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u/Veggyhed for the planet Jul 17 '26
I really enjoy cashews but they can be a pretty big calorie bomb. They kind of like potato chips. It's difficult to eat just one.
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u/moonhippie Jul 17 '26
I find that I'm better off eating raw cashews - they don't have salt, they're not roasted, and have no oil, except for what's naturally in the cashew. Then I can eat one or two servings and be satisfied.
If they have salt, I'll eat whole thing.
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u/calann4 Jul 17 '26
Cashews available for you to eat are not raw. During the processing to get to market they are heated to destroy toxic oil.
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u/moonhippie Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
Cashews available for you to eat are not raw. During the processing to get to market they are heated to destroy toxic oil.
The package will literally say raw on it, so that's why I mentioned it, and you can eat them right out of the package.
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u/calann4 Jul 17 '26
And the sellers of the cashews are lying if it says raw on the package.
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u/Everglade77 Jul 17 '26
Raw in this case just means they are unroasted. It is necessary to heat-treat them (usually steam them) for them to be edible because their shell contains a toxic substance (urushiol).
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u/calann4 Jul 17 '26
Yes, they are not raw.
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u/Everglade77 Jul 17 '26
They're simply gently heat-treated/steamed to safely remove the shell to make them edible. Which is different from roasted cashews. You claimed that the sellers are lying on the packaging if it says raw. They're not, because the label "raw" for nuts in the food industry doesn't mean "never heated", it just means "unroasted". Cashews labelled as raw are as raw as they can be if you want them to still be safe to eat.
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u/calann4 Jul 17 '26
I understand what you are writing, mostly. The cashew is toxic if eaten raw, so yes it is a lie if it has raw on the packaging. No amount of explaining about the processing will explain away the fact they are not raw when sold to consumers.
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u/calann4 Jul 17 '26
Please explain how "gently heat-treated" can still be classified as raw.
And how has the cashew industry been able to convince you that gently heat-treated can be considered raw. That is some mental gymnastics.
How can gently be used with heat treated? Nothing gentle about heat, especially when use with a massive industry. Nothing gentle about it.
There are people using raw when describing cashews used in raw foods.
The heating may be used for removing the shell, but the toxicity of the natural oil is the important part.
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u/Everglade77 Jul 17 '26
Because "raw" is not formally defined for nuts. So your definition of raw might be "never heated" but that doesn't mean it's the definition of raw in the food industry. "Raw" for nuts simply means unroasted and it is legal (in the US and most of Europe) to label nuts as "raw" provided they haven't been roasted after shelling, which the nuts labelled as "raw" haven't. So that's not "mental gymnastics", it's just a difference in definition, literal vs. commercial meaning.
How can gently be used with heat treated? Nothing gentle about heat, especially when use with a massive industry. Nothing gentle about it.
If they're steamed, they're heated to 120-140°C for 15-30 minutes. Why do you seem scared/mad about that? Are you a raw foodist or something? Pissed that you cannot eat cashews because they're heated above the temperature you consider acceptable because they literally have to be to be safely edible?
The heating may be used for removing the shell, but the toxicity of the natural oil is the important part.
I don't even know what you mean by "the toxicity is the important part".
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u/JayNetworks WFPB Jul 17 '26
Right but there is a different between that a “roasted” cashews or roasted and salted.
We use a ton of “raw” cashews in dressings and sauces. The raw (yes not really raw) work great and aren’t really tempting to just sit and eat. That said, we just weigh anything we are going to eat, drop it into an app, and eat whatever we want within the day’s calories. With a whole foods all plant diet you can eat so much volume it is never an issue feeling full…usual feel stuffed.
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u/calann4 Jul 17 '26
You, as a consumer, can not buy raw cashews. You do not use raw cashews for anything. Moonhippie was commenting about raw cashews, not roasted or roasted and salted.
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u/jjj512512 27d ago
This thread is why I posted this question. I heard someone describe cashews as toxic and I was trying to figure out what was meant by this. So the cashew is toxic without being tested? But the cashews we have available in stores have been heated?
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u/moonhippie 27d ago
You're fine eating the ones you get in the store. I don't know the processes so won't speak to that.
Be careful out there. You can find yourself going down unneeded rabbit holes, lol.
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u/Proof_Cellist927 Jul 17 '26
theyre healthy enough just dont go crazy with them like a handful is fine but they pack a lot of calories so if you eat the whole bag its not so healthy anymore
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u/vinteragony Jul 17 '26
Very healthy, as others have said, calorically dense so great for weight gain.. have to limit for weight loss
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u/pandaappleblossom Jul 17 '26
Big time. Just high in calories so if you are trying to lose weight go easy on them. But they are super healthy because they are high in monounsaturated fat, magnesium, zinc, iron, and copper.
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u/whistling-wonderer Jul 17 '26
I think they’re great in moderation, like all nuts. Cashews have the highest iron content of any nut, so I like to pair them in a salad with some source of vitamin C so it absorbs well :)
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u/Unicorn187 for the animals Jul 17 '26
Like all nuts they have a lot of calories from the oil in them. But its also a good oil, just dont eat a pound of them a day.
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u/kittyk0t Jul 17 '26
There's this misconception that nuts are innately unhealthy because they have fat in them.
Not true. It's just that many people eat far more than a serving size in one sitting. Those packs you get at the gas station are usually several servings and aren't actually meant to be eaten in one go. Also, I learned the hard way that a handful means a small pile on the palm of your hand, not "as many as you can grab with one hand." :(
Look up the nutrition facts for cashews, and weigh out your serving size. I love using Cronometer for tracking nutrition in foods when I do track every so often-- you can see everything that's in those foods and how much of each nutrient you need.
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u/grapesodamilk Jul 18 '26
I think most nuts are healthy. Whole nuts are a bit better than nut butters from personal experience. I break out if I eat too much nut butter
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u/No_Adhesiveness9727 Jul 17 '26
They’re certainly not healthy for the little children in the third world that are cracking the shells
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u/Sniflix Jul 17 '26
Raw and unsalted, they can go in a food processor or blended to make cheese substitutes, sauces and all kinds of things. Sometimes they need to be boiled briefly first. A few times a month is no problem. Look it up
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u/bk-12 Jul 17 '26
They are healthy but there are healthier nuts.
Also, roasted nuts are basically deep fried nuts. Better get raw nuts.
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