In The Raw

- Jennifer Bowden

Question: I recently came across a recipe that included almonds and the advice to use raw nuts as “roasting destroys the minerals”. Do you agree, or can I safely enjoy roasted nuts?

Answer: Every silver lining has its cloud. And roasting certainly has a magnificent silver lining. French scientist Louis Camille Maillard first described the high-temperature chemical reaction that gives foods such as seared lamb roasts and fresh baked bread and cookies their distinctive flavour. But back to that cloud.

When we roast almonds, undesirable changes can occur, but those aren’t related to mineral content. In fact, roasted almonds have the same proportion of minerals per 100g as raw nuts.

Roasted almonds may have more or less of some vitamins, however. For example, roasted almonds had more folate but significantly less vitamin B1 (thiamine) when assessed for the New Zealand Food Composition tables. The same trend is seen in food composition data from the US, where most of our almonds originate.