BLOG 1: Hunting For Paleo

You’ve locked and loaded your credit card. Your trusty GPS has guided you to your favorite hunting spot: your local supermarket. You’ve got a list of targets on your phone, all with one thing in common: to be as Paleo, organic and as natural as possible. Where does the freshest and most nutritious prey hang out? On the edges of the hunting area. Because the perimeter of the store has the most alive groceries and produce. And that’s the whole basis for embracing a Paleo diet. 

 

After you enter the store, follow the path to the fresh produce section and gather up organic fresh fruits, vegetables, green leaves and forest-centric items like mushrooms and fresh seasonings, and carefully place them in your steel, wheeled basket. Your next Paleo hunting move? The refrigerated meat section. Capture the 100% grass-fed beef, and vegetarian-fed free-range chickens. Organs like liver should also be high on your list. Next, grab a pole, move downstream and start fishing for some wild salmon, line-caught tuna, fresh shrimp, and live lobsters. Ask the fishing guide for help if you need to. And check your Mercury Chart for safest choices, like Sardines.

 

While you may not see any monkeys, unsweetened organic coconut and almond milk are just as available as they are in the jungle. And dried fruits like raisins and dates are there for the taking. And don't forget to ferret out the nut section, and dig into the mindful, superfood nutrition they supply. Last stop? The refrigeratored henshouse for eggs. Organic and antibiotic-free, of course.

 

So now that your Paleo pouch is loaded with healthy, nutritious bounty, grab a couple of containers of MUD from the dessert freezer on your way out. It's the delicious vanilla and chocolate chilled mousse from The Paleo Factory. Take it home or eat it in the car. You deserve a superfood reward after such a successful Paleo hunt.

 

BLOG 2: Cashews, The Not-Nuts

Johnny Appleseed, the legendary American planter, could have just as easily been planting cashews. Because cashews are not really nuts. Rather they are seeds that form on the underside of the edible cashew apple. Native to the jungles of the Amazon, the cashew tree (Anacardium occidentale) was first brought to India by Portuguese traders in the 16th century. Today, India and East Africa are the world's largest cashew producers. 

 

The cashew apple is a 5–10 cm fleshy pear-like stalk (the fruit) with a bright red or yellow skin. Protruding from its bottom is a gray/brown kidney-shaped seed — what we commonly refer to as the nut. A resin in the shell of the cashew seed called cashew balm is very caustic, so cashews must be shelled and boiled before they can be eaten. But that doesn’t take away from their sweet buttery flavor or their rich nutrient content.

 

And nutritionally rich they are. Cashews are a great source of protein and fiber, thiamin, Vitamin B6, Vitamin K, as well as trace elements like copper, phosphorus, manganese and magnesium.  Cashews have less fat than most other nuts, mostly unsaturated fatty acids. Two-thirds of them are monounsaturated, which can help lower triglyceride levels in diabetics. And if they aren’t salted, they maintain their 0 sodium level. 

 

Raw, organic, plain and unroasted is the best way to make sure you get all the superfood nutrition packed into the delicious cashew apple seed. Both our vanilla and chocolate chilled mousse MUD are full of organic, raw cashew goodness that gives them an unbelievable consistency and flavor. Cashews are truly a superfood gift from cashew apples. If Johnny Appleseed had only known. 

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BLOG 3: Vanilla, The Plain Truth

The truth? There is nothing plain about the incredible, complex superfood goodness that this aromatic and delicious bean imparts to every one who eats it. And with vanilla the second most asked for flavor choice after chocolate, that’s a lot of people. The Mayans, who valued them as a flavoring, and an ingredient with health benefits and aphrodisiac powers, were the first to use vanilla. Maybe it was for all these reasons the bean was brought to an Europe from Mexico in the mid-sixteenth century, where it became a cooking sensation. 

 

Vanilla beans are actually the pods of the only fruited orchid, the tropical South American climbing V. planifolia., which opens its flowers for just one day in order to be pollinated by the Melapona bees and hummingbirds. The harvested but unripe, light yellow colored beans 5–8 inches long are quickly blanched and then sundried for 2–3 weeks until they become shriveled and turn a dark-brown. Only then are they ready for market as whole beans, powder, or as an extract suspended in alcohol. Properly processed beans can remain potent for as long as 4 years.

 

The health benefits from vanilla are awesome. Vanilla extract and vanillic acid are powerful antioxidants that protect the liver and can curb inflammation. They have small amounts of potassium, magnesium copper, riboflavin (Vit B2), niacin ( Vit B3), and calcium — all necessary elements for a balanced metabolism and healthy physiology.

 

But the most important role vanilla may play in humans is the promotion of optimal serotonin and dopamine levels through its magnesium content, which can enhance brain function and support healthy mood balance. Serotonin is the “feed and breed” hormone. Remember why the Mayans liked vanilla so much?

 

Our Vanilla MUD chilled mousse desert uses only certified organic vanilla bean powder from Madagascar, where the best vanilla beans grow. Of course, chocolate MUD uses the best cacao beans in the world. Both are Paleolicious. Cool beans!

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BLOG 4: Sweetheart Dates

No, not the ones you remember as a teenager. We’re talking about the kind you eat. And love, love, love. Because dates are the sweetest dried fruit packed with the most fructose (as high as 60%), the natural sugar that doesn’t need insulin to be absorbed by your body. So their Glycemic Index (a ranking of how a carbohydrate affects blood glucose levels) is relatively low at around 30 to 50. They replenish energy and vitality almost immediately, as well as provide an extraordinary amount of nutrition, vitamins, minerals and fiber, which can prevent LDL cholesterol in the gut, and protects the colon’s mucous membrane from carcinogens.

 

Dates grow on date palms (Phoenix dactylifera), which probably originated along the Nile and Euphrates Rivers in ancient Mesopotamia. They may have been first cultivated 6000 BC., but now grow in warm climes worldwide. The actual fruit is known as a “drupe”, with the outer flesh covering a pit, or encased seed.  Oval or cylindrical in shape, dates range from 3-7 cms long, and 2-3 cms wide, ripening to an amber, red or brown color, and are available in many varieties: unripe, full-size/crunchy, ripe/soft, and ripe/sundried. 

 

As a superfood, they contain tannin antioxidants that are anti-infective, anti-inflammatory and anti-hemorrhagic; Vit A and zea-xanthin for healthy vision; and other antioxidants that prevent damage from free radicals throughout your entire body. Calcium, manganese, copper, magnesium, and Vit B are also present in substantial quantities, as well hard to find Vit K.  

 

So, you can try to recapture some of those teenage memories by French kissing a date (lol), always a wonderfully sweet experience. Or you can just dig into some MUD — the vanilla and chocolate all natural/organic chilled mousse dessert that‘s sweetened exclusively with premium, organic Medjool dates from Israel, the best in the world.  

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