Legumes in human nutrition
- 11.10.2017
- English Articles
- Helmut F. Erbersdobler
- Christian A. Barth
- Gerhard Jahreis
Peer-reviewed | Manuscript received: March 15, 2017 | Revision accepted: June 28, 2017
Nutrient content and protein quality of pulses
Continuation from Ernährungs Umschau issue 9/2017
Fatty acid distribution
The levels of the most important fatty acids are listed in • Table 4 and 5 in g/100 g, and as a percentage of fat (ether extract or g of fatty acid methyl ester per 100 g of the sum of the fatty acid methylesters). Peas and faba beans provide almost no fats. Soybeans are a good source of linoleic acid, the most common n-6 fatty acid followed by oleic acid. However, the level of the n-3 fatty acid α-linolenic acid (ALA) is also high, which puts soybean oil in the category of fats with medium ALA content, along with oils such as rapeseed oil and walnut oil. However, unlike rapeseed oil, the ratio of linoleic acid to α-linolenic acid is not the recommended ratio for the overall diet of 5:1 [13]. In order to balance out the fats from the rest of the diet (cereals, foods of animal origin), vegetable oils should ideally have a ratio even better than 5:1. Lupine oil has such a ratio, although its absolute ALA content is rather low.
