BHdesign’s Nutritious Creations are combinations of wholesome ingredients. These ingredients are intentionally sourced to include brands that maintain the BHdesign’s Nutritious Creation Promise. There are many products on the market that are separately labeled organic, non-gmo, gluten free, plant-based, fair trade, vegan, no added sugars, unsweetened, and natural products. However, there are limited amounts of products that embody all of these labels. For example, there has only been one all purpose flour brand available in Whole Foods that is gluten free and vegan. This flour is BHdesign’s Nutritious Creation staple for baked goods and other recipes. It is also certified USDA ORGANIC and NON-GMO with no added sugar.

As with all labels in the nutrition world, there are different word variations and certification requirements for specific labels. For example, there are four categories of organic. A product or single ingredient can be within the organic category of 100% Organic, Organic, Made with Organic, or Organic Ingredients. Some of the USDA National Organic Program requirements for certified organic products are for manufacturers to not produce products or ingredients that contain synthetic or non-synthetic substances, volatile synthetic solvents or other synthetic processing, ionizing radiation, sewage sludge, and genetically modified organisms. 

NON-GMO means a non-genetically modified organism which has not been exposed to negative chemical altering or icky processing norms. The National Organic Program’s excellent guidelines helps to maintain the traceability and segregation standards. This requires constant testing of individual ingredients to determine quality control and risk assessment. Some high-risk inputs include animal products, alfalfa, canola, corn (except popcorn), cotton, papaya, soy, sugar beets, zucchini and yellow summer squash. Animal products are considered high risk due to the GMOs within the animal feed. As for the other high risk inputs, they are produced on a large-scale commercially which can create genetically engineered derivatives.

The fair trade label can be found on coffee, dairy, produce, seafood, and consumer packed goods as well as flowers and factories. The mission of being Fair Trade Certified™ is to continue to build an innovative model of responsible business, conscious consumerism, and shared value to eliminate poverty and enable sustainable development for farmers, workers, their families, and their communities around the world. This certification is an award-winning, rigorous, and globally recognized sustainable sourcing model that improves livelihoods, protects the environment, and builds resilient, transparent supply chains. Choosing Fair Trade Certified™ goods supports responsible companies, empowers farmers, workers, and fishers, and protects the environment. This non-profit organization certification also ensures safe and healthy working conditions, the elimination of forced/child labor, fair and consistent compensation, and environmental protections and product traceability.

The other ingredient and product labels that are significant in BHdesign’s Nutrition Creation recipes are gluten free, plant-based, vegan, and unsweetened. There are many organizations that support Gluten Free labeling. Gluten free products eliminate the protein found with in wheat and other grains. The vegan and plant-based label is more straight forward in meaning strictly consisting of only plant ingredients and products. This alternatively means, there are no animals involved with manufacturing of such ingredients or products. Same for no added sugars and unsweetened, the term literally means not sweetened or sugar has been extracted. 

There are several products on the market that have added sugar. Sometimes, this addition also includes the natural sweetness derived from the ingredient or product. Due to the American consumer population being sugar hungry, the manufacturers continue to feed this sugar addiction cycle for sales purposes. This is not the healthy choice. By choosing the no added sugar and unsweetened products, the chance of forming diseases like diabetes and cancer decreases. The BHdesign’s Nutritious Creation recipes are consciously developed with this in mind. The recipes use unsweetened products as well as minimal and nutritious sweeteners. 

The mission of the BHdesign’s Nutritious Creations are to create simple nutrient dense recipes with consciously sourced ingredients that have the labels of organic, non-gmo, gluten free, plant-based, fair trade, vegan, no added sugars, and unsweetened. BHdesign’s Nutrition Creation vision is to bring awareness and education to the consumer and food industries of the available choices for healthy and sustainable ingredients and products. As the food industry continues to grow in offering these choices, there are options available to create simple recipes to increase nutrient density with in the consumers diet.

Brooke Hacker

Doctorate of Physical Therapy

Visual Design by BH

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