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Comment by jff | Hacker News Reader

That was my question coming out of the article: why exactly do we want quinoa? The native Americans stopped growing it because it didn't yield well enough. Modern farmers have had trouble growing it here in the US. And I've never found the taste astounding, so I find myself wondering why we don't stick to rice, soy, lentils, beans, corn, and wheat?

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Sorry, I deleted my post because someone else posted at the same time a reasonable explanation - a rice substitute ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6029358 ). Thanks for adding information.

My original text:

"The arid, cool land that quinoa needs was plentiful, since little else could grow there. And thus far, that trait has made it difficult to grow elsewhere." (posted link)

"Protein content is very high for a cereal/pseudo-cereal (14% by mass), yet not as high as most beans and legumes." ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa )

I'm puzzled. Why not stick to beans, which are cheap and plentiful, and come in a wide variety of shapes and colors?

It contains a good amount of all of the essential amino acids (ie the amino acids that your body cannot produce adequately itself). It also has calcium and iron. It's a pretty awesome nutritional food.

EDIT: to emphasize, the key advantage of quinoa is that it has a lot of all of the essential amino acids, which is very very rare among plants. I believe the only other plant with all essential amino acids is soy.

It's not very rare at all. It's rare if you compare it to grains, and while quinoa is not a grain, it is usually used instead of a grain. Many beans (e.g. white and black) and vegetables have a complete amino acid profile.

Even potatoes have a complete animo acid profile. Not in the most optimal ratio, but 10 potatoes/day gets you enough of all the essential amino acids. In fact you can live exclusively on potatoes if you add in a source of Vitamin A (like carrots).

There are other plants that provide the "complete" protein profile. For example, hemp seeds do.

What makes quinoa better than brown rice?

How does the cost compare?

Quinoa has more and better protein. Brown rice is cheaper.

But oats and wild rice have even more protein.

Quinoa is popular for the same reasons greek yogurt is now popular. It has a bit more protein than the alternatives, so health nuts decide they must have it at any cost.

Never mind that nobody wants to eat plain greek yogurt, so it winds up with the same or greater sugar content, and really only has a little bit more protein than regular yogurt.

Because it is gluten free which is trendy (I'm not saying there aren't people who do have heath problems with gluten) and it itself is trendy.

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