Soaking Nuts Before Consuming? Food Expert Explains The Impact Of Soaking On The Nutrient Content Of Nuts

There’s a lot of information floating around about foods and how they should and shouldn’t be consumed. However, not everything that you watch on the internet is true and most of the time, this information is true only to some extent. Therefore, it is important that you consume content that is accurate and true. Food expert, Krish Ashok, popularly known as _masalalab on Instagram, shared a video recently where he speaks on how one should consume nuts, with or without soaking.

Soaking nuts has become a popular trend because it apparently helps to increase the nuts nutritional value and consuming unsoaked nuts can have a negative impact on your health. He starts the video by stating that several influencers have said that it is extremely important to soak nuts before consuming them because of two reasons. The first reason is because Ayurveda says so and secondly, because science says so. According to certain influencers, “soaking helps to reduce phytates which reduces the absorption of other micronutrients, like zinc, calcium and iron,” says Ashok.

He adds, “Influencers have now stepped on the gas pedal claiming that unsoaked nuts will cause gut issues, skin disease and every other problem short of climate change.”

Ashok then goes on to explain with scientific evidence how the soaking of nuts impacts the nutritional content of the nuts. He says, “So it should be pretty simple to measure phytate levels before soaking and after soaking and publish those results and some scientists did. Infact, scientists soaked the nuts for 4 hours and 12 hours, with and without salt for a range of nuts and then they tested for the amount of phytates and minerals before and after.”

Speaking of the results of the study, Krish Ashok says that soaking makes little to no difference to phytate levels. “Infact for almonds, for which there are thousands of videos claiming otherwise, phytate levels increased on soaking. On top of that, soaking resulted in some mineral loss.”

He then goes on to explain that soaking does help to reduce phytate levels, however, that is applicable only in legumes like dal and rajma and it doesn’t work for nuts.

“So if you want to eat unsoaked roasted nuts, go for it. If you want to soak them and eat them, go for it. Soak or don’t soak, doesn’t matter but for sure, don’t soak your in social media health advice.”

The study shared by Krish Ashok states that “Differences in phytate concentrations between treated and untreated nuts were small, ranging from -12% to +10%. Overall, soaking resulted in lower mineral concentrations, especially for chopped nuts, and did not improve phytate: mineral molar ratios. This research does not support claims that 'activating' nuts results in greater nutrient bioavailability.”