by Frank Tufano
These substances are found in high volumes in cruciferous vegetables, which include broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, and brussels sprouts. Interestingly, none of these are naturally occurring but can all be traced back to a singular ancestor — wild mustard — and only exist as different varieties now due to artificial selection made by farmers over the past few thousand years. One means of reducing glucosinolates is to boil vegetables, but few people do that before consuming any of the popular cruciferous veggies.
Gluten
Found in: wheat, rye, barley, malt, yeast (and all the processed variants of these grains)
As the most well-known anti-nutrient, gluten has gotten a bad wrap even beyond its role in celiac disease — and this is one piece on modern health advice that they actually got correct. It’s good to avoid no matter how much of an obvious intolerance you have, especially because it is an enzyme inhibitor. Without getting too long-winded, anything that inhibits enzymes will impair digestive function. If your body isn’t producing the proper enzymes (or enough of them), you food can essentially just sit there in your stomach and ferment rather than being broken down.
This can cause damage to cells, contribute to leaky gut, become associated with autoimmune diseases, or promote the growth of bad gut bacteria. Among the more outward symptoms, some have severe allergies (celiac disease) while others report cognitive problems (including poor memory), joint pain, headaches, and fatigue. Even in the best scenario, it is among the compounds in plants that can just cause excessive gas and farts, as we see in so many vegans who flood their guts with anti-nutrients 24/7.
Isoflavones
Found in: soy, peanuts, chickpeas, fava beans, kudzu, alfalfa
The main concern of isoflavones is its role a phytoestrogen, which may be associated with reduced fertility (shown in studies on rats), cell death (in embryos), early puberty in women, and irregular menstrual cycle. On a personal note, I blame the heavy concentration of isoflavones in the soy formula I was fed as an infant for a lot of the allergies and food tolerance problems that I have faced. Even more than the others, this may be seen as a poison that negatively alters our hormones and system function overall.
Lectins
Found in: legumes, grains, vegetables, oils, dairy
Because lectins are attracted to the sugar in cells, they can damage the intestines and cause joint pain. While some people can tolerate these better than others, along with gluten and saponins, lectins bind to many cells in the bonds and are believed to be among the main anti-nutrients that contribute to leaky gut syndrome. And interactions with lectins contained in dairy, and the homogenization process, explain why many people have issues with store bought conventional dairy. In many cases, however, they can be reduced significantly through fermentation or soaking.
Glycoalkaloids – Solanine and Chaconine
Found in: nightshades (tomato, bell pepper, chili pepper, potato, eggplant)
Solanine and chaconine are two compounds that are known as glycoalkaloids and have some negative effects. Both can inhibit the nerve-synapse enzyme acetylcholinesterase, and solanines are the primary anti-nutrient found in nightshades. Also known to disrupt cell membranes (by increasing the concentration of potassium in the cytoplasm), solanines can be found in any part of the plant (leaves, fruit, and tubers) and are so abundant in the flowering, above-ground part of the potato that are deemed unfit for human consumption. The amount of solanines found in potatoes, for example, can vary greatly depending upon the specific variety, how they were grown, and the manner in which they were stored.
Saponins
Found in: soy, chickpeas, asparagus, onions, garlic, quinoa, oats, tea
Though sometimes found in different foods, saponins have similar effects to lectins and are another potential problem for the gut, specifically the intestinal lining. They can also damage red blood cells inhibit both enzymes and thyroid function, and introduce something of a "foaming property” that can damage cells. As with lectins, these can be reduced through fermentation and soaking.
Other Anti-Nutrients
This isn’t a science textbook and I imagine many of you have already skipped over all these descriptions. That is understandable but the main message is to understand that there are certain anti-nutrients that should be avoided in large amounts and that (as we’ll see more below) there are various preparation methods that should be used to reduce the anti-nutrient content in many foods.
A few of the others to keep a look out for negative or related compounds such as lignans, alpha amylase inhibitors, protease inhibitors, sulphites, tannins, biogenic/vasoactive amines, mycotoxins, aflatoxins, salicylates. Some of these occur due to handling and storage of plant foods (rather than being inherent to them), and the evidence for real harm may not be overwhelming at this point. But these are other compounds that we may want to keep an eye on.
Traditional Preparation Methods
The fascinating history of Gaelic oats is just one anecdote. All across the world, indigenous communities have used extensive preparation methods for the grains and other plant foods they consumed. Fermentation lasting days or even weeks was often a major part of this.
Along with other work to turn harsh cereal seeds into edible food (including milling, prolonged soaking, or germination), it was all very laborious and time consuming. But for ancient people who were building societies and struggling to find enough calories to survive, it was well worth the effort.
Especially in one case: beer. While ancient cultures didn’t have anything like our modern IPAs,, almost every grain-consuming culture has some sort of fermented beverage tradition. Some were more alcoholic than others. Both the Inca society that came to dominate the Andes in South America and many different indigenous groups in the Amazon made versions of “chicha,” which was typically made from corn in the mountains and cassava (yuca) in the jungle. And unlike the adult beverages of today, these drinks were made with very high quality grains and used natural wild yeast cultures to ferment, giving them a unique probiotic profile.
Sourdough bread is probably the most famous traditional grain preparation. It relies on a long fermentation process of the starter culture that, through the presence of lactic acid bacteria (lactobacillus), significantly reduces phytate levels in the final bread. Until the development of modern yeasts, this was the traditional method of bread-making for thousands of years in places like the Lötschental Valley in Switzerland, where people lived in great health while mainly consuming cheese and rye bread.
A 2001 study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found that sourdough fermentation can reduce phytate content by 62%. And if the bran was then incubated with microorganisms before baking the bread, the reduction could be as high as 90%. The result is a significantly increased “solubility” of phosphorus and magnesium. Translation: They become easier for the body to absorb, meaning more bioavailable.
Sprouting is another tradition method used to reduce antinutrient content. Modern studies have shown an 88.3% reduction in phytate content "when germinated pearl millet sprouts were fermented” with various bacteria cultures for 72 hours and confirmed that soaking both cereals and beans can be "quite effective for reduction of phytic acid as well as consequent increase in mineral bioavailability."
Unlike modern scientists working in a lab, people living 1,000 years ago in northern Scotland, the Andean Altiplano, or the Swiss Alps didn’t know the complicated chemistry and biology behind why fermenting and soaking worked. But they understood the importance of it. They knew that they were healthier and they knew they felt better if they used these methods to produce their food. It was probably so ingrained in their culture that they didn’t even think about it. To them, this was just the way these items had to be be prepared for humans to eat them.
This is definitely not the case today. People spend almost no time preparing their grains properly. They assume everything is ready to eat out of the bag and then load up — day after day after day — at every
meal.
And this is despite the fact that the today’s grains have been bioengineered to maximize factors like yield and drought resistance at the expense of nutrition. They generally have far less protein. By comparison, some traditional ancient grains, such as einkorn wheat, were higher in protein and fat as well as nutrients like Vitamin B2, potassium, phosphorous, and carotenoids, according to a study published by Purdue University’s Center for New Crops & Plant Products. We should also note that this doesn’t even take into account the vastly higher mineral content of the soil before the rise of industrial agriculture that has made today’s plant foods even less nutritious.
When you add it all up, and you take away the traditional — and necessary — preparation methods, it’s clear that all the people today are getting far fewer positives and many more negatives when the eat plant foods.
Ambers Waves of Mold
Maize — the forefather to our modern corn and base of their iconic tortillas — was eaten extensively by the Maya and many ancient cultures in modern-day Mexico and Central America. And like their Gaelic brothers across the Atlantic, they too went to great lengths to get the most out of their favored grain.
"The Maize was prepared by boiling or soaking it in lime water and then draining it in a gourd colander,” wrote Elizabeth P. Benson’s in her book The Maya World. "While it was still wet, it was ground on a metate — as small stone table — with a mano, a cylindrical handstone. The resulting paste was most commonly mixed with water to make pozole, a thin gruel, or formed into cakes, the still-familiar tortillas, which were roasted on a flat pottery griddle and eaten with beans or chili.”
This alkaline soaking process, now known as nixtamalization, was useful for two reasons. Most importantly, it removed the presence of potentially deadly aflatoxins caused by certain strains of mold. And it may also have helped free up the Vitamin B3 (niacin) that is naturally in a “bound form” in maize. “It is possible that lime treatment followed by cooking makes the niacin more available or perhaps it improves the amino acid balance,” wrote Michael C. Latham in the book Human Nutrition in the Developing World.
Getting Vitamin B3 was not a nice benefit to add a little extra nutrition to a food mainly consumed for energy. But this wasn’t nearly as critical as avoiding aflatoxins — which can literally kill you. Death only happens in severe cases of acute poisoning, of course. But the World Health Organization warns that “long-term exposure can have serious health consequences” because aflatoxins are “potent carcinogens and may affect all organ systems” or “cause immunosuppression.”
Because of this, and more so the risk of a truly deadly outbreak, the FDA mandates strict testing and limits the maximum acceptable level in crops today at 20 parts per billion (ppb) in food intended for use by humans. That upper allowable limit jumps to 300 ppb for feed that will be used to finish beef cattle.
You may notice, however, that neither of these numbers are zero — despite the fact that "frequent aflatoxin B1 exposure accelerates inflammatory responses via regulation of cytokine gene expression,” according to a 2017 study in Frontiers in Microbiology.
Maybe those Maya were on to something after all, ya think? When we step away from indigenous food preparations, bad things seem to happen.
Pesticides, Unnatural Crops, and Modern Access
While everything discussed here so far is definitely a real concern, the anti-nutrient threat admittedly can be overblown at times. This is especially true when it comes to the online carnivore community. Without really researching or comprehending the underlying science, many leading advocates of the Carnivore Diet will simply say, “gotta stay away from those damn oxalates, man,” as an excuse to sit around eating cheap, grain-fed ribeye steak all day.
Without doubt, flooding your gut with anti-nutrients at every single meal can be detrimental. This is particularly true if you’re a vegan or otherwise struggle to get vital nutrients in the first place. The problem of impaired vitamin and mineral absorption is negative for anyone — but it becomes that much worse when you are constantly low or deficient in the true building blocks of health.
That said, anti-nutrients are not going to kill you. Really, compared to all the herbicides, pesticides, and other pollutants coating so many vegetables and plant foods today, this may all be small potatoes.
So what’s the real best reason to avoid plant foods? To me, you shouldn’t be consuming this stuff because of what we’re spraying on it. Before everything else, you need to ask yourself whether your enjoyment of plant foods is worth ingesting poison.
Perhaps if you know a local farmer or you trust in the nation’s (poorly regulated) organic labeling standards, you may be able to avoid the worst of the industrial agrochemical contamination. But you’re still dealing with the inflammatory properties of modern grains. Then there is the ongoing degradation of soil quality that leaves more and more of these foods devoid of much mineral content to begin with. And, yes, once again, you don’t want to be consuming all these anti-nutrients.
Even in the best scenarios, we’re still usually talking about a highly bioengineered plant food that was modified greatly over the centuries to no longer resemble anything our ancestors could have found in nature. I’m not even talking about the modern GMO fear.
You should never confuse the modern crops, like broccoli and tomatoes, in our supermarkets with the wild plant foods that humans ate tens of thousands of years ago. These items largely didn’t exist in anything resembling their current form. Plus, anyone living far away from the equator never would have been eating fruits and vegetables all that often in the first place. The ground was frozen solid for half the year!
Today, you may be able to fly in avocados from Mexico and ship açaí berries from Brazil to keep your pantry stocked all year long. But there is no way people living in northern Europe were consuming vegetables for months on end in ancient times. So, if we didn’t evolve with these foods, why should we eat them now?
Fruit is even worse. Modern versions have been bred and cultivated over time to be bigger and sweeter with fewer seeds than anything that ever would have existed naturally. And while some people whose ancestors evolved in more tropical climates, where fruit was more abundant, may tolerate fruit sugars better than those who hail from Nordic vikings, you have to remember that consuming the foods in large amounts still may have been unlikely during our evolution.
Over time, tools may have helped us get more of these sweet treats. But, by and large, the other animals living in the Amazon, for example, would be getting to this fruit before humans could. Everything from monkeys and other tree-dwelling mammals to high-flying birds and bats were always much more adept than us as procuring fruit way up in a tree.
The energy it took to outfox a gibbon for a primitive orange would hardly be worth the caloric benefit — especially when you remember that an ancient orange was 80% seeds and much lower in fructose than the hybrid-engineered crops today. Why waste all that time and energy for a little sugar when you could just hunt the monkey itself and feast for days?
Anti-Nutrients: Compounding the Real Problem
There is one more key thing to consider when it comes to plant foods: Every indigenous group that consumed plant foods in significant quantities did so not for nutrition but for energy. The move toward agriculture and crops was to obtain calories, as we saw when Gaelic ancestors made their dairy last longer by mixing it with oats.
Think about a fishing community tens of thousands of years ago that subsisted largely by eating a lean catch like bass. Maybe they managed to pull in enough for every member of the group to eat a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of fish per day. If they ate all the organs as well, they would be doing great as far as achieving most of their nutritional needs.
But that’s still less than 2,000 calories per day for people who are much more active than we are today. They would need more energy. And it would have been a great benefit to forage for starchy tubers or cultivate wild rice to make up the difference.
Even if they could get enough animal protein, it was probably always challenging to find enough animal fat.
Today, conventional wisdom has flooded our brains with the idea that greens and tomatoes are full of nutrients. But they lack all of the fat-soluble vitamins and many other key components we need. And as we now know, in their attempt to use these resources for their caloric needs, traditional cultures also had special preparation methods that removed, or at least limited the negative effects of, these anti-nutrients and other inflammatory aspects.
I want to be fully honest with you here. A few bowls of rice per month, a salad every week, or even an organic apple every day is very unlikely to actually harm your health. This might be true even when it was all grown with gallons of herbicide and pesticide. But if you are getting a high percentage of your calories from plant foods — and most Americans get 60%-70% of their calories from non-animal sources — you need to at the very least reduce the anti-nutrient content.
When you consume grains in large amounts, phytates and phytic acid will inhibit the absorption of minerals in your body. So if you don’t ferment the wheat you use to make bread, granted you consume it frequently, you are going to be in very poor health.
But, again, this — and even the pesticides — still really isn’t the biggest concern. This isn’t the reason that I shake my head every time I see a mom or dad force veganism upon their young, developing child. It still all comes back to the fundamental problem: the lack of animal foods.
If the kid, like many of our grandparents, started off each day with a breakfast of high-quality eggs laid by free-range hens and drank raw milk from a cow grazing on summer pasture, there would be very little problem with them then having an apple a day and eating greens, mashed potatoes, and bread during dinner.
