What you need to know about
Nuts and Seeds.

Nuts and Seeds have many nutrients that need to be "unlocked" before we eat them.

Created: Oct 10, 2020

This article will explain what you need to know about Nuts and Seeds, so you can enjoy their nutritional benefits: why they are hard to digest, what you can you do to make their nutrients more bio-available, what considerations to take into account when buying them and how they should be store to keep them fresh longer.   Hopefully after you finish reading, you will have learn some things that will help make more informed decisions before you enjoy your favorite Nuts and Seeds. So let’s dive in!

 

Nuts are the seeds of plants (mostly trees). They are considered fruits composed of an inedible hard shell and a seed, which is generally edible.  Examples of nuts are almonds, walnuts, pecans, Brazil nuts, pine nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamias and pistachios.

Seeds are embryonic plants, enclosed in a protective outer covering, by which a plant procreates.  Examples of seeds are sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, flax, chia and hemp seeds.

Both nuts and seeds are great sources of protein and fat, and provides some carbohydrates as well, and are full of vital nutrients and also contain fibre.  They are an important part of the diet.  It is nice to have them available for snacking (nutrient dense snacks), or to use them to diversify your menu, and to make nutrient-rich flour used for your baking.

Interestingly enough, the nuts, (as well as grains and beans) are considered SEEDS. Lots of research show that their regular consumption prevents atherosclerosis, heart disease, autoimmune disorders, cancer and many other health problems.   And while they provide so many benefits, they are very hard to digest because they contain substances that, while they help plants protect from predators, they can damage our gut.  Have you ever wondered why?  Well, keep reading and you will find out.  

What is the problem with Nuts and Seeds?

Nuts and Seeds have many nutritional benefits for us. However, unless they are prepared properly with some pre-digestion techniques, they are challenging for the digestive system of most people, even for those who seem to be healthy.  But don’t worry, keep reading and you will find out what to do about this.

Here are some of the reasons while nuts and seeds are challenging for the digestive system:

  1. They are protected by some antinutrients: substances that, while they play a critical role in the life of the seeds, are hard for the body to digest, resulting in discomfort in the stomach and in the damage of the gut wall. Some people can even see them in the stool, clearly showing that they are not properly digested. For some others, even if ingesting them do not bring many symptoms after eating them, they would be intaking some damaging substances if the nuts and seeds they eat are not properly prepared, and slowly damaging their gut wall. So one way or another, they might compromise your nutrition.
  1. Nuts and seeds present another challenge: the fat that they contain. Because they are high in fat, they can potentially stress both, your liver and your gallbladder. One of the signs that this is happening, is that you experience nausea when you eat them. (By the way, did you know that beet kvass help the liver and gallbladder handle additional amount of fat? Find more about beet kvass here).
  1. Nuts and seeds are high in fibre. And even though fiber is good and has a very important role in the body, people with a compromised digestive system might find it challenging. In addition, for those following the GAPS Protocol, fiber is not allowed during the early stages, because it acts as sandpaper on a damaged intestinal wall, leading to more damage in somebody that has leaky gut.

Nuts are generally more difficult to digest than seeds, so if you have challenges with your digestive systems, I would recommend focusing on seeds before nuts.

What are the antinutrients found in nuts and seeds?

Even thought some people might be fine eating a small amount of nuts or seeds, many others might feel a sensation of fullness, bloating, cramping, and other signs of indigestion when they eat them because of the antinutrients they contain. But don’t worry.  If you like nuts and seeds like me, you will be relieved to know that there is a way to help prevent that to happen. 

The antinutrients found in nuts and seeds are substances that interfere with the body’s ability to absorb nutrients. 

Here are the most important ones that you should know about:

1. Phytic acid. It is the storage form of phosphorus found in many plants, especially in the bran or hull of nuts and seeds. It is also found in grains.  It is biologically necessary for the plants because it helps safeguard them until proper growing conditions are present and germination can occur. In fact, all plant-derived foods contain phytic acid in some levels, but grains, legumes, nuts and seeds typically contain the highest levels.

The problem with Phytic Acid is that it binds strongly to the minerals from the food we eat, making them unavailable to us.  They may lead to mineral deficiencies in iron, zinc and calcium.

There are ways to reduce the Phytic acid in plants.  And this is a good thing, because, in low levels, they might be beneficial for the body. You will find more about this below.

2. Enzyme inhibitors. Their purpose is to prevent all seeds from germinating or sprouting prematurely: they switch off when the growing conditions are favourable for germination to proceed (enough water and sunshine).

Enzyme inhibitors are considered anti-nutrients because they bind to our digestive enzymes, reducing their ability to digest the food and preventing them from working at their full potential. By doing this, they impact the absorption of other nutrients, and may lead to damage of the gut wall, allergies and other health problems.

3. Oxalic acid – is an organic compound found in many plants. Nuts and seed contain some oxalic acid, especially almonds and cashews. Oxalic acid is known to bind to minerals preventing their absorption.

What can we do to help disgest nuts and seeds?

The way your digestive system will be able to handle and digest nuts and seeds, depends in different factors:

A. How they are consumed. Pulverizing nuts and seeds (turning them into flour) make them easier to digest.  And I don’t mean that commercial flour is great.  The way the process commercial flour removes most of their nutrients. Pulverizing them at home is your best bet.  A much easier way to digest nuts and sees is as butter.  And just like flours, commercial butters are full of additives and preservatives, so be careful when buying those.  If you grind the nuts or seeds long enough, the fat in nuts and seeds will break, and will turn them into a spreadable butter, which is easier to digest than to consume them in their natural state

B. The predigestion techniques that you use to neutralize their antinutrients  (read more about this below).

C. How well you chew them. Yes, believe it or not, digestion starts in the mouth. You might think that is common sense, but the pace that people live with these days, do not leave much time for chewing our food.  Chewing is and essential step of digestion, because it breaks the food before it arrives to the stomach, so food is small enough for the gastric juices in the stomach to further degrade it and reduce it to a microscopic size easy to digest.  So certainly, the nutritional value of the nuts and seeds is greatly increased when you chew them well.

Predigestion Techniques: the way to unlock nutrients.

The Predigestion Techniques are ways to prepare nuts and seeds to reduce the amount of antinutrients they contain and unlock their nutrients, making them more bioavailable (available for the body). These techniques make them easier to digest and avoid mineral deficiencies in our body

The following are the main Predigestion Techniques:

1. SOAKING. Soaking means leaving your nuts or seeds inside water for a period of time. In my opinion, this process not only decrease antinutrients and make their nutrients more bioavailable, but makes them taste better.

You need two things for soaking nuts and seeds. 

  1. Warm filtered water -> The warm water will neutralize many of the enzyme inhibitors and increase the bioavailability of many nutrients.
  2. Good quality Salt -> helps deactivate the enzyme inhibitors.

Most nuts and seeds can be soaked for several hours, typically between 7 and 24 hours. One exception to this rule is with cashews.  For the reason explained earlier, cashews should be soaked for a maximum 6 hours.  For all other nuts and seeds, 18 hours is required to remove the maximum amount of phytic acid.  After soaking, drain them.  If desired, you may remove the salt by rinsing. 

If you are not going to use the nuts/seed right away after soaking them, dry them, either with your oven or with a dehydrator.  The temperature recommended to dry them is 110F.

This is the process of soaking nuts and seeds.

Mix in a bowl warm filtered water with salt.  Then add the nuts or seeds you are going to soak into the bowl.  Make sure they are fully covered by the water (by about 2 inches),  because some of the water will be absorbed or evaporated.  The salt will help remove the enzyme inhibitors.

  • Leave the bowl covered cover with a towel on the counter for 7 to 24 hours.  (Remember, as I mentioned above, that cashews should not be soaked for more than 6 hours). 
  • If you have the time, I suggest you change the water and add more salt once or twice during that period.
  • OPTIONAL STEP: Some people like adding 1-2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar (depending of the amount soaking) to the water during the soaking time. This is known to aid in the development/activation of phytase, the enzyme needed to break down the phytic acid.

Once your soaking period is over, drain the liquid and rinse in a colander. At this point you can either eat the nuts/seeds right away, use them for cooking or baking by grinding them, or make milk/butter with them, since they are already softened.

Before you store them, make sure your nuts and seeds are completely dry, since moisture can cause them to mold.  You can dry them in the oven or in a dehydrator. 

  1. IN THE OVEN: Spread them out on a baking sheet with  parchment paper and place them in the oven for 12-24 hours depending on the size of the nuts.  In the oven, you can set the temperature at the lowest possible, so the enzymes from the nuts and seeds don’t get destroyed **.  A gas oven with a pilot light is usually enough. 
  2. USING A DEHYDRATOR: Use a dehydrator to the lowest setting.  110F is a good temperature to keep the live enzymes.  Dehydrating time can often be up to 24 hours, so a dehydrator simplifies the process but is not necessary.
**If you are going to grind the nuts into flour for baking (instead of storing them), you don’t need to worry about preserving their enzymes, because the enzymes will be killed during the baking process anyway. 
 
As simple as it looks like, not all nuts and seeds can be easily soaked. For example, flax and chia seeds, gel when soaked, making the process complicated. Also hemp seeds are challenging for this process. Therefore, these seeds are usually not soaked.

Soaking takes time and effort, so you have to analyze the time it takes vs. the benefit it brings. If you are used to eat a lot of them, it is worth it to soak them to avoid the amount of enzyme inhibitor and phytic acid coming into your body.  While you might not have any symptoms while you eat them, their antinutrients might slowly be damaging your gut wall without you knowing it.

2. SPROUTING. Sprouting is the natural process by which seeds or spores germinate, which means that the seed changes into a plant.  It involves soaking them until they begin to develop a tail-like protrusion.  

While sprouting is another way to neutralize the antinutrients and enzyme inhibitors, it goes a step farther from soaking, because it activates phytase, which is an enzyme that breaks down phytic acid, neutralize anti-nutrients and enzyme inhibitors and reduce some of the carbohydrate content in nuts and seeds, making them less starchy.

For some, soaking is sufficient to be able to digest nuts and seeds. For others with digestive problems, sprouting helps them enjoy the nuts and the seeds they like, without much digestive problems.

While some of the best candidates for sprouting are raw pumpkin and sunflower seeds, some nuts like pecans and walnuts will not sprout.  Also consider that sprouting only works in non-irradiated foods.

3. FERMENTING. Fermentation is considered the best pre-digestion technique, is the process that uses microbes to predigest your food before you eat it, so that it is easier for you to digest it and leaves more nutrients available for you. You can ferment whole nuts and seeds or grind them before fermenting then. Some others also ferment them first and grind them later.

To ferment you need a fermentation starter, which could be whey.

As I have mentioned earlier, the different preparation techniques used to neutralize the nutrients of nuts and seeds, make them easier to digest. If you compare these techniques among each other, Sprouting is better than Soaking, and Fermenting is better than Sprouting.  However, you have to evaluate which method works best for you, depending on your own needs and digestive challenges.  For some people with a very damaged digestive system, their best way to eat nuts and seeds is by soaking or sprouting, and then fermenting them.

While these preparation techniques are very beneficial, it is true that you have to think ahead of cooking/eating. I personally buy one bag of each of my favorite nuts and seeds, and soak all of them in a couple of days.  I dry them and store them in mason jars in the fridge.  That way they are ready and available when I need them.

REDUCING THE FIBRE. This is not one of the predigestion tecniques, but I like to mention it here because it is makes a big different for many. Some people with bad digestive problems, (and those who start the GAPS Nutritional Protocol) might benefit from decreasing their fiber intake for a period of time (this is another long topic to discuss).  You can do this by pulverizing your nuts and seeds, and turning them into flour or butter. This will start break the fiber down before you even eat them.

What to consider when purchasing nuts and seeds?

Here are some guidelines to buy nuts and seeds. 

  1. Organic. If you have the opportunity, preferably buy them organic. This will ensure they will come with less chemical and pesticides, which damage your gut wall.
  2. Non-irradiated. The irradiation process decreases their nutrient value and kill important enzymes. Some packages contain the label “Treated with Radiation”, so avoid buying those. Irradiated nuts and seeds will not sprout, but aside of that fact, you do not want to eat irradiated food.
  3. Raw. Nuts and seeds become rancid and lose their nutrients when they are hulled or shelled. This is important to consider because rancidity, on top of changing the flavour of the food, irritates the gut lining. The deterioration process of nuts and seeds begins immediately and continues when they are vacuum-packed. For this reason, it is much better to buy nuts and seeds that are intact in their raw state, and, even better, if they are sill in their shells, just as Mother Nature provides them. Then you can crack them at home. When the protective shell is opened, the nuts or seeds are exposed to heat, light and oxygen.  The fat that they contain goes rancid when exposed to these elements.  For this same reason, you should not remove the shells until you are going to eat them. Avoid buying seeds that have been ‘seasoned’ or roasted, salted or coated in any way.
  4. Avoid buying from bulk bins. Some people buy large amounts of nuts and seeds from bulk bins in the supermarket, because they seem to be less expensive. I recommend buying them in small batches, just as you need them. They will be fresher. I also suggest to avoid purchasing them from bulk bins, because usually the nuts and seeds stored this way have been already exposed to light and oxygen for a good period of time, increasing the possibility of rancidity.  

Storage.

The best way to keep nuts and seeds fresh is to store them in the refrigerator or to freeze them well sealed in air-tight containers.

To keep them inside the fridge, I use mason jars.  Nuts and seeds last there well for about 6 months.

In the freezer they last for about 1 year.  Mason jars do not work well inside the freezer.  They might explode.  Yes, that has happened to me before.  So plastic bags with no BPA or other glass freezer-safe containers with a tight lid will be a better option.  Don’t forget to label your containers with the time you purchased the food before you store them, so you don’t forget when you purchased them. 

Home-made nuts and seeds vs. Commercial ones.

Talking about flour and nut and seed butter I have my concerns about buying the commercial ones.  I did that for many years, but now I try to avoid doing that.  Those commercial products are highly processed and, therefore, they have been depleted of nutrients.  I personally like (and recommend to my clients) to replace the commercial flour used in baking with Nuts or oily seeds grounded into flour consistency, like walnuts, and hazelnuts, and almonds, or sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds or sesame seeds.  Same with the nuts and seeds butters, they bring more nutrition to your body when you make them properly at home.

There are several reasons for this:

  • They are made with raw nuts that contain all the antinurients (they do not soak, sprout not ferment them before they are grinded or made into butter).
  • They roast them before they use them, which might lead to rancidity.
  • Nuts and seeds that are ground into flour are more susceptible to oxidation, which increases the possibility of rancidity. So the food industry adds preservatives, additives and chemicals to avoid rancidity and to extend their shelf life. Those are damaging for our digestive system.

Sprouted nuts and butters are also available in stores now, but the price is much higher, so if you have the time and the opportunity, make them at home:  they will be full or nutrients, the fat will be conserved and will bring more nutrition to your body.

I use a Vitamix at home to make my own flour and some nut and seed spreads.  It was expensive, but has been one of the best investments ones I’ve ever made to use in my kitchen. Once I made the decision to buy it, I waited until it was on sale in a road show in Costco, and then I purchased it.  Less expensive than usual and with a warranty supported by Costco as well. 

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