Walnut whitening won’t hurt nuts

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Updated: December 6, 2011 8:51AM

Q. I’ve just heard that walnut shells are bleached before being sent to market. Is this true? If so, is it dangerous? Does it damage the nut inside?

A. In, uh, a nutshell: You heard right. For more than 50 years, a dilute bleaching solution has been used to clean and disinfect the outer shells of walnuts that are sold whole, not shell-less. The active ingredient is sodium hypochlorite, a salt that, when dissolved in water, turns into chlorine bleach, a disinfectant. Yep, it’s the same stuff used in laundry bleach, just in a different concentration. Large quantities of sodium hypochlorite also are used in processing fruits, vegetables, mushrooms, beef, pork, maple syrup and fish.

For walnuts, the cleaning process is simple and quick: The outside of the shell is washed with a dilute solution of bleach and water, then rinsed several times, dried and packaged. The process doesn’t affect the nuts at all.

Q. My father died of a heart attack, and now my husband has very high blood pressure (145/90). I’m afraid he’s headed in the same direction. He’s on a hypertension drug (Benicar), but constantly “forgets” to take it, lets the prescription run out or says he’s “fine.” How can I get him to take his medicine?

Sounds crazy, huh? But your husband’s “reasons” are pretty typical. We bet that, if pressed, he’d sum them up in one sentence: “I don’t want to take them.” Why? Maybe he doesn’t feel any different — normal with “silent” conditions like high blood pressure. Or maybe taking pills makes him feel old and sick, when he sees himself as young and strong. Or maybe he thinks the BP reading was wrong. Or he doesn’t believe it’s as bad as the doc says. (It is.) Or he’s afraid of side effects. Or he’s suspicious of prescription drugs — some people are.

What to do? This:

1. Buy a home blood pressure monitor and make a pact with your husband to check your BP together every day. Seeing his numbers and what happens when he takes the meds may do the trick. Plus you’ll get a good sense of what’s going on with your own pressure.

2. Ask your doc to have a 20-minute talk with your husband about the drug, alternatives, risks, benefits and other options (diet, exercise) for after he gets his BP down.

3. If those don’t work, enlist an outsider: a second doc, savvy nurse, counselor, relative, good friend, whoever has the power to appeal to his smarter side.

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