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Quinoa should be taking over the world. This is why it isn’t
- klipt 13y ago> Quinoa is a plant that produces a tremendous amount of seed. So you have potential, with intensive selection, to identify variants that have unusual characteristics. Will it still be as nutritious after all that selection though? There was an article pointing out that when farmers select for bigger, shinier, more marketable fruit, it's often at the cost of actual nutritional value: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/opinion/sunday/breeding-the-nutrition-out-of-our-food.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/opinion/sunday/breeding-th...
- jsnk 13y agoUnlike vegetable and fruits, how quinoa looks probably doesn't matter to consumers at all. Given this is the case, selection criteria will focus more on nutrition numbers which they can advertise easily (20g OF PROTEIN!!!) than looks.
- mc32 13y agoHow does that explain white rice vs. brown rice preferences, or glutinous rice vs longgrain, etc. People have preferences for some characteristics in something which would seem to be very ordinary. Maybe quinoa is different, but who knows, at this point. Maybe it's like oats. Oats are oats are oats, for most people, I think (except for the cutting vs rolling process)
- jsnk 13y agoI am not attempting to explain why every kind of food is selected for certain criteria for whatever reason. I am not also saying that you either select to for looks or nutrition. It's a matter of degree and compromise between different criteria. For quinoa particularly, I think it happens to be a type of food that largely guides people's preference based on nutrition rather than looks.
- twstws 13y agoI expect quinoa will be selected for environmental tolerance first. Given how difficult it is to grow in th US, top priority would be getting consistent high yield in North American conditions. Breeding has to meet the farmer's needs before you start considering the consumer.
- mc32 13y agoI had not thought about that perspective, but that makes a lot of sense. Thanks!
- iopq 13y agobrown rice tastes bad and has anti-nutrients that block absorption of B vitamins and minerals like magnesium
- gnoway 13y agoNot sure about the anti-nutrients, but the 'tastes bad' part is entirely subjective. I prefer brown rice, and I think it tastes fine.
- zem 13y agoat any rate, it tastes very perceptibly different from white rice.
- mc32 13y agoTrue, so unless the quinoa is the same (flavor, texture, cooking, etc) across different varieties, people might prefer lower yield vars or nutritionally poorer varieties.
- derleth 13y ago> brown rice tastes bad To you, maybe. I prefer it, mainly because it has a taste, especially compared to white rice. Also, trying to live on white rice can lead to beriberi because white rice, shorn of the husk, bran, and germ, is vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficient: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beriberi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beriberi > has anti-nutrients that block absorption of B vitamins and minerals like magnesium This is the first I've heard of this. This source seems to contradict it: http://web.mit.edu/athletics/sportsmedicine/wcrvitamins.html http://web.mit.edu/athletics/sportsmedicine/wcrvitamins.html > THIAMIN (B1) > Food Sources > Fortified breakfast cereal or wheat germ breakfast cereal, soybeans, peanuts, sunflower seeds, peanuts, brazil nuts, whole grains, pork, oatmeal, whole wheat, hazelnuts, brown rice, rye, pinto beans, red beans, millet, buckwheat, frozen peas, walnuts, garlic, pumpkin seeds, potatoes, chicken. This source also doesn't mention it, and it's all about the nutritional deficiencies of rice, including brown rice: http://www.ask.com/explore/negative-nutritional-value-rice-5680 http://www.ask.com/explore/negative-nutritional-value-rice-5... The closest it comes is a warning about inhibiting the uptake of zinc and iron. In fact, it explicitly calls out the vitamin B content of brown rice as being very good, especially compared to white rice. So, do you have any sources to share with us?
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- rosser 13y agoA particular concern with quinoa, given its narrow (native) growing area, and the poverty endemic to that area, is that worldwide demand for the crop has out-priced its growers' and their communities' ability to afford it in order to feed themselves. A select few brands set aside some of each harvest specifically for that purpose (and also put some of their profits back into improving the farms, sending the farmers' children to college, and that kind of thing), but so far, that's decidedly not the norm.
- YokoZar 13y agoWhy is this a problem? If quinoa sprouted literal diamonds we wouldn't be upset that the farmers were selling them instead of making their own jewelry. Having your crops be too valuable to eat is a good problem to have; these farmers incomes have more than sextupled. That easily lets them sell the crop and buy other food like everyone else.
- aaronblohowiak 13y ago>That easily lets them sell the crop and buy other food like everyone else. [citation needed].
- jessaustin 13y agoDid you miss the part where they make six times their previous income?
- SteveGerencser 13y agoAnd what about the people that used to buy it as their primary food source? Their incomes did not increase six times, just their monthly food bill.
- DanBC 13y agoBut we have no idea what their previous income was, nor how much other sources of food cost. It feels weird that local food is exported as a cash crop, and other food is imported.
- cgh 13y agoIsn't quinoa technically a fruit? One problem with it is when you cook it, unlike say rice, it's tough to refrigerate or store it without it turning into a gelatinous mess.
- rosser 13y agoNo, it's a "pseudocereal", a broad-leaf plant whose seeds are used similarly to cereal grains ("cereals", proper, are all grasses).
- a_c_s 13y agoQuinoa is a grain, which is technically a seed. I'm confused about the refrigeration comment though - I make quinoa all the time and have not had that issue.
- ubernostrum 13y ago"Grain" typically means the seeds of cereal grasses, of the family Poaceae. Quinoa is the seed of a plant from family Amaranthaceae; it's not a grass, it's a leafy plant from the same taxonomic group as beets and spinach. This leads to it being referred to as a "pseudocereal grain" if it's called a "grain" at all.
- whyenot 13y agocereal grains (from the Poaceae) actually are both a seed and a fruit. In most grasses the ovary wall (fruit) and the seed are fused together into a structure called a caryopsis. Sometimes the ovary wall is milled off before consumption (often with wheat), sometimes not (corn, oats). Grain is not a well defined term, at least botanically. Soybeans, corn and wheat are all considered grains by some (for example, some departments of the US government).
- wslh 13y agoI've never seen the gelatinous mess I use http://www.naturecrops.com/ http://www.naturecrops.com/ and I can put the precooked one in the refrigerator. What's your recipe?
- D9u 13y agoMeh... Cannabis seed is more nutritious, and has more uses, as does the cannabis fibers, that quinoa pales in comparison. Cannabis is easier to grow as well. If our governments weren't so afraid of people getting stoned the economic benefits of cannabis would make it a major cash crop capable of outperforming quinoa in every aspect.
- jongraehl 13y agoQuinoa plants produce more seeds. Sounds like pothead wishful thinking.
- rayiner 13y agoQuinoa has totally replaced rice in our cooking at home. Just stick it in a rice cooker with water/vegetable broth and it fluffs up just like rice.
- matwood 13y agoSame here. Sauté some onions and garlic in the pot. Right as those finish up dump in the water and quinoa and cover. Turn the heat to simmer and wait the few minutes for it to cook down. Using broth or stock of some sort instead of water adds even more flavor.
- simplexion 13y agoWhy has it replaced rice at your home?
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- jff 13y agoThat was my question coming out of the article: why exactly do we want quinoa? The native Americans stopped growing it because it didn't yield well enough. Modern farmers have had trouble growing it here in the US. And I've never found the taste astounding, so I find myself wondering why we don't stick to rice, soy, lentils, beans, corn, and wheat?
- ableal 13y agoSorry, I deleted my post because someone else posted at the same time a reasonable explanation - a rice substitute ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6029358 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6029358 ). Thanks for adding information. My original text: "The arid, cool land that quinoa needs was plentiful, since little else could grow there. And thus far, that trait has made it difficult to grow elsewhere." (posted link) "Protein content is very high for a cereal/pseudo-cereal (14% by mass), yet not as high as most beans and legumes." ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa ) I'm puzzled. Why not stick to beans, which are cheap and plentiful, and come in a wide variety of shapes and colors?
- pqqqqq 13y agoIt contains a good amount of all of the essential amino acids (ie the amino acids that your body cannot produce adequately itself). It also has calcium and iron. It's a pretty awesome nutritional food. EDIT: to emphasize, the key advantage of quinoa is that it has a lot of all of the essential amino acids, which is very very rare among plants. I believe the only other plant with all essential amino acids is soy.
- oftenwrong 13y agoThere are other plants that provide the "complete" protein profile. For example, hemp seeds do.
- jonny_eh 13y agoGluten Free? Big deal. Also worth a read: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2013/07/msg_and_gluten_intolerance_is_the_nocebo_effect_to_blame.html http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_exa...
- echohack 13y agoFor people who turn into a giant balloon when they eat gluten, yes, it's a Big Deal. The people around them too - it's typically a hazard to even have glutenous foods in the area, so it's much easier for families to just go gluten free. I'm talking about chrone's or celiac's disease people here, not ignorant folks who are basing their diets on some Paleo diet voodoo that's fashionable. Also, have you had Quinoa? That shit is delicious and easy to cook. Throw it in a rice cooker, add some water, wait 15m - BOOM - tasty nom noms, no additives required. Rice is generally pretty boring and you need to add something to it (Basmati smells nice, but still tastes pretty bland, short grain / Japanese style rice has at least some taste, but nothing interesting). It really doesn't add much to anything nutritionally either. Wheat and corn is in fucking everything, so when you finally do eat corn or wheat it tastes like nothing because your goddamn peanut butter is hydrogenated corn syrup anyway. Personally, I can't wait until quinoa is everywhere. It looks a lot more interesting than trying to invest in making better corn or wheat at this point!
- dghughes 13y ago>I'm talking about chrone's or celiac's disease people here, not ignorant folks who are basing their diets on some Paleo diet voodoo that's fashionable. I'd say that's the problem it's trendy to talk about gluten and be on a paleo diet and it turns people off. It seems a very small percentage of the population has celiac disease or Crohn's from what I can find it's 0.75% and 0.1% respectively of the general population of various countries that track it. Although I do realize you don't have to be born with either disease you they can develop either or both later in life and sometimes not even show symptoms.
- mattebb 13y ago
- jessaustin 13y agoSome puzzling stuff in this article. We're apparently to believe that Colorado's transportation infrastructure is far behind that of the Bolivian Andes?
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- lnanek2 13y agoTransportation in our mountains doesn't have to be worse than theirs, just bad enough to prevent our farmers from farming the areas. One of the reasons Japan has so much cool electronics is that a successful manufacturing run their is much smaller. A product could sell one tenth what it does in the US and still be seen as a success, but the the US one a failure.
- njharman 13y agofrom the article "You don’t need a patent to grow a crop, of course." Monsanto disagrees.
- bayesianhorse 13y agoDepends on the crop... Also there is a lot of development effort going into breeding or even genetically engineering plants, much more so than "software patents".
- switch007 13y agoA quick search revealed that quinoa is between £4.50 and £8 a kilo in the UK and brown rice is £1-£4 (depending on quality). To the rice you could just add some bran (£2/kilo, but you don't need much) and another, cheap source of protein to make it similar to quinoa's nutirtional values.
- jffry 13y agoWhich is great, as long as you're able to tolerate gluten. I know two people with Celiac disease, and quinoa is a godsend to them.
- voltagex_ 13y agoI wonder what the real price of quinoa is, before this "superfood" bollocks got to it?
- jffry 13y agoThe Wikipedia article on quinoa [0] claims that Between 2006 and early 2013 quinoa crop prices have tripled. That statement cites an article earlier this year in the Guardian [1] which links to another Guardian article [2] which doesn't have anything more specific than $4500/ton in 2013 versus $3115/ton in 2011. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa#Rising_popularity_and_crop_value http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa#Rising_popularity_and_cr... [1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/16/vegans-stomach-unpalatable-truth-quinoa http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/16/vegans-s... [2] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/14/quinoa-andes-bolivia-peru-crop http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/14/quinoa-andes-bol...
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- lifeisstillgood 13y agoAm I the only one who read that as "Quora" should be taking over the world and ... And went to the Post looking for a really strange article Quite interesting nonetheless
- blizkreeg 13y agoWhen I hear of the effect this is having on local farmers and their ability to feed their families, I'm confronted with the question: Do I stop eating quinoa? What is my responsibility?
- gohrt 13y agoBuy quinoa, and find a way to support socialism in Peru.
- icebraining 13y agoShould we really try to influence their political choices, even if for what we perceive to be "their own good"?
- lostlogin 13y agoIt hasn't worked very well in the past... However the line needs to be drawn somewhere. Forced sterilization maybe? http://m.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jun/17/peru-sterilisation-compensation http://m.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jun/17...
- icebraining 13y agoWould that influence come before or after the US compensates its own victims of forced sterilization? http://abcnews.go.com/Health/WomensHealth/north-carolina-senate-blocks-compensation-sterilization-victims-eugenics/story?id=16628515 http://abcnews.go.com/Health/WomensHealth/north-carolina-sen...
- mauriforonda 13y agoI live in the Bolivian Andes and have met several people who produce and export quinoa. Even if local farmer meals have never had many diverse ingredients, they usually fare well without consuming quinoa. Given the commercial limitations derived from political actions in recent years the benefits of this whole quinoa craze for local farmers far outweight the costs. It is regarded as one of the best economic opportunities in a country still dependent on natural resources where most of its population work informally in trade-related activities. So stop worrying and go buy more quinoa.
- mikestew 13y ago"Quinoa is a low-calorie, gluten-free, high-protein grain that tastes great." (emphasis mine) I'm a vegetarian, high-mileage distance runner who has every reason to enjoy quinoa. "Tastes great" is not one of the reasons I eat it. I choke it down as best I can because it's good for me.
- r00fus 13y agoQuinoa is a nice change of pace (and doesn't taste like crap), if you happen to eat rice or wheat as staples. I probably wouldn't eat it daily for exactly the same reasons you state.
- loceng 13y agoSome olive oil and salt goes a long way as a start. Or just add blueberries.
- zem 13y agoif you typically cook it in water, try stock instead.
- stock_toaster 13y agoThis makes a huge difference, and is how I prefer it as well.
- Duhck 13y agoWait, you mean adding salt to your food makes it palatable?! Eureka! Seriously, if I need to boil something in sodium to make it taste great, that kind of defeats the purpose.
- justin66 13y agoHe said stock. Salt is not needed, and there are plenty of decent ways to make a great vegetable stock without it. That said, it's not clear why you'd regard adding a little salt as bad unless you had a serious medical condition prohibiting it. I get that you'd want to avoid the absurd amounts a lot of prepared foods include, just for taste.
- kevinconroy 13y agoFor anyone looking to add a nutritional grain to their diet at a low cost, I highly recommend millet. It has similar nutritional value to quinoa but because it isn't trendy (and thus doesn't have the same supply issues) it can be 80% cheaper than quinoa in most stores.
- CCs 13y agoIt is better than oatmeal or wheat? It looks a lot like white flour to me: http://skipthepie.org/cereal-grains-and-pasta/millet-flour/compared-to/wheat-flour-white-industrial-protein-bleached-unenriched/ http://skipthepie.org/cereal-grains-and-pasta/millet-flour/c... Some say goitrogens in millet is bad for you (if you eat large quantity) http://www.womentowomen.com/hypothyroidism/goitrogenicfoods-thyroidhealth.aspx http://www.womentowomen.com/hypothyroidism/goitrogenicfoods-... http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/beware-of-millet/ http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/beware-of-millet/
- kevinconroy 13y agoMillet is a grain and can be ground into flour. I'm talking about cooking it as a grain (like most uses of quinoa). http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=100+g+millet http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=100+g+millet http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=100+g+quinoa http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=100+g+quinoa Also, having too much of any one food is bad for you. I'm not suggesting that you start baking your own bread with millet flour - just that the next time you would cook up some rice or quinoa, give millet a try. It's a very healthy whole grain and can be a welcome part of a well balanced diet for many people trying to eat healthier.
- scythe 13y agoQuinoa, famous for protein and fiber content, still contains less protein and fiber than, say, oatmeal. It's okay - hyperventilating paleo bloggers have raised concerns about saponins -- but the whole "superfood" frenzy about quinoa is just a tad off base. It's okay, not bad for you, probably better than white rice or processed food, but most of what quinoa has going for it is simply that it is real and unmodified. If it "took over the world", it would be sweetened, boiled, extracted, and fried into chips with none of the nutritional benefits people are seeking therefrom anyway.
- zobzu 13y agoSurprisingly down to earth and insightful.
- etler 13y agoOatmeal is very dense. Calorie for Calorie Quinoa has more protein and dietary fiber than oatmeal. 100 calories of Quinoa http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=83+g+quinoa http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=83+g+quinoa 100 calories of Oatmeal http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=26+g+oatmeal http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=26+g+oatmeal However if you look at the vitamins, oatmeal wins. I also wouldn't call Quinoa a super food, but it does fill a gap left by other grains and is definitely a worthy addition to a healthy balanced diet.
- Scaevolus 13y agoSide-by-side comparison: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=26+g+oatmeal+vs+83g+quinoa http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=26+g+oatmeal+vs+83g+qui... The vitamins is probably missing data-- Vitamin C is biochemically critical, so a plant would have some amount of it.
- bane 13y agoI checked, all the sources I found for it list 0.00mg of Vit C for any amount of Quinoa and .50mcg of Vitamin A per 100g.
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- smegel 13y agoI prefer chia. I mix it in with oatmeal and it tastes great (actually its more the gelatinous texture than taste).
- GigabyteCoin 13y agoQuinoa gives me such gut-wrenching pain that I can no longer convince myself to eat it. My girlfriend is vegetarian which is why I have such great armchair-scientific experience in describing this potentially-foul food. I've been told to wash the Quinoa to remove the saponin from it before cooking, which worked on occasion. But when you get that gut-pain from eating Quinoa even once it's an incredibly strong deterrent from ever trying it again. Having eaten razorblades is a pretty accurate description of how I can feel for hours after having eaten even a small portion of Quinoa. That could be one reason why it isn't taking over the globe. Because some people can get violently ill after eating it. Last I heard, nobody has a chance of developing horribly painful symptoms after eating rice.
- dwiel 13y agoI did. I had to take medicatipn and stop eating rice for a year or so. Now, I can eat rice as long as my stomach isnt aleady upset from something else. I love quinoa.
- GigabyteCoin 13y agoCare to elaborate on the name of your condition or what exactly it was in rice that caused it?
- anigbrowl 13y agoQuinoa should be taking over the world. Why? It has some nutritional benefits and it tastes OK, but that's all. I wouldn't want to eat it all the time. This is a crap story, with this bolted-on conspiracy near the end that quinoa is losing out because it can't compete with Big Ag. Give it a chance to succeed or fail on its own merits - because it might well be a fad, like Acai berries were two years ago.
- latch 13y agoBecause a huge number of people suffer from malnutrition, and a nutritionally dense plant which provides a complete protein, is special.
- DigitalSea 13y agoQuinoa is the perfect rice substitute. I switched over to Quinoa about 3 years ago instead of rice. Even though it's super expensive (especially in Australia) it has health benefits that far outweigh other suitable grains that can be used as a rice substitute. Steam some vegetables, put them into a bowl with Quinoa, cook a nice massive mushroom and sit the Quinoa on-top and then sprinkle some Himalayan Rock Salt over the top and you've got yourself a delicious healthy meal.
- simplexion 13y agoCitation for, "it has health benefits that far outweigh other suitable grains that can be used as a rice substitute." please.
- knodi 13y agoI eat quinoa because of verity but thats just me.
- voltagex_ 13y agoAnother viewpoint (not just on Quinoa): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPGnBkH3fBg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPGnBkH3fBg
- twistedlogix 13y agoQuinoa is very expensive in India. Indians have been using many millets like Finger Millet, Foxtail Millet, Little Millets, they are rich in proteins, gluten-free and all that. It is only now that we are using polished white rice and have become highly vulnerable to lifestyle diseases like Diabetes.
- JoeAltmaier 13y agoHere's how to explain the graph showing a bump and then a downturn in American consumption. Tastes funky; hard to cook; unfamiliar consistency. Enthusiastic people (my wife) buy it and it sits on the shelf, they don't know what to do with it, lose interest.