CHENOPODIUM QUINOA

Chenopodium Quinoa
Raquel Balden
Colegio Menor

CHENOPODIUM QUINOA

Chenopodium quinoa is the scientific name. It is originally from the Andes. It was found
more than 7000 years ago in what is today Per, Bolivia and Ecuador. Quinoa is a dicot crop but
most people confuse it for a cereal grain such as rice, wheat and corn. In present day, due to its
important nutrition characteristics quinoa is known all over the world. Quinoas nutrition is all
balanced and that is why it is categorized as a whole grain. Quinoa has different components that
help this great food be what it is. It has macronutrients, micronutrients and metabolites that help
human benefits and health.

Macronutrients are nutrients that provide calories and energy. It divides into three different
parts: Proteins, Carbohydrate/fiber and Lipid.
Proteins: Quinoa proteins are higher than cereal grain. Graf, Silva, Rojo, Herrera, Balden,
Ruskin, (unpublished) say, Quinoa has a higher total protein content (12.9 - 16.5%) than barley
(10.8 - 11.0%), oat (11.6 %), rice (7.5 - 9.1 %), and maize (10.2 - 13.4%), and equal to that of
wheat (14.3 - 15.4%). Page10. That means that if the proteins are higher, it can help the
building block of bones, muscles, skin, and blood. This matters because then you wont be weak
and ill every time. That is why the Incas gave quinoa to the soldiers before going to war and after
so that they could be strong and so it can heal them. Also when a child is growing you should
give him/her quinoa to help their development. And even if you are a teenager, adult or of old
age, quinoas proteins is still good for you and could benefit you. . The most important protein
that quinoa has is Chenopodin that constitute 37% of quinoas proteins. That is why quinoas
scientific name is Chenopodium quinoa. Graf, Silva, Rojo, Herrera, Balden, Ruskin,
(unpublished) wrote that, According to animal feeding experiments, quinoa protein also has
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high digestibility. Page 11. This means that when the quinoa is in the small intestine all the
nutrients gets absorbed and that is good for your body. So even though quinoas proteins play a
small part on the macronutrients, it is very important.
Carbohydrates: Another important component of quinoa is carbohydrates because it is the most
important source of energy for the human body and the plant (Quinoa in this case). There are two
types of carbohydrates, simple and complex. The simple carbohydrates are sugars that gives as
the taste of sweetness and they are absorbed easily in the small intestine. The complex
carbohydrates are sugars that dont give us the taste of sweetness and they are not absorbed in the
small intestine. The complex carbohydrates helps you to form the stools and defecate. The
complex carbohydrate is also known as the fiber of the diet. So the quinoa has both of this;
simple and complex carbohydrates. For example: the skin of the quinoa has a lot of fiber. And in
the grains are the simple carbohydrates. Graf, Silva, Rojo, Herrera, Balden, Ruskin,
(unpublished) indicated, Dietary fiber is considered essential for optimal digestive health, and
also imparts various functional benefits (Brownawell and others 2012). Dietary fiber can
promote satiety, reduce cholesterol and lipid absorption, modulate postprandial insulin response,
promote endogenous cholesterol conversion to bile acids, improve intestinal microbiota, and
reduce risk and severity of gastrointestinal infection and inflammation (De Carvalho and others
2014; Brownawell and others 2012). Page 13. What this text is trying to say is that the fiber of
the diet helps the human body by preventing diseases. For instance, it can reduce the cholesterol
and that is a positive thing because if it isnt reduce it can hurt your heart.
Lipid: The last type of macronutrients is lipid that it is also known as fat. This macronutrient is
also divided into two types; saturated and unsaturated. Both of them are important sources of
energy. The saturated is solid and the unsaturated is liquid. The unsaturated fats have three parts:
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omega 3, 6 and 9. This are also called Essential Fatty Acids (we cant produce omega 3, 6 and 9,
we have to eat it). Graf, Silva, Rojo, Herrera, Balden, Ruskin, (unpublished) explain, Essential
fatty acids play important roles in brain development, insulin sensitivity, cardiovascular health,
prostaglandin metabolism, artherosclerosis, immunity, inflammation, and membrane function.
Page 15. The text is telling us that the omega 3, 6, and 9 are good for your health because it is
important for the structure of your body like brain development. Chenopodium Quinoa also has
this Essential Fatty Acids. That is why when a woman is pregnant it is best to give her quinoa
because it has a lot of omega3 than 6 or 9 (Omega 3 is used to form the central nervous system
and cells of the immune system and that helps the baby). The macronutrients play a very
important role in quinoa with its proteins, carbohydrates/fiber and lipid. With all this we can see
why quinoa can help the health of people.

Quinoa also has another part that can help human health. It is called micronutrients.
Micronutrients has two main parts, vitamins and minerals.
Vitamins: A vitamin is a vital nutrient that the organisms need. Luckily quinoas seeds are a rich
source of vitamins. Vitamins are needed in the human diet. It can regulate or arrange cell growth
and the cells development. It can also improve vision. Quinoas vitamins have vitamin A and
vitamin B. Graf, Silva, Rojo, Herrera, Balden, Ruskin, (unpublished) report, Quinoa has
recently been shown to contain a variety of carotenoids, predominantly luteins and zeaxanthins,
with total concentrations ranging from 1.2 - 1.8 mg/100g (Tang and others 2015a).
Concentrations of many of these vitamins have been reported to be higher in quinoa than typical

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cereal grains (Vega-Galvez and others 2010; Bhargava and others 2006; Tang and others
2015a). Page 16. According to this text, quinoa has a high percent of vitamins than other grains.
This is important because vitamins help in the use of other nutrients. Without being said, quinoas
vitamins are important because (as it was mention earlier) it can help cells and improve vision.
Minerals: Minerals are present in quinoa by quantities to keep balanced human diet. The good
thing about quinoa in this category is that quinoa has a low level of Phytic acid than any cereal
grain. Graf, Silva, Rojo, Herrera, Balden, Ruskin (unpublished) show, Phytic acid (aka
phytate, or IP6) has become a concern among various cereal grain and vegetable crops because it
has a strong binding affinity to minerals like iron, thereby reducing their bioavailability (Valencia
and others 1999) Page 16. What this quote is trying to say is that Phytic acids dont let the body
absorb the minerals. This is important because if the nutrients arent absorbed, the human body
cant function well. So quinoa doesnt have a lot of Phytic acid and that is a benefit because then
your body can work well.

The last part of the quinoa is metabolites. Metabolites is a chemical compound that the
plant produces to defend itself. There are many metabolites in quinoa but one that it is very
important is the saponins.
Saponins: Saponins are defenses that the quinoa has to protect itself from the animals. Saponins
are soaps that quinoa have on their skins. So when the animals go and eat it, the saponians leave
a bitter, soapy taste on their snout. This also helps the plant because it can prevent infection.
According to J. G. de la Roche Martinez, La Quinua en el Ecuador, it says that before you can
eat quinoa or cook it in your meal, you need to wash it or else the saponin will ruin your food. So

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the next time you wash quinoa and see that bubbles are coming out of it, it means that you are
washing the saponins of the quinoa. Also studies have shown that if a vaccine has saponin in it,
the vaccine will become more effective. So even if saponin is a defense for the quinoa it still
helps us.

Chenopodium quinoa has been in the Andes for thousands of years and know all the
worlds knows it. Quinoa has 100 different recipes that humans have invented. Such as soups,
salads and desserts. Also we need to remember that quinoa is a dicot crop not a grain. In the book
EL SABOR DE MI ECUADOR by Carlos Gallardo de la Puente it says that quinoa can grow in
some parts of Ecuador like Carchi, Imbabura, Pichincha, Cotopaxi, Chimborazo and Tungurahua.
The harvest time of quinoa is between June to July and October to November. Also that quinoa
can grow up to 3 meters. And the most important part of the quinoa are the components that it
has to help human health benefits. This include macronutrients, micronutrients and metabolites

REFERENCE

De la Puente, Carlos Gallardo. EL SABOR DE MI ECUADOR. Quito: Ecuador.

Publishing: 2013
Graf L, Brittany. Innovations in Health Value and Functional Food Development of

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) Not publishe yet.

De la Roche, Martinez J.G. La Quinua en el Ecuador. Quito: Ecuador. Publishing: 2005