The Upsetting Character of Nuts

The interstitial cystitis(IC) bladder pain syndrome(interstitial cystitis, vulvodynia, chronic prostatitis, IBS, GERD, fibromyalgia)with flares can be amplified by the routine use of nuts of any kind and this includes their butters!!  Peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter

Why?

Unlike the matter science(MS) nutritional information that fatty acids are good and bad, the energy science(ES) of Ayurveda states that all nuts are inflammatory due to these molecular fatty acids regardless of the “good or bad nature of them”   The reason for this is that the post digestive(small bowel) effect is heating therefore inflammation provoking

The sweet taste of many foods covers the acidic nature of the foods itself and this is true of the nut category  This is why the ES nutritional information trumps the MS guesswork around nutrition and is why the anecdotal information of the MS nutritional realm is at times confusing hence flares and then no flares   What gives?   This also explains why various other inflammatory conditions are interrelated with IC such as fibromyalgia, IBS, chronic fatigue syndrome(CFS), GERD, prostatitis(did you know that PSA is a marker for inflammation?), and CPPS(chronic pelvic pain syndrome)

As an aside this sweet taste of nuts in general make them a great choice for building tissue since the sweet taste is anabolic

OK Then What Can I Use for Nuts? 

Sorry to blow your day if you crave the mixed nuts but there is certainly a favorite guideline of mine and that is “There are no hard guidelines in the ES realms”  Know that if you use the foods that are provoking that you increase the likelihood of a flare   That use of inflammatory foods will keep you up at the ceiling of the curve below rather than allowing your mindbody to do the rebalancing as the curve progresses to the right(BTW the ascent from the left shows how we gradually get sick over decades by our own choices(Oh shoot, you didn’t have to say that did you?)

Soaked and peeled almonds(this is very important! or you can use slivered almonds from the bulk section of the grocery store if they have one ) are very helpful for their nutritive benefit but also for their cooling effect  Turns out that the skin of the almond holds enzymes that in and of themselves are inflammatory   Almonds are not actually nuts but in the end who cares

Charole(actually seeds like sunflower) is another nut choice  It’s a very small nut found in very few stores in the US(I know because Ive looked; let me know if you have a source that you would share with the community) and is heating but due to the size and its energetics is acceptable and does not provoke Pitta(more about this energy pattern in future blog posts)

And of course coconut because it’s COOLING!  The general energy science principle is this:  Plants that grow in hot climates are there for a very specific reason  Their job is to make the environment cold(well cooler) and so Momma Nature is always taking care of balancing herself

What about nut milks?  Almond Breeze is made from blanched and peeled almonds so a great drink  Coconut milk also is a very nutritious drink and both these “nut” milks make great date shakes  More about that in the future

3 Nut Alternatives

Here are three options for substitution without provoking inflammation or the Pitta energy pattern in the physiology

Use the above three recommendations and make your own nut butters from the slivered almonds

Sunflower seeds can be used by anyone anywhere anytime  Sooo..  sunflower butter sold at Trader Joe’s is an excellent proprietary product and the best tasting sunflower butter on the planet    Have tasted many and this by far is the closest to peanut butter with a nice sweet taste  Mmm good!

Give yourself “permission” to have a few nuts every once and a while if the craving is too great   The ES reminds us that food cravings are a result of imbalanced digestion so the faster we can improve our digestion the better it will be