Almonds labeled "raw" in the United States are harboring a scary secret. Here's how you can avoid it.
Are almonds safe to eat? (And the question is relevant for the now almost ubiquitous almond milk and almond butter too.) Unfortunately, it seems that the answer is mostly no.
It's a question that is important to me because now that winter is here, I am making more than ever my batches of dehydrated crackers. Since I gave up eating wheat (after reading Sayer Ji's monograph The Dark Side of Wheat), my dehydrated crackers serve as a nice substitute for bread. My favorite recipe is for my Rosemary Crackers, for which I use sprouted flaxseeds and sprouted almonds. It is important to sprout raw nuts and seeds by soaking them first. Nature's defense mechanisms include nutritional inhibitors and toxic substances: enzyme inhibitors, phytates (phytic acid), polyphenols (also known as tannins), and goitrogens. All these are removed automatically by nature when it rains—the nut or seed gets wet and can then germinate to produce a plant. When we soak our nuts and seeds, we are mimicking nature.
It's a question that is important to me because now that winter is here, I am making more than ever my batches of dehydrated crackers. Since I gave up eating wheat (after reading Sayer Ji's monograph The Dark Side of Wheat), my dehydrated crackers serve as a nice substitute for bread. My favorite recipe is for my Rosemary Crackers, for which I use sprouted flaxseeds and sprouted almonds. It is important to sprout raw nuts and seeds by soaking them first. Nature's defense mechanisms include nutritional inhibitors and toxic substances: enzyme inhibitors, phytates (phytic acid), polyphenols (also known as tannins), and goitrogens. All these are removed automatically by nature when it rains—the nut or seed gets wet and can then germinate to produce a plant. When we soak our nuts and seeds, we are mimicking nature.
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