Did you ever make pinatas as a child? You mix flour and water to make the paper mache glue, then apply to a cute wire frame covered with newspaper and let it harden into a form. Add colored paper or paint and you have a pinata! (Candy optional!)
So what is flour and water? Not food, but GLUE! (Did I hear someone say “Oh…. as in constipation”?) Yep, that’s glue for you…
Consider instead the lovely almond, and flour made from almonds and other nuts. Properly prepared almonds are high in protein and good fat, both of which are sorely lacking in grains. Nuts are basically a perfect food (IF you can handle them – more on that on a moment), being about equal in protein, fat and carbohydrate. Almond flour, pecan flour or other nut flours can be used to make high protein pancakes and muffins that won’t make your blood sugar unstable.
Almond flour is a finer texture than almond meal, so watch your recipes carefully for what they call for. There are many free recipes on the web, and many in the extraordinary Paleo cookbooks of the last few years. Given the price of almonds, it is not surprising that almond flour is roughly $7 – $10 a pound. Honeyville is one good brand of almond flour, and is the one I carry in my offices.
Almond meal is generally not blanched and is darker and a heavier consistency than almond flour. Bob’s Red Mill calls their product Almond Meal/Flour and is about $9 a pound. And it is sold in clear plastic bags stored on the grocery shelves without refrigeration. Oxidizing under those big glowing fluorescent lights! I’m not a big fan of this.
Simple pan-cakes can be cooked up, frozen, and popped into the toaster when “bread” is desired, mostly as a good excuse to have some nice Organic Ghee, Coconut Butter or Nut Butter slathered on. The flour can be used to coat foods before baking, and it makes a good crust for quiche. It won’t rise like wheat flour, but makes excellent muffins, crusts, and small loaves leavened with baking powder. Keep almond flour refrigerated or frozen, as with all other flour, nuts, cereals, etc.
Two things about nuts… First, as seeds, they contain strong defenses to protect against being eaten, digested, molding or sprouting prematurely. These seed toxins are part of what make wheat, beans, oats and other seeds bad for humans. They need to be soaked to get those toxic coatings off. Nourishing Traditions cookbook has easy guidelines for proper soaking and drying of nuts, and you can buy them already prepared from Wilderness Family Naturals or Living Nutz. Get the soaked and dried, sprouted nuts, not the regular raw ones unless you want to do this yourself which is easy.
Secondly, if you struggle with any of the Retro Viruses such as Herpes, Shingles, AIDS or Epstein Barr, the high dose of Arginine in nuts, coconut MEAT or BUTTER, (not the OIL), and chocolate will aggravate the virus. Take L-Lysine, away from food to counteract the Arginine on the day you choose to eat nuts. Or avoid them.
If you have chronic immune problems, don’t eat quantities of buts or nut flour daily.
For more on Nuts and Seeds, their preparation and uses, listen to my ”Primal Diet – Modern Health” podcast titled “Nuts & Seeds: Benefits, Drawbacks and Preparation” on iTunes or on my website at www.ondietandhealth.com. Or read my blog post titled “Nuts and Seeds; The Good and The Bad”. If you enjoyed reading this article, please share it, and subscribe to my newsletter!
If you want to read my fun blog post on “eating” a pinata, check out my June 2011 post titled “Have You Eaten A Pinata Today?” You’ll never look at a bag of flour the same way again!
A passionate activist for Health, Women, the Environment, Justice and Sustainability, 
HERE’S A GUEST POST FROM THE “GRASS-FED GIRL” REVIEWING MY DVD, THE DIET FOR HUMAN BEINGS AND ANSWERING COMMON QUESTIONS ABOUT THE DIET! THANKS, CAITLIN 
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