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How to prepare nuts

Monday 3 rd February 2014

Nuts are very rich in beneficial nutrients: contain a huge amount of minerals, mostly magnesium, calcium and potassium; vitamins, such as folic acid; unsaturated fatty acids, proteins, fiber, antioxidants, etc.
But they contain some anti-nutrient substances that avoid the correct absorption of these minerals and can disturb health in some persons.
This other post on gemmacalzada.com there's more detailed information about these anti-nutrients.

Following is the information about how to prepare all kind of nuts to avoid one of the disadvantatges of these food: phytic acid.

1.- Dispose nuts in a container.
2.- Soak nuts in purified water (chlorine free) at room temperature (warm). The level of water must cover all nuts and exceed 4 centimeters.
3.- Add a pinch of salt and some drops of lemon juice.
4.- Leave to soak for 12 hours.
5.- Drain off the soaking water and rince off nuts several times with clean water.
6.- Dehydrate nuts: use a dehydrator machine, or bake them into the oven for 4 hours at 100ºC until dry.
7.- Then, you can keep them in a sealed container or optionally roast them for about 20 minutes at 150ºC.

It’s preferable to use peeled nuts, otherwise, you must peel them after the procedure, nut’s skin is very irritant for the intestine.

Nut flour: Grind nuts with a food processor until they’re finely ground.

Nut butter: Grind nuts with a food processor. Nuts turn into flour, then a thick paste and finally smooth butter. It can take 15 minutes for almonds, just about 5 minutes for peanuts, and about 10 minutes for hazelnuts, time depends on the food processor. Stop and scrap down the sides as needed throughout the process. You can add salt, cacao, honey, vanilla or whatever flavouring you desire to the butter, so you can make your “nutella”. If your appliance doesn't have a strong motor, stop every little bit to prevent overheating.

Nut milk: Add water to the nut butter and mix.

There aren’t any studies about the amount of phytic acid that it’s possible to remove with soaking and dehydrating, but roasting achieves a reduction of 40% of phytic acid.

If you are following a GAPS diet, almond flour is the base for bakery. Then, you risk to exceed the amount of tolerated phytic acid in a day for your body. The same is applied to the peanut butter. So then, the amount of nuts in a day must be limited, and avoid buying ready to use almond flour, but prefer home-made soaking and dehydrating almond flour.

On these other articles you can find how to remove phytic acid in whole grains and pulses.

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