Nuts are a magnificent, generous and wonderful gift of Nature - delicious little morsels that taste great and also pack heaps of nutrition and energy in them. But, the way we prepare them does have an impact on their flavour, digestibility and even their nutrient availability.
Here's the rundown on the effect of the different preparation methods out there...
Raw nuts:
Raw, minimally processed and generally without any additional ingredients. You would have thought these would be the best for you for those reasons.
Where raw nuts hold us up is that they still contain the ingenious protection mechanisms put there by the parent tree to maximise their babies' chance of growing up to be a big nut tree.
And unfortunately for us, those protective mechanisms (namely, enzyme inhibitors and phytic acids) interfere with our digestive system. This makes raw nuts and seeds harder to digest (because of the enzyme inhibitors) and also reduces the nutrients available to our systems to absorb (thanks to the phytic acid).
Roasted nuts:
Roasted nuts have that yummy crunch and strong flavour that makes a lot of us keep going back for more. In terms of nutrition, however, roasted nuts have been compromised.
The high heat needed to roast nuts and generate that satisfying crunch also breaks down and damages the fats and proteins in the nuts. This has a significant impact on the bioavailability of nutrients in the roasted nuts.
Activated nuts:
It may well be argued that I have a built in bias here - and I won't deny it! Our business is based on activated nuts, and we have complete faith in the quality and benefit of our products.
When nuts and seeds are activated, it mimics the start of the germination process. This means that the protective compounds - the phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors - mentioned above are broken down into simpler compounds.
Our bodies can then easily digest them, and also get the maximum nutrition from them.
In order to give the nuts that classic crunch, and enable them to store well, we then dehydrate them at low temperatures (to avoid the damaging effect of heat, as in the roasted nuts)
So all in all, you get the most in every sense from activated nuts. Raw ones have digestive inhibitors; roasted nuts are damaged by heat, but activated nuts have the best of all worlds!