Food Review: Will the Non-Rancid Almond Butter Please Stand Up?

Lately I've been on an anti-candida diet to lower the amount of yeast and mold in my intestinal tract.  Yuck, right?  Well, I'm not alone.  At the wellness center I worked at, I estimated that about 75% of people who came in also had too much yeast (Candida albicans) in their body.  Systemic overgrowth of Candida can cause headaches, allergies, food allergies, fatigue, and much, much more.

My anti-candida diet generally consists of fresh meat and vegetables, fats, coconut milk, nuts, lemons, a few berries, and green apples.  Sugars and starches feed yeast.  Since milk has a considerable amount of sugar in the form of lactose, most dairy is out.  Peanuts are also out as they are often found to be contaminated with mold.

Obviously, peanut butter is out as well.  So what to eat with my snack of Granny Smith apples?  Almond butter.  If you read my previous post on "Enzymes" ideally, I should be making own almond butter from almonds that are soaked in salt water (for increased digestibility) and then dried at a very low temperature to preserve the enzyme content.  You then process the dried almonds in a food processor until they form a powder and then process with enough coconut oil to make it into a "butter."  But, hey, we all need short-cuts from time to time.

Not a fan of the rancid taste...

So, I have tried a couple different nut butters.  The latest disappointment was with MaraNatha All Natural No-Stir Creamy Almond Butter.  I admit that I picked it for the $5.99 price tag, with many of the organic 100% almond butters being in the $10 (and up) neighborhood.  I tasted it with my sliced green apples.  Creamy...rancid.  Another bite to confirm.  Yep, still rancid.  I don't know if it was the added palm oil to make this product "no-stir" or if it was old, or made with rancid almonds, but I do not recommend MaraNatha products.  Nevermind that I went to the Natural Food Expo in D.C. with an ACRES U.S.A. press pass and visited their table and they were unfriendly, at best.  (I was probably asking questions about how much of their nuts were grown in the U.S., or something).

Mmmm.....decent!

Next time, at the grocery store, I decided to go with Kettle brand roasted almond butter.  Again, I was interested in a lower price tag - $5.89.  This came in a smaller quantity (11 oz.) and a plastic jar, unfortunately, but I was willing to overlook some things if it meant I could have an almond butter that didn't taste like it had rotten oils in it.

To my surprise, the Kettle Almond Butter tasted great!  It has a roasted and salty flavor (I chose the salted variety).  You do have to stir it, but I now find that to be a small inconvenience to have edible almond butter.