I was reading an aritcle I got in my email the other day, and I cant seem to find it right now, but will try to… anyhow it said something along the lines of cashews that are sold as being raw are not really raw and are heated in the process of packaging or something… is this hype? or is there any truth to it?

yeah it turns out they are heated due to some kind of toxic shell. sucks, huh?

You can obtain truly raw cashews (hand-cracked). Several on-line companies sell them. I’m in the UK, but I believe that in the US Sunfood Nutrition sell them, amongst others.

Same goes for shelled Brazils, Macadamias, Pecans and American Almonds, none of them are raw because they’re boiled or steamed during shelling. And the almonds are pasteurised.

What I understand about cashews is that before processing they are gelatenous inside of a shell that has a toxic subastance similar to poison oak. If, somehow they could be harvested raw and hand peeled, I refuse to buy them on the grounds that the workers have to be exposed to this for little pay. I just won’t support that kind of thing and I don’t want to eat anything with that kind of toxic history anyway. To sum it up, I just don’t do cashews.
www.adashofrosemary.blogspot.com

oh wow I never thought of the harm it would do to workers to hand peel them. Thanks rosehebrew

Are other nuts and seeds safe (raw and unpasteurized) from the store then? Like sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds. And even the rices and steel cut oats? Now everything has me questioning…

No most nuts are not raw. Oats and rice are not raw. Check out The Dead Food List for all the items commonly thought to be raw which are in fact dead.

arrgh! how frustrating! I’m so new to raw and really thought that i was on the right track! how can cashews be labelled raw at all then?

I just bought some “raw” cashews. :(

It is quite frustrating to find that the basis for many comfort foods that are raw (ie nuts) are not raw at all, I have found that young coconut meat substitutes nicely in many recipes, also, avocado and zuchinni. It was daunting at first to think that I would have to exclude nuts, but it’s been easier than anticipated.