Dear Hiwot, I agree with Hettie regarding the water. You mention "dishes,' so wonder if you're preparing the beans alone or in recipes. It's important to test the beans separately to have baseline values. Additional ingredients (or combinations thereof) may affect nutrient retention. Thinking ahead to end uses of your results, data obtained from separate cooking could also be used in calculations of recipes containing the beans. You should document weights per unit of volume and the yield at various stages, i.e.: >Volume of 100 g dry-ready-to-prepare beans = __ mL >If beans are soaked: 100 g dry ready-ready-to-prepare beans yield __g drained soaked beans; which yield __ g cooked beans = __ mL. >If not soaked: 100 g dry ready-ready-to-prepare beans yields __ g cooked beans = __ mL In a similar manner you should also document the weights and measures of a recipe and its ingredients at various key stages. Regarding soaking, you will want to duplicate the ambient temperature(s) at which it's likely to take place in the "real world." I look forward to your results: there are many (often unsubstantiated) claims about the benefits of sprouting legumes (and grains) before cooking. Possible nutritional effects aside, I assume one of the benefits of soaking is a shorter cooking time with less fuel. I recall a Journal of Food Composition and Analysis article some years ago where fuel requirements and cooking time were reduced by using small pressure cookers for legumes. Regards, Barbara Barbara Selley, RD Food Intelligence Toronto, ON Canada (416) 962 -2884 _____ From: Food Composition Discussion Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Hettie Schonfeldt Sent: Friday, May 24, 2013 4:12 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: *****SPAM***** water for cooking Dear Abebe, Normally we use distilled water for that very reason - remove all variables not inherent in product eg no condiments such as salt added as well. Regards, Hettie -- Associate of the Institute of Food, Nutrition and Well-being Professor: Department of Animal and Wildlife Sciences University of Pretoria South Africa Tel: + 27 (0) 12 348 6649 <tel:+%2027%20(0)%2012%20348%206649> Cell: +27 (0) 83 458 2757 <tel:+27%20(0)%2083%20458%202757> Sent from my iPhone On 24 May 2013, at 6:59 PM, HIWOT ABEBE <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Dear all, I was working on a project to improve bioavailability of nutrients on chickpea and haricot bean based Ethiopian diets using traditional household food preparation techniques like soaking and germination. I will be cooking the dishes in Canada using food items shipped from Ethiopia and then I will analyze the nutrient and antinutrient levels. However, I am concerned about using tap water in Canada. I thought that it will affect the mineral values of the food. Could anyone share me their thought or articles if I could use deionized water to solve the issue or other suggestions. Thanks in advance, Hiwot A Haileslassie PhD candidate College of Pharmacy & Nutrition University of Saskatchewan 110 Science Place Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5C9 Canada cell phone: +1 306-715-3659 e mail: [log in to unmask] _____ To unsubscribe from the InFoods-Food-Comp-L list, click the following link: https://listserv.fao.org/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=InFoods-Food-Comp-L <https://listserv.fao.org/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=InFoods-Food-Comp-L&A=1> &A=1 _____ To unsubscribe from the InFoods-Food-Comp-L list, click the following link: https://listserv.fao.org/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=InFoods-Food-Comp-L <https://listserv.fao.org/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=InFoods-Food-Comp-L&A=1> &A=1 ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the InFoods-Food-Comp-L list, click the following link: https://listserv.fao.org/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=InFoods-Food-Comp-L&A=1