I recently got a question from a customer about Monk Fruit. I loved that she reached out, and if you are curious about anything from an ingredient, to our mission, to meal ideas, I encourage you to contact me as well!
The email read:
Hi Sara,
I really love your Empower bars. So delicious and healthy! I’m interested in always learning more about healthy nutrition and am wondering if you have any good links to information on monk fruit. It’s hard to tell just by googling whether you’re getting good info or not. I thought that since you care very much about healthy food, you may know where to go for this kind of information.
She is right – I do care very much about healthy food, just as equally as I care about changing the packaged food environment. I truly believe there can be a world where nutrition and convenience collide, and that this is the norm, not the anomaly.
Here was my response:
I am so happy to hear you love the bars, and completely understand your curiosity to learn more about their ingredients. I celebrate that (and am always doing the same), and yes, it is why I put so much intention into the recipe.
Here is a good article explaining more about monk fruit, and Dr. Axe is high regarded and reputable in this field. The way I see it, if a food, and specifically a sweetener, has health benefits, and serves a nutritional purpose (as monk fruit does as explained in the article), then it is no longer an “empty” sweetener (i.e. serving containing no nutrition, or worse, creates harmful effects on health as other forms of sugar does). Also, I tend to nerd out about ancient/primal nutrition, and given monk fruit’s history that dates back centuries, I also see that as an advantage 🙂
