Do you throw out the soaking water?

[wagamama]

When soaking beans, rice, etc. I've been throwing it out, because I read that it contains phytic acid. But are vitamins dissolved in the soaking water as well? Am I throwing out vitamins as well?

[Llyra]

I feed it to my garden.

[Ruthla]

I dump the soaking water- otherwise, why bother soaking at all?

[avendesora]

Check out this soaking method: http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.co...rown-rice.html

He keeps some of the water, as a 'starter' for the next batch of soaking. The rest gets dumped.

I've used it a couple of times now, and my rice definitely has a cultured taste to it.

Aven

[serenbat]

rice yes
beans no- we add seaweed (kombu) I just remove the kombu, not the water

[somegirl99]

Yes, I dump it (or use it to water plants). Besides the phytic acid, the bean water contains the oligosaccharides that make them more 'gas-producing'.

[artemis33]

yes, I dump it.

[wagamama]

Ok, it's pretty unanimous. But no one is concerned about losing vitamins along with the soaking water?
I guess one reason I'm wavering on this is that I live in Japan, and here the "traditional" way to soak rice is to soak it overnight and cook it in the morning in the water it was soaked in. Of course, I don't know how long this has been the traditional way ...

[avendesora]

I didn't think that the soaking water contained phytates. My impression was that the soaking activated the phytase enzymes, and the phytic acid got broken down, rather than soaked out. I've sometimes cooked in my soaking water, sometimes not.

Aven

[janinemh]

The water does contain the phytic acid, so it would probably block absorption of any nutrients that leach into the water. I also learned in my nutritional therapist training that you should rinse the nut/seed/grain before cooking so that any phytic acid residue on them is rinsed away.

With rice, I wouldn't worry about it as much since it is pretty low in phytic acid compared to other grains. I think in NT they say you don't really have to soak rice.

[wagamama]

Originally Posted by janinemh

The water does contain the phytic acid, so it would probably block absorption of any nutrients that leach into the water. I also learned in my nutritional therapist training that you should rinse the nut/seed/grain before cooking so that any phytic acid residue on them is rinsed away.

With rice, I wouldn't worry about it as much since it is pretty low in phytic acid compared to other grains. I think in NT they say you don't really have to soak rice.

Oh, that is really interesting. Did you learn anything about which nutrients leach into the soaking water?

I have read that you do have to soak rice, though (brown, not white). There are scientific studies showing that the phytates in brown rice block absorption of almost all of the iron and zinc in the rice. Although maybe if you eat a lot of meat it wouldn't matter?

[Koalamom]

I always throw the soaking water away, and I don't soak things like sunflower seeds that long as it pulls out oil in thw water. I heard that with some things it only takes a few hours, some things longer to have the negative stuff pull out. I don't feel there is a nutrient pull into the water, but if you soak long enoughm it may start to culture and then you will actually break down some phytic acid and you may use the cooking water. I am not comfortable with that and just soak and dump the water.

[mum4vr]

I am never *allowed* to dump out my soaking water! DS2 (11 yo) "rescues" it to feed his greenbeans/ peas/ squash/ corn. His garden always looks better than mine, LOL. I wouldn't use it on indoor plants, tho bc it can grow mold, etc.

My understanding (and there seems to be some disagreement among us here) is that if you soak long enough to culture as a PP said, then you can cook in the same water, if not, then change the water.