Be wary of Nut Flours

CherryAA · Sep 15, 2017

http://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/In...gn=15-Sep-2017&c=b1cJcbmXah9ApwAo9s+/ig==&p2=

At an early stage in my diabetes investigations, I saw a lot of recipes which effectively used other flours created from various nuts to replace wheat flours in baking.

I've never been much into baked goods so I decided that I would just leave the whole lot out of my diet.
One of the things that worried me about it - was that it seemed to me to be potentially a dangerous path .

i.e. just because a hazelnut eaten naturally is healthy, that doesn't necessarily mean that hazelnut flour will be. It seems that it is often the PROCESSING rather than the product itself that seems to contribute to the problem.

I still don't know if any of it is dangerous, but this study does seem to suggest that if you eat for example almonds as almond flour instead of as almonds, then the resulting product may be more fattening than the product eaten naturally because more fats will be absorbed from it quicker . The sheer extent of the differences in absorption also confirms my worries that we change the way we eat these natural products at our peril. It is also why I am concerned that even if the message does get across, once the processed food industry becomes involved, low carb processed foods may also prove to be dangerous.

Rachox · Sep 15, 2017

CherryAA said:
http://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Ingredients/Processing-affects-how-fat-in-plant-based-food-is-absorbed-study?utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=15-Sep-2017&c=b1cJcbmXah9ApwAo9s+/ig==&p2=

At an early stage in my diabetes investigations, I saw a lot of recipes which effectively used other flours created from various nuts to replace wheat flours in baking.

I've never been much into baked goods so I decided that I would just leave the whole lot out of my diet.
One of the things that worried me about it - was that it seemed to me to be potentially a dangerous path .

i.e. just because a hazelnut eaten naturally is healthy, that doesn't necessarily mean that hazelnut flour will be. It seems that it is often the PROCESSING rather than the product itself that seems to contribute to the problem.

I still don't know if any of it is dangerous, but this study does seem to suggest that if you eat for example almonds as almond flour instead of as almonds, then the resulting product may be more fattening than the product eaten naturally because more fats will be absorbed from it quicker . The sheer extent of the differences in absorption also confirms my worries that we change the way we eat these natural products at our peril. It is also why I am concerned that even if the message does get across, once the processed food industry becomes involved, low carb processed foods may also prove to be dangerous.

Oh no, bad timing! My low carb lemon shortbread biscuits are barely cool! They are made with almond flour and are delicious If it's only the rate of fat absorption that's affected, I'll carry on looking on them as an occasional treat!

CherryAA · Sep 15, 2017

Rachox said:
Oh no, bad timing! My low carb lemon shortbread biscuits are barely cool! They are made with almond flour and are delicious If it's only the rate of fat absorption that's affected, I'll carry on looking on them as an occasional treat!

Yeah, sorry, I thought a few might not like that one!
I guess something to keep an eye on . but I'm sure the biscuits are lovely I'm trying t stay under 800 at the moment so anything at all seems pretty delicious

Rachox · Sep 15, 2017

CherryAA said:
Yeah, sorry, I thought a few might not like that one!
I guess something to keep an eye on . but I'm sure the biscuits are lovely I'm trying t stay under 800 at the moment so anything at all seems pretty delicious

800 calories/day not 800g carbs/day, I hope?!

Robbity · Sep 15, 2017

Well its always been my understanding that any pre-processing/preparation we do to our food prior to eating, whether it's chopping, cutting, slicing, dicing, grating, shredding, grinding, blending to a pulp for smoothies and soup, or trendily spiralizing it, is going to have some impact on its speed of digestion/absorption since being partially broken down it gives our bodies less work to do, and for some people easily digestible food can often be beneficial... So I don't actually understand just why the speed of fat absorption should be a particular issue?? Our bodies will surely still use it as fuel or store it for future use as needs be, regardless?

Robbity

Oldvatr · Sep 15, 2017

Robbity said:
Well its always been my understanding that any pre-processing/preparation we do to our food prior to eating, whether it's chopping, cutting, slicing, dicing, grating, shredding, grinding, blending to a pulp for smoothies and soup, or trendily spiralizing it, is going to have some impact on its speed of digestion/absorption since being partially broken down it gives our bodies less work to do, and for some people easily digestible food can often be beneficial... So I don't actually understand just why the speed of fat absorption should be a particular issue?? Our bodies will surely still use it as fuel or store it for future use as needs be, regardless?

Robbity

Surely the speed of absorbtion has little overall effect to the daily calorie count, I would worry if it increased the amount in total, but I am not aware of us being sensitive to a fat >>lipid spike like the carbs>> glucose spike

CherryAA · Sep 15, 2017

My own conclusion was pretty much - if something can be refined in a factory. I should probably avoid it

That was a gut feel so the fact thas its properties are so different might mean thst one should treat it as a new unproven processed foodstuff which may or may not be as good for me as the original.

Sent from my D5803 using Diabetes.co.uk Forum mobile app

Oldvatr · Sep 15, 2017

No2D said:
@CherryAA,
This is great stuff. Mostly because it fits my preconceived notions about processed foods. And because some real numbers are assigned that I can sink my teeth into. Nuts have a lot of fats and carbs and proteins. The study is focused on fats. If it was expanded to carbohydrates they might find similar results of carb absorption. Carbs turn into sugar but the rate depends on the how much of the particle can be exposed to enzymes. Chewing almonds makes bigger particles. Finely ground "nut flour" provides a larger overall surface area of exposure to enzymes and will turn into sugar faster. Bottom line: From now on I will no longer use nut flours and use whole nuts instead. I will also swallow the bites without chewing. Also need to make sure BH knows CPR.

Thanks for posting.

Fats turn into sugar???? The process required is not so simple as that, and requires the body to synthesize glucose from non carb sources only when bgl levels are low indicating possible starvation. Not normally converted to sugars like carbs. Fats do not normally metabolise such that bgl rises except in a perceived emergency where the brain must have glucose and cannot find ketones as the alternative fuel. Protein is the one that gets used for this first anyway.

DeejayR · Sep 15, 2017

Excellent news. I need to put a bit of weight on and I've just bought a kilo of almond flour! I feel a cake and some ginger biscuits coming on.

Resurgam · Sep 15, 2017

I love that term 'more fattening' - what does it really mean?
If fat is absorbed from the gut faster will it mean that it is dealt with differently by the liver, or by the body's cells in general?
Does the swift absorption of fat mean that the carbs are also digested faster, or slower?
Does it have any relevance to diabetics other than we are likely to use nut flours as alternatives, though with our tendency to eat smaller amounts of things such as baked goods in order to limit carbs, is the total amount, rather than the percentage of fats absorbed the more important factor?

badcat · Sep 15, 2017

I guess absorbing a greater % of fat from ground almonds as opposed to whole almonds could theoretically be a problem if someone lived off things made from nut flours but in the real world I fail to see the problem

Deleted member 308541 · Sep 15, 2017

I have almond meal / flour on our shopping list, as I am dead set on getting bread in one form or another back on the menu.

I get tired of the rubbish in / on the media what is good / bad for you, then weeks or months later some genius will say the reverse.

As the old song says, "Why worry, be happy", I certainly do not give a stuff about it.

Oldvatr · Sep 15, 2017

No2D said:
Opps, Sorry you misunderstand. The article is focused on fat. I'm saying "If it was expanded to carbohydrates they might find similar results of carb absorption". Not because fat turns into carbs, No not saying that at all. Simply the idea of the article is that there's a correlation between particle size and fat absorption. Along that same idea, there is likely a correlation between particle size and carb breakdown (by the enzyme amylase for example) and the faster the conversion of carb to sugar the faster the absorption of sugar through the intestinal wall.
Sorry for the confusion.

Actually fats are quite slow to be metabolised, and tend to be the last to be broken down by enzymes in the gut, whereas carbs metabolism starts in the mouth by the Amylase in saliva before swallowing, In the case of fats, they are very complex chains of molecules, and so the easiest ones to breakdown are the unsaturated fats that have small chains. These tend to be liquid at room temp, so processing nuts into flour will not change their metabolism rate much. It is molecule polymer size that is important for fat, and milling will not change that Complex carbohydrates in fats need chemical action to break their strong molecular bonds. This is why soap and detergent is used to remove fat stains (and blood is a good example of this)

Vhm1 · Sep 16, 2017

If someone is worried about the amount of fat in almond flour - I am specifically talking about the fat - they can buy defatted almond flour. Mandemel (?) makes it and it is not entirely defatted, but a lot less fat than 'regular' almond flour.

Oldvatr · Sep 16, 2017

Oversimplifying the problem to produce a neat simplistic solution is liable to mislead others who will accept what you say and .modify their behaviour needlessly and possibly to their detriment. So I must repeat that what you are stating as 'fact' is NOT supported by current scientific evidence.

By all means do the tests as you suggest, then report your findings, but IMO the poor repeatability of home bgl meters will not give you the definitive proof you seek.

Oldvatr · Sep 16, 2017

Vhm1 said:
If someone is worried about the amount of fat in almond flour - I am specifically talking about the fat - they can buy defatted almond flour. Mandemel (?) makes it and it is not entirely defatted, but a lot less fat than 'regular' almond flour.

I suspect defatted brings in the ogre of further processing,

Oldvatr · Sep 16, 2017

No2D said:
I'll let you have the last word, so let's drop this. Thanks.

I am sure this topic will crop up again since there are many who think fat is (a ) bad for us, and (b that it raises bgl like carbs. May I suggest that a search on this forum for 'pizza effect' will show what others experience in relation to this. It is in my mind directly related to the OP since personally I use almonds for my LC pizza bases to good effect. In my case I take whole almonds, and zap them in my Nutribullet, so hopefully avoiding any industrial processing or additives, subtractives. Thus I benefit from the fibre content too, which is the micronutrient that flour processing tends to remove.

Edit: PS I hope you are not too bruised by our encounter, and continue to research the aspects I highlighted. I am not a scientist, being a computer engineer, but I did do O level chemistry, and biology, which helps understand the science. That education was some 50 years ago, so I have been on a steep learning curve myself. I am still learning new things daily. It is good to question.

ickihun · Sep 16, 2017

Resurgam said:
I love that term 'more fattening' - what does it really mean?
If fat is absorbed from the gut faster will it mean that it is dealt with differently by the liver, or by the body's cells in general?
Does the swift absorption of fat mean that the carbs are also digested faster, or slower?
Does it have any relevance to diabetics other than we are likely to use nut flours as alternatives, though with our tendency to eat smaller amounts of things such as baked goods in order to limit carbs, is the total amount, rather than the percentage of fats absorbed the more important factor?

Wrong fat cells theory, me thinks.

Freema · Sep 16, 2017

I would Think the main problem in almond fluor is that the fats become more easily oxidised and that might change the fats into becomming unhealthy , one could Then make fresh almond flour instead and maybe not process it as fine .

To avoid Scientific arguments seems a bit stupid
By the way fats are not unhealthy, fats are essential to every cell in our body ; the surface of each is made from cholesterol

Pinkorchid · Sep 16, 2017

Never use them myself as I can't see the point of making cakes etc with alternative flours and sugar substitutes. I believe the more we keep our sweet tooth active the more likely we are to fall off the perch and be tempted to eat real sugar stuff

Be wary of Nut Flours

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