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Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)

bbc.com

41–50 of 125 posts

Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)

#41
post #15

Remember 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.

I would be interested to see a source for the claim that milk products are paired with rhubarb for that reason.

Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)

#42
post #8

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...

https://archive.is/XX7yN

Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)

#43

Earlier 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…

Do you have a source for that? Because while looking up this spinach thing I've come across half a dozen websites, most of them from health institutes that look fairly responsible, stating leafy greens do have calcium. Although in the case of spinach it's barely absorbed, apparently

https://www.myfooddata.com/articles/high-calcium-vegetables....

Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)

#44
post #7

Time for mention of the rhubarb triangle... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhubarb_Triangle From the Wikipedia article... The Rhubarb Triangle is a 9-square-mile (23 km2) area of West Yorkshire, England between Wakefield, Morley, and Rothwell famous for producing early forced rhubarb. It includes Kirkhamgate, East Ardsley, Stanley, Lofthouse and Carlton. The Rhubarb Triangle was originally much bigger, covering an a…

They need to Champagnify that

Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)

#45

Earlier 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…

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 advoca…

> 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.

Have you tried just eating many different things in moderation? Fiber has been repeatedly shown to decrease rates of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and all cause mortality. It’s kind of silly to “go carnivore” and use your resulting feelings as a base measurement of success after being vegan. Especially considering many of the benefits of fiber are longer term.

E.g. If you ate a diet of 100% candy bars then switched to vegan or “carnivore”, of course you would “feel better” and your “weird health issues” might go away, but that doesn’t mean either of those diets is the optimal diet for you. They are just better than eating 100% candy bars…

Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)

#46
post #7

Time for mention of the rhubarb triangle... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhubarb_Triangle From the Wikipedia article... The Rhubarb Triangle is a 9-square-mile (23 km2) area of West Yorkshire, England between Wakefield, Morley, and Rothwell famous for producing early forced rhubarb. It includes Kirkhamgate, East Ardsley, Stanley, Lofthouse and Carlton. The Rhubarb Triangle was originally much bigger, covering an a…

They need to Champagnify that

They did: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_Kingdom_food_an...

(PDOs granted pre-Brexit continue to be in force, though new ones can't be granted for UK stuff)

Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)

#47

Mentioned in the article, but forced rhubarb grows so fast you can hear it. This soundcloud file suggests hearing it in a darkened vault by candlelight would be extraordinary experience! https://soundcloud.com/rhubarb-rhubarb-rhubarb/a-mass-of-pop...

That reminds me of cauliflowers squeaking as they grow with their florets squeezing against themselves.

Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)

#48
post #8

How do you like to eat rhubarb? I mostly know it from rhubarb pie

I just stew it and then eat it with custard.

Chop it into pieces, put it in a pan with some sugar and possible a little bit of water. Heat it up and the sugar should help draw out some liquid and cook it until the pieces become soft or disintegrate. Takes about 5-10 minutes.

Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)

#49

Earlier 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…

Do you have a source for that? Because while looking up this spinach thing I've come across half a dozen websites, most of them from health institutes that look fairly responsible, stating leafy greens do have calcium. Although in the case of spinach it's barely absorbed, apparently https://www.myfooddata.com/articles/high-calcium-vegetables....

Having much calcium among vegetables does not mean having enough calcium as a human food.

Your link uses the silly "cup" unit of measure from which it is hard to assess which is the real calcium content.

The right way to show the content of a nutrient in some food is to show how many kilograms or pounds you must eat daily to provide enough of that nutrient.

In the case of calcium the best case that I have seen for various vegetables is that you would need to eat at least 1 kilogram per day, based on the elemental analysis.

However this is far too optimistic, because when cooking the vegetables a part of the calcium may be lost and another part will be bound in insoluble compounds and it will not be absorbed in the intestine after eating.

So a more realistic estimation is that even for the vegetables with the highest content of calcium you might need to eat at least 2 or 3 kg per day.

For nuts and legumes it is impossible to approach even 1 kg of daily intake, as that would include too much energy in starch or fat.

So only leafy vegetables would avoid gaining weight, but eating kilograms per day would be not only unpleasant, but also harmful.

I happen to be a vegan, so I have studied carefully my alternatives and the best for me is to add some calcium phosphate powder to my food, together with the table salt. I use phosphate and not another calcium salt, because even if all seeds and nuts, including all legumes, have large amounts of phosphorus, most of it is contained in phytic acid, which is harmful, so I use preparation methods that remove much of the phytic acid, but they also remove most of the phosphorus, so I compensate that by adding the calcium as calcium phosphate.

Re: Forced rhubarb, a vegetable deprived of sunlight, is having a renaissance (2019)

#50
According to my father, "rhubarb" is what the extras say in crowd scenes in TV and film. They mumble, "rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb" and it gives the impression of muted, indistinct background conversations.

By the same token, the choral singer who forgets the lyrics during a performance can sing "watermelon, watermelon" until she gets to a place where she recalls the words. The philosophy is that, as long as you get a convincing vowel in there, people will believe anything you sing.

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