Cashews are one of the staples in my raw food diet - I'm 100% Raw when I travel, which is one week a month, 80 Raw/20 cooked when I'm home (to try to gain back the weight I lose by eating all raw when I travel)

So I'm one of the skinny raw foodists, so I have to eat a lot of nutrient-rich/calorie-rich raw foods - like fresh figs, dates, mangos, etc.

So I make cashew pudding for a meal of the pudding with fresh berries in it. But I've read, and my daughter told me, that cashews have some toxic or poisonous substance under the shell and in the countries where people work shelling them, it makes their hands sore, or whatever.

So that means cashews are 'bad' for us to eat, right?

From all the discussions over the years about '' raw '' cashews, you'll find they aren't raw - they've been heat treated to remove the problem and are therefore safe to eat.

I'm sure most of the people in the health food community have eaten heaps of '' raw '' cashews over the years and were all still alive.

Nobody eats a diet of 100% cashews, so eating a bit is irrelevant.

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BJ
From all the discussions over the years about '' raw '' cashews, you'll find they aren't raw - they've been heat treated to remove the problem and are therefore safe to eat.

I'm sure most of the people in the health food community have eaten heaps of '' raw '' cashews over the years and were all still alive.

Mine are supposed to be hand-shelled and 'really raw' - Sunfood.Thanks for the opinion.

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Horsea

Nobody eats a diet of 100% cashews, so eating a bit is irrelevant.

Ok, that's good enough for me. I won't worry about it anymore. I don't have them everyday anyway.

You're always so commonsensical

Thanks, Jennifer. Anyway, cashews are so nice and juicy and oily after some soaking, and so convertible into all kinds of neat dishes.

There was somebody who developed a mechanical device for opening cashew shells, this removes the need for heat treatment to neutralize the toxin on the shell surface. They were kind of pricey, but the quality, texture and taste was so much better than anything I'd had before. They even did a version of cashews which left the "paper" like cover on the cashews.

Sorry, I couldn't find a link to a place selling them (but I'll keep an eye out).

But I come across this article:
[www.foodunfolded.com]

It says:
"The most difficult step in how cashew nuts are processed is extracting the kidney-bean-shaped nut from its shell, which is labour intensive and requires a skilled workforce - 90% of whom are women and paid negligible wages. When cracked open, the shell oozes a highly corrosive oil referred to as CNSL or ‘cashew nut shell liquid’. This oil, when in contact with skin, causes burns and sores which often present health risks for workers."

Thanks, that's interesting! I hope that oil doesn't get into the cashews themselves.

So the cashews don't want us to eat them, so they have the poisonous coating. That means cashews aren't a proper food for humans.

But I'm going to be eating them anyway for now at least.

I notice that if I am eating plain cashews, after eating about a handful my mouth starts to feel something that hurts my mouth from the cashews. I don't notice this if I am eating a recipe that uses cashews.

Here's my favorite Cashew Recipe...

Cashew Fudge

16 ounces of Raw Cashew Butter
1/4 Cup of Raw Coconut Oil
1/4 Cup of Raw Agave Nectar
2 oz. of Raw Cacao

Mix ingredients and freeze for 2 hours. Serve directly upon removing from freezer. Grind Cacao Nibs in a coffee grinder and leave some (~1/4) unground for a chocolate chip effect.

Note: I've recently switched over to Raw Almond Butter with Vanilla added so it's sweet like the Cashew Butter and I've also switched over to Raw Cacao Powder, which I had originally avoided thinking that it would be better if the Cacao was freshly ground, but I've found that the Raw Cacao Powder has so much more flavor that I only need to use 1 oz. instead of 2 oz.

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Prana
I notice that if I am eating plain cashews, after eating about a handful my mouth starts to feel something that hurts my mouth from the cashews. I don't notice this if I am eating a recipe that uses cashews.

Oh...

I only ever have them in pudding. I think I'll try that sometime and see if it happens to me. If so, that would change my mind about them being ok.

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John Rose
Here's my favorite Cashew Recipe...

Cashew Fudge

16 ounces of Raw Cashew Butter
1/4 Cup of Raw Coconut Oil
1/4 Cup of Raw Agave Nectar
2 oz. of Raw Cacao

Mix ingredients and freeze for 2 hours. Serve directly upon removing from freezer. Grind Cacao Nibs in a coffee grinder and leave some (~1/4) unground for a chocolate chip effect.

I would change out the agave for coconut nectar because I think I read way back that agave is high glycemic. I don't eat any sweeteners raw or otherwise except dates. I make a date syrup to use in recipes or whatever by soaking dates in water and then blending it. And I got some raw date sugar, but I haven't used it yet.

[www.amazon.com]

Some agave is made with HFCS and, obviously, it has a high Glycemic Index, as well as a high Insulin Score. I've coached diabetics who used the Master Cleanser with agave and got OFF their medications within a few days.

>Cashews are one of the staples in my raw food diet

Cashews?

Really?

I must be on the wrong forum

I thought it was all about conspiracies !!!

I eat cashews while I peruse Today's Conspiracy Theories which will be Tomorrow's Reality.

"Alex Jones was right!"

Well, this is tempting:
[www.fast-growing-trees.com]