to its chelating nature. So is phytic acid friend or foe?
When my husband was experiencing symptoms of mineral deficiency I decided to stop taking everyone’s word for it and start doing a bit of research of my own. This is the result of that research.
Phytic Acid Defined
Phytic Acid, also knows as inositol hexaphosphate (IP6), or phytate, is present in the brans and hulls of most grains, beans, nuts, and seeds. The ring you see above is the inositol (a B vitamin) constituent, which then has six phosphate groups attached. See all of those (-) symbols up there? That means that it is highly charged, which gives phytic acid its chelative (or binding) properties. Basically that means that phytic acid binds to minerals, metals and anything else it can get it’s hands on to and takes them out of the body with it.
Phytic Acid: Friend or Foe?
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that the higher the dosage of phytic acid in ones bread, the lower the absorption of minerals. The Journal of Nutrition compared the absorption of minerals in inositols containing fewer phosphates. They found that the fewer phosphate groups did not inhibit absorption to the degree that phytic acid does.
So you could see how that would be bad. If, when phytic acid exits our bodies, it takes other nutrients with it; we are not really taking in the minerals from these foods. Worse yet, if we are already deficient then perhaps it will take what little we have left, exacerbating our health problems.
On the other hand, phytic acid is said to be a powerful antioxidant as well as helpful in ridding the body of heavy metals and other toxins. One such article comes from Science Direct: Protective Effect of Phytic Acid on Oxidative DNA Damage with Reference to Cancer Chemoprevention. In every article I came across that found phytic acid to be friendly it seemed to be used under special medical circumstances, not in the foods we eat every day.
My Conclusions
While I do not doubt that phytic acid could be used beneficially in some specific circumstances, it is clear that daily consumption leads to mineral loss. Furthermore I am disheartened by the lack of knowledge of phytic acid in the general community. I came across many articles in big name journals which I suspect those who write up dietary recommendations for the government would have access to. Clearly their interests do not lie in the health of the general public.
A while ago I wrote about my reasoning for and experience with soaking grains, nuts, and beans. My further research into phytic acid has only confirmed previous reasoning so I will continue to soak and ferment those foods high in phytic acid.
Further Reading and Resources
Here are some of the articles I read through in my research:
- Cambridge Journals: Phytic Acid
- Food-Info: What is Phytic Acid?
- The American Journal of Nutrition: Phytic acid added to white-wheat bread inhibits fractional apparent magnesium absorption in humans
- Journal of Nutrition: Inhibitory Effects of Phytic Acid and Other Inositol Phosphates on Zinc and Calcium Absorption in Suckling Rats
One of the best resources for the home cook that I have found dealing with phytic acid is Reducing Phytic Acid in Your Food: A visual analysis of the research on home kitchen remedies for phytic acid*. Reading this paper answered a lot of my questions and gave me easy to apply methods for reducing phytic acid easily at home.
You can also purchase sprouted flour for baking and cooking, which will be low in phytic acid.
*Disclosure: This is an affiliate link, meaning it supports this site.
How about you… what are your thoughts on phytic acid?
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Wow–you’ve really done your homework! Thanks for the great information!
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Thank you for an informative article.
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WOW! Thanks for all your research. I really appreciate that;)
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Thanks for the easy to understand overview. It’s great & I’ll be referring people to this in the future.
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That was so helpful. Thanks for doing the research, and especially for explaining this clearly and concisely. I’ve been a little confused about the topic, so I really appreciated this post!
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Wondered if you had ever seen this method of soaking? He claims 96% of phytic acid is neutralized this way.http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2009/04/new-way-to-soak-brown-rice.html
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Shannon Reply:
March 14th, 2010 at 7:10 pm
Katie – That is interesting. I really need to do some home-testing to get some fun charts and graphs going.
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Thank you for this post. I have been told I am iron deficient, and I eat plenty of red meat and spinach. I have recently begun soaking grains for my bread (which I do not eat much of) but I am going to start soaking grains and nuts and seeds for my daily granola as well as other bread-like recipes I make. I am writing a post about my resolve to properly soak my grains and I hope it’s okay if I link to this post!
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[...] This morning, I just so happened to come across this post by Shannon at Nourishing Days called What is Phytic Acid? where she researches the topic. I’ll just let you read that instead of trying to reinvent [...]
Shannon,
I have been delving into this issue, too – http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/seriescarnivals/soaking-grains-an-exploration/.
Just one note: phytic acid and phytates aren’t the same thing. Breaking down the phytates would actually release phytic acid into the soak water, so there’s a lot more research to be done! On the other hand, anecdotal evidence is pretty strong that soaking does something…so I’m going to keep doing it for now!
Katie
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Shannon Reply:
March 15th, 2010 at 7:42 am
hi Katie,
Just wanted to comment on the comment you left at ND. You mentioned the difference between phytic acid and phytate. Phytate is the “salt” form of phytic acid. For instance there is sodium phytate which is phytic acid with Na attached to the charged phosphate groups.
Chemically speaking, the terms phytic acid and phytate might be used interchangably to denote very similar molecules, even if they behave differently. At least that is what I was taught in my organic chemistry classes
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Excellent points!
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Linking to this helpful explanation!
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[...] First, you have heard me talk of soaking grains to neutralize the phytic acid… sounds technical… and what’s the health benefit, anyway? Well, here is a very helpful explaination. Click here to read. [...]
All women making comments and seemed in the food mode…US Too.org mag for march or may says Colo Univ cancer center has study of p acid good for removing cancer. Seemed to be insinuating it would be helpful for prostate and breast cancer. You might check this out. I attend Wichita US Too chapter due to some concerns and I like to read the information their nat newsletter puts out. Interestingly, a recent newlettter article states all men will have p cancer and will die of it or with it??
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Shannon Reply:
May 12th, 2010 at 9:10 am
Woody – Yes, I have read similar reports. I have a mixed feelings on this because on the one hand there are reports like the one you cited. On the other hand there are many traditional and very healthy cultures that soaked or fermented grains. I tend to go with the traditional cultures.
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