Sat, May-26-12, 20:59
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Senior Member
Posts: 8,730
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Plan: Atkins Maintenance
Stats: 213/141/150
BF:
Progress: 114%
Location: Dallas, TX
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I found this article on the Weston A. Price Foundation website:
Living with Phytic Acid
Here is an excerpt specifically about nuts:
Quote:
PREPARATION OF NUTS
We still do not have adequate information on nut preparation to say with any certainty how much phytic acid is reduced by various preparation techniques. Soaking in salt water and then dehydrating to make “crispy nuts” makes the nuts more digestible and less likely to cause intestinal discomfort, but we don’t know whether this process significantly reduces phytic acid, although it is likely to reduce at least a portion of the phytic acid.
Roasting probably removes a significant portion of phytic acid. Roasting removes 32-68 percent of phytic acid in chick peas and roasting grains removes about 40 percent of phytic acid. Germinated peanuts have 25 percent less phytic acid then ungerminated peanuts. Several indigenous groups cooked and or roasted their nuts or seeds. I notice that I like the taste and smell of roasted nuts.
The real problem with nuts comes when they are consumed in large amounts, such as almond flour as a replacement for grains in the GAPS diet. For example, an almond flour muffin contains almost seven hundred milligrams of phytic acid, so consumption should be limited to one per day. Eating peanut butter every day would also be problematic.
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Interesting to think about - especially as concerns using almond flour/meal to bake with (which I do). After reading this article I think the impression I get is that soaking and drying become more important the more you will eat of the food (whether it be nuts, legumes, etc.). I would be less likely to soak beans since I eat them rarely and only in small amounts, but more likely to soak nuts/seeds since I eat them more.
That said, I think this article has an assumption that a person is eating a lot of grains, which also have high phytic content....which would make it even more important to soak legumes and nuts. Again, the less phytic containing foods you are eating the less important to soak them. But that's just my assumption based on my reading/understanding.
I thinks it's funny that the author mentions preferring the taste and smell of roasted nuts....exactly what I said in my previous post!
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