Questions About Bamboo Shoots

[SheilaHelm1]

If anyone has any information about bamboo shoots, I would appreciate it. For example: How much is equal to 1 carrot? i.e. recommended daily amount?
Have they got cyanide in (seen this on a few websites??) Can you eat them raw??? once cooked how long do they keep?? What exactly is good about them?
I have bought 2 big glass jars from local chinese supermarket, they are just bamboo shoots (tips) in water. They are not sliced or strips just big tips about the size of an average carrot !!!!! Anyone know whats best to do with em??
Thanks in advance
:?

 

[nwo2012]

I know they need to be cooked but can't answer your other questions.

 

[SheilaHelm1]

Thanks nwo, that does help x

 

[SheilaHelm1]

OK so after suffering neglect from esteemed forum members (NWO not you x) I had to go it alone to figure out what to do with these awful things.... eugh! Anyhoo heres what I did to make them awesome..
1. boil in water till they were very bendy. (about 45 mins)
2. Cut into strips and shallow fry in coconut oil and a bit of butter..... still horrible.. but wait, hang on.. what will make these better?? Let me enlighten you .... Add about half a cup of COKE!!! and LOADS of lovely sugar, fry em to death and what do you get???? Caramelised Bamboo shoots..... WOW!! They have the lovely sticky texture of BBQ ribs and taste funky but pretty darn good.
If it means I have cooked whatever goodness was in there out of em, at least I got the coconut oil and sugar in..

Its a Win Win...

 

[charlie]

Ok now that sounds quite tasty!

 

[Dan W]

Regarding the benefits of the shoots, Functional Performance Systems (a Ray Peat-friendly site) has a few scientific excerpts here. The shoots may benefit digestion, cancer, cholesterol, and more.

 

[charlie]

Dan Wich, welcome to the forum!

That's a great link, thanks for posting it!

 

[SheilaHelm1]

Thanks Charlie and Dan Wich (Welcome) that was a great link, I can't believe I missed that on FPS it is a great site.
Hopefully there is still a lot of benefits even when frying them to the limit then... cool xx

 

[Dan W]

Thanks Charlie and Sheila.

Regarding the cyanide, this report (PDF) concludes that boiling reduces or eliminates it, and that "the varieties of bamboo shoots sold commercially for food are processed adequately by boiling before consumption." So I don't think it's a concern, especially in light of all the positive effects the shoots have.

 

[SheilaHelm1]

Phew.. thats a relief because I did try a bit before a knew what to do with it... eek!
I think you're gonna be a valued member here, Thanks again for all the info. x I'm off to read that link in more depth now :)

 

[Mittir]

Were you able to find out how much bamboo shoot RP recommends?
In that study they used 360 grams, that seems like a lot of bamboo shoots.
How much you are eating now and how does it feel compare to raw carrot?

 

[Dan W]

Mittir, I don't really have an answer to your question, but the study I always see cited for carrots' benefits also used much more than Peat recommends. I just eat a "carrot's worth" (maybe ~50g) of the shoots under the assumption that they're similar.

 

[Mittir]

I asked Ray Peat about amounts of cooked bamboo shoot he recommends. His reply is

"About a cup is usually enough."

 

[Dan W]

Thanks Mittir, guess I'm not eating enough. For some reason it's hard for me to eat large quantities of them...

1 cup looks helpful nutritionally though: 25 calories with 14% RDA of B6, 17% copper, 9% manganese, 8% zinc, 6% vitamin E.

 

[Mittir]

I think you are checking nutrition of raw bamboo shoots. In boiled shoot most of the vitamins are lost. I believe people do not drink the boiled water due to cyanide poisoning. Nutritiondata has different weight for a cup of boiled shoot, 120 grams and canned shoot, 130 grams ( those are boiled too) and raw shoot 150 grams.

 

[Dan W]

Huh, you're right. I was using canned/drained shoots in Cronometer, and while their raw values match NutritionData, their % values are higher. Maybe Cronometer customizes them to my calorie intake or something.

 

[Dan W]

Figured out how to make Cronometer ignore my profile, so I think these are the correct numbers, and they mostly agree with NutritionData: 25 calories, 9% B6, 8% copper, 10% manganese, 6% zinc, 4% vitamin E. Still not too bad, especially since the manganese (weirdly) went up.

 

[Cari Poindexter]

How long do I boil bamboo shoots for? Using Native Forest canned.

 

[lepetitcheval]

I just eat those. No boiling.

 

[Kartoffel]

I recently switched from carrots to bamboo shoots because I was getting orange calluses on my hands, and I have to say I feel much better now than with carrots. My bowel movement frequency has increased significantly, and I don't experience bloating or discomfort which happens after eating a raw carrot for me. I also found that I have intact strands of bamboo fiber in my stool (I know gross). Peat said that people often find intact fibers in their stool after eating carrots, but I never noticed that.
In this study, bamboo fiber was at least as effective as raw carrots as far as lowering cholesterol, increasing bowel movement frequency, stool volume, and abdominal discomfort are concerned. They used a different bamboo species than the one that is commonly sold in supermarkets, but in my experience the "normal" bamboo fiber works as well.

Sci-Hub | Effects of bamboo shoot consumption on lipid profiles and bowel function in healthy young women. Nutrition, 25(7-8), 723–728 | 10.1016/j.nut.2009.01.007