Nuts are good nutritious snack. However, nuts contain enzyme inhibitors that can put stress on our digestive system. To make it easier to digest and their nutrients more available, we soak our almonds, pecans, walnuts, peanuts and pine nuts in salty water for at least 7 hours. For cashews, soak no more than 6 hours. Use raw nuts of course.
After draining, we put the nuts in a warm oven less than 150 degrees for around 16-24 hrs or until dry and crispy. Turn occasionally. U know…..the resulting crispy nuts are just soooooo yummy that I wouldn’t mind the work at all!

If eating cold breakfast is not a choice, that means we have to go for hot breakfast like pancake, oatmeal, porridge, eggs, etc. We all know that whole grain is good, but little do I know that I have to soak or ferment the grains before cooking. For pancakes or quick bread, soak the flour in buttermilk or yogurt for 12 to 24 hours in room temperature before cooking. For oatmeal, soak the oats in acidic water for 7 hours or more. The soaking and fermenting process will partially break down gluten and protein, hence easier for us to absorb. Also, the process will neutralize enzyme inhibitors and phytic acid, a substance that block the absorption of calcium, magnesium, copper and zinc. This is another drawback of boxed cereals, the grains probably are not soaked before processing. By the way, eating bran and wheat germ is not recommended.

We didn’t throw out all our boxed cereals, didn’t want to “waste”. However, we used to eat them 7 days a week and now once or twice per week. And we will stop buying them anymore. We thought we were careful enough not to buy the ones with artificial colours/flavours, preservatives….etc, but actually, ALL of them are pretty toxic and diffcult to digest since they went through high temperatures and pressures during processing. Nutritious? Nah….most are lost. They might be even more harmful than sugar and white flour. Granola? NO. Extremely indigestible.