Helpful soil fungi make grain minerals harder for bodies to absorb
Watts-Williams SJ, Gill AR, Nguyen TD, Wen Y
Mycorrhizal Networks
If you grow oats or barley in your garden or care about whole-grain nutrition, the mycorrhizal fungi you'd normally want in healthy soil can actually make the zinc and iron in those grains less available to your body.
Oats and barley are often praised as healthy whole grains, but they store a lot of phosphorus in a form called phytic acid, which locks up zinc and iron so our bodies can't use them well. Researchers found that beneficial soil fungi, which usually help plants grab more nutrients, actually made this problem worse: they boosted phytic acid levels and reduced how usable the zinc or iron was in the grain. In other words, healthier-looking soil partnerships don't always mean more nutritious grain on your plate.
Key Findings
AM fungal inoculation and phosphorus fertiliser both increased phytic acid accumulation in oat and barley grain across six varieties each.
In oat, AM fungi reduced iron bioavailability while zinc remained unaffected; in barley, AM fungi reduced zinc bioavailability while iron remained unaffected.
Zinc and iron bioavailability in both crops was extremely low overall, with grain micronutrient availability heavily dependent on mycorrhizal contribution rather than stored phosphorus conversion.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Fungi that team up with plant roots to help them absorb nutrients can backfire in oats and barley, actually lowering how much zinc and iron people's bodies can absorb from the grain.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi can reduce the bioavailability of Zn and Fe in the grain of barley (Hordeum vulgare) and oat (Avena sativa).
Oat (Avena sativa) and barley (Hordeum vulgare) are increasingly being grown and consumed for their 'functional food' properties, but they also accumulate large amounts of stored phosphorus (P) as ...
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