raw Brazil nuts

[dunsang]

Hi all,

I am still confused about the shelled/unshelled brazil nut issue. If the nuts are shelled via heating/cooling - then that's no good. Got that. But if they are shelled, and designated RAW brazil nuts, that means they can't have been heated. So that means those would be fine to eat, right?
What do you think?

Thanks. : )

[Oscar]

In my experience "raw" doesn't always mean what we think (and hope) it means. Brazil nuts are quite tough to crack, so expensive to do by hand. So unless it specifically states "hand shelled", I would personally assume "raw" means "shelled by heat, but not roasted afterwards". Or try to contact the manufacturer, of course.

[dunsang]

Yeah - I'm thinking that I should skip the nuts from the store for now. I have tasted much fresher ones from a differents store before though.
How expensive are brazil nuts usually? I've seen some real cheap ones - I assume those are shelled w/ heat. Then there's the $10 a lb nuts that say raw. Well, after one day on the diet including my nuts my skin is remarkably better. I think today I'll try without and see what happens.

[RRM]

Yeah - I'm thinking that I should skip the nuts from the store for now. I have tasted much fresher ones from a differents store before though.

Its not about freshness.
Its perfectly ok if they are not fresh, as long as they are raw, and you can only know if they are still in the shell. so, only buy nuts that are still in their shell.
The costs can differ quite a lot.

Well, after one day on the diet including my nuts my skin is remarkably better. I think today I'll try without and see what happens.

Please keep us updated, will you?

[spring]

This is unrelated to the main topic of brazil nuts in this thread but about brazil nuts. From an evolutionary POV are we supposed to eat Brazil nuts? Aren't they difficult to open and require special tools? Was primitive man able to eat them? Doesn't that mean we aren't supposed to eat them because they are so hard to access?

[benzapp]

This is unrelated to the main topic of brazil nuts in this thread but about brazil nuts. From an evolutionary POV are we supposed to eat Brazil nuts? Aren't they difficult to open and require special tools? Was primitive man able to eat them? Doesn't that mean we aren't supposed to eat them because they are so hard to access?

I don't think a rock qualifies as a special tool.

Many primates have been shown to use simple tools - humans likely used rocks and sticks for millions of years before modern man evolved.

[FreshLiving]

Where I live it is hard to find any nuts in the shell. The health food stores carry "raw" shelled brazil nut, and other varieties too. I've been eating those, but I see from what's being said here that I should seek out in the shell nuts. I've called the different health food stores and they say they will be getting in several varieties of in-the-shell nuts, including brazil nuts, as a seasonal item. My question is, can I buy a significant quantity to last for a year or will they go bad after several months? How long do they stay fresh as long as they remain in there shell? Also, any suggestions on nut crackers for brazil nuts—any ole cracker will do, or something special?

[Iris]

don't know about brazil nuts, but macadamia's I used to crack with a hamer (or a rock, but that doesn't work as well )

Dried brazil nuts will last for quite some time, I think. But how long (assuming you store them in a cool and dry place)....??? I don't know.

[coconutty]

mongongo nuts are a staple food for the hunter-gatherer !Kung society: they eat on average 300 nuts a day, which contains calories equivalent to 2.5 pounds of cooked rice which they gather from groves. its possibly primitive man ate nuts regularly, though perhaps not brazil nuts or nuts in general that are exceedingly hard to crack.

[RRM]

Maybe, but i think we used to be pretty good with simple tools (just look at some of the skills that 'primitive' people still have),
so that cracking (very hard to crack) nuts must have been easy for early humans.