Almonds contain vitamins, minerals, protein and fiber, so they can offer a range of health benefits. Only a handful of almonds (about 1 ounce) contains one-eighth of a person's daily protein needs. People can eat raw or roasted almonds as a snack, or add them to sweet or savory dishes. Apparently there is a good reason to pasteurize almonds, rather than sending them raw.
Like raw milk, raw almonds can harbor foodborne diseases that make people sick. In fact, there were a series of salmonella outbreaks in the early 2000s, related to California almonds (which provides more than 80 percent of the world's almonds) that sickened hundreds of people in the United States and Canada. Wait a moment and try again. Yes, it's completely safe to eat raw sweet almonds.
You can eat them raw, toasted, or after soaking them in water. There is another variety of almonds called bitter almonds. This type of almond is not safe to eat raw. Bitter almonds are generally used to extract oil from almonds instead of eating them.
Almonds must be pasteurized before being sold; either that, or they must be chemically treated to ensure they are safe for consumption. Almost all almond growers prefer thermal pasteurization rather than chemical treatment. Whatever you call them, almonds come in many varieties and can be enjoyed in a variety of ways. They can be eaten whole as a quick snack or chopped and mixed into sweet and savory dishes.
They can be eaten raw or roasted, skinned or scalded, ground into flour or turned into delicious nut butter. But are these versatile nuts good for you? This is what happens to your body when you eat almonds every day. And over the past decade, pasteurizing almonds has become a common practice, but most consumers still don't know that the almond they eat has been pasteurized or how it occurs. According to Healthline, roasting (whether dry or in oil) is usually done to improve the flavor, aroma and crunchy texture of almonds.
This type grows in both wild and commercial environments and is mainly used to make bitter almond pastes or extracts. This search to find raw and unpasteurized almonds is why Gatti's company, currently based at Brooklyn Foodworks in Bushwick, Brooklyn, makes its almond butter with nuts from Marcona, Spain. But those raw almonds you're soaking in Gwyneth Paltrow-style water probably aren't as raw as you think they are. Raw almonds also seem to lower a person's risk of developing gallstones and could help people maintain a healthy weight.
To get these mood-boosting benefits, Carli recommends combining a banana with an ounce of almonds or a tablespoon of almond butter. But for most of us, a line that divides the raw from the cooked is quite easy to understand and clear to define. If you've ever spent any time reading about food on the Internet, chances are you've found at least a couple of articles that extol the health benefits of raw almonds. Therefore, make sure to add at least five to six almonds soaked in summer to avoid any tummy complications.
Almonds are the only nut or seed that needs to be pasteurized, and all of this can be traced back to a couple of incidents in the early 2000s, involving outbreaks of salmonella triggered by the mishandling of truly “raw” almonds. Almonds are a great source of both minerals: a one-ounce serving contains 14 percent of your daily copper needs and 32 percent of your manganese requirement. For raw foodies, it can be a little more technical than that, depending on your definition of what is “cooked”. Boiling, roasting, or heating bitter almonds in the microwave can help reduce their toxin content and make them safer to eat.
Importantly, almonds also seem to prevent LDL cholesterol from oxidizing, a critical step in the heart disease process. .
