Nut based diet?

Hi. I´m working for some few years with organic agriculture and food forest. I wonder if a diet based on fruits, vegetables, roots, nuts and milk would be healthy. I harvest almost all my food. Some roots as sweet potato and manioc for example are highly yealding in small areas (carbohydrate sources) . In comparison, grain production (protein sources)  is much less intensive and a much larger area and toil are necessary to produce it. My actual intake of proteins is based on milk, beans and peanuts. I eat it every day for many years and am very healthy. My question is: could I stop eating peanuts and beans and eat only nuts as substitutes? A nut tree produces a lot, with no work at all, with no soil disturbance and cattle and chickens may live under it (and manure it). Thanks!

Hi Fabio,

I'm thinking that if you only ate nuts and one kind of  nut at that, this might not be sufficient.  It's usually best to have a more diverse set of sources of protein from what I can gather.  If you are tolerant of milk and are still planning to graze cattle, then keeping that in your diet might be enough.  Clearly you are trying to stick to perennials, and eliminate work, and so you might try growing other protein rich nuts and seeds on shrubs or trees that grow well locally. while cattle and other large critters can be grazed beneath nut trees, it should be noted that they can also damage the roots of the nut trees over time.  Some separation, or at least some protection of the roots would go a long way.

If you eat a lot of nuts, then it helps to soak them in salt water and then dehydrated them before eating them.  This neutralizes the growth inhibitors in the nuts.  Sally Fallon recounts an interesting story in her "Nourishing Traditions" cookbook... A person decided to stop eating meat and only ate raw nuts for protein.  This lasted for about 2 months and then the person "began experiencing an unpleasant heavy sensation in the abdomen and a feeling of extreme fullness and some nausea.  The symptoms were pronounced enough to force the person to give up this tasty diet."  The enzyme inhibitors in seeds explain the mystery.  The basic recipe is: 4 cups nuts, 1 tbsp sea salt, water.  Fill a quart mason jar with nuts.  Add the salt.  Fill the jar with water and shake it.  Let sit at least 7 hours or overnight.  Then drain the water and dehydrate the nuts at a temperature at or below 150 degrees Farenheit until thoroughly dry and crisp.  Store in an airtight container.  I have been eating a lot of nuts over the past couple years and always prepare them this way.  I feel fine and it seems like a good diet.

Could folks clarify which nuts they are talking about. Walnuts , hazel , pecan , macadamia , chestnut , almond ,etc  to me are different  . I eat quite a lot of them .   and am intending to eat more in the future.

David

I eat a lot of nuts as well and they are probably my main source for fats and proteins but I do eat mix the nuts with other foods as well. In my case I eat black walnuts and acorns but I usually do not harvest enough acorns to last the year and purchase almond meal to make a yogurt from. The one issue with nuts is that you have to travel in some years to find harvestable fruit as alot of trees do not produce every year or even year after year. I agree, nuts are very healthy food source.

Hmm. Very interseting. Thanks for the hint about soaking! I actually don´t eat too much nuts but I´m planing to eat more and more when my trees start producing. I live in south of Brazil. Here we may cultivate pecans and almonds besides some native from Brazil (Baru? Castanha do maranhão) which are unfortunatelly not widely grown or even known by people. Thanks!

Thanks Fabio
Wow a new nut  Noisetier de Cayenne - Bombacopsis glabra I love nuts any idea of the climate demands of this one . I have found some where to buy them in France
It says they are starchy like chestnut not oily like walnut .
I was thinking you were talking about Brazil nuts at first also known as noix d'Amazonia- castanhas-do-pará - Bertholletia excelsa

Actually Brazil Nuts (which real name could be translated as "Pará Nut" - Pará being the name of a state in Br). Cannot be cultivated here where I live.

... Yes. Perenials!

Sometimes I wonder about the saying of Jesus that "the birds don't sow nor reap and yet nothing lacks them". Why is man tied to toil?

After all thats what permaculture is all about. A system that works alone. How man is destined to live is intrinsically conected to what he is destined to eat.