I watched the Bonnie Hunt show this morning and one of her guest stated that she soaks her raw almonds in water over night. Evidently, soaking the raw almonds overnight or 12 hours starts the spouting and will predigest itself, therefore it takes less body energy to digest the nut.
The nutrient value of soaked almond increases more than 200%. During the spouting/predigest stage, simple sugars are created from carbohydrates, amino acids created from proteins and fatty acids from fats.
How to prepare soaked raw almonds:
Simply fill half of a large mason jar with raw almonds and fill with water. Add a pinch of salt.
Seal and store in frig for 12 hours.
Remove almonds from jar and rinse, lay out on counter top and cover with a light dish towel.
Let rest for another 12 hours, rinse and eat.
Makes sense to me and it sounds good, so I’m going to give it try.
But what about pasteurized almonds? I love the flavor almonds have when they start to sprout so I just soaked some almonds and they didn’t taste the way they should. I did some research and learned that the almonds grown in the US are all pasteurized. I’m very disappointed to learn this and I’m wondering if they aren’t as healthy now.
I used organic raw almonds from Trader Joe’s and I enjoyed the texture and the flavor. I did not know about pasteurized almonds- I found this response from a person at Trader Joe’s Customer Relations.. http://curezone.com/forums/am.asp?i=940910