SolveYourProblem Article Series: Raw Food Diet
What Are The Benefits Of The Raw Food Diet?

9 OK Nuts for a Raw Food Diet

Raw nuts are important in a raw food diet. For many people who are following a 100% raw diet, nuts and seeds are their main source of essential fats as well as many minerals. Lets look at some of the main types of nuts that you might want to include in a raw diet.

Brazil nuts

Brazils contain high amounts of selenium, a trace mineral that is essential for our diets. Many years ago, the soil in most parts of the world contained enough selenium that it would be found in fruits and vegetables in sufficient quantities without any problem. But these days, most agricultural soil has become depleted of selenium, so a source like the brazil nut can be very valuable.

Brazil nuts are boiled during shelling. Buy brazil nuts in their shells and shell them yourself, to make sure that you get raw nuts. This will also prevent over eating of them. Selenium, while essential in small quantities, is toxic if consumed to excess.

Hazel nuts/Filberts

Hazel nuts or filberts are one of the few types of nut that you can buy pre-shelled from a regular grocery store and still be pretty sure that they are 100% raw. They are easy to shell, not requiring heat or steam treatment. Of course, you still need to check on the packaging that you are not buying roasted nuts or nuts that come with added ingredients, but in most cases the plain variety will be raw.

Almonds

Almonds from most countries are also usually raw even if pre-shelled. However, California almonds must be pasteurized by law, following a controversial case where almonds were blamed for food poisoning. This means that most almonds of US origin are pasteurized, even if sold still in the shell, and are not raw nuts.

Walnuts

Walnuts in the shell will not have been treated with heat, so you can safely include these in a 100% raw diet. Shelled walnuts are probably fine too, but some shelling processes use steam. If you want to be sure you can contact the producer.

Cashews

The usual commercial process for extracting cashews from their shells involves high temperatures. It is possible to buy truly raw cashews from specialist suppliers, but they will be considerably more expensive because of the higher cost of shelling. Look online for suppliers of raw cashews.

Macadamia, Pecan

These will not be raw if bought shelled. Buy pecans in shells. You may be able to buy macadamia nuts in shells if you live in an area where they are grown.

Pistachio

Pistachio nuts are dried at higher temperatures than most other nuts and even if sold in the shell, are still not truly raw.

Seeds

Most unroasted seeds will be raw: for example, pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, and flax seeds. This also includes pine nuts (pignolia/pinoli).

Nut Butters

If you buy peanut butter, almond butter etc from a health food store you will often see jars marked 'raw' but you cannot necessarily assume this means that they used 100% raw nuts. Sometimes it just means that the nuts have not been roasted: they may have been heat treated for removal from the shell.

If you want to be sure, go to your health food store and check which brands are marked raw. Then look on the company's website for their customer support number or email, and contact them to ask whether the nuts that they use have been subject to temperatures over 118 degrees F at any time since they were growing in the field. If nobody at the company can answer the question, they probably do not use raw nuts.

Click here to discover the best source of essential raw organic "superfoods" with all their precious nutrients intact. Many cannot be found in your local health food store. It's my SolveYourProblem recommendation.

# # # # #

by SolveYourProblem.com : 2011

> Home > Weight Loss & Raw Food Diet: Main Page