activated nuts

Activated nuts. What's the deal? And are they just another ploy to hike up the price. Because I am telling you, free range organic grass fed activated almonds. They are worth their weight in gold. Gold, I tell you. 

But. Apart from confronting the public with a four syllable past participle adjective, why is an activated nut any more flash than an inactivated, or we may like to use the term pre-activated, nut?

According to the activated nuts advocates, as great as raw nuts are for us nutritionally, they apparently contain certain phytochemicals that prevent is from getting the full benefits of their essential ingredient-ness: vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, fibre and protein. They taunt us with the possibility of feeling goodness course through our veins without actually allowing us the pleasure of it. They give, those little nuts, and yet they also take away. 

Enter activation. Soaking the little nuts for 24 hours in water and a little salt will start the germination process, thus the growth cycle of the nut, and in so doing, denatures the phytochemical party poopers. 

Nuts for Life...yes, this is an actual organisation which represents the Australian tree nut industry and very carefully thought about their name...are fairly sceptical of all the hype. They say there's little or no research which proves that activation improves digestibility or nutrition in a nut. 

Activating a nut is like sprouting a grain. It converts some of the starch into a simpler sugar, and some of the protein into a simpler amino acid. 

In a world where we long for the simpler things in life, perhaps an activated nut is the answer. 

And perhaps it is not. 

The choice is yours.