Food has been dehydrated with the help of the sun over centuries as a way of preservation. It is a very efficient way of keeping most of the food’s nutrients and storing things that otherwise would rot in a short period of time. Usually most fruits and vegetables are available only in one season of the year, so a variety of preservation techniques were used to store them. This was a very important aspect of life when people lived locally and couldn’t get products from around the globe at any time. Nowadays a dehydrator is mostly used for creating new recipes, textures and a way of combining foods in different and healthy recipes.
How can we make the most of our dehydrators?
Having a dehydrator allows you to create an infinite variety of raw foods and snacks with different textures. At the same time it allows you to boost the quality of some nuts and seeds, by activating them in water (more information below) and then dehydrating them, allowing you to store the activated seeds for long periods of time. You can also use your dehydrator to simply speed up the dehydration of fruit, herbs and vegetables, since you do not depend on the sun and you can achieve a constant temperature night and day all year round. Another use is to ferment bread dough and make yogurt, again by maintaining a constant warm temperature.
The Health Benefits
The fact that you can dehydrate your food in a controlled environment, where you can choose the time, temperature, and some times even the air flow, allows you to preserve fresh foods and keep the enzymes inside them active. This is one of the main reasons why it is very good to eat lots of raw foods, both dry and fresh. Another important benefit is the preservation of several vitamins and other organic compounds that are essential for our health.
More about activation…
Usually when we start changing and improving our diet we tend to increase our consumption of nuts and seeds. The reason of this is that beside the fact that they are an easy healthy snack to carry around, they are indeed a very powerful source of nourishment, loaded with energy and good quality nutrients like vitamins, antioxidants, dietary minerals and fatty acids.
But overconsumption can also be a problem (as with anything). Most nuts and seeds contain “anti-nutrients” that protect them until the moment they sprout. Some of these “anti-nutrients” are phytic acid, lectins, oxalates, tannins, enzyme inhibitors, and in some cases proteins like gluten. In the case of phytic acid, for example, this molecule keeps the phosphorous bind, and only when the seed “wakes up” (by being soaked in water) this mineral is released so the future plant can use it and grow. The problem that arises when we eat all these nuts and seeds that are still “asleep” and full of phytic acid (between 1% and 5% of the seed’s weight), is that this molecule also binds with other minerals in our bodies such as iron, calcium, magnesium and zinc, making them less available for us, and may create deficiencies in the long term. In many cases we can get rid of the “anti-nutrients” simply by soaking and in others we need to slow cook or ferment.
But wait! no need to worry too much about all this. There is also evidence that these “anti-nutrients” can be of benefit in some specific health issues. The activation process is only going to reduce the concentration of these molecules, not remove them completely. It is all about balance.
How can we activate whole seeds and nuts?
We want to “wake up” the seeds and nuts before we eat them. Imitating what happens in nature, we soak them in water for a certain period of time, that can vary between a few hours and 2 days, depending on the seed. (Soak chart available here)
You are most likely already doing this without knowing. For example when you want to cook beans you are most likely to soak them overnight as it is much easier to cook them. But what about the other nuts and seeds we usually consume? Grains like rice or wheat, nuts like almonds and walnuts, and seeds like sesame or sunflower seeds, all of these contain“anti-nutrients” to a certain extent. It is much better for your health if you soak all of these seeds before you consume them. In the case of some grains like rice or quinoa for example, you just need to soak them for some hours before you cook them. Now, it is understandable if you don’t like to eat wet almonds or sunflower seeds, so one option would be to dry them after soaking them. The dehydrator is the perfect tool for that, making it possible for you to soak a few kilos at a time and then dry them so that you can store them and use them whenever you need to. With the dehydrator you can make sure there is no moisture left inside the seeds, something that is very difficult to achieve by drying them with the sun.
Which are the bests dehydrators?
There are basically two different kinds of electricity powered dehydrators (there are solar powered ones too), the ones that have an horizontal flow of air, and the ones that have a vertical flow. The later in our opinion are not good for dehydrating thoroughly, and usually are used only to dry certain kinds of fruits and herbs.
Often the fruits keep moisture inside, lowering the quality and creating mould if stored; so in these cases they would need much longer dehydration times. One advantage is that they are usually smaller.
The ones that use a horizontal air flow are bigger but much more versatile and efficient.
Some precautions…
There are some things to take under consideration when starting to dehydrate, it is easy to get over enthusiastic! But too many dry foods are not good for you. According to Chinese Medicine, eating too many dry products can create dryness inside you, and depending on your body type and the diet you usually have this can be harmful in the long run. So it would be good for you to research more on the subject and start slow while experimenting, having fun, and checking how you feel.