The Phytic Acid Myth: Do Vegans Need to Worry About Phytates and Other Anti-Nutrients?
In this week's episode I talk about whether vegans really do need to worry about phytates and other anti-nutrients reducing the absorption of iron and zinc on a vegan diet.
You'll also find out why phytic acid and other anti-nutrients are actually good for us, and how to balance your vegan diet to make sure you maximise the benefits of phytates, whilst also making sure you and your kids get enough iron and zinc.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Exciting News! My book Super Boosted Snacks is now available! Packed with over 70 quick, kid-friendly vegan snack recipes, it’s designed to help busy parents ensure their kids get the nutrients they need—without the mealtime battles. Perfect for fussy eaters and plant-based families. Click here to grab your copy now!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Worried your vegan child isn’t getting the right nutrients? My free Ultimate Vegan Nutrition Guide for Growing Kids has you covered! 🌱
This simple guide gives you clear answers on essential nutrients like iron, calcium, and zinc, plus easy supplement advice for Omega-3s and Vitamin B12. Skip the stress and get the info you need to confidently nourish your child on a plant-based diet.
Download your free guide now and ensure your child is thriving on a vegan diet.
If you'd like help with your family's vegan diet, come and join my vegan families membership Nourish and Grow. Inside you'll get help with everything from your child's nutrition, great recipes, to meal planning and prepping so you can have those healthy meals on the table in no time!
Looking to make new like-minded vegan Mum Friends? Come and join my free Vegan Community just for vegan families here
Let’s keep the conversation going! Find me at:
Website: withextraveg.net
IG: @withextraveg
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, there, it's Jen, and welcome to this week's
podcast.
So this week we're going to betalking about anti-nutrients.
Now, don't worry, if youhaven't heard that term, I will
let you know what it is reallysoon.
But we're going to be talkingabout anti-nutrients and whether
they block absorption of ironand zinc, so whether we need to
(00:23):
be worried about them or not.
Absorption of iron and zinc sowhether we need to be worried
about them or not.
Now, before I get started, Iwanted to let you know that my
new recipe book is up for sale.
I've been talking about it alot and so I want to make sure
that you know that it's there.
So it's called Super BoostedSnacks.
It's got over 70 plant-basedrecipes.
But the really great thing aboutit is the recipes have been
(00:47):
specifically developed by me, avegan nutritionist, to be really
high in iron and zinc andcalcium and protein, so they're
really high in the nutrientsthat your kids really need, and
you as well.
Um, these aren't just kidsnacks, trust me.
They're adult ones too.
I eat them all the time, butyeah, so they've been developed
(01:12):
to be really tasty, so your kidswill really like them, and
really high in nutrients.
I mean some of the chocolatepuddings in there that I've got.
I've got like four, five, evenseven milligrams of iron in them
, so they are absolutely packedfull of the nutrients that your
kids need.
They're also super quick andeasy and the book comes with a
(01:34):
full freezing guide so you'll beable to freeze all the snacks
so you can always have them onhand.
And then it's got a bit ofinformation about nutrition as
well.
But, yeah, so make sure youcheck that out.
I've got the link to it downbelow and people are loving it,
which is really exciting.
So, yeah, make sure you grab acopy.
It would make a great Christmaspresent too.
(01:56):
I can't believe we're coming upto Christmas.
Yeah, that's really coming soon, isn't it?
So yeah, so make sure you checkthat one out below.
All right, so let's get intoanti-nutrients Now.
Don't worry if you don't knowwhat I mean by anti-nutrients,
that's okay.
I've kind of talked about thiswith a few vegan friends and
(02:20):
stuff and half know what I'mtalking about and the other half
don't really know what I'mtalking about.
But one of the really bigcriticisms that you'll see about
a vegan diet is thatanti-nutrients block the
absorption of iron and, inparticular, zinc.
(02:41):
So a bit of iron, but reallythey block zinc absorption from
foods.
And so today I really want totalk about is this true, is this
actually real, or is it justone of these paleo world stories
that comes up?
Do we need to worry about it asvegans, and what do we do about
(03:04):
it to make sure that you'regetting all the iron and zinc
that you need?
All right, so what do I mean byanti-nutrients?
So, basically, for quite a longtime, they've been talking a lot
about various things likephytates, or phytic acid is one
(03:26):
of the most common ones that wetalk about or that you hear
about, and it's particularlyassociated with zinc.
So, yeah, so that's one of them.
Then you've got other things,sorry, so today I'm going to be
focusing mostly on phytates, orphytic acid when we're talking
(03:46):
about this and, in particular,about zinc, but there are some
other ones.
So there's also oxalates comeunder the term of anti-nutrients
tannins, which are in tea.
There's also lectins, and thenthere's a whole lot of other
ones that, to be honest, youprobably haven't heard of many
of them, of other ones that, tobe honest, you probably haven't
(04:09):
heard of many of them, butthey're all sort of basically
things in plant food which areknown to lower the absorption of
iron or zinc.
So, pretty much, they're builtin defense mechanisms in the
plant which are made to, uh,protect the plant from being
eaten and stuff which sounds it.
(04:31):
I always find it a bit funny, um, talking about this sort of
thing as a vegan, cause you knowit's very different talking
about these things in plantsversus, um, things in animals,
but it can be a slippery slopesometimes if you really start to
think about it.
Um, obviously, yeah, they'renot.
Um, it's vegan, anyway, yeah,so, basically, yeah, there are
(04:56):
different things in foods whichare known to block absorption of
nutrients like iron and zinc.
So for a very long time, we'vebeen taught to soak our foods in
order to reduce these in ourfoods.
(05:17):
So you've probably heard aboutthe whole soaking of seeds,
soaking of grains and thingslike that, which are there to
then increase absorption ofthings like iron and zinc in
them and decrease the thingslike phytic acid in them.
So, yeah, that's basically whatwe've been taught for a very
(05:39):
long time, and I guess one ofthe problems, um, that there's
always been with this whole needto soak foods and everything is
that it's also one of thethings.
That makes vegan, a vegan diet,um seem like it has a lot more
effort that we need to be.
(06:03):
Yeah, I mean, as a busy mummyself, the very idea of having
to soak all the grains andlegumes as well, and nuts and
seeds, before I eat them.
Let me tell you, I did it once.
I soaked some cashews overnightand then they looked really
slimy and gross and so I didn'tactually end up eating them, and
(06:27):
that was basically the onlytime that I ever oh no, no,
sorry, I tell a lie, I tell alie.
So that was one time I soakedthem in the fridge, and I soaked
them that time in the fridge,because the time before that I
soaked them out on the benchwhen and this was when my
youngest, my eldest, was veryyoung.
(06:48):
So I soaked the cashews inwater and they I didn't get to
them, being a busy new mum Um, Ididn't get to them for a day or
two and, um, they ended upgoing moldy.
So that completely wasted my umentire packet of cashews.
(07:09):
So, yeah, that was the.
I basically gave up.
Um, as I said, I did try it oneother time in the fridge and
they were all slimy and I justcouldn't do it.
So, yeah, I have never soakedgrains or legumes or nuts or
seeds or anything.
I just I don't have time to doit.
(07:30):
So I've always kind of gonewell, I'll just have to deal
with all those anti-nutrientsgetting to me, so yeah, so
anytime I put a post up onInstagram or Facebook or
anything about how much iron youneed and or how much zinc you
(07:52):
need and how to get it and stuffin a vegan diet and how to get
it and stuff in a vegan diet,without fail, I will get
somebody coming up and tellingme that you can't be vegan
because of the anti-nutrients.
So I had this happen recentlyand I decided that I'm going to
do this podcast and talk aboutit and stuff, because the whole
(08:15):
thing about anti-nutrients isactually sort of a little bit.
There's two things about it thatkind of annoy me.
First off, when they put thedietary guidelines and
everything together, the expertswho do nutrition and everything
actually already know aboutthis.
(08:35):
So I find a lot of the time youget, uh, cause all of this
anti-nutrient stuff?
Um, I think it all came throughwith the paleo diet.
It's one of the reasons whythey don't, um, promote grains
or legumes.
Um, it's really one of the bigones that, uh, the
misinformation that talks aboutwhy legumes aren't good for you.
(08:56):
But something that I find a lotof the time is that these
people who are sort of yourpaleo type people and everything
, seem to think that they're thefirst people who've actually
come across this and that it'snever actually been considered
before and that no one elseknows this and so they have to
(09:16):
tell us all about it.
And the thing is that if youactually look in the
recommendations, obviously theseare the recommendations I'm
talking about have been writtenfor professionals, so I'm not
meaning that you need tounderstand them, but it's
clearly written for anynutrition professional or
(09:39):
dietitian or anything.
When you look up how much zincpeople need, it actually says
that vegans and people onplant-based diets need to be
looking at having up to 1.5times more zinc than they
recommend for omnivores becauseof the phytates and other things
(10:04):
that make zinc absorptionharder from plant-based foods.
So, like in all of my coursesand everything in my membership
that I've got, now that you canaccess all of that, everything I
teach, I do teach that you needto be aiming for 1.5 times more
zinc than iron.
(10:25):
The same as this is why, eventhough everyone talks about iron
so much, zinc is actually moreimportant, and so that's one of
the reasons why I also tellpeople to focus on zinc, and the
iron actually looks afteritself.
And so, yeah, we kind of wealready know all this and it's
(10:48):
already there, it's alreadyknown and it's already a
recommendation for vegans anywayrecommendation for vegans,
anyway.
The other really interestingthing is that so nutrition
science is very new, and sowe're discovering a lot of stuff
(11:09):
all the time, and one of thethings that they're now
discovering is that theseso-called anti-nutrients are
actually really good for us.
So things like phytic acid isactually.
It has anti-cancer properties,it's anti-inflammatory, and then
all these other nutrients aswell, like they've been found to
(11:34):
be well, like they've beenfound to be yeah, reduce cancers
.
As I said, they can beprotective of our hearts as well
.
They can help with our immunesystem.
Yeah, it's just so.
There's so many good propertiesof all these anti-nutrients that
, ironically, if we go and soakthem soak all the foods to get
(11:58):
rid of them or to lessen them,soaking doesn't completely get
rid of them.
Well then we're actuallymissing out on all of these
amazing benefits of these foods.
So it seems that the answerisn't actually to soak your
foods, to get rid of these or toreduce them as you need in
(12:21):
order to have both the benefitsof the so-called anti-nutrients
and also the zinc and the ironand everything that we need as
(12:44):
well, which, in my book, I mean,is an even greater vote for a
vegan diet, really, if you thinkabout that, yeah.
So I guess, moving on to thequestion that I've kind of
already answered, do theseanti-nutrients actually block
(13:04):
some absorption of iron and zinc?
And the answer, unfortunately,is yes.
So they are right and it doeslessen the absorption of those
nutrients.
So that does mean that you needto be aiming for, as I said, one
and a half times as much zincin your diet than the
(13:29):
recommendation says, which, yeah, unfortunately but I mean zinc
foods are reasonably easy to geton a vegan diet.
So you're looking really atnuts and seeds legumes in order
to make sure you're gettingenough.
Luckily, younger kids don'tactually need that much, so
(13:51):
young kids need about three orfour milligrams, which, if you
put it up to the 1.5, so you'relooking at four and a half to
six milligrams of zinc, whichisn't so bad, but zinc you
really do need to be careful ofmaking sure that teenage boys
(14:14):
and adult males are definitelygetting enough, because they
have really high needs and bythe time you put it up to 1.5
times, you're ending up gettingclose to about 20 milligrams a
day.
So you need to be really,really intentional on making
sure that they're getting enoughand making sure that you're
(14:37):
including things like nuts andseeds.
Now I've put a link to my vegankids nutrition guide down below
, so it's a really good guidewhere I go through each of the
top five nutrients that you needto focus on, and that does
include zinc and iron, and so ittells you how much you need to
focus on.
And that does include zinc andiron, and so it tells you how
much you need, and it also tellsyou what the best kid-friendly
(15:01):
foods are to make sure thatyou're getting enough.
So make sure that you grab thatfrom down below so that you get
a really good idea of how muchzinc your kids need.
So I'm basically basicallytalking here about phytates, as
I said, and about zinc, but Iwas also mentioning earlier
(15:24):
about iron as well, so you'reprobably wondering do you need
to have 1.5 times as much ironas well as the zinc, and the
answer is no.
So basically, iron and zinc area little bit different.
So in our bodies we have moremechanisms to be able to absorb
(15:48):
iron.
We also have things like addingvitamin C to foods, avoiding
like spacing out tea and coffeeand things like that Not that
that really is relevant for kids, and also.
So onion and garlic have alsobeen found to increase iron, and
our bodies have got sort ofmechanisms to increase or
(16:08):
decrease iron, depending on howmuch we need to absorb.
If you want to learn more aboutiron and stuff, I've got a
couple of podcasts that I'vedone all about it, so make sure
you go back and listen to those.
But yeah, so basically our bodyhas more mechanisms to adjust
iron absorption, whereas zinc,we don't have as many.
(16:31):
Now the other thing is it'sreally easy to actually measure
how much iron we have in ourbody, so you're able to go get a
test and see and it will giveyou a really good, accurate
picture of how much iron isactually in your body, whereas
zinc, it is really difficult tomeasure how much zinc is in our
body and to measure whetheryou're zinc deficient or not.
(16:53):
So when you go and you get ablood test for zinc, it really
only gives you an idea ofwhether you've been having much
zinc recently.
It doesn't give you a good ideaof the zinc stores in your body
.
So you could get a good resultin your blood test, but in
(17:16):
reality, your stores might bequite low and so you might
actually be deficient.
So, because it's a lot harderto be able to tell whether we're
getting enough zinc, and alsobecause our body has more ways
of absorbing more iron, our bodyhas more ways of absorbing more
iron.
So that's why therecommendations focus
(17:46):
specifically on making sureyou're getting one and a half
times as much zinc rather thaniron.
So, in order to wrap up, thequestion is do we, as vegans,
need to worry aboutanti-nutrients?
The answer is yes, we do.
We need to be aware of them,but the reality is that they're
actually good for us.
So, rather than trying to avoidthem or having foods like meat
(18:10):
and dairy and things which don'tcontain them for our iron and
zinc, it is much better to havethe plant foods that provide us
with iron and zinc and to makesure that we're having enough to
provide us both with the ironand zinc that we need and also
(18:32):
to give us the benefits of theseother nutrients.
So, as I said, make sure thatyou download that guide below,
because it will tell you exactlyhow much iron and zinc and
calcium your kids need, and itwill also give you a list of
really great foods you caninclude to make sure that
(18:52):
they're getting enough.
Alrighty, so that's all forthis week.
Next week we're going to betalking about protein, so make
sure you tune in for that one.
Hi, there, it's Jen, and welcome to this week's
podcast.
So this week we're going to betalking about anti-nutrients.
Now, don't worry, if youhaven't heard that term, I will
let you know what it is reallysoon.
But we're going to be talkingabout anti-nutrients and whether
they block absorption of ironand zinc, so whether we need to
(00:23):
be worried about them or not.
Absorption of iron and zinc sowhether we need to be worried
about them or not.
Now, before I get started, Iwanted to let you know that my
new recipe book is up for sale.
I've been talking about it alot and so I want to make sure
that you know that it's there.
So it's called Super BoostedSnacks.
It's got over 70 plant-basedrecipes.
But the really great thing aboutit is the recipes have been
(00:47):
specifically developed by me, avegan nutritionist, to be really
high in iron and zinc andcalcium and protein, so they're
really high in the nutrientsthat your kids really need, and
you as well.
Um, these aren't just kidsnacks, trust me.
They're adult ones too.
I eat them all the time, butyeah, so they've been developed
(01:12):
to be really tasty, so your kidswill really like them, and
really high in nutrients.
I mean some of the chocolatepuddings in there that I've got.
I've got like four, five, evenseven milligrams of iron in them
, so they are absolutely packedfull of the nutrients that your
kids need.
They're also super quick andeasy and the book comes with a
(01:34):
full freezing guide so you'll beable to freeze all the snacks
so you can always have them onhand.
And then it's got a bit ofinformation about nutrition as
well.
But, yeah, so make sure youcheck that out.
I've got the link to it downbelow and people are loving it,
which is really exciting.
So, yeah, make sure you grab acopy.
It would make a great Christmaspresent too.
(01:56):
I can't believe we're coming upto Christmas.
Yeah, that's really coming soon, isn't it?
So yeah, so make sure you checkthat one out below.
All right, so let's get intoanti-nutrients Now.
Don't worry if you don't knowwhat I mean by anti-nutrients,
that's okay.
I've kind of talked about thiswith a few vegan friends and
(02:20):
stuff and half know what I'mtalking about and the other half
don't really know what I'mtalking about.
But one of the really bigcriticisms that you'll see about
a vegan diet is thatanti-nutrients block the
absorption of iron and, inparticular, zinc.
(02:41):
So a bit of iron, but reallythey block zinc absorption from
foods.
And so today I really want totalk about is this true, is this
actually real, or is it justone of these paleo world stories
that comes up?
Do we need to worry about it asvegans, and what do we do about
(03:04):
it to make sure that you'regetting all the iron and zinc
that you need?
All right, so what do I mean byanti-nutrients?
So, basically, for quite a longtime, they've been talking a lot
about various things likephytates, or phytic acid is one
(03:26):
of the most common ones that wetalk about or that you hear
about, and it's particularlyassociated with zinc.
So, yeah, so that's one of them.
Then you've got other things,sorry, so today I'm going to be
focusing mostly on phytates, orphytic acid when we're talking
(03:46):
about this and, in particular,about zinc, but there are some
other ones.
So there's also oxalates comeunder the term of anti-nutrients
tannins, which are in tea.
There's also lectins, and thenthere's a whole lot of other
ones that, to be honest, youprobably haven't heard of many
of them, of other ones that, tobe honest, you probably haven't
(04:09):
heard of many of them, butthey're all sort of basically
things in plant food which areknown to lower the absorption of
iron or zinc.
So, pretty much, they're builtin defense mechanisms in the
plant which are made to, uh,protect the plant from being
eaten and stuff which sounds it.
(04:31):
I always find it a bit funny, um, talking about this sort of
thing as a vegan, cause you knowit's very different talking
about these things in plantsversus, um, things in animals,
but it can be a slippery slopesometimes if you really start to
think about it.
Um, obviously, yeah, they'renot.
Um, it's vegan, anyway, yeah,so, basically, yeah, there are
(04:56):
different things in foods whichare known to block absorption of
nutrients like iron and zinc.
So for a very long time, we'vebeen taught to soak our foods in
order to reduce these in ourfoods.
(05:17):
So you've probably heard aboutthe whole soaking of seeds,
soaking of grains and thingslike that, which are there to
then increase absorption ofthings like iron and zinc in
them and decrease the thingslike phytic acid in them.
So, yeah, that's basically whatwe've been taught for a very
(05:39):
long time, and I guess one ofthe problems, um, that there's
always been with this whole needto soak foods and everything is
that it's also one of thethings.
That makes vegan, a vegan diet,um seem like it has a lot more
effort that we need to be.
(06:03):
Yeah, I mean, as a busy mummyself, the very idea of having
to soak all the grains andlegumes as well, and nuts and
seeds, before I eat them.
Let me tell you, I did it once.
I soaked some cashews overnightand then they looked really
slimy and gross and so I didn'tactually end up eating them, and
(06:27):
that was basically the onlytime that I ever oh no, no,
sorry, I tell a lie, I tell alie.
So that was one time I soakedthem in the fridge, and I soaked
them that time in the fridge,because the time before that I
soaked them out on the benchwhen and this was when my
youngest, my eldest, was veryyoung.
(06:48):
So I soaked the cashews inwater and they I didn't get to
them, being a busy new mum Um, Ididn't get to them for a day or
two and, um, they ended upgoing moldy.
So that completely wasted my umentire packet of cashews.
(07:09):
So, yeah, that was the.
I basically gave up.
Um, as I said, I did try it oneother time in the fridge and
they were all slimy and I justcouldn't do it.
So, yeah, I have never soakedgrains or legumes or nuts or
seeds or anything.
I just I don't have time to doit.
(07:30):
So I've always kind of gonewell, I'll just have to deal
with all those anti-nutrientsgetting to me, so yeah, so
anytime I put a post up onInstagram or Facebook or
anything about how much iron youneed and or how much zinc you
(07:52):
need and how to get it and stuffin a vegan diet and how to get
it and stuff in a vegan diet,without fail, I will get
somebody coming up and tellingme that you can't be vegan
because of the anti-nutrients.
So I had this happen recentlyand I decided that I'm going to
do this podcast and talk aboutit and stuff, because the whole
(08:15):
thing about anti-nutrients isactually sort of a little bit.
There's two things about it thatkind of annoy me.
First off, when they put thedietary guidelines and
everything together, the expertswho do nutrition and everything
actually already know aboutthis.
(08:35):
So I find a lot of the time youget, uh, cause all of this
anti-nutrient stuff?
Um, I think it all came throughwith the paleo diet.
It's one of the reasons whythey don't, um, promote grains
or legumes.
Um, it's really one of the bigones that, uh, the
misinformation that talks aboutwhy legumes aren't good for you.
(08:56):
But something that I find a lotof the time is that these
people who are sort of yourpaleo type people and everything
, seem to think that they're thefirst people who've actually
come across this and that it'snever actually been considered
before and that no one elseknows this and so they have to
(09:16):
tell us all about it.
And the thing is that if youactually look in the
recommendations, obviously theseare the recommendations I'm
talking about have been writtenfor professionals, so I'm not
meaning that you need tounderstand them, but it's
clearly written for anynutrition professional or
(09:39):
dietitian or anything.
When you look up how much zincpeople need, it actually says
that vegans and people onplant-based diets need to be
looking at having up to 1.5times more zinc than they
recommend for omnivores becauseof the phytates and other things
(10:04):
that make zinc absorptionharder from plant-based foods.
So, like in all of my coursesand everything in my membership
that I've got, now that you canaccess all of that, everything I
teach, I do teach that you needto be aiming for 1.5 times more
zinc than iron.
(10:25):
The same as this is why, eventhough everyone talks about iron
so much, zinc is actually moreimportant, and so that's one of
the reasons why I also tellpeople to focus on zinc, and the
iron actually looks afteritself.
And so, yeah, we kind of wealready know all this and it's
(10:48):
already there, it's alreadyknown and it's already a
recommendation for vegans anywayrecommendation for vegans,
anyway.
The other really interestingthing is that so nutrition
science is very new, and sowe're discovering a lot of stuff
(11:09):
all the time, and one of thethings that they're now
discovering is that theseso-called anti-nutrients are
actually really good for us.
So things like phytic acid isactually.
It has anti-cancer properties,it's anti-inflammatory, and then
all these other nutrients aswell, like they've been found to
(11:34):
be well, like they've beenfound to be yeah, reduce cancers
.
As I said, they can beprotective of our hearts as well
.
They can help with our immunesystem.
Yeah, it's just so.
There's so many good propertiesof all these anti-nutrients that
, ironically, if we go and soakthem soak all the foods to get
(11:58):
rid of them or to lessen them,soaking doesn't completely get
rid of them.
Well then we're actuallymissing out on all of these
amazing benefits of these foods.
So it seems that the answerisn't actually to soak your
foods, to get rid of these or toreduce them as you need in
(12:21):
order to have both the benefitsof the so-called anti-nutrients
and also the zinc and the ironand everything that we need as
(12:44):
well, which, in my book, I mean,is an even greater vote for a
vegan diet, really, if you thinkabout that, yeah.
So I guess, moving on to thequestion that I've kind of
already answered, do theseanti-nutrients actually block
(13:04):
some absorption of iron and zinc?
And the answer, unfortunately,is yes.
So they are right and it doeslessen the absorption of those
nutrients.
So that does mean that you needto be aiming for, as I said, one
and a half times as much zincin your diet than the
(13:29):
recommendation says, which, yeah, unfortunately but I mean zinc
foods are reasonably easy to geton a vegan diet.
So you're looking really atnuts and seeds legumes in order
to make sure you're gettingenough.
Luckily, younger kids don'tactually need that much, so
(13:51):
young kids need about three orfour milligrams, which, if you
put it up to the 1.5, so you'relooking at four and a half to
six milligrams of zinc, whichisn't so bad, but zinc you
really do need to be careful ofmaking sure that teenage boys
(14:14):
and adult males are definitelygetting enough, because they
have really high needs and bythe time you put it up to 1.5
times, you're ending up gettingclose to about 20 milligrams a
day.
So you need to be really,really intentional on making
sure that they're getting enoughand making sure that you're
(14:37):
including things like nuts andseeds.
Now I've put a link to my vegankids nutrition guide down below
, so it's a really good guidewhere I go through each of the
top five nutrients that you needto focus on, and that does
include zinc and iron, and so ittells you how much you need to
focus on.
And that does include zinc andiron, and so it tells you how
much you need, and it also tellsyou what the best kid-friendly
(15:01):
foods are to make sure thatyou're getting enough.
So make sure that you grab thatfrom down below so that you get
a really good idea of how muchzinc your kids need.
So I'm basically basicallytalking here about phytates, as
I said, and about zinc, but Iwas also mentioning earlier
(15:24):
about iron as well, so you'reprobably wondering do you need
to have 1.5 times as much ironas well as the zinc, and the
answer is no.
So basically, iron and zinc area little bit different.
So in our bodies we have moremechanisms to be able to absorb
(15:48):
iron.
We also have things like addingvitamin C to foods, avoiding
like spacing out tea and coffeeand things like that Not that
that really is relevant for kids, and also.
So onion and garlic have alsobeen found to increase iron, and
our bodies have got sort ofmechanisms to increase or
(16:08):
decrease iron, depending on howmuch we need to absorb.
If you want to learn more aboutiron and stuff, I've got a
couple of podcasts that I'vedone all about it, so make sure
you go back and listen to those.
But yeah, so basically our bodyhas more mechanisms to adjust
iron absorption, whereas zinc,we don't have as many.
(16:31):
Now the other thing is it'sreally easy to actually measure
how much iron we have in ourbody, so you're able to go get a
test and see and it will giveyou a really good, accurate
picture of how much iron isactually in your body, whereas
zinc, it is really difficult tomeasure how much zinc is in our
body and to measure whetheryou're zinc deficient or not.
(16:53):
So when you go and you get ablood test for zinc, it really
only gives you an idea ofwhether you've been having much
zinc recently.
It doesn't give you a good ideaof the zinc stores in your body
.
So you could get a good resultin your blood test, but in
(17:16):
reality, your stores might bequite low and so you might
actually be deficient.
So, because it's a lot harderto be able to tell whether we're
getting enough zinc, and alsobecause our body has more ways
of absorbing more iron, our bodyhas more ways of absorbing more
iron.
So that's why therecommendations focus
(17:46):
specifically on making sureyou're getting one and a half
times as much zinc rather thaniron.
So, in order to wrap up, thequestion is do we, as vegans,
need to worry aboutanti-nutrients?
The answer is yes, we do.
We need to be aware of them,but the reality is that they're
actually good for us.
So, rather than trying to avoidthem or having foods like meat
(18:10):
and dairy and things which don'tcontain them for our iron and
zinc, it is much better to havethe plant foods that provide us
with iron and zinc and to makesure that we're having enough to
provide us both with the ironand zinc that we need and also
(18:32):
to give us the benefits of theseother nutrients.
So, as I said, make sure thatyou download that guide below,
because it will tell you exactlyhow much iron and zinc and
calcium your kids need, and itwill also give you a list of
really great foods you caninclude to make sure that
(18:52):
they're getting enough.
Alrighty, so that's all forthis week.
Next week we're going to betalking about protein, so make
sure you tune in for that one.
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