27/02/20

Tiger nuts, the best alternative for consumers dealing with food allergies and intolerances

In previous posts we have focused on the importance of including tiger nuts in your daily diet to benefit from its many properties: fibre, minerals, vitamins, etc. We have tried to inspire you with all the possible ways this can be done, from the traditional horchata beverage to cooking and baking with tiger nut flour.

As root tubers, tiger nuts are free of all the main food allergies, not containing lactose, fructose, nor gluten and of course, not being nuts; becoming a perfect food solution for allergy sufferers. Moreover, thanks to their high nutrient content tiger nuts are nowadays considered a superfood, which can help to supplement the lack of macro and micronutrients caused in diets missing main ingredient groups.

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“Tiger nuts are a great alternative for people with food allergies and intolerances. They are free of lactose, fructose and gluten and of course, they are not nuts”.

Lactose free tiger nut mylk

For lactose intolerant consumers, tiger nut mylk is a great plant based drink to substitute dairy milk.

Lactose is a type of carbohydrate present in dairy milk. People with this intolerance lack lactase, an enzyme in the small intestine needed to digest lactose from animal milk. This intolerance is increasingly common in both young people and adults, who suffer discomfort such as feeling full, cramping, or even nausea.

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When being diagnosed with this intolerance, proper dietary-nutritional treatment is very important, since it is necessary to replace foods containing this carbohydrate with foods of similar nutritional value. Tiger nut mylk can be a suitable alternative, since it is a natural source of calcium (59.5 mg in 200ml), a mineral necessary for good health and prevent bone diseases, such as osteoporosis.

You should know that the food industry sometimes adds lactose or milk protein as an additive to processed foods, such as sausages, cookies, beverages and even sometimes horchata, in order to modify the texture and extend its shelf life. Therefore, when buying a product, it is vitally important for customers to carefully read ingredient and allergen labels to see if the food is suitable for their diet.

Tiger nuts are gaining more and more followers due to its eupeptic-digestive properties provided by its high enzyme content, such as amylase and lipase that facilitate the digestion of carbohydrates and fats, thus improving the quality of digestion and avoiding gases and heartburn.

“Tiger nuts are a prebiotic food because of their high starch content, which favours the growth of beneficial intestinal flora, thus helping the absortion of ingested nutrients and preventing constipation”.

Tiger nut mylk is not only suitable for intolerant people, but it is perfect to include in vegan diets, which eliminate all animal origin foods. Tiger nut beverage provides more nutrients than most plant based drinks.

Tiger nuts: a gluten free food

Celiac disease is the permanent intolerance to gluten that is normally suffered due to a genetic predisposition. People suffering from this intolerance suffer an inflammatory reaction in the mucosa of the small intestine that hinders the absorption of macro and micro nutrients.

Gluten is a set of vegetable proteins composed of gliadins and glutenins, naturally present in the seeds of some cereals such as wheat, barley or rye.

In addition, due to the properties of gluten, the food industry uses it for all kinds of elaborations. For example to improve the quality and elasticity of the doughs in bakery and pastry, and even in sausages, spreads or sweets to provide greater consistency to products.

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Nutritional dietary treatment is the only solution for intolerants, but always under the supervision of a specialist to control that the suppression of gluten-free foods does not involve as a negative side effect nutritional deficits.

“It is important to emphasize that increasingly people are looking for a more balanced and healthy diet, and even without being celiac, decide to reduce the intake of cereals containing gluten in order to increase their energy levels and lose weight”.

If you want to give up cereals voluntarily or you must due to medical prescription, tiger nuts are are an ideal food choice to help! As you know, they are a gluten-free tuber that naturally provide a large amount of macro and micronutrients. Furthermore, tiger nuts are a natural source of energy due to their high starch content, which favors the absorption of all nutrients, and also their high fiber content that facilitates intestinal transit.

Tiger nuts are perfect for all types of diets and can be consumed in a large variety of ways, not only raw as a snack or horchata as a vegetable drink.

Tiger nut flour is suitable as a substitute of gluten-free cereal flour, and can be used in all kinds of recipes: such as in the preparation of bread, biscuits, cakes, cookies, etc. In fact, due to its natural sweetness it will also allow you to reduce the amount of sugar used in recipes.

Thanks to the tiger nuts, a gluten free diet can be just as rich and fun!

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Fructose intolerance

Fructose is a monosaccharide naturally present in some vegetables, fruits and honey.

Fructose intolerance or malabsorption is the difficulty of absorbing this type of simple sugar at an intestinal level or the difficulty of it being metabolized by our cells. People suffering from this intolerance should avoid all foods that contain fructose, sucrose and sorbitol.

Fructose is commonly used in processed foods or soft drinks as it is a powerful sweetener and can have other technological properties.

Fructose intolerant people to fructose should take good care of their diet and seek advice with a doctor or dietitian, since the elimination of fructose containing foods can cause the lack of other key nutrients.

The diet of a fructose intolerant person is usually low in Vitamin C, due to the reduced consumption of fruits and vegetables, and it may be advisable to supplement the diet with folic acid to facilitate the metabolism of carbohydrates.

“Faced with an intolerance to fructose, tiger nuts are a tuber that naturally provides Vitamin C, E and folic acid, which also helps to control cholesterol and triglycerides”.

In conclusion, a fructose intolerant person should consider adding tiger nuts to enrich their daily diet, and in order to benefit from all the healthy properties that this tuber can offer them.

In spite of their name, tiger nuts are not actually nuts!

Contrary to popular belief, tiger nuts are not a dried nut, they are a root tuber from the Cyperus Esculentus family that do not have allergic contraindications.

Allergy to nuts is a complex illness. This is because different nuts only have in common that they are seeds of plants of different botanical group. Each type of nut has its own particular allergens, so a person can be tolerant to some nut but not others. To this day, the only treatment for this allergy is the exclusion of diet.

The size and sweet flavor of a tiger nut reminds us of a hazelnut and can be consumed as a snack between meals, just like nuts. 

Tiger nuts provide higher fiber and similar vegetable protein content, since they contain all types of essential amino acids. They are a source of potassium and natural phosphorus, so tiger nuts are the perfect food as a substitute for all nuts without the risk of causing nut allergic reactions. 

Regardless of whether you are allergic to nuts or not, you have been able to read how tiger nuts are the ideal food for all types of people, diets and intolerances. A complete, healthy and nutritious new ingredient to include in your daily diet in different recipes.

Do you have questions about how you could include tiger nuts in your elaborations? Contact us, our team will solve all your questions, and will advise you on which or what type of tiger nut is suitable for your needs.

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