Re: Raw almonds

[Guest guest]

Luke -

The only place that I know of that currently sells the " real deal " raw

almonds is Organic Pastures in CA. www.organicpastures.com

In my own personal opinion, the soaking of seeds gets a little

overplayed. Sure, if you eat handful after handful of them the all day

long you will probably eat enough enzyme inhibitors to screw up the

digestive process. But who's to say that nuts and seeds aren't

partially sprouted as you chew them very well and break them down in

your mouth and stomach??

If you really want to think critically about it, you'd need to

determine the amount of phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors present when

selecting a nut or seed to eat. I suppose an automatic cure all is to

soak everything which the trad foods " law " kind of dictates.

Just a slice of my little brain....

Go nuts!

[Guest guest]

>

> It si a bit confusing out there which almonds are truly raw so I

> would like to know where you get yours. Thanks.

People in this group have a variety of sources for things, depending on where

they live. But no matter where you are located, getting raw almonds starts with

asking or finding out where the almonds were grown.

California-grown almonds are required by law to be pasteurized. Even though they

are pasteurized, they are still allowed to be falsely labeled as 'raw'. So,

assume that any almonds you find in a store or online from California are

pasteurized (and not acceptable). The EXCEPTION to this is when people get

around the law by going straight to the farmer to get almonds. Even in that

case, you'd still have to ask specifically if/how the Californian almonds have

been treated, and verify that they are raw.

A good source of raw almonds is from Europe. Italy and Spain (and maybe other

countries too) export almonds for sale in North America. Again, you'd still want

to find out if they are raw and if they've been treated in any way.

Like Bee, I too live in Canada. At my bulk food store, I asked where the 'raw'

almonds were from and when I was told they were from California, I refused them

(because I knew they had automatically been pasteurized). However, in some of

our health food stores here in Canada, they have truly raw almonds that have

been imported from Europe (I asked the stores to check the labels on the bags to

verify the country of origin and that they were raw). The law in the U.S does

not require that imported almonds be pasteurized, so there's a chance you may be

able to find imported almonds in some health food stores in the U.S. as well

(though they would be much more expensive than domestic ones from California).

There are a number of places online that offer raw almonds. And we've talked

about them in this group a few times:

In this post, Janice suggested two online sources and suggested another

one as well:

/message/68159

Donna also gave us another source in this post:

/message/68161

Lis

[Guest guest]

Lis and Bee,

Thanks so much for this info. Lis! I have a LARGE bag of almonds from

http://www.california-almonds.com/tell-me-about-pasteurization/info_11.html

and they say the do a special treatment. Read below. I copied it

from their web site. What do you think? Does this pass the muster?

Thanks!!

Kathy

" Recently there has been much confusion in the popular press regarding

the requirement of " pasteurization " of Almonds. We are asked over and

over if our Almonds are " pasteurized " .

Important News About Our Shippable 2008 Almond Crop !

D & S Ranches, an Orchard Grower in the San Joaquin Valley of

California, has an Important Announcement to make regarding

Pasteurization of our Naturally Grown California Almonds! After the

Almond Board Rule went into effect we began to extensively research

the Best, most Non-Intrusive methods available to reduce bacteria on

the skin of the nut without affecting the nut meat itself.

The Good News:

The Good news is that we have found a process that does just that !

This method was developed for the Spices Food Group where any

alteration or destruction of the interior of the nut or spice kernel

would destroy the delicate value of the item. As it turns out we were

able to get this technology approved for application on our Selma

California Grown Nut Crop!

How It Works:

The process is very expensive and requires the latest in

production technology. It is centered on Water Based Botanical

Principles. We call this process H20-UN-Pasteurization. The almonds

are held in a chamber that draws down the air to a vacuum, so all the

air born bacteria and pathogens are removed from the chamber, then a

computer controlled mist of sterile distilled water dry stream is

injected in to the chamber. This steam is computer controlled and

balanced against the known weight of each nut. As the small amount of

Steam condenses on the skin of the nut it transfers only minimal heat

energy just to the surface it contacts! The nut meat is never heated

internally!

After the dry steam injection, a 4 to 6 second process, the

chamber is then evacuated again causing the condensed purified water

to evaporate from the skin of the nut. Next the chamber is brought

back to normal conditions with HEPA Filtered Air.

This process preserves the internal natural balance of enzymes,

amino acids, proteins, and most importantly it preserves the natural

living nature of the nut! You can sprout these Almonds !

We are sure you will be very satisfied with this process, and

as far as we know we are the only Ranch Direct Almond Grower in the

San Joaquian Valley of California that is using this expensive, and

time consuming process, so that we may bring you the very finest in US

Graded Fancy #1 California Almonds !

Please beware of other processes:

We are concerned that there are a good number of other processes out

there that are very inferior and some are outright dangerous! The most

common is simple autoclave sterilization and this is, essentially,

just cooking the nut. After an autoclave process, the nut is no longer

living, it is dead, and all the valuable nutrients of the nut have

been cooked and destroyed. Unfortunately the Almond Board, under

pressure from the Big Almonds Handlers, Processors and Growers are

calling and labeling these nuts as RAW ! They ARE NOT RAW! They are

COOKED !

Other processes are using PPO (Propylene Oxide Gas). You should never,

every under any circumstances eat nuts exposed to PPO Gas. PPO is a

known carcinogen (causes cancer). It is toxic and poisonous!.. The

European Union (EU) has prohibited the use of PPO Gas on any Human

Food Product. The USDA and the FDA still allow it. Inquire with your

store if their nuts have been exposed to PPO ! Make sure you know!

This is serious business. "

Kathy

[Guest guest]

>

> Lis and Bee,

>

> Thanks so much for this info. Lis! I have a LARGE bag of almonds from

http://www.california-almonds.com/tell-me-about-pasteurization/info_11.html

> and they say the do a special treatment. Read below. I copied it

> from their web site. What do you think? Does this pass the muster?

> Thanks!!

+++Hi Kathy. Thanks so much for the reference. It's good to know some

companies are finding methods of sterilizing almonds without irradiated them.

Bee

P.S. Kathy, in future would you please post snippets from an article and only

the website link; large articles take up a lot of archival space on our group.

Thanks so much.

[Guest guest]

>

> I have a LARGE bag of almonds from <snip>

> and they say the do a special treatment. What do you think?

When in doubt, sprout !

I hope their new process is reliable. I'm always curious when somebody comes up

with a new process - I wonder why the other almond companies don't do that too?

It would be great if you could try to sprout a few - seeing as you have them

anyway. There are sprouting instructions all over the internet. And then maybe

you can get back to us and let us know if they are indeed a reliable source of

raw almonds.

Thanks,

Lis