Why you should activate your grains and legumes

Why you should activate your grains and legumes

Sarah has spoken about the benefits of activating your nuts here. But did you know that you can also activate your grains and legumes as well?

Just like nuts, legumes and grains contain antinutrients. These are the things that make them difficult to digest and often result in a bloated grain or bean belly. But the dangers of antinutrients go deeper than this.

1. They inhibit nutrient absorption: A good example of this is the antinutrient phytic acid, found in many grains, nuts, seeds and legumes, which interferes with the absorption of zinc, iron and magnesium.
2. They block digestive enzymes: Which wreaks havoc on the gut. You can read more about the importance of gut health here.

The only way to get rid of antinutrients is by activation

Activation is basically soaking the nut, grain or legume for an extended period of time. Activated nuts are put through a dehydration process (it isn’t necessary for grains and legumes), which makes them last longer and taste delicious, but it’s during the soaking process that the magic really happens.

There is a bit of contention about the period of time you need to soak nuts, grains and legumes to adequately neutralise the antinutrients, but as a general rule of thumb at least 12 hours is adequate.

Note: We spoke to our friends at Pureharvest, who are quite versed in the art of activation (see below). They stressed the importance of discarding all soaked water and rinsing your grain, legume or nut after soaking.

Just so you know, this is a sponsored post, but the opinions are our own and we researched the topic and came to these conclusions independently.

If you’re a fan of activating we’ve got some good news on the dairy-free milk front!

A few months ago we announced that Pureharvest had made the switch and were activating all of their almond milk. Well, it appears they’ve caught the activation bug and they’re not stopping there.

Pureharvest has just announced that all of their soy milk products are now activated too, and they’re in the process of ensuring all of their grain-based milks (rice and oat) will follow suit.

This is great news for anyone who has digestive issues when it comes to nut, legume or grain-based milks.

Pureharvest have the only activated nut, legume and grain-based milks on the market and we dig that all of their milks are fructose free, too.

We’ve also just gotten word that Pureharvest are working on a range of activated nut butters (we know, too exciting!), so keep an eye out in stores for those.

In the meantime, you might want to try your hand at making your own activated nut butter.

Do you soak your grains and legumes before cooking them? Have you noticed a difference?

Original article and pictures take iqsresponsive-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com site