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I'm big lover of all kind of nuts. Everybody on Cinema eats pop corn, me - nuts (normally mix). I was convinced that nuts no matter in what way cooked - raw, toasted, roasted or in any other way heated (except salted) are healthy!
More or less a year ago, I found out that I was so so wrong!
Nuts of various kinds contain beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E, vitamin B-6, trace minerals, fiber and protein. Eaten in moderate amounts, nuts may help protect against heart disease. But the healthy oils contained in nuts can go rancid over time, with both short-term and long-term health consequences.
Nuts contain unsaturated fats that oxidize when exposed to heat, light and air, breaking the double bonds in the fat molecules. The short-chain fatty acids left behind are what make nuts rancid. The types of nuts with more of these fats, such as walnuts, pine nuts and pecans, are at a greater risk for rancidity. You can tell a nut is rancid if it has a grassy or paint-like odor, or if it has a yellow, dark or oily appearance. However, the best way to tell is if the nut tastes "off."
when rancid or heated, nuts are all actually toxic for us…
When polyunsaturated fats are exposed to heat, as is the case with roasting, they're more likely to become damaged or oxidized. This can lead to the formation of harmful free radicals, which can damage your cells. Oxidized fat, or rancid fat, is responsible for the “off” taste and smell in some nuts. If you eat rancid nuts, chances are you won't suffer any side effects, other than the unpleasant taste in your mouth. But in some cases, rancid nuts can cause irritation to the lining of your stomach and intestines, and you may experience nausea, vomiting or diarrhea.
The long-term effects are more troubling because the rancid oils in nuts develop potentially toxic compounds that promote inflammation and are carcinogenic.
Roasted, chopped and ground nuts go rancid much more quickly than whole raw ones, both shelled and unshelled. Buy small amounts of nuts instead of large economy-size bags to reduce the risk of having nuts around long enough to go bad. Store nuts in an air-tight glass or plastic container in a cool, dry spot around 2-3 degrees C, away from light. A refrigerator is an ideal location. Shelled nuts will keep for six months in the refrigerator and up to a year in the freezer. Unshelled nuts may keep up to two years.
NUTS TO AVOID?
CASHEWS
Low in sugar and rich in fiber, cashews has plenty of heart-healthy fats, and plant protein. They’re also a good source of copper, magnesium, and manganese — nutrients important for energy production, brain health, immunity, and bone health. The CON here is, that cashews come at a price, and it's paid by the people who harvest them.
The majority of cashews come from India and Vietnam, and picking them isn't an easy process. Cashew apples have several tough layers that need to be discarded, and those layers are toxic. Workers earn a pittance for shucking cashews, and many of them have suffered permanent damage from the toxic liquid that the shells release. Cashews are often the product of forced labor camps staffed by people addicted to drugs, and they coined the term "blood cashews." :/
HORSE CHESTNUTS
Chestnuts are one of the nuts you need to eat more of, but you should never, ever eat horse chestnuts. They look similar — both are the same color brown, and both have a lighter brown spot — but horse chestnuts are completely smooth. The good kind of chestnuts have a little point, and the difference is crucial.
In spite of how similar they look, horse chestnuts and chestnuts aren't actually related. Every part of the horse chestnut has a toxin that causes vomiting and, in large enough doses, paralysis. While you might hear that you can leach the toxins out of the horse chestnut, you shouldn't — and if you're in doubt, don't eat them. If you find some nuts on the ground, it's likely to be a horse chestnut, as they're toxic to animals, too.
PINE NUTS
There's a weird and completely unexplained thing that can happen when you eat them. It's called pine mouth or pine nut syndrome, and it's a temporary thing that usually develops somewhere between 12 and 48 hours after eating the nuts. For a time, everything else will taste bitter, metallic, or rancid, and some people have had the taste last for months.
For most, it subsides after a few days to a couple weeks. The FDA has issued an alert, but there's been no confirmation as to what causes it and how to prevent it. It happens in people who don't have an allergy or sensitivity to nuts, eating something sugary makes the bitterness even worse, it's not connected to mold or bacteria, and it's happened with pine nuts from all different sources. It's completely unpredictable, so that means if you have a special dinner coming up, you might want to be extra careful about skipping the pine nuts.
PEANUTS
You may say, OMG! I love peanut butter!!! Don´t worry, not everything here´s so sad:
Peanuts are associated with something called aflatoxins — they're not the only food that can be contaminated, and corn is also particularly vulnerable. Aflatoxins are a fungi, and entire crops can be contaminated at any time, from the field to storage after processing. Since they've been linked to an increase in the risk of liver cancer, it's vitally important to make sure you don't eat any peanuts that look moldy or discolored. Purchasing peanuts only from large-scale, well-known commercial companies will reduce the risk, but you still should use a lot of caution if you can't give them up. Summary: choose not-heated/processed peanuts in transparent packagings. Choose organic brands you know are trustable.
Source:
Milalika
