What is called “anti-nutrient” is actually “nutrient” in nature. Foods considered anti-nutrients have way more benefits than detriments. The detriments are totally circumstantial and apply only to certain individuals with adverse health conditions (malfunctions) such as digestion/metabolism issues and allergic reactions.

The pro anti-nutrient crowd believe that anti-nutrients have a detrimental impact or effect on how well our bodies absorb vital nutrients and a detrimental impact on metabolism and other bodily functions. They believe that anti-nutrients are compounds that act as a particular plants’ natural defense system that have evolved over time to ward off insects, bugs, and other herbivores.

Anti-nutrients include lectins, oxalates, phytic acid, tannins, saponins, phytates, solanine, and glucosinolates to name a few.

Phytic acid may impair (prevent) the absorption of zinc, iron, calcium, and other minerals. This applies to a single meal, not overall nutrient absorption throughout the day. In other words, phytic acid primarily reduces one’s mineral absorption during the meal but doesn’t have major effects on subsequent meals. As an example, snacking on nuts between meals could reduce the amount of iron, zinc, and calcium absorbed from these nuts but not from the meal one eats a few hours later.

The anti-nutrient crowd is incorrect in their belief that oxalates in oxalate-rich foods can lead to kidney stone formation by binding with calcium in the kidneys. Oxalates from plants are organic and not inorganic. You cannot develop any type of gravel or calculus from plants, only animal products and processed, man-made foods. Remember, plants are already converting inorganic minerals into organic minerals via the alchemical process involving humic and fulvic acids. There are no inorganic stones or anything hard for that matter in spinach or rhubarb and you can feel for yourself.

The anti-nutrient crowd (also known as the carnivore or carnist crowd) is blaming plants for what animal products in conjunction with man-made products are causing: stones, or gravel, which are hard like rocks. These people grossly lack understanding between the two states of minerals: organic and inorganic. For a hard stone to be held together, you need a mucilage, and that mucilage is plaque (mucoidal plaque, atherosclerotic plaque), cholesterol (from animals), etc. – which you can only get from eating non-plant-based acidic foods such as animal products: meat, dairy, and eggs, and man-made processed substances, e.g., salt, sugar, pharmaceutical drugs, OTC drugs, dietary supplements (made from oxides, inorganic ingredients), etc.

You cannot develop stones from plants, especially alkaline plants. This is why you’ve never heard of a plant-eating animal (e.g., horse, cow, sheep, etc.) developing stones like human beings do. Nature does not give you kidney stones or bladder stones or gallstones. Man gives you these just as man has given you/us every other disease in the Merck Manual, the results of living against nature and foolishly attempting to compete with God and outdo God by attempting to prove God wrong (man can do it better than God).

Oxalates exist in two states, organic and inorganic. Organic will not hurt or harm you, but inorganic will.

How many people do you know that eat spinach and rhubarb and every single week? Even though these oxalates will not do a body harm, a person would have to eat spinach and/or rhubarb every single day or four or more times per week (and very large servings) to even get an excess of these organic oxalates. Remember, to have a problem with anti-nutrients, the meal must be imbalanced. There must be an excess somewhere.

Here are the true culprits that cause stone formation in the human body:

Animal protein (beef, chicken, dairy products, eggs, fish, pork, shellfish)

Fast Food & Junk Food (chocolate, soda pop, candy)

High purine foods (fish, organ meats, poultry, pork, shellfish)

Medication (especially diuretics; prescription, OTC)

Processed Foods (processed meats, luncheon meats, canned foods, frozen foods)

Sodium (man-made, e.g., white table salt)

Sugar (white table sugar, high corn fructose corn syrup)

Supplements (inorganic elements/ingredients

Every one of these things above are 100% acid-forming (and thus mucus-forming). Acidity makes you sick, unwell, unhealthy; and alkalinity heals and promotes health. The human body’s natural pH is 7.3 alkaline, not acid.

Additionally, these things above are also uric acid-forming and uric acid crystallizing and hardening in nature, especially purines (chemicals that can cause uric acid to crystalize and harden in the kidneys).

Okay, now to wrap this article up.

Mineral deficiencies may only develop over time if a person eats an excess of high phytate foods with most of their meals, which is rarely a concern for those who eat a well-balanced diet and may only become an issue for people experiencing malnutrition and/or people in developing countries where the main food source is grains and legumes, and the diet is not balanced.

Antinutrients is mostly a concern of people who eat an acidic diet as most anti-nutrient foods are alkaline in nature. The best grains, alkaline in nature, are considered anti-nutrient. These include amaranth, buckwheat, fonio, Kamut (alkaline after digestion), millet, quinoa, and teff. These are mostly eastern grains (Africa, Asia, etc.)

You did not hear about metabolic and digestive disorders back in the 1970s, 1980s, or early 1990s just as you didn’t hear about allergies, peanut allergies, autism, ADD/ADHD, or gluten-intolerance back then.

Americans consume way more animal products and processed products (so-called foods) than plants. America is the only nation in the world that consumes 80% animals to 20% plants and 95% of animal flesh (meat) consumed by Americans is consumed cooked, killing essential enzymes.

It is folly to accuse plants of causing human disease. The history of planet earth shows and reveals plants as medicine. Plants are the medicine of all native and indigenous people, from Africa to Europe. To this very day, 80% of people on planet earth rely upon plants for medicine. Biblical scripture advocates the use of plants as medicine (e.g., Ezekiel 47:12, Psalm 104:14, Revelation 22:2). Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine told us, “Let they food be medicine and they medicine thy food.” The word origin or etymology for ‘drug’ is drogue which means “dried plant.”

If you study the Blue Zones (e.g., Loma Linda, California USA; Sardinia, Italy, Icaria, Greece, Nicoya, Costa Rica), the people eat a 96% plant-based diet (6% being processed plant-based food products) and less that 4% animal products. They produce more centenarians from their lifestyle and diet than those on a predominantly or high intake animal foods diet.

NOTE: The term "blue zone" comes from the original survey by scientists who used a blue pen on a map to mark the villages with long-lived populations. People in blue zones are said to have long lives due to a lifestyle that includes physical activity, low stress, rich social interactions, a local whole-foods diet, and low disease incidence.

Antinutrients is nothing but hype from the carnist community in America that constantly looks for ways to justify eating large amounts of animal products and very little amounts of plants when it should be the other way around.

Foods (plants) considered antinutrient are way more nutritious and beneficial than nutrition-depriving and detrimental (to certain individuals). They are alkaline, hydrating, electromagnetic, enzymatic, and very nutritious. The green, cruciferous vegetables, e.g., kale, collard greens, mustard greens, spinach, and Romaine lettuce rank highest on the ANDI (Aggregate Nutrient Density Index).

Consider the following for your nutritional edification:

Kale: 1000 ANDI

Collard Greens: 1000 ANDI

Mustard Greens: 1000 ANDI

Watercress: 1000 ANDI

Swiss Chard: 1000 ANDI

Bok Choy: 865 ANDI

Spinach: 707 ANDI

Arugula: 604 ANDI

Romaine: 510 ANDI

Shrimp: 36 ANDI

Salmon: 34 ANDI

Eggs: 31 ANDI

Milk, 1%: 31 ANDI

Low fat Plain Yogurt: 28 ANDI

Chicken Breast: 24 ANDI

Ground Beef, 85% lean: 21 ANDI

Feta Cheese: 20 ANDI

Cheddar Cheese: 11 ANDI

Vanilla Ice Cream: 9 ANDI

For people worried about having trouble with digestion of plants, perhaps due to having a digestive or metabolic disorder, they should consider consuming humic and fulvic acid or shilajit (which is 15-20% humic and fulvic acid) before giving up on eating plants due to so-called antinutrients.

Human anatomy is proof that humans are designed to eat plants, not animals. Plants are not the problem. Humans, living contrary to Nature, are. As an exception here, there may be select individuals with specific health conditions and those individuals may elect to decrease their plant food intake despite potential benefits.

Full list of antinutrients:

Amylase inhibitors

Glucosinolates

Gluten

Goitrogens

Lectins

Lignans

Oxalates

Phytic acid

Phytoestrogens

Protease inhibitors

Saponins

Solanine

Soybeans

Tannins

Trypsin inhibitors

Thank you for reading!