Hello Beautiful!

It looks like you're new to The Community. If you'd like to get involved, click one of these buttons!

In this Discussion

raw cashews, really raw?

blujett8blujett8 Raw Newbie

david wolfe makes the claim that the only truly raw cashews sold in N America are on his site. I’m wondering what this is about….is he saying that most companies use a steam process that in effect cooks the cashew? Is this hair splitting or more about marketing than health? any insight re this issue? thanks Heather

Comments

  • ZoeZoe Raw Newbie

    I think he is telling the truth on this one. Cashews are encased in a toxic substance when they grow and there needs to be processing to get rid of it before they are safe to eat. This usually involves heat. His cashews are processed without heat. But I have heard of a few raw fooders who still get ill after eating them. For more info about raw nuts and not raw nuts check out The Dead Food List on me and Chris’s website: http://www.purelyraw.com/deadfoodlist.htm

  • blujett8blujett8 Raw Newbie

    thanks zoe

  • Personally I am just wee bit suspicious of David Wolfe’s claims. He does the same thing with raw cacao. Maybe he has a very good defense lawyer or he assumes that raw food people are not aggressive enough to sue him on some of his exaggerated claims.

  • queenfluffqueenfluff Raw Newbie

    I bought truely raw cashews from a different site and guess what they turned out to be – Nature’s First Law! (HA HA!). At least they were a bit cheaper though. :)

    They were an old packaging as now most of the packaging says SunFood Nutrition. The cashews are from Indonesia. I believe David has a deal with the farm that grows these.

    Socal – David Wolfe is a lawyer (well, he has a Law degree I believe but don’t know how far that goes – does he practice?). I believe he has been sued before over the claims he makes on his food (don’t know all the details) – this is apparently the reason he changed the company name to SunFood Nutrition from Nature’s First Law. So I guess he knows his stuff – where law is concerned

    I got to meet David last week. He is a really nice guy and very knowledge and SUPER high energy (too much cacao I think!). I did kind of see how he is very big on promoting only EXACT things his company sells. :) He made us a “warm” smoothie type drink – everything thing in it was stuff he sold on his site.

    I have tasted some of the truely raw cashews before – I guess they taste a bit better than the other raw ones I normally buy. They did seem big and “plumper” and a nice white color so maybe if all of the other cashews are heat processed maybe they wrinkle up and shrink a bit from the heat exposure? I use cashews alot and I have never gotten sick from eating either the raw or the truely raw ones. I would say that my un-truely raw ones are not as pure of a white color as David’s – don’t know if that means anything though.

    Does anyone know of any other place that sells truely raw cashews that aren’t from David Wolfes company?

  • ZoeZoe Raw Newbie

    Thanks Queenfluff for the info, I am interested if anyone does know the details about his being sued for the claims he makes about his food. I always thought he changed the NFL name to distance himself from the plagurism over his NFL book. He and his mates plagurised “their” book Nature’s First Law the raw food diet. The original is called “Raw Eating” and it’s by A.T. Hovanessian (1960’s), an Iranian man who died in prison defending the Iranian people’s right to clean water. A.T. Hovanessian distributed his book freely out of his own pocket, he never charged a penny for it. It is not under copyright, that’s how they could copy it witout any reprecussions. It was out of print for a long time but is now available frm the Hallelulia Acres website. Wolfe et al apparently have admitted to plagurising it. ..apparently a lot of it is embarrassingly word for word copied into the NFL book. Still, no-one can deny Wolfe has done a lot for the raw food movement, and the NFL book is a great read and very motivational,,, and me and loads of other people would never have read it if he hadn’t of copied it. I will buy the original though, I borrowed NFL’s from the library.

  • queenfluffqueenfluff Raw Newbie

    Ok, I got some info from my bf. He doesn’t know all of the exact details either. But he said David has been sued for both the book and for some claims on his products from consumers. I guess he decided to change the name after all that controversy and put the it behind him with a new name. There was too much hassle connected to the Nature’s First Law name. I couldn’t find any more “dirt” on that on the net – but I found out that, apparently, some people think he is a womanizer! Hope he didn’t get sued for anything connected to that! (ok,no more gossip….I think David is definately a key person for getting raw foods out there so I like him.).

  • ZoeZoe Raw Newbie

    Thanks queenfluff! interesting stuff…..

  • You need to be careful with any ‘superstore’ kind of business. Raw or not the motivation is still money and that is not always in eveyone’s best interest.

  • I’m currently in Thailand and I bought some raw cashews a couple days ago…. Let me tell you, I have never tasted cashews so fresh and wonderful! They have a sweet fresh taste to them. I’ve eaten “raw” cashews in the States, but they have never tasted like this.

  • Where can you get raw cashews in Thailand? I've read that raw cashews can be toxic, but still wanna taste them at least once.

    Thanks!

  • Chef ShuannaChef Shuanna Raw Newbie

    There has always been ALOT of controversy surrounding cashews and I know there have been quit a few posts about them so you may want to just do some back research on this site and see what people have come up with.

    Someone mentioned it here already but yes it is how they are encased that requires heat to kill off 'deadly bacteria'

    I myself eat cashews and almonds (Almonds are also supposedly not Raw due to Pasteurization) though just try to eat them sparingly. I have just as much success in my recipes with sunflower seeds or other nuts such as brazil. There are some dessert recipes though that I just cant seem to replicate without cashews so I just don't worry about it. I don't believe it to be a 'Dead Food" and find that if it helps people to eat cashews then say cream cheese in someother dessert then it is well worth it.

    Peace!

     

  • RawKidChefRawKidChef Raw Newbie

    if they are too hard to get out of the shell in nature, cashews may not be meant to be eaten. maybe I'm being stubborn on this issue, but I've noticed that cashews are really mucus forming.

Sign In or Register to comment.