Sprouting, nuts?

The stuff of creamy hippy dreams

Freshly ground almond butter from my local Wholefoods is $6.99/lb. I enjoy purchasing it -- you take an empty plastic container, hold it under the grinder spout and switch the machine on, and the almonds in the glass hopper slowly lower and a slow stream of warm, chunky almond butter is extruded. Recently, though, another machine with other almonds appeared next to it -- this contained "sprouted" almonds and it's sprouted almond butter goes for $18.99/pound. Whoah. What's this then?

AIGH! The stuff of crunchy hippy nightmares.

The process of sprouting almonds is quite simple -- soak whole, raw unpeeled almonds in water for 12 hours, then drain and store up to 4-5 days under refridgeration. That explains the expense -- unlike normal almonds, which can sit on the shelf for months without going rancid, the freshness window of a few days would make the logistics of putting them up for sale a lot more exacting.

But to the point, why even bother?

Raw almonds have tannic acid and an enzyme inhibitor in their brown skin that protects the nut until the proper levels of sunlight and moisture allow it to germinate. Since the nut does not release its enzymes until those conditions have been reached, eating almonds without removing the inhibitor limits the nutrients your body can absorb and makes the almond difficult to digest. By soaking almonds, you provide the moisture that makes the almond shed its skin and release its enzymes. The process works with most nuts and seeds.

You can think of a nut as something like an egg. In an egg, the shell keeps the contents stable, and the contents make up both the future chicken and the food the chicken will eat while in the egg (the nutritious yoke.) By soaking the nut, you are getting rid of some of chemical equivalent of it's "shell" -- it stops being shelf stable, but becomes easier to digest. It's not that there is more nutrition there all of a sudden, it's just that it becomes easier to digest.

Sometimes an egg doesn't get to be a chicken. Don't tell this little dude.

Trawling through the wiki page, the science seems to support the idea that there is some benefit to sprouting nuts and seeds before consumption. It also warns of bacterial poisoning -- any food left in water at room temperature over time is in danger of accumulating colonies of harmful bacteria like salmonella.  In fact, you can not actually buy truly raw almonds in the United State: due to a few salmonella outbreaks in almonds produced in California (where the vast majority of almonds come from), all "raw" almonds have been steam or chemically pasteurized to prevent bacterial contamination.

The FDA believes that since the "essential characteristics" of almonds are unchanged by pasteurization (whether by steam or PPO), it is acceptable to label pasteurized almonds as raw. The raw-food community disagrees, maintaining that exposing any food to a temperature above 118°F automatically disqualifies the food as raw. While Natural Grocers respects the opinion of both camps, we base our definition of raw on another criterion—whether the nut can be sprouted. In our opinion, sprouting is a sign of vitality and life. And since steam-pasteurized almonds can be sprouted, we consider it appropriate to label them as raw. So, while our raw bulk almonds have been steam-pasteurized, they will continue to be labeled "raw."

A 1 pound bag of whole steam-pasteurized almonds at Wholefoods is $6.99. My juicer has a nut-butter attachment. I don't eat a pound of nut butter in a week, but being that I have the equipment, I think I'll try sprouting 1/4 pound of nuts and using it it my main two applications -- in an AB&J sandwich, and straight up with chocolate syrup and a spoon. At $12 less a pound, watch for part 2 of this entry doing a taste test…

I think we know where ODB would have stood on this issue.

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WEEKLY AVERAGE: 2499
A difficult week, but I made it through.

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MONDAY COUNT: 2,665

SLEPT: 10pm - 6am, 8hrs

AM SNACK: 6:15 am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: noon, steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

PM SNACK: 4:15pm, grazebox nuts and crakers, kind bar, 540 cal
Supermarkets out of baby carrots, yesterday and this morning. Very odd.

DINNER: 6pm, falafel, tomato soup, health salad, poppa salad with dressing, 815 cal

EVENING SNACK: 7:45pm, popcorn, +/- 500 cal

EVENING SNACK: 8:15pm, kind bar, 200 cal

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TUESDAY COUNT: 2110

SLEPT: 10pm - 6:30am, 8.5 hrs

AM SNACK: 7:15 am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 11:30am, fage yogurt with honey, vanilla, almonds, 450 cal

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, momma salad, grazebox almonds, 310cal

DINNER: 6pm, hake, asparagus, poppa salad, with dressing, 550 cal

EVENING SNACKS: 7:30pm, kind bar, 2 kid's granola bars, 1.5 cookies, 640 cal
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WEDNESDAY COUNT: 2,570

SLEPT: 9:30pm - 6:30am,  9 hrs

AM SNACK: 7 am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

AM SNACK: 11:45am, momma salad, grazbox crackers, 200 cal

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, kind bar, 200 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 1:45pm, steel cut oatmeal, 450 cal

LINNER: 5pm, sauteed chicken breast, poppa salad with dressing, 560 cal

DINNER: 8pm, curry ramen, gyoza, edamame, cheesecake, water, +/- 1000 cal 
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THURSDAY COUNT: 2670

SLEPT: 1am - 6am,  5 hrs

AM SNACK: 6:15 am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 7am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 160 cal

BREAKFAST 2: 10:15am, Fage yogurt with almonds, honey, vanilla, 450 cal

LUNCH: 2pm, sautéed shrimp, poppa salad with dressing, 450 cal

PM SNACK: 4pm, momma salad, cheezits, 310 cal

DINNER: 6:30pm, mushroom barley soup, herring, mini knish, sable on pumpernickel, babka, ice cream, slightly sweet cherry soda, +/- 800 cal

EVENING SNACK: kind bar, peanut butter and chocolate syrup, +/- 500 cal
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BIKE CREDIT: 715 cal
FRIDAY COUNT: 2480

SLEPT: 11pm - 5:30am,  6.5 hrs

AM SNACK: 6 am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9am, apple/beet/celery/carrot/cayenne/cucumber/ginger juice, 150 mg caffeine 160 cal

BIKE SNACK: 11am, granola bar, 225 cal

LUNCH: 1pm, fruit smoothie, chicken sausage with mushroom masalla and steamed string beans, kombucha, +/- 800 cal

DINNER: 4:30pm, hot dog, fries, cesar salad, cronut, half a cookie, +/- 1000 cal

EVENING SNACK: 7pm, cheezits, 2 packs of ramen, 1010 cal