**5. Processing treatments for pseudo-cereals**

Their extraordinary nutritional profile is the result of the presence of countless bioactive components that includes essential amino acids, proteins, phenolic compounds, and a wide range of anti-oxidants, thus rendering them with a high nutraceutical potential. But along with favorable substances, they also contain anti-nutrients such as phytate, tannins, and saponins which reduces the bioavailability of beneficial supplements. To resolve this, pseudo-cereals are subjected to several processing treatments like soaking, fermentation, popping, germination, and cooking. Such treatments improve bioavailability of nutrients by decreasing the amount of anti-nutrients and consequently enhances the nutritional value of pseudo-cereals. For example, seeds of *Amaranthus* are consumed as popped, sprouted, baked, or grounded into flour and cooked as porridge [21].
