Is It Primal? – Cashews, Fermented Soy, Vinegar and Other Foods Scrutinized
Last week, I scrutinized the “Primality” of ten commonly wondered-about foods. It garnered a lot of follow-up comments and emails, so I figured I’d do another round. This time I only covered eight, but I hope you’ll forgive me. If you’ve ever wanted to know about cashews, wheatgrass, fermented soy, vinegar, almond milk, hummus, royal jelly, or green coffee bean extract (and let’s face it, who hasn’t?), this is the perfect post for you.
Let’s dig in, shall we?
Cashews
In all my years doing this stuff, I’ve never really properly addressed the suitability of cashews. Today that ends. Cashews are the seeds of the cashew apple, a delicacy of Brazil, and the interior of their shells are lined with a poisonous resin called cashew balm. Cashew balm is used in insecticides, so don’t go shelling your own cashews. So what’s the deal? Are they good to go, as long as you avoid the balm?
The cashew is high in monounsaturated fat (7.6 g per ounce) and, while it contains a decent amount of omega-6s (2.2 g per ounce), it’s lower in polyunsaturated fats than Primal favorites like almonds (3.5 g per ounce).
The cashew is, however, one of the richest sources of phytic acid in the nut and seed world, containing more phytate than almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, and chestnuts. For that reason, I consider it helpful (and perhaps paramount) to soak your raw cashews before consuming them – especially if you’re trying to get over tooth decay or combat osteoporosis.
The big problem I see with cashews is the tendency of folks to gorge on the little guys. It’s just something about a roasted, salted, buttery cashew that promotes overeating. Be wary of that.
Verdict: Primal. Whatever you do, just don’t put the balm on!
Wheatgrass
This is a perplexing one. On the one hand, it’s wheat. We hate wheat. Wheat is anything but Primal. On the other hand, it’s grass, and aren’t we Primals always going on and on about the benefits of grass-feeding? So what’s the deal?
Wheat starts out as a “grass,” technically, and wheatgrass juice is derived from cotyledons of the common wheat plant. The cotyledon of a grass is the part of the seed that becomes the first leaves to sprout upon germination. After a chemist found that feeding his ailing chickens fresh wheatgrass improved their health and increased their egg output, the wheatgrass craze was ignited.
I’m not sure I follow. I’m all for fresh wheatgrass for chickens – heck, I’d even juice it for them if it meant more eggs – but I fail to see the relevance to human diets. Is there nutrition in wheatgrass? Sure. Is it accessible to humans if we pulverize the cellulose and extract the juices? Probably. But just check out the Wiki article, which has a table comparing the nutritional content of wheatgrass juice to spinach and broccoli. Spinach is clearly superior, almost across the board, with more magnesium, calcium, iron, potassium, and beta-carotene. Plus, it tastes better (read: not like lawn clippings) and is a lot less expensive.
Is it gluten-free? Well, maybe. Since gluten is mostly found in the endosperm of a wheat grain, and wheatgrass is just the grass, not the seed (let alone the endosperm), it’s probably gluten-free. I wouldn’t recommend it to celiacs, but I doubt it’s a big issue here.
Verdict: Could be Primal, but why? It’s probably great as ruminant feed.
Fermented Soy
I’ve said my piece on soy before: it’s potentially phytoestrogenic, mildly carcinogenic, mineral-binding, and goitrogenic. Its oil is in everything nowadays, and most of our animals are a third soybean meal. Bad stuff all around. But that was about soy-based products and processed soy; what about fermented soy? What about miso, natto, and tempeh? We’re big fans of fermented foods in general around here, so it stands to reason that fermented soy might enjoy a slightly different reception. Let’s see.
Fermentation makes the much-ballyhooed soy isoflavones biovailable to humans. Without fermentation, we can’t really make use of them.
Traditionally-fermented tempeh has reduced levels of phytic acid.
Fermented soy sauce displays increased levels of antioxidant compounds (and it seems to be totally free of soy and wheat allergens).
And though you may not be aware of this fact, natto – the widely reviled sticky pungent fermented soybean – is the richest source of vitamin K2 (MK-7, as opposed to the MK-4 found in animal foods) in the food world. It’s also much lower in phytic acid than unprocessed soybeans.
So, while soy is definitely not Primal, fermentation brings it a lot closer to the fold. Perhaps a longer post is worth writing. What do you think?
Verdict: Not Primal, but pretty good (and far better than unfermented soy).
Vinegar
Is vinegar Primal? Well, I have a post on “how to make red wine vinegar,” so it can’t be that bad, but let’s dig into it all the same. After all, you guys like details.
The primary component of vinegar is acetic acid, a product of fermentation by acetic acid-making bacteria. Acetic acid is a corrosive agent that can cause permanent damage to eyes, skin, and (I’d imagine) various orifices. It’s even flammable. Wow. Sounds awful, right?
Not so fast. Table vinegar – the kind you put on salads – is mostly water, with around 4-8% acetic acid (which is actually a short-chain fatty acid, a la butyric acid). The dangerous corrosive agent, then, is highly diluted before it reaches your mouth. I wouldn’t recommend guzzling shots of vinegar (except on a dare, perhaps), but it’s not a problem in the context of normal consumption. Besides, there are actual health benefits to using acetic acid dilute, I mean vinegar:
In type 2 diabetics and people with insulin resistance, vinegar improves insulin sensitivity when taken with a high-carb meal.
Both 15 and 30 mL (one or two tablespoons) of daily vinegar reduced body weight, waist circumference, triglycerides, and other symptoms of metabolic syndrome in obese Japanese subjects, absent any other interventions.
Vinegar (albeit vinegar with higher levels of acetic acid) can act as an organic herbicide.
As for distilled versus fermented vinegar (like cider vinegar), there may well be qualitative differences, but that’ll have to wait for a future post.
Verdict: Primal. Acetic bacteria have been around longer than we have.
Almond Milk
I’ve never been very impressed with almond milk. It’s extremely watery and low in calories, which makes me feel like I’m wasting money on it. It doesn’t have much taste, unless you add sugar, in which case you’ve just added a bunch of sugar. It often contains dubious ingredients, like fortified vitamins and carrageenan. It’s very much a processed food.
But is almond milk Primal? Sure, in theory. Grind up some almonds, mix with water, and strain them to produce a “milk” uses nothing but Primal ingredients and practices. There’s nothing overtly “wrong” with that. But there’s also nothing very exciting. I’d guess if you make it from scratch, there’s a good chance your milk contains a decent amount of the nutrients inherent to almonds, like magnesium, vitamin E, various phytochemicals, but there’s also a chance that a lot of it is retained in the solids.
Personally, I’d just eat the almonds.
Verdict: Primal.
Hummus
It certainly isn’t Primal, seeing as how it’s pretty much just a bunch of mashed chickpeas, which are legumes. But good hummus, prepared with soaked, lightly fermented chickpeas, high quality extra-virgin olive oil, preserved lemon, tahini made from sprouted sesame seeds, pungent garlic, sea salt, and pepper? Skip the pita bread and opt for carrot sticks or celery slices (or just a spoon) and there are far worse ways to cheat.
The problem is most hummus isn’t that good. It’s made with industrial oils, which are full of rancid omega-6 fats. It’s made with canned garbanzos, which are likely rich in BPA and full of phytic acid. It’s got stabilizers and preservatives and that, while perhaps not all “that bad,” make for a subpar, processed food. And if you’re going to cheat, I implore you to use the good stuff. If you’re willing to make your own hummus, soak your own garbanzos, preserve your own lemons, etc., then hummus won’t be too bad. It’ll be free of BPA, low in phytic acid, full of healthy, Primal ingredients like olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and tahini, and it will taste pretty darn good. Extra points for fermented hummus.
Verdict: Not Primal, but not all hummus is created equal.
Royal Jelly
I already covered fructose-rich bee vomit in a previous post in which I deemed it a relatively safe(r) sweetener, but what about one of the lesser-known products of the apiary, royal jelly?
Royal jelly is kinda like bee colostrum. When a queen is dead or dying, and the worker bees (don’t get any ideas, guys) need to make a new one, they select a few larvae and feed them royal jelly for the rest of their lives. The jelly (which workers secrete from glands located in their heads) is rich in nutrients and contains a special growth-promoting protein called royalactin (which turns larvae into queens by speeding up growth and ovary development). All larvae receive royal jelly for at least three days, but only the future queens get it indefinitely. Queens also live for as long as five years, while the workers live for perhaps a month. The only difference between a worker and a queen is that the queen gets royal jelly for life. Other than that, they’re genetically identical.
But does royal jelly make sense as a food source for humans? Probably not, as a well-run hive can only make about half a kilo of royal jelly in six months. As a supplement? Maybe.
As in bees, royal jelly can prolong the lives of other insects, like the fruitfly, via royalactin. I wonder if royalactin could do the same for vertebrates, too.
It might be good for brain health. Oral royal jelly has been shown to stimulate the production of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), a promoter of neurogenesis, in rodents. And recently, it improved cognitive abilities in mice dosed with a potent neurotoxin designed to initiate neuron death.
It might help with male infertility. In one study, vaginally applying a peri-coital mixture of royal jelly and honey improved the ability of men with lower sperm motility to impregnate their mates when compared to a control group.
A recent study, however, found that royal jelly had an adverse effect on the reproductive function of male rats. And though it’s pretty rare, royal jelly can be a serious allergen for some people.
Whatever you do, I’d be careful.
Verdict: Primal, but it’s not snake oil and it isn’t innocuous. Make absolutely certain that you’re ready for this jelly (I had to do it).
Green Coffee Bean Extract
As recently seen on Dr. Oz, green coffee bean extract is touted as a powerful weight loss supplement. Though Mehmet casts a dubious shadow on the things he endorses, I thought I’d take a look into this one. I mean, coffee beans are known sources of antioxidants, so it isn’t out of the realm of possibility, but I’m only familiar with the roasted, brown kind of coffee bean. What’s the deal with green coffee beans (and their extract)?
Coffee contains chlorogenic acids, organic compounds that have been shown to benefit glucose tolerance in humans. Green coffee bean extract (GCBE) also contains chlorogenic acids, and a recent study found that GCBE supplementation reduced body fat and resting heart rate in obese human subjects, though researchers weren’t sure whether the caffeine content of GCBE was partly responsible.
Why not just drink coffee, you might be wondering? I’m actually wondering the same thing. As noted above, coffee also contains chlorogenic acids, caffeine, and can improve weight loss. Coffee also tastes phenomenal. I see little evidence that GCBE is doing anything that coffee is not.
Verdict: Primal, but not nearly as delicious as real coffee.
That’s it for today, folks. Keep sending in your queries, and I’ll do my best to get to them. If I ever amass enough, maybe I’ll throw together another “Is it Primal?” post. Take care!
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Posted By: Mark Sisson
Do roasted cashews, which ARE easy to overeat, contain the same amount of phytic acid as raw-unsoaked cashews?
Soaking is what really does the trick. I’d guess that roasted cashews have a little less phytic acid than raw-unsoaked but I’d still soak them. Better chance of you not overeating them if you do this too since its extra work.
There is no such thing as raw cashews being sold…here is a good article about how they are prepared.
http://www.belizeanjourneys.com/features/cashew/newsletter.html
They are heated up to release their toxic oils and are never sold “raw”.
The royal jelly verdict got me thinking — are milkshakes Primal?
“Oral royal jelly” got me thinking too, but in a humorous NSFW mode.
I would believe their benefit of coercing all of the males to sprint to the yard would override the poor nutritional content when served cold. But I wonder what happens when you warm it up…
What do you mean by “milkshakes” exactly? It depends on what you add to it.
Smoothies are Primal all the way…
So… my brother and my sister both died with glioblastomata. I perk up when people mention glial cells. Rolling the dice, would royal jelly, do you think, retard or exacerbate a glioblastoma?
I know you don’t know. I’m just inviting some speculation.
My husband died at 48 of GBM too….! Sorry for your loss…I just try to do the right thing with eating as best I can…hang in there!
Sorry for your loss, Ion. Working in rehab, I’ve seen the results of glios. Don’t really want to weight in on royal jelly, but as Mark has pointed out here, and others have mentioned as well, cancer cells seem to thrive off glucose. Seems the best thing you could do, diet wise (other than eating as Primal as possible,) to avoid the same fate would be to eat low carb (50 grams or less a day on average) and fast intermittently if you aren’t already. Just my two cents.
Good luck and good health!
Cancer cells or tumors are glycogen obligate so yes they do thrive on glucose and in theory cannot survive without it.I have read many books where poeple have reversed their cancer by eating a whole raw food diet, e.g veg and salad.
I’m wondering about tapioca. I thought I read that it’s not very good for you, but lately I’ve seen more “primal” recipes using tapioca flour. My first inclination is that people using it are the ones trying to keep their lives full of baked good rather than really embracing basic primal foods. But then, I’ve always loved warm tapioca as dessert. If I could have tapioca (not out of the box filled with sugar and preservatives), I’d be a happy girl.
I second this one. I’d love to know more about tapioca. My daughter is a big fan of homemade tapioca pudding and being able to have the occasional cheat for it without feeling too bad would be nice.
Yes, me too. I’ve heard it both ways but not been convinced it’s primal. I loved tapioca as a child and would love to have some now and again.
Here in Brazil’s northeast tapioca flour is always sold and stored at home soaked, we call it “goma de tapioca”, and only dry it as we consume. I particularly treat it as I would rice, but wonder if the very long soaking process (sometimes weeks) that was initially used by the natives helps making it primal.
Tapioca flour is a highly refined starch and not paleo friendly!! Its glycemic index is 94 (bad). So I don’t recommend tapioca pudding even if its homemade.
Tapioca is made from tubers of the cassava plant. Basically in the same category as white potatoes. It’s high in carbs, so it shouldn’t be an everyday item, but fine as an occasional indulgence.
As an aside, I make pao de queijo – rolls made with tapioca flour and cheese – for Thanksgiving and similar occasions. They’re a lovely gluten-free alternative to the normal thanksgiving rolls.
So does that mean that bubble tea is OK?
i also love bubble tea.
but Most commercial bubble tea is too sweet. i dont’ know what they use for sweetener or creamer. hopefully not HFCG, hydrogenated creamer!
i have seen tapioca bubbles pre-cookded (wet) sold in package in stores. they may have been added colors & preservative to keep them from mold.
(coking from uncooked (dry) tapioca pearls is rather tedious process.)
if you can make bubble tea @ home, it should be ok.
regards,
I make a bubble tea-like drink with chia seeds. It’s just a teaspoon of chia seeds soaked in tea with a little coconut milk.
Maple syrup?
good grief no, it’s SUGAR
Yeah but its tree sap and all you do is boil off water to make it, so I think that it’s legit question. If honey is ok in treat size amounts then why not maple syrup (the real stuff)
the real problem i think, with honey and maple syrup, is the very high carb/sugar/fructose content. Grok certainly had access to honey, but probably ate it rarely. Native Americans had maple syrup, but i’m guessing they used it sparingly.
I’d bet that when Grok got his hands on some honey he ate it all up before anybody else could see that he found it. Then took a nap.
Real maple syrup is primal. It’s used in Mark’s recipes and (I believe) recommended over honey.
From my understanding… if you aren’t trying to loose weight honey and maple syrup are primal, it just has to fit in to your 100-150 grams / day maintenance. Remember that you need to include as much healthy carb food in to that 125 grams as possible and honey / maple syrup are pretty much empty calories. It primal because Grok had access to it, but that doesn’t mean its nutritious. If Grok had unlimited access to the honey supplies he could have been fat and unhealthy too. Use it judiciously and infrequently.
Around here there are tons of maple syrup farms. I rarely eat maple syrup but I was always curious. Fresh local syrup usually runs about 15-20$ for a small bottle. It’s 100% syrup boiled down from sap about 20km from here (11miles or so? I think?)
Mark, did you read about the ultramarathoner who recently died (on a run) from heart disease (cardiomyopathy)?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2141548/Micah-True-cause-death-Autopsy-shows-heart-disease-killed-famed-ultrarunner.html
It kind of reinforces your position that this kind of running is dangerous to one’s health.
Marathon runners have been studied for acute cardiomyopathy and elevated serum cardiac enzymes after their events. Freaky stuff.
I’m sure it’s occurring in all sorts of athletes, not just marathon runners.
Id like to know more about Worcestershire sauce.
To be more precise the Malt Vinegar that’s in it.
Malt is barley, so a no go. But, I recently found a gluten free brand. Still not great but better?
I’ve been using pureed sardines as a replacement, but it’s not the same. I suspect as much because it’s missing the fermentation, but fermenting meat scares me. I would pay good money to anyone who figured out and sold a good book on homemade Worcestershire sauce.
Thai fish sauce perhaps?
If you’re in the US it’s made with spirit vinegar rather than malt.
Or the full on Roman garum that Worcestershire sauce ultimately derives
from…
http://www.coquinaria.nl/english/recipes/garum.htm
Anchovies would be a better substitute than sardines. Mediterraneans traditionally use anchovies in sauces and dressings to boost the umami, much as Worcestershire sauce is used in British and American cooking. They can be diced fine and practically melt into cooked foods and dissolve in salad dressing. A good combo to approximate Worcestershire would be anchovy, balsamic vinegar, and some seasonings (salt, pepper, garlic, onion). As the commenter above mentioned, probably not a good idea to attempt to ferment your own fish, but letting the mixture sit for a couple of days in the fridge would help the flavors mingle.
What about agave nectar?
No on the agave nectar. It is processed and almost pure fructose (that’s why there isn’t a big effect on blood sugars)
Agave nectar is pure refined fructose, and possibly worse for you than HFCS. The health community really got it wrong on this one. Not primal.
For the coffee one…. coffee is gross.
What is there in coffee that I don’t get from black/green teas?
Awesomeness – that’s what.
And what goes better with a nice, primal cigar than a cup of espresso?
Yeck – I hate coffee, even the smell makes me want to puke.
I agree. Even the smell is bad. What bothers me is people calling it a bean. Coffee is a toxic fruit seed. Fruit seeds evolved to not be digested, but to pass through and still be viable. No way our ancestors were eating coffee seeds. Now the coffee fruit would be primal, but you can’t find it outside of coffee growing locales.
If coffee is a toxic bean, then what about cocoa? Same thing? You’re not going to take chocolate from my life, are you?
If you hate coffee, your drinking the wrong coffee. Not all coffee is created equal.
Be careful with gluten free products. They can elicit an insulin response worse than grains or sugar. They are very high GI.
Nuts (and the legumes cashews & peanuts) can be dangerous due to being easily over consumed – especially when coated in chocolate, but that is just a no-no.
Haha, I love coffee so much I drink it black, iced, usually decaf and without sugar.. Coffee is amazing at any temperature, but hot ones make me pee all day!
I am 44 years old and have never had a cup of coffee in my life, I have tried it occassionally (like 3 times) but think it tastes gross too, my sister doesn’t like it either, two people in one family seems unusual!
Coffee is addictive, have it enough times and you will ‘like’ it. Your mind/body gets used to the chemicals and makes you ‘like’ it. Most people that try plain coffee the first time are are repulsed by it. I’m a coffee drinker but I have to admit I don’t like it that much (I do like the cream added) but it’s very addictive and if it’s around I’ll drink it.
Let’s be honest here, coffee is not good for you in any way really, probably harmful for what it does to your nervous system and body. But people are addicted and justify it. It’s not obviously killing people like cigarettes, and supposedly has antioxidant properties (which have not been proven to actually do anything good for people and may be harmful), so it’s easy to justify (people justify a lot worse).
Do you think our ancestors were gathering poisonous seeds, roasting them carefully, then boiling them (in non existant cookware)? Likely coffee evolved by someone trying to make a tea like substance to avoid hunger when they were starving.
Cashews give me a bellyache. Anybody else experience that?
My nutritionist advised me to bake them. I have a mold allergy, and the raw ones are full of mold. 350 in the oven until toasty brown – mine is convection and takes about 11 minutes in a flat pan, one layer.
Only if I eat WAAAY too many of them…
Nuts are seeds, and just like most other seeds, contain some type of gut-irritating lectins. You shouldn’t have a problem if you eat them in moderation once every three days, but most people overdo it on the nuts.
Yes, love cashews but they don’t love me.
raw almonds give me a bellyache. if i bake them or eat store bought roasted, it’s better.
LOVING the Destiny’s Child reference Mark!
haha me too
Hummus just got a thread recently. My advice and that of several others: make baba ghanouj instead (unless sensitive to nightshades due to the eggplant). Much lower carb, Primal, delicious. Just finished lunch that included braised short ribs and roasted veggies with roasted eggplant baba.
Sorry, grilled veggies and grilled eggplant baba. Get that nice smoky flavor!
Thank you for that suggestion!!! Brilliant!!! I love baba ghanouj and had not thought of it.
I have gone from snacking on cashews all day long to tossing a few on a salad or Asian dish. As for soaking them, naw, I don’t think so.
Good to know about the soy sauce, I’d been using it for stir-fries anyway, figuring that fermentation would take care of any potential issues.
What’s the deal with soy sauce?
Try San-J organic, low-sodium, wheat-free (by definition), naturally brewed Tamari. I think it blows soy sauce out of the water.
Just dip the edges of some thinly sliced daikon rounds into it…
What about miso?
seconded! I love miso soup..ditch the tofu, up the seaweed, and hope it’s primal…
Mark covers miso in the fermented soy section of today’s article.
It is also possible to make “hummus” using zucchini and/or ground nuts in place of the beans. Here’s an example (just one of the first ones that popped up when I Googled): http://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/2012/03/low-carb-hummus-bean-free.html
I think you should really be a lot more excited about almond milk. It is my favorite: coconut milk is often too sugary for my taste, but mainly for the reason that you can make delicious smoothies with it.
Good article, thanks.
Great list. I’ve always wondered what you thought of wheatgrass juice and cashews.
How about soy lecithin. I use Whey Protein Isolate (Bluebonnet). It’s organic and the ingredient list is all “clean” except for the soy lecithin. Is it okay to take?
Thanks so much.
So do you think that STrontium 90 is excluded during the refining process?
Looking at bluebonnet container right now, even though i know the answer—-there isn’t soy lecithin in bluebonnet.
Germaine – They just started adding it. If you go to their website it’s on the ingredient list. I emailed then about the discrepancy and they confirmed that it’s in there.
Sorry, I meant Graham not Germaine.
That’s too bad, they were one of the good ones…lucky for us here in Colorado, we have natural grocers which sells their own completely pure whey concentrate from new Zealand for 8.60 a pound. Nothing added whatsoever. Stopped buying bluebonnet when I discovered it. Anyway, thanks for the heads up! I don’t do anything with the s word, and that stupid lecithin is in everything. Watch out in your dark chocolate…
You’d be better off using other more natural sources of protein such as meat or eggs! Hard boiled eggs are a quick dose of quality protein and omega-3′s!
Soy lecithin is fine unless you are crazy intolerant to all things soy.
One of my GF cookbooks mentions that white vinegar may have traces of gluten in it, so for those that are particularly gluten sensitive, I’d say stick to apple or wine vinegars.
Just a quick note, a shot glass of apple cider vinegar is the quickest, safest treatment for mastitis
Just a note, white vinegar is distilled from corn.
i use white vinegar in a homemade housecleaning solution. i eat salads etc, with Apple cider vinegar. sometimes rice vinegar.
It’s interesting how individual food intolerances are. I can eat a ton of macadamia nuts with no adverse reactions. I can eat quite a few cashews (though avoid placing myself in situations where that’s possible) also without much effect except an increased desire to eat more later that day. But if I eat more than a handful of almonds in a day, I experience bloating and waistline discomfort. For comparative purposes, we can break these foods down to the ratios of macronutrients they contain, but this ignores all of their differences in micronutrients and phytochemicals, some of which may be problematic for some individuals.
Aloha Aaron,
Thank you for posting this! You may be the first person I’ve seen post on here who mentions nuts making them hungrier, bloated, or having “waistline discomfort.” Maybe it’s the nuts that are derailing my progress with PB! I’ve been trying to eat PB for a month and a half now and honestly I feel happier (as in, cut my antidepressant dose in half and still feel better than before PB!) and healthier overall and my skin has cleared for the first time since pre-puberty (I’m 30), but I’ve actually gained fat and my stomach is more bloated than when I started. I’ve been eating quite a few nuts throughout my PB experience… perhaps they have something to do with this! I appreciate that your post made me think to look at this part of my new diet… hopefully I’ll find a way to balance things so that I can stay PB and be happier, healthier, AND thinner / less bloated!
me three. Cut out nuts. It sucks, but I think it has to be done for a lot of people.
Hi Aaron,
Are these blanched almonds? Or ones with the skins still on? The skins, i.e. the bran, is where the phytic acid is. The macadamia nuts are very low in phytic acid.
A friend soaks almonds in the refrigerator and then slides the skins off.
Hi Don,
Not sure if the skins are still on. I buy almonds already shelled and lightly roasted. I have soaked raw almonds a couple of times before roasting them myself, and I think I tolerated them better that way, though I don’t remember removing a skin layer.
“This is a perplexing one. On the one hand, it’s wheat. We hate wheat. Wheat is anything but Primal. On the other hand, it’s grass, and aren’t we Primals always going on and on about the benefits of grass-feeding? So what’s the deal?”
Thanks for the LOL, Mark!
That cracked me up too. I was imagining clipping the lawn with my teeth.
Just one more thing the neighbors would be amused by… they already stare at our goats and chickens.
grass feeding the ruminants, karen, not us! ruminants process the grasses (solar energy in a plant form) for us and make it safe for us to eat as the ruminants animal body meat -
Im wondering about certain lactogenic foods and herbs. I’ve been primal for about 2 years now and I’m currently breastfeeding. But I’m having trouble keeping up with my son’s nursing needs (I didn’t have this problem with my first child). I’ve read that hops, hops flowers, nettle leaf, raspberry leaf, oats, oatstraw, alfalfa and fenugreek can all help boost milk supply. Obviously oats would be out for me, but what about all the others? I’m guessing the herbs would be ok but I’d love some guidance on all the aforementioned lactogenic foods. Thanks!
Not sure if it’s primal, but when I nursed I took torula food yeast (similar to brewers yeast). Not good if you are prone to candida though. If you can tolerate it, you’ll have more milk than he can drink, and it will be packed with B vitamins.
hi, I’m amazed you don’t know of Dr. Chris Kresser but hopefully it’s revelatory for you. Go immediately, do not pass go, http://chriskresser.com/growing-a-healthy-baby-nutrition-for-conception-pregnancy-breastfeeding
I *just* read somewhere (Chris Kessler’s site, maybe?) that there was a study that showed that breastfeeding mothers who ate a high-fat diet created more nutritious breastmilk, but not more volume. So keep eating lots of your healthy primal fats, too! Maybe the volume isn’t necessarily as much of an issue?
Personally, a pint of Guinness every afternoon — wisdom passed down from my mom — worked for me! Hey, it’s fermented.
Oh, I love that image! Feet up, baby welded on and a glass of brew to toast the day just gone, fantastic!
Cheers
I know that when I switched to real animal fats and dropped the vegetable oils my milk supply shot up. It was instant – good cream in, good cream out
Good to hear that even if your supply doesn’t increase, that the nutrition does.
That would be my main suggestion – make sure you’re eating lots of good quality fats – meat fat, grass-fed butter, high-fat cream added to everything; coffee, dessert (fruit and cream), hot cocoa (just cocoa powder, hot water and cream), and any dish that you’d normally add milk to, splash some cream in too (like scrambled eggs etc)
Amanda,
The raspberry leaf, alfalfa, and fenugreek all help with milk supply; I don’t know about the others though and I can’t eat oats or oatstraw. You can take supplements of alfalfa and fenugreek, and drink teas of raspberry leaf (one of my favorites) and fenugreek. So many of us seem to experience supply problems with the second or third child, and I think it has a lot to do with the fact that you are now taking care of 2 or more children, rather than just focusing on one, and that REALLY changes things! Make sure you are getting enough rest, drinking lots of water, and keeping stress low. And who knows, maybe its just a temporary supply issue which I think every nursing mom has experienced. Good luck to you!
I’m a midwife and we always recommend women who are concerned about their supply to take fenugreek supplements. I have also heard that raspberry leaf can be useful. I can’t see how these would not primal. Fenugreek can make your milk smell a bit funny though
I had the same problem. Bit naughty but a dark beer/stout does wonders for milk supply.
Interesting that a good chunk of the weight loss experienced in the GCBE study came during the wash-out periods. One group lost a substantial amount during the wash-out period after placebo, haha. Actual weight loss numbers during high dose and low dose periods are less sexy than the authors state in the conclusion.
Where were you able to get the full article? I have only been able to find the abstract.
Mark, from my understanding the amount of chlorogenic acid is greatly diminished after roasting the beans to use for coffee. Green coffee beans are too bitter to be used for anything else. Studies have shown mixed reviews for cholognenic acid but supposedly the dosage was low. This new study used higher doses of GCE.
Why eat all these processed foods? I thought primal meant food that Grok ate.
Sorry, really late reply here! I just wanted to say that Primal & Paleo are not about ‘what a caveman WOULD HAVE eaten’ but what his body was able to digest. We live in a technological era where we can do things like ferment, soak etc. Just because Grok wouldn’t have been able to make almond milk doesn’t mean it doesn’t fit in with what our digestive systems have evolved to cope with.
What’ s your advice about coconut oil, water , and milk?
Hi Derek,
Mark has covered these topics already
Use the Search function at the top of the page and you should find all you need to know!
Happy reading
I love hummus! Back in my veggie days I always made it myself from soaked chickpeas and it was completely different from the store bought stuff, Mmmm. I feel a “cheat” coming soon (with carrot sticks and cucumber slices of course)
You don’t have to give up your hummus,as I just replace the garbonzo beans with zucchini. When I was doing a raw, vegan diet I would make this version of hummus and no one could tell the difference. It primal and delicious!
Just a caution about using nutritional data to compare foods. The section of your article discussing wheatgrass rightly said that just because it’s good for chickens, doesn’t mean it good for humans. This would hint that the nutrients may not be bioavailable to humans. Then you compare spinach to wheatgrass using nutritional data without regard to the bioavailability of the nutrients in spinach. I used to make this same mistake using nutrition data. I would urge your readers to learn about the anti-nutrients present in many plant foods (phytates, oxalates, goitrogens, etc…)
I’m guessing Chia seed is good for ALA’s but is also missing the other good Omega-3′s… so not a good replacement for wild fish… but I thought I’d throw it out there since I’ve heard it brought up a few times recently. Wondering if it’s beneficial to add a bit into the day, in addition to our vital omega supplements?