Roasted vs. Natural Almonds

[holy.roller]

Can you shed any light on whether there is a nutritional difference between roasted and natural almonds? Roasted almonds taste much better and I greatly prefer them but since the reason I’m eating almonds at all is for their nutritional value, I don’t want to cheat myself. Any help would be appreciated.

[Duckster]

1. Is there a difference in the fat content of raw almonds as compared to dry roasted almonds?

Years and years of nutrient analysis conducted by the almond industry and independently by the United States Department of Agriculture has shown that there is virtually no distinguishable differences.

Source: http://www.almondsarein.com/AlmondLovers/content.cfm?ItemNumber=1556&mnItemNumber=3878&snItemNumber=3896&tnItemNumber=3898&qnItemNumber=3941

Effects of Plant-Based Diets High in Raw or Roasted Almonds, or Roasted Almond Butter on Serum Lipoproteins in Humans

Objective: To compare the lipid-altering effect of roasted salted almonds and roasted almond butter with that of raw almonds, as part of a plant-based diet.

Methods: Thirty-eight free-living, hypercholesterolemic men (n = 12) and women (n = 26) with a mean total serum cholesterol (TC) of 245 + 29 mg/dL (mean + SD) followed a heart-healthy diet including 100g of one of three forms of almonds: roasted salted almonds, roasted almond butter or raw almonds for four weeks. Measurements of serum TC, triglycerides (TG), selected lipoproteins and blood pressure were taken at baseline and after four weeks.

Results: All three forms of almonds in the context of a heart-healthy diet significantly lowered low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL) from baseline to the completion of the study. Both raw and roasted almonds significantly lowered TC, whereas the decrease by almond butter (in a smaller cohort) did not reach statistical significance. High-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL) did not significantly change with raw or roasted almonds but slightly increased with almond butter. At the end of the study, blood pressure did not change significantly from baseline values for any of the groups.

Conclusion: These results suggest that unblanched almonds—whether raw, dry roasted, or in roasted butter form—can play an effective role in cholesterol-lowering, plant-based diets.

Source: Publications & Nutrition Research Papers - Journal of the American Center for Nutrition

Sometimes you feel like a nut; sometimes you don’t

[Cervaise]

I read someplace, might have been on these boards, that the browning of roasted foods (the caramelization of the maillard reaction, or whatever) causes a very slight increase in the carcinogenic properties of the food. True?

[Quiddity_Glomfuster]

[QUOTE=Cervaise]
I read someplace, might have been on these boards, that the browning of roasted foods (the caramelization of the maillard reaction, or whatever) causes a very slight increase in the carcinogenic properties of the food. True?
[/QUOTE]

I believe that pertains to meats (or maybe you’re referring to the breadcrust post).

I think the problem with a lot of roasted nuts is that they’ve been roasted in oil but if you get dry-roasted nuts you should be ok.

[Nars_Glinley]

[QUOTE=holy.roller]
Can you shed any light on whether there is a nutritional difference between roasted and natural almonds?
[/QUOTE]

Roasted almonds won’t kill you.

[holy.roller]

Thanks for the info!