How do you like to eat rhubarb? I mostly know it from rhubarb pie
I recently learned of, and attempted, an Iranian savory stew of beans, herbs, and rhubarb. I enjoyed it!
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1023153-khoresh-rivas-sa...
Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)
31–40 of 125 posts
Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)
#32Remember that rhubarb leaves are actually poisonous due to oxalic acid (I've seen quotes of 2-5 kg od leaves being a lethal dose). https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/does-rhub...
The article mentions the content is 500mg of oxalic acid / 100g and says the deadly dose is at 15 - 30g. That makes for 3-6kg of rhubarb leaves. Quite a serving, if you ask me. In the original British understatement: > Since a lethal dose of oxalic acid is somewhere between 15 and 30 grams, you’d have to eat several pounds of rhubarb leaves at a sitting to reach a toxic oxalic acid level, which is a lot more rhubarb…
That’s more oxalic acid than I’d have guessed.
Treating bees for varroa more takes about 25g of oxalic acid per box of bees. I’d kind of hoped the leaves might have more oxalic, then I could have tried putting rhubarb leaves in there instead of battling fumes, glycerine and strips of paper.
Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)
#33Remember that rhubarb leaves are actually poisonous due to oxalic acid (I've seen quotes of 2-5 kg od leaves being a lethal dose). https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/does-rhub...
Oxalic acid is poisonous? Should I stop eating spinach then? Oh, looks like the article mentions this actually: > Chard and spinach, in fact, contain even more oxalic acid than rhubarb—respectively, 700 and 600 mg/100 g, as opposed to rhubarb’s restrained 500. Rhubarb’s killer reputation apparently dates to World War I, when rhubarb leaves were recommended on the home front as an alternative food. At least one death…
No, spinach is only rich in oxalic acid, not in calcium.
No vegetable is really rich in calcium, which is why it is recommended for vegans to take calcium supplements.
After you ingest oxalic acid, it will find calcium in your body, where it is abundant in blood and in the other extracellular fluids (like sodium and chloride, most calcium stays outside the cells).
Too much oxalic acid will form insoluble precipitates of calcium oxalate, i.e. small stones, which may happen to form in undesirable places, from where they cannot be eliminated.
Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)
#34How do you like to eat rhubarb? I mostly know it from rhubarb pie
In Germany it's eaten either as a pie - which is usually quite dry and with crumble or meringue on top [0] - or as a compote.
[0] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhabarberkuchen#/media/Datei:R...
Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)
#35Remember that rhubarb leaves are actually poisonous due to oxalic acid (I've seen quotes of 2-5 kg od leaves being a lethal dose). https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/does-rhub...
That is why so many rhubarb dishes (rhubarb pies, and desserts) are so often served with ice cream and vanilla sauce based on milk products.
The calcium in those neutralize any potential issues of the oxalic acid.
Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oxalic acid is poisonous? Should I stop eating spinach then? Oh, looks like the article mentions this actually: > Chard and spinach, in fact, contain even more oxalic acid than rhubarb—respectively, 700 and 600 mg/100 g, as opposed to rhubarb’s restrained 500. Rhubarb’s killer reputation apparently dates to World War I, when rhubarb leaves were recommended on the home front as an alternative food. At least one death…
No, spinach is only rich in oxalic acid, not in calcium. No vegetable is really rich in calcium, which is why it is recommended for vegans to take calcium supplements. After you ingest oxalic acid, it will find calcium in your body, where it is abundant in blood and in the other extracellular fluids (like sodium and chloride, most calcium stays outside the cells). Too much oxalic acid will form insoluble precipitates…
You are completely wrong. There are many quality sources of calcium in plants. For example legumes, nuts, seeds, dark leafy greens including spinach.
Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)
#37Remember that rhubarb leaves are actually poisonous due to oxalic acid (I've seen quotes of 2-5 kg od leaves being a lethal dose). https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/does-rhub...
Oxalic acid is poisonous? Should I stop eating spinach then? Oh, looks like the article mentions this actually: > Chard and spinach, in fact, contain even more oxalic acid than rhubarb—respectively, 700 and 600 mg/100 g, as opposed to rhubarb’s restrained 500. Rhubarb’s killer reputation apparently dates to World War I, when rhubarb leaves were recommended on the home front as an alternative food. At least one death…
Probably in small doses (like what our ancestors 20000 years ago probably eat when they couldn't find better food) it won't do too much damage.
Cooking will also remove some oxalates.
Overall these are plants defense mechanisms. We know they work well as anti bug measures, ruminants have more complex digestive systems to break them down; it's not always clear what prolonged use on humans will cause.
Carnivores advocate against eating oxalates rich food and when you start a diet with no oxalates you will experience some weird symptoms, you can read about oxalates dumping: https://www.doctorkiltz.com/oxalate-dumping
There are plenty of people with "auto immune incurable" diseases who stopped eating vegetables and were relieved of their symptoms.
I personally started experiencing problems after 10 years of a 95% vegan diet and went carnivore, getting rid of a number of weird health issues I couldn't explain.
Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
I grew up eating the Rhubarb plant by tipping the root side (stem?) In sugar and just eating it like that. It's very sour like that, which as a kid I loved.
Same here - the sugar offsets the sourness just enough. Is it a Polish/Eastern European thing?
I don't think so, that's a thing in England too.
Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, spinach is only rich in oxalic acid, not in calcium. No vegetable is really rich in calcium, which is why it is recommended for vegans to take calcium supplements. After you ingest oxalic acid, it will find calcium in your body, where it is abundant in blood and in the other extracellular fluids (like sodium and chloride, most calcium stays outside the cells). Too much oxalic acid will form insoluble precipitates…
You are completely wrong. There are many quality sources of calcium in plants. For example legumes, nuts, seeds, dark leafy greens including spinach.
Most living beings contain calcium, including all plants, but in quantities that are too small for the needs of anyone who has a calcium-based skeleton, unless you eat daily larger quantities of plants than are practical for most humans (e.g. eating between 1 kg and 2 kg of nuts each day, depending on what kind of nuts they are).
Dark leafy greens are not "quality sources of calcium". One would need to eat several kilograms per day. No human does that. The quantity that needs to be eaten is greater than it could seem from the elemental analysis, because a part of the calcium will be lost during cooking and another part will remain bound in insoluble compounds that will not be absorbed in the intestine. Moreover, eating many kilograms per day of dark leafy greens is guaranteed to cause health problems due to oxalic acid and other substances that are present in excess.
All the studies that I have seen have shown that the vegans who do not take calcium supplements have significantly less amounts of calcium in the body than non-vegans and are more prone to osteoporosis.
This kind of false information about plants that are "quality sources" of substances that are really deficient in all plants is very dangerous for vegans. Any vegan must take up to a dozen supplements to maintain optimal health and those who are not aware of this develop sooner or later various health problems and many go back to a traditional diet, without understanding what they did wrong.
Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)
#40How do you like to eat rhubarb? I mostly know it from rhubarb pie
Rhubarb pie. Rhubarb cake. Rhubarb bread. Rhubarb cookies. Rhubarb crisp/crumble/grunt. Rhubarb jam. Rhubarb chutney. Stewed rhubarb (used anywhere you'd use applesauce including standalone in a bowl, with plain yogurt, swirled into rice pudding, or baked over pork chops). Raw rhubarb dipped in sugar.
We have a very productive rhubarb patch. Right beside the zucchini patch.