Health, and welcome to Gone Plant Based. And my name is Health Dee, and I'm on, plant based a whole food plant based, no added oil, no processed sugar diet. And it's doing me the power of good. And so far to date, I've lost over £41. I'm desperately trying to get to the 42 pound mark because, in old money where I come from in England. We, use stones and pounds, and that would mean £42 would be 3 stone. But that doesn't take away from the £41 I'm delighted to have lost so far. So the journey continues.

But what I would like to talk to you about today is something that I think is well, for me, it's important. You see, I'm one of those awkward people that has a lot of food intolerances, drug intolerances. For example, I I can't have penicillin like a lot of people. And an awful lot of drugs I react to. So, it's gonna be great if I can get healthier and be dependent on less drugs because then that's not gonna be an issue at all. But in terms of food, I'm pretty intolerant. Well, I have celiac disease, so there's the gluten aspect. I'm intolerant of dairy, And that seems to be something that runs in my family a bit.

My son is even worse than I am. He suffers worse than I am, but I certainly know. I can get away with a bit of it. And when it's an added ingredient in something, so long as it's not, like, full cream or something. If it's just part of the ingredients, then I can usually get away with it so long as I haven't had much of it. But, Nevertheless, even if you can get away with it, it can't be doing you any good if it's something your body will, at some point, reject. It doesn't like it. Now there's lots of other things, and I'm not gonna bore you with all the things I'm tolerant of and intolerant of.

But I want to talk to you today about nuts. Now I love nuts, and nuts are great, aren't they? Purfind. They stall their weight loss. So far, that hasn't happened to me. And if it does happen to me, then, obviously, I'll have to rethink. But they're a great source of omega threes, vitamins, minerals, and natural fats, the the natural oils that are within them. So they're very helpful to the diet and very natural to the diet. I suppose if we go back to the old hunter gatherer conundrum, I expect they ate a lot nuts.

Well, The thing about nuts, though, is some years ago, I used to treat myself to a packet of fruit and nuts. So it was based, nuts and raisins and sultanas and banana chips and stuff like that. And I used to have this little portion every day. And after a few days, I started to get stomach pains. And I didn't know what it was, but there were real griping stomach pains, you know the type. And, I didn't make the connection with the nuts, for quite a few days because I just thought it was a one off, and Perhaps I'd picked up something. I don't know. But, anyway so I carried on.

And sure enough, After a few days, I realized these pains started, a little while after I'd eaten the fruit and nuts. So I decided, well, I'm gonna have to experiment here. There's obviously something that's not agreeing. So I, decided to just Try the Nuts. And, yes, it was the nuts. So I thought, oh, no. Another thing I'm intolerant of. I'm a very intolerant person, obviously.

Anyway, I completely stopped nuts. And then at Christmas, I'd perhaps have a few peanuts. And if I had too many peanuts, I'd get away with it. Now they're legumes, actually, actually, but it's still something thing within the nut. I looked into it. I looked into it. I couldn't find it, and I just assumed I'm just intolerant of nuts. And this went on for years until I read a fascinating article.

And on all nuts and seeds and a lot of legumes, there are enzymes. In the natural state, they are coated with enzymes. One of them is called phytic acid. And phytic acid is very helpful. In fact, you know, we probably wouldn't have the harvest that we have without it because what it does is it creates a bitter taste. And if you had that, if you had a walnut on top, it's a bit bitter. I like it, but it's a bit bitter. But I'm gonna eat it because it's good for me, but it's bitter.

It's the phytic acid. And all these nuts and seeds and legumes in nature have these enzymes. But phytic acid is great because what it actually does is it protects the seeds and nuts. And what happens is, you know, your your little bugs, they they come along, And they want to nibble in and eat all the food, but it's toxic to them. So they probably scurry away and saying, yuck. Disgusting. I'm not gonna eat that. Or I don't know.

Maybe it kills them. I I don't know, actually, if it kills them or not, but I hope not. But, anyway, let's hope it just frightens them off because they don't like the taste. So, yeah, it it's there, and it protects the seeds from pests and diseases. And If you don't get rid of that, then it causes digestive problems. Now, obviously, some people who are more tolerant of foods than someone like me. It might take longer. It might not be so noticeable.

Bar. There is a way you can deal with it. Because because I don't have, dairy in a plant based diet, I have plant milk. So we make a lot of almond milk. I love almond milk. Sometimes we make walnut milk. Sometime well, we used to make oat milk, But oat milk's another one that I've gone a bit funny with, so we'll forget that. It it does although it doesn't have gluten, it has another, protein in it that is similar to gluten.

It's called avenin. And, some people who are celiac respond to oats in the same way. So that started to happen, unfortunately. But when it comes to plant based milks, We often make almond milk. And the way around this is to soak your nuts and seeds. Now seeds won't take so long. But what we do is, overnight, we put, say, half a cup of raw almonds into a big jug. We fill it with cold water, And then in the morning, we rinse them, put them in the blender, put in a liter of water, blend it, strain it.

We've got almond milk, or it could be walnut milk. What actually happens is it gets rid of the phytic acid just by soaking it. And it's the same with all of your nuts. So if you're using a lot of nuts in cooking and you don't want anyone to get an upset stomach or to absorb or to have to try and digest this thing, this enzyme that is toxic to insects and certain diseases and viruses and things in the soil, then you can soak them. And I do that now with all nuts and seeds. Seeds, I don't soak for long, maybe maybe half an hour. You can soak them overnight. But, certainly, when it comes to making creams, nondairy creams and milks, etcetera, the plant based milks, all have the nuts.

They're nut milk soaked the night before. So they they get a good 8 to 10 hours of soaking before it's made into milk. But one of the nice things about that that it does, that overnight, even though you're gonna get rid of the phytic acid, which is good, is it it plumps them up. So the milk is actually creamier and smoother, which is really nice. It's worth doing. Now if you've got one of those super duper powerful blenders like a Vitamix or a Blendtec, You'll often see recipes where it will actually say, no need to soak the nuts. Because these blenders are so powerful, they will make good plant milk with raw nuts. Well, you haven't got rid of the phytic acid, have you? So it's well worth oh, and you don't get the creaminess as as much, but it's well worth soaking in us.

Get rid of that phytic acid. We don't need it. It's there to repel. It's there as a toxicity. It's there to protect the nut and the seed to survive, but we can just wash it off. Now another way, and this is something perhaps you can make a comment on if you know about it, is quite often, I'll, roast walnuts before I use them in a recipe. So if you're making, plant based burgers. And you're gonna chop up some walnut because it has a kind of meaty texture.

So It's quite nice, especially when you're transitioning to plant based from being a meat eater. Toast them, and that seems to get rid of the bitterness as well. So I'd be interested if anyone out there does know if actually toasting the nuts, gets rid of the phytic acid as health, if heat can destroy the phytic acid, because I do find they're not as bitter once they've been toasted, or is it just simply the nice toasty flavor covers it? You know, it it it it disguises it. It masks it. I don't know. But That's one thing I've learned. And whether you have tolerances or intolerances, you probably wanna get rid of that phytic acid. It's not meant for us to be digested.

So even though you may not react, soak your nuts, soak your seeds, and, enjoy. And thank you. Thank you very much for joining me here today on Gom plant based. I'm building up the channel. I'd love you to hit subscribe and the little bell that, you know, means you'll get notifications. So bit by bit, the channel's gonna grow, and I hope there's lots we can share, lots planned for the future. But for now, soak