Top Organic Raw Nuts and Seeds for Your Diet

Rawfood Recipes

Nuts and seeds are a valuable part of a raw food diet. Not only do they provide a great boost of energy, they give your body vitamins and minerals and help protect it against illness, including heart disease. When adding nuts and seeds to your diet, make sure that they are organic and raw, as the roasting process can harm the important nutrients that they have to offer.

Best Nuts
Nuts are high in fat, it is true, but they are high in monounsaturated fat. The "good kind," this fat helps keep your heart healthy and fights many other diseases. Nuts are also a great source of protein, which is important in a raw diet. People traditionally get their protein by eating meat, so raw food dieters must ensure that they incorporate protein into their meals in other ways. Furthermore, nuts can help lower cholesterol and prevent weight gain!

Here is a list of the five best nuts to incorporate into your diet:
Almonds
Brazil Nuts
Pecans
Walnuts
Cedar Nuts / Pine Nuts

Best Seeds
Seeds also provide a great deal of value to your raw food diet. High in vitamin E, fiber, and monounsaturated fats, seeds contribute to keeping your heart healthy and protecting your body from disease. Furthermore, seeds contain protein, zinc, and a variety of other minerals and nutrients that are important to the proper functioning of your body. Once adopted into your diet, organic, raw seeds will become an important asset to a healthy meal plan.

Here are some of the best seeds you can eat:
Sunflower Seeds
Sesame Seeds
Hemp Seeds
Chia Seeds
Pumpkin Seeds

Picking and Preparing the Right Nuts and Seeds
When perusing the selection of nuts and seeds at your local grocery store, you may find it difficult to determine which are actually organic and raw. A federal mandate, which was passed in 2007, requires that all almonds grown in the United States be pasteurized. Due to the pasteurization process, these almonds are not raw. Although supporting local business is important, you will have to purchase imported almonds in order to procure raw almonds. Do your research to ensure that the nuts and seeds you buy fit in with your raw food diet. Before eating nuts, they can be soaked. Some people believe that the soaking process enhances the way that they interact with the body. Soaked or not, raw, organic nuts and seeds are a wonderful addition to any diet!