Be wary of Nut Flours

[Oldvatr]

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?

The Pizza Effect is evidence that high fat intake slows metabolism and causes a delay in the glucose spike that would normally occur due to the carb content. I believe that some insulin dependant diabetics find they have to split their bolus doses to cover a high fat meal.

As regards the faster absorption of fat if you pulverise the food first as in making flour will apply to carbs, but not fats that generally are more robust and not made into smaller particles by a mechanical process. To take an analogy, if you grind sugar to powder it dissolves in water faster, so a crystal of sugar takes longer than using icing sugar in your cofee. But if you compress a block of butter then it still does not dissolve in water so is not significantly affected by the act of spreading. And the toast still lands the wrong way down on the floor. And 'fat free' almond flours are still 11% fat after squeezing out the 'excess' juices in a cold press process.

The fat content of almonds is mainly mono-unsaturated, and considered to be a good source of 'healthy' fats. There are other important minerals and micronutrients in almond, so I would not want to deter people from using almonds in whatever form they come in. As with everything, moderation is a good word to repeat.

 

[Oldvatr]

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 is made from cholesterol

If you leave the butter out of the fridge then it soon goes rancid. This is a visible sign of oxidation process. Same applies to milk and meat. It is the saturated fats that get oxidised mainly, so foods with high sat fat content will suffer this. However almond is mainly polyunsaturated with only about 1% sat fat, so is not as susceptible to this problem. Proof if needed is that both whole almonds and flour remain quite useable for some considerable length of time and do not deteriorate quickly if kept dry. In a damp atmosphere then yes they do go off quicker, but this is due to fungus growth and other chemical reactions involving water..

 

[Freema]

If you leave the butter out of the fridge then it soon goes rancid. This is a visible sign of oxidation process. Same applies to milk and meat. It is the saturated fats that get oxidised mainly, so foods with high sat fat content will suffer this. However almond is mainly polyunsaturated with only about 1% sat fat, so is not as susceptible to this problem. Proof if needed is that both whole almonds and flour remain quite useable for some considerable length of time and do not deteriorate quickly if kept dry. In a damp atmosphere then yes they do go off quicker, but this is due to fungus growth and other chemical reactions involving water..

well yes I guess you are right about that then... I use a lot of coconut-oil also when I bake ... it is high in saturated fat as far as I am informed... so coconut-flour would have to be used faster then ... ?

 

[Oldvatr]

well yes I guess you are right about that then... I use a lot of coconut-oil also when I bake ... it is high in saturated fat as far as I am informed... so coconut-flour would have to be used faster then ... ?

I have no experience in coconut flour, but yes it has mainly sat fat, but total fat is less than almond flours.

Shelf life of coconut flour is reckoned to be approx 1 year. compared to 10 years for normal grain based white flours. However, almond flour has a shorter shelf life of around 9 months unless kept in the freezer. Not sure if the limitation is due to the fat or is due to other chemical reactions going on with the other ingredients.

 

[Rachox]

Well having thrashed out the pros and cons of this article, I thought I'd post a picture of my low carb lemon shortbread! I make it with ground almonds which is cheaper and more readily available than almond flour, so I take comfort in ground almonds being slightly less pulverised than almond flour!

 

[Robbity]

They look very yummily good!

I can see no reason to stop using three of what I consider to be my low carb staples - ground almonds (or other nut meals, flours etc) , butter and eggs, to allow me to bake sweet goods occasionally as well as savoury ones, and this has helped keep me from having any major sugary carby cravings to disrupt my diet for well over three years now.

Robbity
PS And slightly off topic: one of the safe for diabetics alternative sweeteners I use - stevia - according to various sources including our own main site, (http://www.diabetes.co.uk/sweeteners/stevia.html) can together with various other health benefits apparently help improve glucose tolerance. So no issues with using that either..

KEEP CALM
and
CARRY ON BAKING!​

 

[AloeSvea]

The existence of almond flour is something I am deeply grateful for. Ditto my baking made with almond flour (and yes stevia if a sweetener is needed, rarely, but surely). I don't know how I would have transitioned from High Carb Low Fat T2D to LCHF and much lower HBA1c without the excellent and healthy (enough) substitute that baking with almond flour (and a lesser extent coconut flour) allowed, and still allows today.

I personally have not found nut flour baking to impact on my diabetes health markers badly, not at all. No impact on weight or BG or ultimately the HBA1c but positively.

Now - those Atkins bars, and artificially sweetened sweets - that's another story! .

 

[CherryAA]

The existence of almond flour is something I am deeply grateful for. Ditto my baking made with almond flour (and yes stevia if a sweetener is needed, rarely, but surely). I don't know how I would have transitioned from High Carb Low Fat T2D to LCHF and much lower HBA1c without the excellent and healthy (enough) substitute that baking with almond flour (and a lesser extent coconut flour) allowed, and still allows today.

I personally have not found nut flour baking to impact on my diabetes health markers badly, not at all. No impact on weight or BG or ultimately the HBA1c but positively.

Now - those Atkins bars, and artificially sweetened sweets - that's another story! .

I'm sure moderation is probably key. I must admit I wasn't really expecting a big debate about the fat absorption part at all simply the fact that highly processed foods change their properties compared to natural ones- and that probably includes fat, protein and carbs. I agree entirely that Atkins bars etc are a problem and I guess as low carbing catches on - if it does, then we can expect to see many more highly refined low carb products on the shelves. I , for one, will avoid them

I suspect that for many people home based bread with good quality flours might work quite well compared to the ones sold in our supermarkets. The actual properties of , for example, wheat, have changed dramatically over the last 30 years as increasing yields and shortened stems have made it more toxic

I personally cannot bake anyway - so its pretty irrelevant which particular brand of flour I don't use to make my non existent cakes.

If baking rocks your world, and the Great British Bake Off suggests that it might for at least a few diabetics, then maybe check out this Shipton-mill

https://www.shipton-mill.com/

I understand that they sell wheat grown like it was 50 year ago and some varieties that are supposed to be ok for diabetics.

I have bought some to thicken sauces, largely for gluten intolerant friends. I find I can add a bit of ordinary toxic flour into my sauce recipes without any particular ill effect for me personally but for others a mere hint of ordinary wheat triggers dreadful bloating.

 

[AloeSvea]

It's that ol' differing metabolisms thing, more than moderation, I suspect.

A good side-effect (!!!) of getting T2D for me was discovering the cause of my tummy bloating and many digestion issues (that I didn't really understand they were) were from wheat, when I dropped it due to the carb content. What a boon that was!

But, it is true that I am not lean, but normal weight-ed. So maybe it's the nut flours that prevent me going true-lean (and possibly, for me, lower HBA1cs/remission?).

I would have to experiment again, which I am thinking of doing, and that new experiment I have lined up would in fact entail no LCHF/Paleo baking, ie nut flours. :-(

Part of the experiment will also be - can I live happily without bread, muffins, pancakes, rolls, etc.? (All nut and coconut flour items.) Always a key issue when considering a more drastic diet to deal with the dastardly diabetes.

 

[AloeSvea]

ps, Dessert diabetes-friendly pies made from hazelnut flour are DIVINE. (With low carb berries - naturally!)

My partner and I love it without low-carb sweetener, but even non-diabetics like it if I sweeten it with stevia
.

 

[Rachox]

ps, Dessert diabetes-friendly pies made from hazelnut flour are DIVINE. (With low carb berries - naturally!)

My partner and I love it without low-carb sweetener, but even non-diabetics like it if I sweeten it with stevia
.

Recipe please?!

 

[Vhm1]

I suspect defatted brings in the ogre of further processing,

Mandelmel has a website that can be accessed to obtain information about how the almonds are defatted. The package indicates the almonds are 'cold pressed' to remove fat.

 

[Oldvatr]

Mandelmel has a website that can be accessed to obtain information about how the almonds are defatted. The package indicates the almonds are 'cold pressed' to remove fat.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil is supposed to be cold pressed too, but they often use chemical filters and colouring to improve the consumer experience. Milling is normally the term used for flours, and cold pressed applies to liquid extraction without heat. So cold pressing will I think leave the saturated fats behind in the residue (i,e, flour) since these need to be heated and/or chemicals for extraction. Similar to doing the dishwashing in cold water without detergent?

They will also probably need to add de-caking agents, and maybe the other additives they have to add by law to flours where milling removes micronutrients such as the fat soluble vitamins (Vit B12 et al) and may need to add calcium by the same token. So yes once it is processed into a flour for commercial sale, then it may well receive extra processing to comply with the EU regulations and to prolong shelf life.

 

[CherryAA]

It's that ol' differing metabolisms thing, more than moderation, I suspect.

A good side-effect (!!!) of getting T2D for me was discovering the cause of my tummy bloating and many digestion issues (that I didn't really understand they were) were from wheat, when I dropped it due to the carb content. What a boon that was!

But, it is true that I am not lean, but normal weight-ed. So maybe it's the nut flours that prevent me going true-lean (and possibly, for me, lower HBA1cs/remission?).

I would have to experiment again, which I am thinking of doing, and that new experiment I have lined up would in fact entail no LCHF/Paleo baking, ie nut flours. :-(

Part of the experiment will also be - can I live happily without bread, muffins, pancakes, rolls, etc.? (All nut and coconut flour items.) Always a key issue when considering a more drastic diet to deal with the dastardly diabetes.

I haven't eaten any of those things since the day of diagnosis I decided I couldn't be bothered trying to learn ho to make this stuff myself, instead I bought a big bag of spinach and used that in place of practically everything !

 

[Rachox]

I haven't eaten any of those things since the day of diagnosis I decided I couldn't be bothered trying to learn ho to make this stuff myself, instead I bought a big bag of spinach and used that in place of practically everything !

I don't think spinach would work well in my low carb shortbread!

 

[CherryAA]

I don't think spinach would work well in my low carb shortbread!

I did say I can't cook - i have done a bit of spinach baking it makes quite nice crisps instead

 

[Rachox]

Extra Virgin Olive Oil is supposed to be cold pressed too, but they often use chemical filters and colouring to improve the consumer experience. Milling is normally the term used for flours, and cold pressed applies to liquid extraction without heat. So cold pressing will I think leave the saturated fats behind in the residue (i,e, flour) since these need to be heated and/or chemicals for extraction. Similar to doing the dishwashing in cold water without detergent?

They will also probably need to add de-caking agents, and maybe the other additives they have to add by law to flours where milling removes micronutrients such as the fat soluble vitamins (Vit B12 et al) and may need to add calcium by the same token. So yes once it is processed into a flour for commercial sale, then it may well receive extra processing to comply with the EU regulations and to prolong shelf life.

I use Whitworths or Tesco own brand ground almonds and the only ingredient listed is almonds. I don't know if almond flour has things added, but I'm sticking with ground almonds as they are cheaper and work well in the recipes I've tried.

 

[Jo123]

I grind my own almonds in a mini proccesser, slightly coarser than almond flour, but still work in baking. And they contain more fibre from the nut skins.

 

[Deleted member 308541]

I made a small almond meal loaf of "bread", which was about six slices all told.

Going to up the recipe and make a bigger one.

According to nutrition on the packet it's abut 3.7 grams per 100.

 

[AloeSvea]

Yum! Yay almond meal!

Yeah - spinach crisps wouldn't do it for me. . But fantastic if it does! And it works for you.