All of us Weston A. Price-ish people have been dutifully soaking and dehydrating our almonds in an effort to reduce the nutrient inhibitors and phytic acid that mess with nutrient absorption and irritate our guts. While all of that is great, a recent chance meeting with a paleo-oriented MD has expanded my food world yet again.
In addition to doing all of the Weston Price things that we do, some of us are also playing around with Paleo/Primal eating approach. Here are a couple of sites to check out if you aren’t familiar with this approach (thanks to the MD):
Mark's Daily Apple (ok, Melissa actually turned me on to that one awhile ago)
Archevore
Gnolls
The Healthy Skeptic
The doc informed me that the Omega 6:Omega 3 ratio is way out of balance in almonds and that contributes to an out of balance body if you are striving for a healthy Omega 6: Omega 3 ratio. Ideally, we want the ratio in our bodies to be 2:1 or less. In many Americans it is 30:1 or worse.
So what is the 6:3 ratio for almonds? According to one website, it is 1987:1. But here is the caveat – the amount of actual Omega 6 is relatively small and not a big worry if you don’t eat tons of them (see Mark's Daily Apple). In addition, almonds and other nuts have other benefits. For my doc friend, who is striving for 2:1 or less, almonds prevent him from achieving his goal, but macadamia nuts don’t because of their low ratio.
What am I going to do? Because we are fairly regular nut eaters, especially in the summer because I use nuts for my pie crusts, I am going to finish off my almonds and try out some macadamia nuts. The price change won’t be much of a factor, as organic, truly raw almonds are running at about $9 a pound and organic raw macadamias are at $8.50 a pound at Living Nutz. Macadamia’s are even cheaper at Whole Foods.
Thanks for this info!
Posted by: Ann Duncan | August 13, 2011 at 04:37 PM