Q & A Month: are there any nutrients in lentil skins?
Posted by kathryn in Blogging
The first question for Q & A Month on Limes & Lycopene is:
I was just wondering if there are many nutrients in the thin skin on lentils. I usually rinse off the skin before cooking them, but after reading that there’s lots of goodness in orange pith and sesame seed hull I’ve been thinking about the skin of the lentil too.
Whilel it’s true there are more nutrients in unhulled tahini and antioxidants in the pith of oranges, this question has me stumped.
The skin of lentils definitely contains fibre, but I have no idea if it contains other nutrients. And all my research so far has drawn up a big blank.
A very inauspicious start to Q & A Month!
So I’m throwing this one open to readers – do any of you have information about lentil skins?
Update – thanks to Sophie, there’s a better answer in the comments below.
What is Q & A Month?
This post is part of Q & A Month. For those of you new to Limes & Lycopene, I usually run a fortnightly question and answer forum, called Q & A Thursday. It’s a burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical answers to food and diet dilemmas sent in by readers.
But for the next four weeks, it’s going to be Q & A Month. If you have a question, or there’s a topic you’d like me to cover, leave a comment below or send me an email. For more information you can take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives.
17 January, 2008
Comments
I don’t have a definitive answer either Kathryn but my thinking is along the same lines as yours…
Lentils are technically a seed and seeds normally have a fibrous coating whose job it is to protect part that is on the inside – the part that will actually grow into a plant and the nutrients that are stored to fuel that growth. If you lose the skin you most likely lose some fibre but not protein or micronutrients.
I’ve just had a quick look and found a few papers on the subject but they all answer different parts of the puzzle. By losing the seed coat/skin you do lose a significant proportion of the insoluble fibre, but not the soluble fibre which is mainly on the inside of the lentil. Getting rid of the skin gets rid of some of the ‘anti-nutritional components’ (phytates and tannins) in the lentil which means that your body will be better able to absorb the iron and calcium that the lentil provides.
There are advantages and disadvantages to removing the skin so it is probably back to the usual answer that nutritionists give which is to eat a variety of everything!
Oooh I have a question,please.
What would be a good non sugar based alternate to honey? I’m allergic to honey and in its place I have been using golden syrup, which clearly isn’t quite as nutritionally beneficial. Is there anything that will have the same sweetening effect,and consistency, but isn’t really bad for me (and my teeth)?
Sorry it’s not a very exciting question but it has been vexing me for some time.
Thank you.
And thank you also for giving me a good justification for not having to piddle all the pith off of my oranges!
Sophie – your answer makes sense to me. I agree the skin is going to contain much of the lentils insoluble fibre and probably the anti-nutrients you mention. The latter are less of a problem in lentils, because their broken down in cooking. And of course the flip side is that tannins and phytates are also antioxidants.
In conclusion May Lee – I think the best answer is there are advantages and disadvantages to losing the lentil skin. But probably the most important thing is that you continue eating lentils!
Milly, good question. I’ll add it to my list of topics to blog about and post an answer over the next few weeks.
I’m mystified by the question.
How in the world do you remove lentil skins?
Usually if they’ve been sitting in water for a little while I find that you can rub off most of the skins while you’re rising them. Although it is hard to get rid of all of them, I do like getting rid of most.
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