Laura Schoenfeld: Again, I feel like for this question, instead of wondering how much soaking needs to be done to reduce the phytic acid, I would actually suggest minimizing those foods in the person’s diet. When you say coconut products and almonds, I would assume that you’re talking about snack foods and also, I guess, flour replacements. If somebody has tooth decay and you’re trying to remineralize the teeth, I really don’t think they should be eating a lot of coconut and almond products anyway, regardless of whether they’re soaked or not. I know that’s not really the exact question that you asked, but I would actually say, yeah, soaking stuff ahead of time, fine, but really the goal would be to minimize those foods in the first place. The soaking is helpful, but you shouldn’t be eating so much coconut and almond products that you’re worried about the phytic acid content. There’s a lot of phytic acid in a lot of foods. Lots of vegetables have phytic acid in them, so you’re not going to be able to avoid it entirely, but I just don’t see coconut and almond products in huge amounts to be very helpful for anyone’s diet, let alone someone who is concerned about phytic acid intake.
If you’re trying to help with tooth decay and remineralizing the teeth, I would really focus on the fat-soluble vitamins—so A, D, and K2— K2 especially; getting calcium in the form of bone-in fish, maybe some dairy products, like raw dairy; lots of plant foods. Obviously the plant foods are going to have some phytic acid binding the calcium, but you do want to be getting a calcium-rich diet, making sure they’re getting magnesium. Also this should go without saying, but good oral hygiene is going to be important there. If there is tooth decay and the oral hygiene is not optimal, then that is not going to be helpful either. Yeah, the A, D, and K2 and then the minerals are really going to be the bigger issue here than worrying about a little bit of coconut and almond products here and there.