How to Best Enjoy Almonds and Nuts

Almonds and nuts are fruits, but unlike most other fruits. Typically, we eat the flesh around the seed, but with almonds and nuts, it's the seed itself that we consume.

Being seeds, almonds pack a lot of minerals, proteins, and fatty acids necessary for growing into a tree.

These seeds represent growth potential, thus they are dense in nutrients.

Incorporating almonds into your daily diet can help prevent heart and vascular diseases. They are known to boost good cholesterol levels HDL and reduce triglycerides and bad cholesterol LDL. Almonds are a great source of vitamin E, a potent antioxidant that aids in disease prevention and promoting skin health.

Adding almonds to your diet also helps better balance blood sugar levels. Rich in calcium, almonds are recommended for maintaining bone health, potentially preventing bone depletion.

Almonds are a "prebiotic" food, which means they contain nutrients that, when paired with friendly bacteria – probiotics – can enhance digestive and immune systems.

Almonds contain a fair amount of fat, so it's advised to limit the quantity you consume, ensuring that you eat raw, natural, and soaked almonds and nuts.

Why soak them?

Since almonds are seeds, soaking activates the enzymes within, making it easier for our stomachs to break down proteins, making them more digestible and absorbable.

Almonds have phytic acid, which hinders the absorption of minerals like calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc. Soaking in water helps eliminate and neutralize phytic acid, maximizing almond benefits without hampering nutrient absorption.

Cooking or heating also neutralizes phytic acid but at the cost of losing a significant portion of the vitamins and antioxidants found in almonds. Thus, soaking is considered the best method to preserve nutritional values when consuming almonds and nuts.

Pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, and various nuts all contain more vitamins and antioxidants, and their proteins become more digestible after soaking. Always try to purchase them as fresh as possible.

Zohara Shravitt is a certified naturopath N.D with years of experience in treatment, consultation, and workshop instructions. To book a free workshop, call 073-2221290