really raw cashews

[BrianC]

http://www.living-foods.com/articles/rawcashew.html

so many recipes on here call for cashews, but it seems that they aren't exactly raw in most situation. what kind do you all get? are they chosen mainly for texture?

i tried a search but its such a common word i couldn't find exactly this topic.

[Nectarine]

I have a weakness for raw cashews. No, it's an addiction that's what it is. I can go through a 500g packet and still be searching the bottom of the packet for more. I dare not keep them in the house because they are acidifying to the body, and I don't know how or when to stop. I stick with almonds, brazils etc, which I can control my taste for :cool:

[Nectarine]

You can pretty much tell just by looking at cashews whether they are raw or not. Raw cashews are a lighter shade of cream colour than their cooked counterparts.

[Sheryl]

There's a big difference here. Raw cashews in modern countries are not raw. They are heat treated to allow them to mass deshell the nuts. However the REALLY raw cashews are a totally different category and hand shelled. The taste and texture is totally different!!

Really raw cashews are raw.
Sheryl

[Nectarine]

That's just one more reason and incentive for me not to eat them then, which I haven't done for months. Thanks for the heads up! :D

[Evie]

I decided to complete a month raw uising Alissa's guide in her book. I soaked my cashews for the alfredo sauce. They sprouted!!! I bought the cashews from Trader Joes and there was a small amount from the bulk section of Wild Oats. I was shocked to see they had sprouted. I had paid a lot of money a while for "truly raw" cashews from an EAT RAW. They sprouted. But the cashews I got a Trader Joe's were a lot cheaper. So I will stick with them since they sprouted! I was so excited I showed my friends and family. They were like " I didn't think cashews could sprout!" It was fun.

[Ariannah]

I've always been in neutral about the cashew issue. I also bought plain ordinary "bulk barn" cashews and they sprouted teeny tails.

Also, I've never seen a cashew in its shell. However, people have described how much work it is to crack the shell of a cashew. I imagine with how thick it is, the heat probably doesn't do much damage to the centre fruit of the cashew nut, given that it can sprout)

Much like, I hear of some dehydrated dishes being told "dehydrate at 145 degrees for the first 2 hours then turn down to 110 degrees", stating that an internal thermometer indicated that the actual food never actually reached past 110 deg.

I don't eat many cashews a) because I have a tendency to eat far too many in one sitting and b) the difficulty of getting them out of their shell probably indicates that they are not meant to be eaten by cupfuls in recipes. A few should do it.

Once in a while a cashew-based recipe will entice me and be very yummy but in general I try to stick with what is theoretically easily obtainable from nature.

[RowanC]

Heat treating to open the shell doesn't mean they're not raw.

My experience with acorns is that it takes very little heat for a very short time for the shells to burst. As soon as the moisture around the nut expands, the shells POP...

The dehyrated food you eat is heated to 105 to 115 degrees, which is probably enough heat to pop the shells. But a very quick burst of a higher heat would do if more efficiently.

My raw cashews that I buy at People's will sprout and they are heat treated to get the nut out.

I'm gonna keep eating them...

[trinity082482]

Brian, If you go to a bulk food store you can buy 100% raw cashews. They aren't in whole form though, they are split in half. I don't know why. I have 1 cup of them sitting in a zip lock bag. Scared to use them LOL. I'm trying to loose weight :D

[BrianC]

ok thanks everyone, just wanted to confirm i can still eat my favorite nut.

[GoingtoRAW]

:confused: Now I am afraid to eat cashews, which I love! I get my raw cashews from Whole Foods. Has anyone heard anything negative about the raw nuts at Whole Foods? I buy raw pecans there too! Hope they're OK! :confused:

[RowanC]

Lightning won't strike you if you eat something that isn't raw, for goodness sakes.

Fundamentalism anything is not a healthy way to live.

Enjoy eating!
Do your best!

Don't be afraid :D

[GoingtoRAW]

RowanC - you are so right! I am laughing at myself. My real concern is that I love raw nuts so much and I eat them pretty much daily because they fill me up. So it is important that they are raw so I won't gain weight. ;)

[Ariannah]

I am still going to eat cashews sometimes, as they are tasty. To me they don't seem to be "borderline" if they can sprout! That is living food!

If you want to eat less of them, buy less of them! The cost is enough to prevent me from making a regular habit of them.

I keep my raw foods simple because of cost and because I've been reading a lot of Dr. Graham and mostly, because I just feel good eating simply.

My biggest heartbreak is discovering that some of the dates I'd been eating weren't "really raw". But I now know which ones are, and now I can move forward!

[leeleelocs]

how can you tell if a date is not raw?

[Ariannah]

The heat treated ones have a shiny coating, but the raw ones are dull.

I saw this in a thread here recently.

[trinity082482]

Lightning won't strike you if you eat something that isn't raw, for goodness sakes.

Don't be afraid :D


lmao :p

[SmilingRawDancer]

I'm so happy that I found those Trader Joe's Cashews, as well as some dull looking dates from Henry's!
My raw food world is expanding : )
Now, to try and find some organic bulk fruits....Costco has been my main supplier of foods, and SOME things are organic, like my spinach, but most aren't :(

[Raw Jewelrylady]

Lightning won't strike you if you eat something that isn't raw, for goodness sakes.

Fundamentalism anything is not a healthy way to live.

Enjoy eating!
Do your best!

Don't be afraid :D

Rowan-You Crack me up !!! :)

this is so true-You can nit pick everything here till you drive yourself nuts...*pun intended*... :D

Enjoy the Cashews & Raw foods.. :)

Lana

[Nectarine]

Lightening very likely won't strike me if I go buy myself some ribs and a side order of greasy fries drowned in ketchup, with a large coke. Using that logic I might aswell go back to eating pork chops and cow's milk ;) But when I do something, I do it right or I lose interest. I do want to be able to say 'I eat a 100% raw diet' and know that it's true. Therefore if there's a chance that it might not be raw, and there's no easy way to tell the difference, I ain't eating it :cool:

[PeachyMama]

:confused: Now I am afraid to eat cashews, which I love! I get my raw cashews from Whole Foods. Has anyone heard anything negative about the raw nuts at Whole Foods? I buy raw pecans there too! Hope they're OK! :confused:

The raw cashews I bought at my Whole Foods turned purple during soaking.

They weren't raw. :(

[pdx kris]

Lightening very likely won't strike me if I go buy myself some ribs and a side order of greasy fries drowned in ketchup, with a large coke. Using that logic I might aswell go back to eating pork chops and cow's milk ;)


Hardly. The point is that if someone ate a handful of cashews (or dates, or almond butter or any of the other things that are sometimes labeled incorrectly as raw), it's not cause to freak out. Comparing eating ribs, fries, and a gallon of soda to what is being discussed here is not a logical comparison.

RowanC's point is extremely valid, and I, personally, am really appreciate that she made it here.

[Nectarine]

No, I think my point is valid. For those who are shaky on the self-discipline, reasoning that it won't kill ya can be taken all the way back to a cooked SAD diet. Today it's cashews, tomorrow it's bread, the next day something else, and on. You've got to maintain a certain level of discipline and not let yourself slip below that. That's how I see it. But I respect RowanC's opinion as I do everyone else's here, and I was not attacking anyone's point of view, although it might have come across like that for some, just simply proffering an alternative one.

[Nectarine]

Using that logic I might aswell go back to eating pork chops and cow's milk

Perhaps I could have worded this differently, or better still, left it out altogether. It does sound a little aggressive doesn't it :o That was not my intention :cool:

[pdx kris]

I didn't say your point wasn't valid, just that I didn't think your comparison was logical. :) I think that my wording, too, was a bit too agressive, so let me rephrase that I think it is a big jump, but not illogical.

I absolutely agree that it takes a great deal of discipline to stay raw, and I certainly don't think that striving to stay 100% is obsessive. But I do think there is a real danger in obsessing after you find out something you thought was raw isn't, or being disappointed in yourself or thinking that you are no longer a raw foodist because of it. It can very easily lead to "well, I blew it, so I might as well go and get those ribs and fries, and I'll go back to raw Monday." I know that part from experience. :)

I think what's important if you find you've eaten something that is not raw that you thought was is to remember that unknowingly eating something cooked does not mean that your committment to raw is any less, after all you didn't know it wasn't raw in the first place.

[JGex]

RowanC's point is extremely valid, and I, personally, am really appreciate that she made it here.

Yup. I don't think I will ever call myself 100%. I like my freedom too much.

[Nectarine]

I absolutely agree that it takes a great deal of discipline to stay raw, and I certainly don't think that striving to stay 100% is obsessive. But I do think there is a real danger in obsessing after you find out something you thought was raw isn't, or being disappointed in yourself or thinking that you are no longer a raw foodist because of it. It can very easily lead to "well, I blew it, so I might as well go and get those ribs and fries, and I'll go back to raw Monday." I know that part from experience.

I think what's important if you find you've eaten something that is not raw that you thought was is to remember that unknowingly eating something cooked does not mean that your committment to raw is any less, after all you didn't know it wasn't raw in the first place


Wise thoughts indeed, and well said. I agree if the slip is an unwitting one!

[Pierre]

I bought some marañones today (here's why), and each has a merey on the end. Do I have do something special to keep from getting something akin to a poison ivy rash, or do I just crack it like any other nut? (Poison ivy is in the cashew family, and part of the reason the big nut producers heat them is that there's something on the lining of the shell.)