5 Tipps zur Erhöhung der Bioverfügbarkeit!
Without foods that provide us with these nutrients, our bodies do not function. But just because we eat food doesn’t mean that all the nutrients in it are absorbed into the body. Some nutrients are absorbed particularly well through the intestinal wall into our blood and distributed throughout the body. Others are largely excreted by the body in the stool.
Bioavailability means how well certain substances can be absorbed by the body and are available for further use.
10 tips on how we can significantly improve the bioavailability of certain nutrients, and thus contribute to a balanced, healthy diet:
- Seasonal-regional diversity: Nutrients are also lost when fruits and vegetables are stored. That is why we should prepare food as fresh as possible, recommends the Federal Center for Nutrition.
- Soak food: Legumes and cereals in particular contain the phytic acid mentioned above, which insolubly binds minerals such as magnesium, iron and zinc. Soaking for several hours breaks down the phytic acid, increasing bioavailability. For this reason, you should soak lentils and chickpeas, for example, but also spelt and rice overnight.
- Allow food to germinate: In the same way, you also increase bioavailability by allowing legumes, grains or seeds to germinate (source: Verbraucherzentrale).
- Fermenting food: Fermentation also breaks down nutrient complexes, as the European Food Information Centre writes. The best known example is sauerkraut. Other vegetables can also be fermented.
- Cook foods: Chard, spinach, sweet potatoes and other vegetables contain oxalates, the salts of oxalic acid, which reduce the bioavailability of iron. Boiling or blanching reduces oxalic acid content and increases bioavailability. Some foods, such as legumes, should always be cooked sufficiently because they contain protease inhibitors and lectins, among other things.
Sources: www.evidero.de • www.utopia.de • www.nahrungserängzungsmittel.org
