Do cashews make you gassy

So you went on a health kick and started eating more nuts. You pack pecans as a mid-morning snack, you slather almond butter on apple slices, and you top your salads with chopped walnuts. You did all of this to be healthier, but instead of feeling better, you feel bloated, gassy, and uncomfortable after eating.

I know how you feel. The same thing happened to me. Not only did eating nuts upset my stomach, but my mouth and throat would get itchy after eating certain nuts, like walnuts or pecans.

Many people get serious digestive issues from eating nuts and assume they must eliminate them from their diet. Barring the possibility of food sensitivities or allergies in which case, you DO want to eliminate them , there is a way to prepare nuts that makes them easier to digest. It took me years to find this out, but ever since, I have been able to enjoy eating my cashews and walnuts and pecans and almonds and all those other delicious nuts in moderation without these annoying reactions.

It turns out that raw nuts contain many compounds that impair digestion, including phytates to tannins. Phytates and tannins both work by binding up minerals so they are unable to ignite the enzymatic reactions that tell a seed or nut to sprout until it is safe to do so. Every plant has to find a way to protect itself and ensure its progeny will survive.

In this case, if an animal eats the nut, it could pass through the digestive system unharmed and possibly have a chance to sprout and grow a whole new plant. Phytate is like a magnet for minerals, binding them up until the seed has started to germinate. I was so fascinated by this finding, that I did an entire research presentation on the topic in college looking specifically into phytates and how they impact mineral absorption in humans.

Some animals like rats and birds can digest phytates, but humans lack the enzyme phytase to make it happen. When these nuts or seeds are specially prepared, by soaking or sprouting or fermenting, most of these compounds break down or are leached out, making nuts easier to digest.

Phytate begins to break down, releasing the minerals it was holding onto to fuel the enzymes that the seed requires to grow into a new plant. Similar preparation techniques can be used so you can eat nuts without getting an upset stomach — without burying almonds in the yard or building a special drawer for your kitchen. The following recipe is originally from Nourishing Traditions, a great cookbook that delves into the foods of traditional cultures. My favorite nut to use in this recipe is cashews, but you can use whatever you like.

Hands on prep time is less than 5 minutes, though you will need to leave your oven on for about a day. I usually start the soaking process in the morning or right before bed.

Print Crispy Nuts Prep Time: For nuts other than cashews, you may let the nuts soak for longer and dehydrate at a lower temp for better results degrees or less. Cashews do better at a slightly higher temperature and shorter soaking time, otherwise they can develop off-flavors. Did you like this post?

If so, be sure to sign up for email updates to get more simple and tasty recipes and real food nutrition tips delivered to your inbox every week. I finally took my own advice and got tested for food sensitivities, and it turns out almonds are not my friend. Read more about my food sensitivity journey here. I think everyone should be educated about the proper way to eat nuts in order to get the full nutrients out of them, along with being easy to digest.

Thanks for the basic recipe!

Intestinal Problems Caused by Eating Nuts | belucydyret.web.fc2.com

This was an awesomely simple explanation. I like your suggestion for dehydrating after soaking. This makes it easy to still consume nut butters! Yes, dehydrating them opens up so many options. They are actually crunchier than raw or roasted nuts you get at the store and slightly addictive. Try making cashew butter out of these. Do you think you could cook them in a crockpot instead of the oven? I hate leaving my oven on all day. If you do try the crockpot, tell us if it works!

I just came across your article and have to say that this is the best explanation I have found so far. My daily food intake does consist of sunflower seed butter, almond butter, peanut butter, and almonds and cashews raw and home roasted.

I found out that almond milk causes my tummy to be upset and then it dawned on me that the almonds and possibly the other nut items may cause tummy issues as well. I have been eating PB ever since I was little girl and never seemed to have any problems. Now, I am getting older and my GI tract may be much more sensitive these days than in my younger days. What happens to the phytates when nuts are turned into nut butters? It would be very hard for me to give up my nuts and nut butters since they are big staples in my daily diet.

They are a perfect combination of proteins and carbs that I need for my daily workouts. Hi Kathryn, Absolutely, my brain works the same way! Phytic acid is chemically called inositol hexaphosphate, essentially a 6 carbon ring with negatively charged phosphate groups attached to each carbon. The negatively charged phosphate attracts and binds positively charged minerals, so the goal is to cleave off and leach out as many of those phosphate groups as possible.

Soaking helps release some of those phosphate groups, which are then discarded in the soaking water. So unless the nuts were prepared as I describe in the article, they will contain as much phytate as raw nuts. Great questions and best of luck! Hi Lily, I read your post on nut preparation with great interest.

Perhaps you have solved a big problem for my husband. He is eats a plant based diet including a lot of nuts, and has been suffering from bloating and gas that really disturb him, particularly his sleep. He has consulted various doctors, nutritionists and Chinese pratictioners and none have helped.

He has been checked for many food allergies. All except gluten were negative or very slight. At your suggestion I will try soaking the nuts and see if this will do the trick. I soak mine overnight and spend about 5 minutes draining and tossing them onto the trays of my dehydrator the next morning. Almonds take about 36 hours here in Colorado while pecans crisp up in about 24 hours at about degrees on my dehydrator.

Yeah Jessica, I also find the dehydration time varies for different varieties of nuts. I thought it tasted like cake batter, but Christmas cookie is a perfect description!

What else could I do? Drink enough water and use sesame oil like you would use lotion on your hands for a week. I think I have begun to see what may be a cause of the recent onset of joint pains. I took a look at my diet and see that I recently started eating almonds daily. Today I stoped eating almonds. Hope to see improvement! Hi Lily, thanks so much for your helpful, informed advice.

Also, which foods contribute to sinusitis? Do roasted nuts like those you can buy at the store contain gas-causing phytate as well, or does roasting the nuts eliminate it? Roasting does not significantly reduce phytate. Then soak and dehydrate per the above recipe.

I have a question. Does dehydrating the nuts or putting them in the oven still allow the nuts to be nutritious? I know that roasted nuts are not healthy, so would these also lose their nutritional value by dehydrating them or putting them in the oven?

Thank you for your post. The fats in nuts can become rancid if heated to high temperatures, which is why this recipe is dehydrated at a lower temp.

Nice article and thanks for sharing! On to the problem now. I got this big jar of almonds from my friend and I started eating say raw for a few days and then after maybe 4 days I ate a few of them which were soaked over night.

The next day I had an upset tummy followed by diarrhea. So my confusion is, did the soaking causing the problem because I seemed fine when I ate it raw. If that were the case, this article would not exist.

The soaking process reduces the phytate content, which is why these nuts are easier to digest. Cashew nuts are already processed before we buy them to remove poisonous outer shells, steamed I think so not sure if this does not mean your method would be ineffective as the nuts are dead?!

If they are dehydrated for so long is there any oil left. What a palava it all seems to me in my old age and I wish I could be a breatharian and not be always rampaging on nature!

Thanks for your really interesting stuff. Thank You for this post! Every time I eat a certain combination of mixed nuts, I get sick…REALLY sick! I never understood why until now. And I will check out the article. I suffer from severe stomach pain if I eat too many nuts at once, so I usually only eat a few which takes care of that, but lately I have been making smoothies and I have tried putting sunflower seeds and walnuts in them.

Every time I do, my throat starts to hurt. Could the phytates be causing this? They have to be soaked in order for the nutrients to be let go of?? But today I brought a handful of walnuts for my mid-morning snack and oh my goodness, I got such a bad tummy-ache for like almost an hour.

Thank you for your information. I started experienced sever stomach pain, probably emanating from my digestive system. Unfortunately, when it came to almonds, cashews, and brazil nuts she actually gets sick and earls everywhere. Before i put her through it again trying this recipe do u think i should have her tested for food sensitivity first?

Hello Lily, Really great information. Do you double or half the temperature compared to the length of time they are in there. What I eat greatly affects my digestion and energy levels. Until yesterday I was eating g Almonds a day with fresh fruit.

What is your opinion on Macadamia Nuts if I soaked and dried them. I think Almonds are out for me. Very good article, thank you! I ate raw almonds today and got a bad tummy ache and knew right away it was them. Also, cashews are actually not nuts, they are the stem of a fruit, correct?

Hey, if you guys get any headaches from eating nuts, pop a magnesium glycinate! Now to get rid of this bloating,-or is it gas? I have always ate a lot of nut until recently. I locked myself out of the house and was stuck waiting form my other half to get home from work. I had to wait a couple of hours so decided to go get some nibbles as I was getting a bit peckish.

I got a small snack size bag of mixed nuts from the local supermarket. An hour after eating the nuts I got the most extreme stomach pain.

Flatulence, causes, FODMAP foods, how to reduce gas

It was so bad I was in tears. I went home still in pain, but it was getting a little better and had been around 5 hours since I ate the nuts. When I got home I was sick and the pain went away.

Thank you for the good advice I will give it a go and see if I can enjoy nuts without any more trips to the emergency room. Thank you for this…. So it could be the nuts, the fruit, or a combination of the two…. I have soooo many tummy problems. I am gluten intolerant, lactose intolerant, have acid reflux, and tummy sensitivity to peanut butter and most nuts.

I also struggle keeping weight on, so I try to look to processed foods that I can tolerate. Thank you for sharing! I was looking for an explanation for my own problem. About six months ago, I popped a handful of almonds into my mouth as I always did, and within a minute, I had severe stomach pain. Tried it again weeks later and the same thing. Emailed my doctor, she said to speak with allergist. Allergist suspected birch allergy because I started having the same thing with apples.

Negative RAST and skins tests. Today I tried a CRUMB of almond paste cookie. Big time spasms in upper abdomen. I am not allergic, so what gives? I made a vegan lemon panna cotta this evening using raw cashews and am feeling very uncomfortable, I look 9 months pregnant.

Interesting too was the bit about selenium so I will cut down on my Brazil nuts. Thank you for sharing. I suffered throughout most of my entire life with stomach pains and I never knew nuts could be culprit of my stomach pains. I eat mixed nuts EVERYDAY! I did an experiment and I did not eat any nuts for several days…NO PAINS!

I searched the Internet and found this article about nuts and stomach pains. Now everything makes sense and I feel so much better…However, I recently received MANY containers of all types of nuts as my Christmas present s. Very simple and logical explanation. Dont know if I have the time to try it out though. I normally buy the roasted nuts from stores and consume direct. Not sure the method works for roasted nuts.

Thanks for the knowledge. Do you find organic store bought almond butter is still hard on the stomach? Wondering what your thoughts are, thanks! Can I follow this same process with peanuts, or are they different, being a legume? I really, really miss peanut butter!! That worked for walnuts. Helen, I just put them in my not-turned-on oven for 12 hours. Lily, I was told to rinse them after soaking them to get the phytates and gunk off.

How come you specifically say not to rinse? I like to leave the salt on them for flavor. When I soak almonds according to your recipe to make them more digestible, is it OK to use roasted nuts or do they have to be raw? Also, is it important to use filtered water or can I use tap water? Thanks, enjoyed your very scientific knowledge of the chemistry involved in the subject.

Thank you for this! I am wondering whether roasted nuts can cause similar issues. I buy pre-roasted nuts and I find I get bloated and sore straight after eating them…. I travel a lot for work, and got in the habit of keeping a can of mixed nuts in my car as a healthy snack. Unfortunately, I developed a habit of reaching for nuts whether I felt hungry or not.

Recently, I had severe digestive issues, partial blockage, very likely due to a combination of overeating nuts, and chronic dehydration. Once cleared, I was fine, but going in for surgery in a few days to remove large kidney stones in both kidneys, ureters, and bladder.

I noticed that adding nuts to my yogurt the night before keeps me from getting a stomach ache when I eat them.

Might this simply be because they absorbed liquid and softened up overnight? May be people react differently to nuts but now I am tempted to eat almonds next time I have a grumbling stomach.

Merlin Lopez Keysight Technologies. Peanuts are okay for me because they arent tree nuts. Now that I know the science behind it, it makes me feel better. Ive always wondered, because when my mom cooks the walnuts into oatmeal I can digest it without getting allergies, but when I eat a walnut raw my mouth and stomach get so irritated.

Same with cashews, almonds, etc. Spending years to figure out a way to eat nuts, is a little nuts. Giving up nuts is easier…. I developed an adult-onset allergy to peanuts. It took an anaphylactic reaction before I connected the symptoms to peanuts. Not all allergic reactions cause trouble breathing, etc. Reactions are also unpredictable. This is great information! I would venture that any difference in fiber content is due to the variety of corn. It seems like rinsing would help get more of the junk off.

Hi, great site by the by, Hope you can help, I soak my porridge over night in milk as I understand this helps breakdown the oats and makes them easier to digest.

I then add in the morning almonds, walnuts, a brazil nut and a sprinkling of seeds which I grind up. Can you tell me, would it make sense and help to make the nuts more nutritious and digestible if I also added the ground up nuts in with the porridge and milk the night before? Many thanks and kind regards Julian.

Lily, Thanks for the informed video. Considering GI problems associated with nuts, does this apply to all nuts, raw and pre-roasted? Question — since the benefit of eating raw nuts is to eat them raw, does not the drying out ruin the benefits? Even at low temp? I think this information is super good and I will definitely try it! I was just wonderind if after this you could toast the nuts with some spices? Cause I like to add a bit of them. I make my own delicious, healthy raw almond milk and its luscious — but — I now believe it is the cause of diarrhea.

My stomach began tightening and hurting after I ate nuts. Could this possibly be the same as to what you have experienced? Perhaps a toaster oven that allows you to set the temp low enough?

Check your healthfood store. I had to have my gallbladder removed 9 years ago and have just started having problems digesting nuts over the last 12 months.

I just chalked it up to another side effect from losing my gallbladder. I have been eating pecans all my life and suddenly they give me stomach distress! Walnuts make my mouth and throat sore. Other nuts are Okay, I think. Anyway I was wondering if I add my nuts to smoothies and allow the mixture to stay in the fridge overnight, would that make the nuts more digestible?

Lily, Excellent article, patient replies…Got to know something about nuts! I have 3 questions: This is really interesting. Have felt great for days, today I have a load of peanut butter and a seed bar and almost immediately feel bloated. Does that sound like a reaction to phytates, can it happen that quickly and if so why? It seems quite a coincidence!? In the past, I have been able to eat nuts and in the past 5 years, I get stomach upset, itching in throat and mouth and eczema around my mouth.

For those with high allergies, is there any evidence that it could decrease rashes due to nut consumption. I am more sensitive to walnut, pecans and peanuts more than other nuts. In cases like this, ox bile supplementation may help! Gluten Sensitivity and Wheat Allergy Symptoms.

Now available in Spanish Learn More. Learn how to make vegetables taste good. Eat them because you want to, not because you have to. Grab your FREE recipe book! Why Eating Nuts Upsets Your Stomach. Why Raw Nuts Mess Up Your Digestion It turns out that raw nuts contain many compounds that impair digestion, including phytates to tannins. Ever notice how squirrels will gather seeds and bury them for later? What about how acorns were soaked by Native Americans before being consumed? Recipe courtesy of Lily Nichols.

Find more at www. Turn that digestive frown upside-down. Let me show you how. Get your FREE ebook! Best of Blog , Healthy Recipes , Nutrition Basics. Emma December 17, , 7: Lily December 23, , Frances Arnold January 11, , 6: Lily January 11, , 8: Lindsay May 21, , 7: Lily May 23, , 8: Kathryn Cothern July 21, , Hi Lily, I just came across your article and have to say that this is the best explanation I have found so far.

I have a couple of questions for you regarding your recipe which I am going to try. Is the salt a requirement? Thank you for your wonderful article!! Have a wonderful day! Lily July 22, , 9: Anonymous May 21, , 9: Lily May 22, , Anonymous May 23, , 5: Diana November 5, , 1: Lily November 5, , Jessica November 20, , Lily November 20, , Harriet January 2, , 7: Anonymous January 12, , 8: Also over dose of selenium can cause it.

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Should I avoid all nut butters? Ola August 30, , Gloria September 23, , Melenie September 23, , 3: Ashley September 27, , 3: Alex December 4, , 7: Paula October 27, , 6: Hi Lily I have always ate a lot of nut until recently. Annemarie Stannard November 8, , 5: Lily November 8, , 6: Carri November 18, , Jennyct November 21, , 7: Anonymous March 5, , Monika Kruse November 24, , 3: Rita Colfack December 14, , 6: Will this process work for pine nuts or nuts with shells on them?

Lily December 14, , 9: Sterling December 18, , 9: Ebrahim Mohideen December 30, , Lily December 30, , 8: Francisco January 30, , 7: Lara February 13, , 9: Helen February 27, , 2: TT March 1, , 5: Lily March 1, , 7: TT March 1, , 8: Farheen Yousuf March 7, , 8: Have peanuts in peanut butter gone through the above process?

If not,can they cause bloating? Pat Castelluccio May 30, , 9: Corrie June 5, , 8: Hi there, Thank you for this! Dan June 25, , 4: Faith July 11, , 7: Merlin July 19, , 9: Karen August 1, , Trish August 6, , 2: Adele August 7, , 2: Michelle August 10, , 4: Lily August 22, , JR August 11, , 2: Julian August 25, , 2: Lily September 15, , 2: K Mac September 19, , 6: Poornima September 22, , 6: Ann November 9, , 2: Dottie November 10, , 9: Ariana Morales November 20, , 4: Ilya December 16, , 7: Char January 15, , 8: Lily January 15, , 2: Hannah February 5, , 6: Subham February 14, , 7: Is there any other way to dehydrate?

Lily February 15, , 1: Amanda February 21, , 9: March 1, , 7: Janice March 1, , 8: How do you store the nuts and how long do they stay good? Keith March 12, , Lily March 13, , Bala SN March 21, , 5: Anonymous April 24, , 6: Vic May 5, , 3: Christel Hammett May 6, , 8: Cheri May 9, , Cancel reply Leave a Comment Name Email Website Comment. Gluten Sensitivity and Wheat Allergy Symptoms Previous post: Work With Me Best of Blog. My acne has decreased significantly and is almost clear.

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