Oh Nuts!

[greenbunny]

OK, so let's really deal with the nuts and seed issue. I've been trying to understand this for 20 years, talked to many "authorities" and have still not gotten logical answers, if I get any answers at all.

I would like to know what y'all have been experiencing.

We all understand the that nuts and seeds have enzyme inhibitors and what they do. I will call all nuts and legumes and grains seeds here, because in a botanical sense, all are seeds. You plant them and they grow into the botanical species from which they came. The idea is that you are supposed to soak the seeds to make them release the inhibitors into the water as they start to grow. You can't grow heated seeds and you can't grow broken seeds and you can't grow many seeds that have been taken out of their protective shell. So, if you put half a walnut or pecan in the ground it rots. If you put a cashew that has been heated to get it out of it's shell in the ground it rots. If you put a brazil nut as they are sold in stores into the ground they rot. The list goes on. The things that actually seem to sprout for me have been almonds (no longer will - boo hoo), sunflower seeds, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds and all the beans and legumes and smaller seeds that are usually grown into sprouts. When I eat the things that actually can sprout I feel fine - great actually - no matter how much I eat. When I eat things that are made from or are the nuts that won't grow like cashews, walnuts etc (when I am 100% live - the rest of the time I'm used to having a hard time digesting) I don't feel well from the nut that couldn't sprout even if it is soaked. This is pretty consistent.

Often on this site people say that others eat too many nuts at first and they are bad for you, that the fat is bad for you. This I do not understand. The kinds of fats that are present in seeds after they have released their inhibitors are simply fantastic for the body. The body NEEDS those kinds of fats for the cell walls to stay pliable. Fats help to sustain blood sugars. They are very important and are especially important when trying to convert to a raw diet from a dense, high fat, high protein cooked diet. Seeds are where new raw foodists can get high enough concentrations of protein so as not to stress out the body too much in the transition. Many proteins can be made by the body and the body doesn't need that much protein, but if the body is used to being spoon fed lots and lots of protein and is suddenly taken off of it, it can be stressful and hard - and in my view unnecessary. Soaked/sprouted seeds are the perfect food.

I believe the problem is in the fact that people try to eat seeds that are unedible because of their processing. I believe the sick feeling from eating nuts comes from eating the kinds of nuts that are unedible because they cannot be grown a little first.

I've actually heard people say that they can't eat avocados, bananas or soaked nuts because they are trying to lose weight! I have gone through stages where I ate almost nothing but those things and have kept very slender. Those kinds of fats are used by the body well. They are whole and real and the body knows what to do with it. It is the processed fats that are bad for you - not avocados. I will wager a bet that no one can stay obese eating raw even if they ate nothing but seeds and avocados with just a little fruits and veggies and they would feel great - as long as they stayed away from the seeds that won't grow.

No one has ever explained to me why grinding raw nuts and seeds are ok not sprouted. It makes no chemical sense. Enzymes inhibitors are small molecules and would not be affected by grinding. I don't feel well from eating raw nuts or seeds or their butters. I feel great from eating soaked/sprouted nuts and seeds.

Another thing that doesn't make sense in some of the books is that some of them say that some seeds don't need soaking. That goes against the whole argument for soaking seeds at all and against eating raw foods actually.

I have not been able to find any scientific data about the time it takes different seeds to release the enzyme inhibitors into the water, and hence be edible, yet I find all sorts of directions for how long individual seeds need to be soaked. How did these people determine the time????

Most of the books at the beginning of the raw food movement were based on eating sprouts. It's just weird to hear anyone say that eating too many is bad for you. I think it's because of this confusion about which seeds actually can be soaked and eaten and which ones really need to be avoided completely because they are no longer viable seeds (horticulturally terminology for "no longer will grow").

I have wondered about this issue when it comes to coconut meat. A young thai coconut is an immature coconut that has been shelled so that it will never be able to grow. I feel a palpable lowering of my vital energy when I eat coconut meat - but feel an increase in energy when I drink the raw milk. If you have ever watched a coconut grow, you know that a ripe nut falls to the ground and the plant puts out roots downward and the plant upward with the coconut seed staying visible until the tree is quite old and established. It's the full seed with all its layers that grows. If you take that nut and cut it apart in any way it is no longer viable. Is coconut meat really a food or is just the milk?

Compare that with the almond. Have you ever tried to eat a wild almond in the tropics? It's a great deal of work. There is a fresh fruit, a hard inner layer and layer in that. It doesn't yield much seed, but a seed it is. A raw almond will grow from the seed as long as the brown thin layer is still entact.

The sunflower is the same. You can take it out of its shell and it will still grow. You can grow a full sunflower from a shelled sunflower seed no problem.

I don't think that I've ever been able to get a truly raw cashew to try to grow. Cashews go rancid so fast that they have to be delivered in a refrigerated state. No cashews in grocery stores are raw and few aren't rancid.

It's impossible to grow a walnut or pecan that has been shelled because in the process of shelling you have to break the inner flesh in half and if you cut any seed in half it will no longer grow so every shelled walnut or pecan that you see is no longer viable.

Brazil nuts are another issue. The way that brazil nuts are sold is with most of their thin protective layer (like the layer on the almonds and sunflowers) is peeled off. Perhaps a shelled brazil nut would be viable if their protection was not removed. I wonder about this and would like to do an experiment some day.... but as as they are sold in stores... I can't get a brazil nut to start to grow.

So....... it is my conclusion that seeds are good.... great!.... as long as they are grown a little first..... and many cannot grow first ..... and we have to get together and get to the bottom of the mystery as to what will grow and what won't and figure out which of them we should be eating, and which ones we shouldn't.

Anyone up to exploring this more with me????

Greenbunny

[netsriksoccer]

great information...I am definately going to stop eating raw nuts...hopefully it will help with me digestion problems

[SnowBunny]

I ate some raw pecans that I get in the bulk section yesterday and I can eat pounds of those things! I didn't eat that many of course but I didn't feel great afterwards.

Today I ate some pecans that I got from a local source still in the shells. The texture is a little different and found that I was satisfied after 4 or 5 nuts, a feeling I haven't gotten before eating bulk food nuts. I ate them about an hour ago and I feel great.

So I did a little bit of exploring with you!

[rawhippie]

here we go again here, greenbunny....in the spirit of debate....there is a difference between eating in the raw and eating live foods.

i have heard that is better to get cashew pieces as opposed to whole cashews, as cashews break in half in the process of being shelled. this means that the whole cashews are actually "glued" back together with an edible source ie: high fructose corn syrup, or other non raw substance.

coconuts? i damn near kill myself trying to get the meat out every time! i've pretty much given up coconuts...atleast until i can find them already husked for me.

and what is the deal with the milk? i've heard of:
coconut milk, coconut water, coconut jelly, coconut butter....
what is the difference between any of it? 'cause it seems to me it's just a change in texture (atleast as far as the butter goes)
but really, what is what? and why are they so hard to husk? is there a special coconut tool i am unaware of?

[SnowBunny]

Coconut milk is from the meat of an older coconut and was once coconut water/juice...

Coconut water/juice is from the liquid on the inside that you see when you've finally managed to pop at least a hole in the shell. It's from the young coconuts.

coconut cream is basically the same as the milk but less watery, so it's thicker.

People tell me that coconut butter and coconut oil are the same, the difference is what temperature it is. So if it's warm, it's oil and if it's cold, it's butter. If this is so, then why is both sold and why does my butter taste, look and feel different than the oil and they're sitting next to each other?? I'm thinking that the butter actually has some coconut meat added to the oil to keep it solid.

never heard of coconut jelly

[SnowBunny]

GB - I was just reading that nut butters are not soaked before making them into butters. So that would make sense why you're not doing well with them

[rawhippie]

okay, i actually have only heard of coconut jelly once from david wolfe, whom i believe is british....so maybe a word they use for oil, or meat?

i hear ya, snowbunny, with the oil and butter being sold separately, and at different prices nonetheless!!!

what the heck!?!

and p.s. i actually before these posts never really knew why nuts and seeds were supposed to be soaked. raw food recipe books always called for that, but none of them really went into why. so i'm glad GB chimed in on this stuff.
thanks!
peace

[SnowBunny]

You mentioned you've heard from someone you thought was British... I called my mum. We grew up in England and she was there obviously longer than I was, so I asked her.

Coconut Jelly is made two ways. The more common way has some of these ingredients (there may be more):

coconut milk
sugar
gelatin

Of course, it isn't raw. This next way however, my mum found out when she was in China and it's fermented coconut milk. It's eaten as a candy as it's sweet but it may be raw

[greenbunny]

Ok, let's see....

by coconut milk I refer to the clear liquid in the coconut. young coconuts have more milk than the older ones.

the coconuts that are in the store are amazingly hard to open because they are shipped and sitting and dried up, mature and old. You just have to get out a hammer and hack away.

young coconuts have some of the young flesh left around them with the hard inner shell inside that, the soft young meat inside that and then the milk in that. I personally hammer a cleaned nail a couple of times into the part of the flesh that is most thin and then let the water drip out into my blender and drink it like that or sometimes add pinapple for a pina-colada then I go after the rest with a hammer because I don't have a cleaver or a kitchen hatchet which I hear is the best way to do it and can imagine that to be true.

fresh coconuts right off the tree are a different animal. real milk is incredibly powerful. I believe it to be an ammenagogue.