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Login Here Signup Here Signup using FacebookI phoned up Raw Living, Kate Wood’s UK company because I wanted to order a cake. She is well known for making amazing cakes and I wanted to treat myself and find out what the fuss is all about. So anyway, there is a list of icing types and cake flavours and you can order exactly what you want.
I said to the guy on the phone “Oooh cashew icing? Do you actually use really raw cashews?” He assured me that they only used the highest quality raw food ingredients, I even felt silly for asking.So I ordered one with cashew icing coz I had never had really raw cashews (is over 2 years since I ate a cashew!) Then at the end of our conersation he said, “Actually I had better check on those cashews for you …” So he rung back after the weekend and told me that in fact the cashews they use are not raw…because they have had “trouble” buying really raw cashews! He seemed rather embarassed. Amazing.
They sell “raw” cakes for
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I know, I know! I’ve started to phase out my cashew intake because they make me really, really sick. This place in NYC (Pure Food & Wine’s side store/takeout place, Pure Juice & Takeaway), sells AMAZING ‘raw’ ice cream BUT its main ingredient is cashews. UGH. The first time I ate it I was sick for several days (granted I ate WAY more than I should’ve, but if it had really been raw I doubt that would’ve happened). EVERYTHING they sell has freaking cashews in it, and I’d be willing to bet you a raw vegan cake that the cashews are NOT actually raw.
Its frustrating, because our choices as far as eating out & pre-made gourmet takeout are so limited as it is, that for these raw food run places to be passing off stuff as raw thats actually ‘cooked’ (and charging an arm and a leg for it!) is really, really wrong.
It was/is also a kind of hard to stay away from cashews. Most people are making a lot of dishes with cashews, at potlucks, restaurants, raw bars and so on. (And the dishes are very tasty! I think..) But I am glad to hear, that I am not the only one who feels soooo sick after eating them. Just a few weeks ago at a potluck, I forgot to ask for 2 dishes, and was next day all very sick :-( I am highly allergic to some nuts, like walnuts and so I thought to cashews too, but to hear more people are getting sick by eating them seems not like an allergy.. or better an allergy against cooked food.
It is a cooked food thing for me, I and everyone else who is raw is cooked food intolerant, so we just don’t want cooked ingredients in the so called raw food we buy!
Hi There All,
I am experiencing real nut intolerance too. And I am puzzled by it ‘cause its not always been the case.Delicious as they are pretty much any nut clogs me up for days so I’m avoiding them like the plague. Is it perhaps not just a “cooked” issue but a food density issue as well? P.S. when you get sick what does that mean for you? Am I alone in getting backed up? ;o}
I don’t even like the taste of “raw” cashews much. They contain a caustic phenolic resin that is also in poison ivy. I suppose raw macadamias (if it’s possible to get truly raw ones) would be a good substitute. Eating at restaurants is equivalent to eating processed food to me. Don’t eat it if you don’t know what’s in it.
marichiesa, are you sure the nuts you are eating are really raw? shelled pecans, macadamias, brazils, cashews are all heated during their drying and shelling process. By sick I mean being knocked off my raw high, nausea, and stomach ache/bloating.
Hey guys…
interesting thing about the cashews. for the past year, i have found raw cashews at some health stores near me and i’ve been making an awesome “cheeze” spread with them…i’ve never had a problem but i have friends who wouldn’t eat my dish because of reactions they have to cashews-i thought that was rare until i went to a local raw restaurant for a seminar and the head chef says that cashews are very low on the list of good nuts and that in fact, raw foodists usually stay away from them. she said they are highly acidic and can cause upset stomachs, etc. the reason some restaurants use them is because they are cheaper than say, macadamias, which are a high quality nut. almonds are also a good substitute and they are very alkaline which is good for the belly!
Fancyjane, can you post your recipe for the cheeze spread? I used to make a very good cheeze spread but somehow have lost my touch! Bet you come make that recipe with some other nut, like sunflower seeds. Thanks.
Pam
Cashews that aren’t truly raw have a purple color to them when they are soaked. Looks like the poison is still on them. When we get truly raw ones…they stay white and seem much easier to digest.
My Dad who is allergic to nuts can have them as long as they are raw.
Cashews are easy for restaurants to use because you don’t have to strain them and they make a much creamier consistancy because of that.
I think it is really lame for raw restaurants to use things that are not truly raw without telling the customer. I called a local restaurant’s supplier for nuts and they couldn’t even tell me where they get their nuts and weather they are heat treated…so that makes me think that he didn’t call them and find out either. I think it would be ok to eat at a raw restaurant…but I would call and find out where they get their nuts and then call that supplier to verify.
Hi Zoe,
I guess when I think about it the offending nuts ( the few that I’ve eaten) have been cashews and pecans. So I guess I’ll be dumping them from the menu! Strangely, all truly raw seeds including flax are really problematic too. And your sick symtoms sound alot like what I experience when something I eat is toxic.
What is the going wisdom on raw pine nuts? Assuming of course they are actually raw. ( grrr…)
From what I have researched, and from my own physical reactions to them, I believe that pine nuts are raw.
The thing with cashews is that during the processing the heat is applied because the nut is surrounded in a toxic liquid. TOXIC!!! So in it’s natural form this would not be a good thing for a human to eat! Maybe we get ill coz some of the toxic liquid is left on? But you know, I tend to think, well if the thing is toxic as it hangs on the tree it just isn’t human food!
I did end up ordering a cake from raw living, which has avocado icing. It is a cacao cake and all raw, I decided to give cacao another go, I had given it up coz it makes me feel weird and I suspect none of it is raw due to being fermented at high temps. But I was curious and you hear so much about how amazing cacao is, I wondered if it would still have the same effect on me as it used to, so I thought I’d give it another second chance…
So I have had some of this cake which tastes pretty good. It made my nose run immediately – sign of cooked food being eaten (body creates mucus to protect the digestive tract from cooked food/poison!), and on my goodness I felt like I was on hard drugs all day! The cacao totally made me feel like I had been taking cocaine or speed! I had the strongest reaction I have ever had to it. I did more housework than I think I have ever done, I just couldn’t stop. And had a banging headache afterwards, cooked food cravings – another sign of cooked food been eaten for me as I normally don’t have any cravings. Jittery and tired on waking up the next morning.
The people who love raw chocolate like David Wolfe, Shazzie, and Kate Wood say that they have been living off cacao for years, I just do not understand how they can feel so good on this stuff, I felt like I had been out for a couple of nights hard partying after eating 2 slices of cake – not a nice feeling more of a souless adrenaine jittery can’t relax kind of feeling, with a banging headache. I am used to feeling ultra calm and relaxed as I eat a lot of greens, this was not much fun after the novelty of having a new feeling wore off!
Zoe, I have the same reaction to cacao. I never was a coffee or tea drinker so the caffiene hits me hard. My heart races, I get a pounding headache, a little nausea and yes, I could run a jittery marathon and then I crash hard. I wonder why some raw people have no adverse effects and we do ? hmmm….
maybe they would…if they cut it out completely for a few months and then tried to go back to eating it.
it’s just like coffee drinkers..they don’t get headaches unless they quit drinking it. I quit coffee for a few months and juiced the whole time. When I tried to have some coffee after that I would get a headache.
there is a natural caffeine in raw chocolate. I get headaches from caffeine and chocolate. Just a little bit on my tongue gives me a headache. With the raw chocolate…I can have two bites and I am ok. So..sometimes I indulge in those two bites.