Nuts on Instinctotherapy

[norawnofun]

I wasn´t able to find it in his book, so I want to ask what GCB thinks about consuming nuts? Coconut, Hazelnut, Macadamia, Almonds....

[Iguana]

Various nuts, peanuts and almonds are consumed (often in large amounts) by people practicing the instinctive nutrition, GCB himself included. No problem at all, chimps and hunter-gatherers eat a lot of nuts. We can also soak them to refresh them. Chestnuts are delicious after 3-4 weeks storage at ambient temperature.

Coconuts are good and can be eaten at various states of maturation; their sprout is very yummy.

 

[norawnofun]

Thanks. When you say "refresh them" I guess you mean lower the phytates due to the soaking? I didn´t know chestnuts can be eaten raw. I only know of cooked or roasted versions.

[Iguana]

Don't know about phytates in nuts. I mean that soaking refresh them when they get somewhat old and dry. Yeah, chestnuts must be kept a while (weeks and up to several months, depending on the moisture level in the room) before they get edible and tasty.

[norawnofun]

ok. Phytates are part of the anti-nutrients that are inside the nut, people commonly know it as phytic acid https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/vegetarianism-and-plant-foods/living-with-phytic-acid/ . The thing is that some nuts, even though they are called raw, are heat dried. So if you want a truly unprocessed nut you would need to pick it up from the tree yourself.

[Iguana]

Yes, commercial nuts are generally heat dried, specially when shelled. But we can buy directly from the producers and ask them if they have been heat dried or not. Generally, when in-shell they are ok.

In "Instincto" we don't care about nutrients / anti-nutrients, just like all animals don't care too - they could not care anyway since they don't know about it. Everything becomes noxious (anti-nutrient) when eaten in excess. The key element here is the dose. The alimentary instinct tells when the optimal dose is reached and it varies with current and individual body needs.