ANTI-INFLAMMATORY
Our products are specially designed to be anti-inflammatory. We purposefully select and prepare our ingredients to avoid the classic inflammatory food items: dairy, grains, added sugars (natural & artificial), vegetable oils or treated oils and unactivated nuts and seeds.
We use all-natural, whole ingredients that don’t undergo any chemical or industrial processing (with the single exception of our chicory root fibre extract). We do not process foods to ensure that they are in their whole-food state and retain as much of their original food matrix as possible. In this way, all active compounds can work together as nature intended.
RAW, ACTIVATED & ENZYME RICH
Activated nuts and seeds are significantly more nutritious than their raw counterparts.
We soak all our nuts and seeds for 12-18 hours. This helps break down the enzyme inhibitors, lectins and phytates present in their unactivated form enhancing their nutrient bioavailability, digestibility and anti-inflammatory properties. We then dehydrate them at temperatures under 40°C. This preserves the integrity of the digestive and metabolic enzymes so that our products can remain ‘Living’.
NO ADDED SUGAR
We do not add any refined sugars, natural sweeteners (including agave syrup, maple syrup, honey, coconut blossom) or sugar alcohols in our products. Instead, we use bananas, yacon and very small quantities of dates. To avoid added sugars we even make our own chocolate with 100% cocoa mass and dates. All this ensures that all our products are very low in natural sugars and have a low glycemic profile.
We avoid stevia and sugar alcohols as they are highly processed and there is not yet enough research into the long-term impact they have on our health. In fact, some studies have shown sugar alcohols can adversely impact the gut microbiome.
NO ADDED FATS OR OILS
Extracted oils are susceptible to oxidation and as a result, can be inflammatory. Our products contain healthy fats in their natural un-extracted state.
Using only nuts and seeds as a source of fats, our snacks are rich in Vitamin E, which has been shown to lower the risk of some chronic diseases, especially heart disease and Omega-3 Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), a great vegan source of Omega-3 which has cardiovascular and neuro-protective benefits.
RICH IN MICRONUTRIENTS
We strive for our products to help you avoid empty calories. To achieve this, we select and combine ingredients to ensure that we meet and even exceed the Recommend Daily Intakes of various micronutrients in each serving.
We focus on the most important micronutrients which we typically don’t get adequate amounts of daily.
RICH IN ANTIOXIDANTS
Antioxidants–phytochemicals found predominately in plants–protect our body from oxidative stress, inflammation, ageing and disease caused by free radicals.
Our unique blend of activated nuts, sprouted seeds, non-alkalised chocolate, spices and unprocessed fruits allows our products to achieve a high ORAC value and a broad range of bioactive antioxidant phytochemicals that promote longevity and health-span. Recent studies have shown that taking synthetic antioxidant supplements isn’t as effective as having the whole nuts and fruits themselves. Plant power cannot be packed into a pill!
RICH IN FIBRE
Healthy gut, healthy body! 70% of our immune system resides in the gut, so maintaining a great microbiome by having a diet rich in fibre, prebiotics and probiotics is essential.
Our products contain both soluble and insoluble fibre including prebiotic inulin and Fructooligosaccharide (FOS) from chickpeas, chicory root, banana and yacon. Prebiotic compounds provide food for our good gut bacteria and fungi to thrive and multiply, ultimately leading to a healthy gut microbiome.
VERY LOW HEAT BAKING
Our biscotti are unique in that they are slow baked at below 100°C. Unlike all other biscotti and biscuits in the market, we never use high heat as it reduces the nutritional value of the food and also creates AGEs (advanced glycation end-products) which are considered to be ageing toxins. These are formed primarily when fat and protein-rich foods are exposed to high temperatures. In addition to that it has also been found that when food is heated to high temperatures, the starch and protein (arginine) react to form carcinogenic compound called acrylamide.
By low heat, slow baking, we ensure our products preserve as much of their original nutrients as possible. This also ensures that the prebiotic FOS molecules in our yacon syrup are not degraded.