Ok…so I’m a little hot under the collar. Hot enough that while I’ve barely kept up with working 4 part-time jobs and homeschooling my children this week, I am still squeezing out time to blog in rebuttal. Or shall we say rebottomal? I’d like to keep this nice. :)
I wasn’t going to link the blog in question because I didn’t want to make it seem I had a personal vendetta. I don’t know this lady. I have only read a few of her blogs. I’m sure she’s perfectly nice and knowledgeable and caring. That is not where my beef is. I’m looking strictly at the arguments she posted for avoiding almond flour and I disagree. It is as simple as that. I decided that if I *didn’t* link the blog I’d be doing the author a disservice by not allowing her words to speak for themselves. So…because it is late and I’d like to sleep sometime tonight, I’ll dive right in. I’ll be posting her reasons for avoiding almond flour, followed by my rebuttal.
Reason #1: Almond flour skews perception about quantity. The author of this blog says she has calculated the number of almonds per cup of almond flour, and that that number is around 90 almonds.
Rebuttal #1: If your argument against almond flour centers on the amount consumed, you might want to weigh it to be sure. I weighed a cup of almond flour, scooped into my measuring cup with a spoon as I always do. It was 2.4 ounces. I weighed 90 almonds. They were 3.4 ounces. That would be about 25-30 almonds per ounce. A half-ounce to an ounce of almonds is considered to be one serving size, depending on your source of data. Using these numbers, I looked at a few of the recipes I use on a regular basis. The blueberry streusel muffins I’ve been making lately use 2 cups of almond flour per dozen muffins. That would be 4.8 ounces per 12 muffins; if each person ate one muffin (which is typical for one serving in our household), each person would ingest .4 ounces of almond flour per muffin. That is less than the lowest recommendation I’ve seen for a serving size by 20% and would be the equivalent of 10-12 almonds. I don’t see anything excessive about that. And really, I don’t feel that eating 2 or even 3 muffins would be excessive at that quantity.
Reason #2: Almond flour is very high in inflammatory PUFAs. The author of this blog highlights why PUFAs are bad, and then says that they’re only harmful when consumed in excess.
Rebuttal #2: I don’t argue that excessive PUFAs can have negative health consequences, but I think I established above that the levels in an average serving of almond flour are not excessive. From my personal experience, I can say that I experienced a clinically significant drop in inflammation markers (double the referenced norms to practically zero, per my rheumatologist a few months ago) while consuming almond flour nearly daily over almost two years. Clearly the PUFAs did not cause an increase in inflammation in my body.
Reason #3: The fats in almond flour aren’t heat stable. And here she has a valid argument. Oxidation IS a bad thing, and almond oil will oxidize when exposed to heat. But her main point is that consuming excessive amounts of almond flour is going to increase this risk to dangerous levels.
Rebuttal #3: This is my purely personal opinion: I don’t think the average person consuming almond flour is consuming enough to make this a serious issue. And I think any oxidation during the baking process can easily be offset by increasing antioxidant-rich foods in the diet. I don’t claim to be an expert but I am going to pull the “grad certificate in nutrition right here!” card. Eating a varied diet is going to go a long way towards keeping balance in the cells of your body.
Reason #4: Almond flour is high in oxalates. And here she just basically says that almonds have tons of oxalates.
Rebuttal #4: I guess I just got annoyed with this one because it is a generalization. And again, I’m going to go back to my original rebuttal: the amount of almond flour in a serving of baked goods is not likely to be excessive. Is the author advocating avoiding spinach, which also contains high levels of oxalates? No. In fact, she says here that spinach can be part of a balanced diet. *If* excessive amounts of almond flour and other oxalate-rich foods are being consumed regularly, you might see an issue here. In the amounts I’ve shown that my family consumes, I’m going to say it is not an issue.
Reason #5: Coconut flour is healthier than almond flour. Bam! The author notes that coconut flour has plenty of saturated fats (no argument there) and that you can use less of it than almond flour. And…that’s it.
Rebuttal #5: I admit it. This is the one that really got me. I weighed the coconut flour I would use for 3 of my Cinnamon Bun Muffins (1/4 cup) and it came out to 1.2 ounces. Per muffin, that would be .4 ounces…which is the same weight as the almond flour in one of my favorite almond flour muffins. So let’s compare them, shall we? You can input the weight of almonds in this calculator and the weight of dry unsweetened coconut here. Per .4 ounce, almond flour has 3 times the protein, 9 times the calcium, and 3 times the magnesium in this comparison. You can look at the rest of the nutrients and judge for yourself which flour is healthier.
Conclusion: The main reason I felt a strong need to rebut the above blog is that I see so much confusion in GAPS/SCD circles about whether or not certain foods are going to kill them or set back their recovery. Most of the information that is floating around is not based on science – it is based on opinion. Please, please, please…do some legwork of your own. Listen to your body. Use common sense. Eat as many different types of foods as you can. Ask questions. Make sure you are eating enough food to encourage recovery (another of my pet peeves!). Realize that what is working for someone else may not be best for you. And if you notice misinformation, do your best to make it right. GAPS/SCD does work when done correctly and we as a community are doing ourselves a disservice if we let misinformation define us.
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