If you feel tired, irascible, your hair falls out more or your nails are more fragile, even if you notice dry lips or have sores in your mouth or red eyes, you may be lacking vitamins or minerals and you do not know it . When this happens, it is usually due to a poorly balanced diet. However, if the diet is correct, there may be another reason: that your body does not assimilate vitamins and minerals from food.
What prevents vitamins from assimilating well?
The culprits in this case may be substances present in some foods that hinder or reduce the absorption of their own nutrients or those of other foods that are consumed together with them in the same meal. These substances are known as " antinutrients ", and the result is that your body ends up receiving less vitamins, minerals, etc., than you think you are providing with your daily diet.
Why Antinutrients Exist
Antinutrients prevent bacteria and molds from growing in food since, throughout evolution, plants have learned to generate toxic compounds to defend themselves against these microorganisms and animals. The problem is that these compounds do not distinguish between harmful microorganisms and good nutrients.
In this way, they end up also nullifying the beneficial properties of vitamins and minerals in food or reducing their assimilation. Despite everything, some of these substances are not as bad as they seem and with the advice we give you you can counteract their effect and rebalance your diet easily.
Fire nullifies its effect
Even if you are not aware of it, on a daily basis you tend to apply many of the resources that serve to "fight" against antinutrients. And cooking certain foods, applying heat to them instead of consuming them raw, is the way to deactivate some of these substances. This is the case of legumes, for example, which contain inhibitors of proteases and lectins that prevent the assimilation of amino acids - proteins - and the absorption of minerals, especially iron.
If we eat the legumes raw, we could even suffer symptoms of intoxication. But the lectins are deactivated by soaking and, above all, by prolonged cooking that legumes need to be tender. Well cooked they are a first class food that you have nothing to fear.
They can also benefit
Some antinutrients, on the other hand, have two sides: they can be bad and good at the same time. Phytic acid or phytate is found in the bran and in the outermost skins or skins of whole grains, legumes, seeds or nuts - such as wheat, lentils or peanuts. This compound sticks to minerals and prevents their absorption by the body, which could favor deficiencies, especially iron, calcium or zinc.
However, for this to happen it has to be consumed in excessive amounts, something that does not usually happen. In addition, in this case too soaking and long slow cooking partially eliminates it. In wheat bread, for example, fermentation also destroys phytic acid.
Phytates also have positive effects, as they stick to toxic metals such as cadmium or lead and help remove them. And they also reduce cholesterol and triglycerides, inhibit the formation of kidney stones and can prevent diabetes, cardiovascular disorders and some types of cancer such as colon or breast.
Another aspect that benefits us is that phytic acid is associated with fiber and most people take less than is recommended for good digestion and health of the intestinal microbiota.
Do you have to protect yourself from these "thieves"?
If you follow a varied and balanced diet, you don't have to have even a slight vitamin deficiency. Of course, if your diet is messy, monotonous and irregular, it is important that you try to balance it little by little by taking all kinds of foods in moderation. Antinutrients, as we have seen, are destroyed by heat, by soaking them, by mechanical action, etc., but it is worth taking some measures, especially when combining some foods, since they interfere with each other and They end up not nurturing you what they should.
Avoid these mixes …
- Yogurt and rolled oats. Oat flakes are rich in iron, but when mixed with the calcium in yogurt, both minerals compete for absorption and the effect of the two is reduced.
- Coffee with milk. Coffee makes it difficult to absorb calcium from milk. Coffee alone also reduces the assimilation of iron, phosphorus, magnesium … Take it better between meals instead of after eating.
- Bechamel and spinach. The same is true in this case. If we mix the calcium contained in the béchamel - due to its milk content - together with the oxalate from the spinach, we obtain a "mixture" that is more difficult for our body to assimilate. You can take spinach with raisins and pine nuts, for example.
But dare with these combinations
- Vitamin C + iron. Kiwis, citrus fruits or red peppers favor the absorption of iron from meat, legumes, cockles …
- Vitamin D + calcium. Salmon, sardines or eggs facilitate the fixation of calcium provided by dairy, almonds or vegetables.
- Lycopene + oleic acid. This tomato antioxidant –and responsible for its attractive red color– is assimilated much better when accompanied by olive oil.
