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Emily Gonzalez51 said:I heard the same thing—that spinach is loaded with toxins, which is why people often cook it with milk to neutralize them.
That wasn't just about spinach. People add milk when prepping spinach because the calcium binds with the oxalates. Personally, I don't bother adding milk when I cook spinach. A little extra oxalate isn't going to kill me, and I'm not eating it every single day anyway.
Emily Gonzalez51 said:Isn't it better to just process the food to get rid of the bad stuff, then add back the healthy parts later?
It isn't better. You can never truly restore everything that was originally in a natural product. Sure, you can toss in some vitamins and minerals, but what about all those other beneficial compounds we don't even fully understand yet?
I have to admit, I hadn't heard this before either, but I am definitely on board with the idea—something most people are completely oblivious to (myself included, until recently). Even when it comes to fruits and vegetables, which we all generally agree are the gold standard for healthy eating, there is actually a significant amount of natural toxins that could potentially harm human health. Most of us live under the delusion that only synthetic compounds are dangerous and that anything "natural" is inherently good. That is simply false. Our body's defense mechanisms don't make distinctions; they don't care if a substance is synthetic or natural—if it's a foreign compound, the body is going to try to flush it out.
So, does this mean we should just give up on fruit, vegetables, and whole grains? Of course not. Those foods contain far more beneficial nutrients whose positive effects vastly outweigh any negative impact from those harmful compounds. Personally, I always opt for whole grains and natural products. In my view, less processed equals healthier, and usually much tastier too. Sure, white bread might lack those specific toxins, but it also lacks everything else besides empty calories. What really infuriates me is how food is processed to strip away all the valuable natural nutrients, only for companies to add vitamins, minerals, and God knows what else back in later—all while charging the consumer a massive premium.