About our calories …. Learning why gRAWnola™ is so good.

Many of you have asked us about the number of calories in our grawnola.

We have few answers for you:

According to the USDA nutrition data, the technical answer to the calorie question is 170 calories per 1.8oz bar - but that number isn’t truly accurate.

The USDA answer is incomplete because no one has really clarified the difference between calories in foods that are highly processed or properly prepared™.

The complete answer requires some background. The calories in our grawnola are unusual because of the way we prepare our ingredients to make them ready for the body. Since the body is familiar with these nutrients as opposed to highly-processed food calories, weight questions, and calorie concerns need to be addressed differently. grawnola ingredients are body ready™ which means that are prepared in a way the body can digest, assimilate and fuel evolution. We only use pure and unprocessed ingredients which are enhanced through proper preparation so that all the nutrients - protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals and enzymes - are optimized and available to you.

In making the grawnola, we soak and germinate the nuts and seeds as well as dehydrate the buckwheat which creates the crunch. These steps in the preparation process help release the nutrient and enzyme inhibitors and actually increase nutrient levels. Soaking, germinating, and dehydrating the ingredients changes their food chemistry, helping to eliminate food allergens that cause allergies and the traditional heaviness many feel after eating nuts.

By soaking the nuts (which really are seeds) and seeds in water, the ‘bulky’ nutrients - fats, proteins and carbohydrates, get broken down into their component parts - essential fatty acids, amino acids and sugars, which have different calorie values. The water actually wakes up them up and prepares the seeds to grow into new plants. As they awaken, these seeds break down the ‘big’ fats, proteins and carbohydrates inside into the smaller essential fatty acids, amino acids and sugars that can then be transported throughout the germinating seed to build a new plant. When a plant is at the beginning of its growth cycle, it ‘properly prepares’ itself for its own growth. This is ideal because it translates into optimized nutrition for us: the seeds are digestible and user-friendly to our bodies.

At this point, we unfortunately interrupt their growth cycle and use these nutrients are at their peak availability and potency. It’s just like catching a perfectly sun-ripened peach when its ready to fall off the tree. The sweet juicy peach not only feeds our body but nourishes us with pleasure which, believe it or not, allows our whole body to do its different jobs better. While all this growing, peaking and falling is going on, it’s important to acknowledge and appreciate the incredible and delicious gift that these little living being are giving us.

With that background, we are in a position to more fully answer the calorie question. All those smaller-sized properly-prepared grawnola components (essential fatty acids, amino acids and sugars) are not yet measured by the standard USDA nutrient evaluation. Also in the soaking of the seeds, a certain portion of the nutrients including fats as well as vitamins and minerals are dissolved and rinsed away. So the total calorie amount of our grawnola is reduced by 20 - 25%.

This is not reflected in the current USDA Nutrition Facts. The FDA is busy understanding the effects of highly processed foods on the body, and hasn’t had the time to discover what happens when foods are awakened, which is not the language of highly processed calories, fats, protein or carbohydrates.

We want you to consider that something very unique is happening – you can’t necessarily see it, but you can certainly feel it, when you eat our grawnola. This ‘new’ experience of being nourished is ancient and the key to unlocking the calorie question. These calories not only feed us but give our bodies the energy that can even help us lose weight too. Let your body remember that properly prepared food™ fuels you in a way that highly-processed calories can’t.

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…. a few words on the real pleasure of pure food and calories

Many of us grew up thinking that anything that tastes good is suspect and immediately causes us to wonder, even dread learning the calorie count. With all the nutrient destroying processing methods, preserving additives and chemicals, the true pleasure of nourishment is rarely available, because highly processed foods no longer speak the language of the body. The body actually sees these foreign ‘foods’ as invaders and has to use so much energy to translate these foods that we are left exhausted and hungry just trying survive what we are eating.

Our body isn’t quite sure what to do with these recently synthesized and oft-cleverly renamed ingredients. Because they are unfamiliar, the body sets them aside to deal with later or protects itself by padding those unfamiliar ingredients inside us with fat, which are to those unwanted calories and weight.

Pure properly prepared foods™ with their increased nutrient content actually has fewer, but more nutrient-rich calories so there is less waste for the body to handle and dispose of, leaving you with more power and greater satisfaction.