Carob - Whats the story?

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Permalink Reply by Jim Dee on December 5, 2008 at 10:46pm

Sure, Hannah... Carob rawks! You have to hunt around to find raw, though. Most health food stores only carry roasted. Natural Zing has raw wildcrafted (naturalzing.com). Adds a tasty, malty goodness to smoothies. I now prefer the raw, though it took me a while to not expect that roasted taste.

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Permalink Reply by Marta - Rawvolta on December 5, 2008 at 10:49pm

It is ok, if you believe so ;-)

I looove carob and I don't do too much cacao ( maybe 1 time a week I would make my chocolate - like 4 minutes ago! )
Carob is a legume actually and has this nice sweet taste, that helps no avoid sweatner in my treats!

Raw carob is toxic.
Not raw carob- from stores is usually very heavy toasted.

There are probably few sources of not-raw-but-only-low-temp-slowly-toasted carob, but the one I know is Jameth Sheridan's www.HealthForce.com

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Permalink Reply by Marta - Rawvolta on December 5, 2008 at 11:39pm

I was reading in few places about toxicity of carob.

" I started the “Raw Carob” craze many years ago, and I deeply regret it. In my quest for ultimate health, I discovered that “Raw” carob powder did have some heat applied to it.

Long ago, I came out with information about “Jameth and Kim’s Really Raw Carob Powder” that was printed in several thousand “Uncooking with Jameth and Kim” books. I was in the process of making a product out of it. I had thousands lbs of raw carob chunks that I then dehydrated at low temperatures and made it into a powder. I discovered that consumption of it gave a definitive toxic feeling, was hard to digest and that it clumped the blood. This was due to the fact, I discovered, that Carob is actually a legume, like soybeans. Being a legume, it had tremendous benefits in healing, cancers hormone balancing including beneficial phytoestrogens, as all legumes do. Soy has gotten a bad rap, primarily because RAW soy is very hard to digest and can cause problems inherent to all RAW legumes in most forms. Carob in its truly raw form, being a legume, was also hard to digest and was NOT good to consume in a totally raw state.

I had developed a huge interest in the raw carob powder, but I abandoned it due to my findings. I eventually composted the thousands of pounds of carob chunks.

Highly roasted carob powder was and is actually more digestible than truly raw, but it did suffer nutritionally from the high temperature and long heating. I subsequently found that the application of small amounts of heat for short times was the best of both worlds. The traditional “raw” carob powder is actually extremely healthy, even if technically not raw, whereas truly raw carob powder is NOT healthy. I repeat truly raw carob powder is NOT healthy. Mushrooms are raw, but some of them will kill you, foxglove herb is of extreme nutrient density, but it will KILL you if eaten, raw or cooked.

The carob powder that HealthForce uses for VMG is unique in that it has 4 times less heat applied to it than the highly beneficial “raw” carob powders, and it does NOT have ANY of the harmful elements of an unprocessed legume. It is still enzyme active (#1 criteria for raw) and does NOT cause leukocytosis.

It also comes down to where one’s allegiance lies. Do you base your nutritional decisions on a particular definition of what you or someone else thinks is “raw”, or do you base them on what is healthy. I base mine on health.

Jameth Sheridan, N.D.

HealthForce Nutritionals

www.HealthForce.com "


what did you guys heard?????????

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Permalink Reply by Lorianne on December 6, 2008 at 5:26am

This is a breath of fresh air in the midsts of all the love of carob. I know of many that can enjoy it liberally with no complaints, but whenever I use it it does give off a toxic feeling in my body, sometimes to the point of a headache. If you're enjoying carob then great! But if anyone feels funny from it, you're not alone :/

I've gotten mine off health food stores, marked organic but not raw.

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Permalink Reply by Marianna on December 6, 2008 at 12:23am

I bought some unroasted carob and contacted the supplier about whether or not it was raw. They told me that while it isn't roasted during the grinding process it reaches temps of about 50-60 degrees celcius (122-140 farenheit)
I personally don't eat it as I don't care for chocolate but I make stuff for my mother.

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Permalink Reply by Hannah on December 6, 2008 at 5:15am

Thanks guys for all your feedback!

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