Know the facts behind “Cashews are poisonous” !


Cashews are one of the most popular and consumed tree nut around the world. They are considered highly nutritious and offer several health benefits. Such as improving blood sugar control among people with type 2 diabetes and reducing bad cholesterol levels.

People just enjoy eating cashews according to their wishes. Some love cashew nut butter while other add it as a topping and as a dairy free cream.

But most of the people till now do not aware about this fact that eating cashews in certain forms can be harmful. Sometimes they contain a dangerous toxin called urushiol.

So let’s know more about this dangerous aspect of cashews.

• Toxic content of cashews.

Naturally cashews contain a toxin named, urushiol. Basically it’s a substance found in all members of Anacardiaceae family of trees. Other members include Mango, Poison Ivy, poison Oak, sumac with cashews too.

Urushiol is present in prominent amounts in all part of these plants, including roots, stems, and leaves. When this substance come in contact, it results in allergic contact dermatitis, which is a variety skin rash and human that is similar to one you may experience after exposure to Poison Ivy.

These skin rashes appears as bumps or patches on the skin with red marks. They are inflamed and may also have some secretions. This may cause a feeling of intense burning near swelling.

Some of the animal studies reveal that cashew nutshell extracts were fed to rats in various amounts, resulted in wide variety of symptoms including scratching, tremors, pain sensitivity, mucus secretion, passive behaviour and even death.

• Are commercially available ready to eat cashews safe ?

Before the cashews are finally available commercially they just go several processing. Mostly roasting or steaming shelled cashews at extensively high temperatures remove urushiol.

That is the reason behind why commercially available cashews are not sold with their shells. Addition to this, they are also sold roasted most of the times.

Moreover, raw cashews are over also available in several stores. They are available with their nut shell but then also proper steaming and roasting is done. Just to remove the urushiol content and make them safe.

So you can confidently purchase cashews from your nearby stores of any brand.

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