Antinutrients
Phytate - antinutrient / malabsorption agent
Phytic Acid - "Malabsorption Agent"
Phytic Acid / Phytate - World Consumption of Phytate
The World Consumes a lot of Phytic Acid in Grains
Food group
Estimated edible dry matter
Cereals
1,545
Tubers
136
Pulses
127
Meat, milk, eggs
119
Sugar
101
Fruit
34
The world's top 5 food crops (see chart)
ALL have high phytate content - and of interest,
wheat, corn, rice, barley, sorghum,;oats, rye, and millet provide 56% of the food
energy and 50% of the protein consumed on earth (1985 figures).
Stoskopf NC: Cereal Grain Crops. Reston, Reston
Publishing Company, 1985.
Of 195,000 species of edible plants, only ~17 species
provide 90% of mankind's food supply
Prior to the Agricultural Revolution and man living in
settlements, humans existed as non-cereal-eating hunter-gatherers, obtaining calories
mostly from wild animal meats, fruits and vegetables (i.e. not from grains)
- Furthermore, this drastic dietary change occurred without any significant change
to mankind's genetic make-up, and although it can easily provide the bulk of needed
daily caloric intake, a cereal-based diet may or may not be wholly beneficial for
human physiology:
Several health issues were recognized after the change
from hunter-gatherer to cereal-based diets - including:
Food crop
Estimated edible dry matter(million metric tons)
Wheat
468
Maize
429
Rice
330
Barley
160
Soybean
88
Cane sugar
67
Sorghum
60
Potato
54
Oats
43
Casava
41
Sweet potato
35
Beet sugar
34
Rye
29
Millet
26
Rapeseed
19
Bean
14
Peanut
13
Pea
12
Musa
11
Grape
11
Sunflower
9.7
Yams
6.3
Apple
5.5
Coconut
5.3
Cottonseed (oil)
4.8
Orange
4.4
Tomato
3.3
Cabbage
3.0
Onion
2.6
Mango
1.8
World's top 30 food crops
• Stature ▼ [1, 2-4],
• Infant mortality▲ [4,5]
• Lifespan ▼ [4,5],
• Infectious disease incidences▲ [4-7]
• Iron deficiency anemia▲ [4, 5,
7]
• Osteomalacia incidence and other bone mineral
disorders ▲ [1, 4, 5, 7] and number of dental caries and enamel defects▲ [4.5,
8].
1. Eaton SB, Nelson
DA: Calcium in evolutionary perspective. Am J Clin Nutr 1991;54:281s-287s.
2. Angel JL: Paleoecology,
paleodemography and health; in Polgar S (ed): Population, Ecology and Social Evolution.
The Hague, Mouton, 1975, pp 167-190.
3. Nickens PR: Stature
reduction as an adaptive response to food production in Mesoamerica. J Archaeol
Sci 1976;3:31-41.
4. Cohen MN: The significance
of long-term changes in human diet and food economy; in Harris M, Ross EB (eds):
Food and Evolution. Toward a Theory of Human Food Habits. Philadelphia, Temple University
Press, 1987, pp 261-283.
5. Cassidy CM: Nutrition
and health in agriculturalists and hunter-gatherers: A case study of two prehistoric
populations; in Jerome RF, Kandel RF, Pelto GH (eds): Nutritional Anthropology:Contemporary
Approaches to Diet and Culture. Pleasantville, Redgrave Publishing Company, 1980,pp
117-145.
6. The Third Chimpanzee:
The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal. New York,Harper Collins, 1992, pp
180-191.
7. Lallo JW, Armelagos
GJ, Mensforth RP: The role of diet, disease, and physiology in the origin of porotic
hyperostosis. Human Biol 1977;49:471-473.
8. Turner CG: Dental
anthropological indications of agriculture among the Jomon people of central Japan.
Am J Phys Anthropol 1979;51:619-636.
