Walk into any health food store and you’ll see packets of ‘activated’ nuts selling for up to 3 times the price of regular ones. What’s the selling point? Devotees of the practice – which involves soaking raw nuts in lightly salted water, then drying them again – claim that it reduces phytate levels, making some of the valuable nutrients in nuts easier to absorb, and reduces symptoms of digestive discomfort such as bloating, cramping and gas, which many people experience when they eat nuts.
But does it actually work? A study recently published in the European Journal of Nutrition by a team of researchers from the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, suggests that there are far better uses for your hard-earned cashola for these trendy tidbits.
They found that activated nuts do not have less phytate than regular nuts, and they don’t cause fewer digestive symptoms either… in fact, when eating whole activated almonds, participants actually reported more flatulence than when they were eating regular whole almonds!
The study design was quite ingenious: participants receive, in random order, 30 grams per day of 4 different preparations of almonds, each for 12 days:
- Whole activated almonds
- Whole regular (unactivated) almonds
- Sliced activated almonds
- Sliced regular (unactivated) almonds.
They were asked to rate their overall liking for the nuts, desire to consume them, likelihood that they would consume them in the future, and the severity of gastrointestinal symptoms, each day.
The researchers also measured the phytate content in each nut preparation.
Participants weren’t all that keen on the sliced almonds, activated or not, rating them lower overall on all three measures of acceptability than either of the whole nut treatments, but there was no significant difference between how much they enjoyed the whole activated vs whole unactivated nuts. (all P ≤ 0.003).
Overall, participants reported fairly minimal gastrointestinal symptoms. However, four participants dropped out of the study due to severe gastrointestinal symptoms, and they were all on their 12-day period of consuming either whole or sliced activated almonds at the time. Furthermore, another three participants remained in the study, but were unable to complete the 12-day period for one of the activated nut treatments due to gastrointestinal discomfort.
Among those who completed the entire study, significantly more flatulence was reported while eating activated whole almonds compared to unactivated whole almonds.
So much for activated nuts being gentler on sensitive tummies – this study demonstrated precisely the opposite effect!
And in the final blow to activated nut enthusiasts, the phytate concentration actually went up when whole nuts were activated:
- Whole unsoaked almonds averaged 531 mg of phytate per 100 g of nuts
- Sliced unsoaked and activated almonds averaged 548 mg/100g
- Whole activated almonds averaged 563 mg/100 g.
As I’m always telling the members of EmpowerEd, my online health and nutrition education program, caveat emptor – let the buyer beware! All health claims should be thoroughly investigated, using peer reviewed science… not popular blogs, YouTube channels and magazines.
