Why We Bake Our Seed Snacks!

With this week being National Baking week, and so many of us now enjoying a love of baking with the new series of Bake Off, now seems a perfect time to write a blog about why we chose to bake our seed snacks.!

Once we had selected the perfect combination of our 14 all real ingredients that you would find in your kitchen cupboard, we had the tricky decision on how to cook them. 

Although being Mum’s at home we were used to baking and frying we first looked at dehydration as we wanted the snacks to be as nutritious as possible and there are so many benefits of raw food. However, with dehydrating, the snacks were chewy and there was no snap. We soon realised that we needed to bake them to draw the flavour and give the texture of a snap. There is no point in producing a healthy product that underwhelms on the taste profile!!

We also realised that baking would differentiate as our snacks would give all the benefits of a baked product without all the butter and sugar of cakes!

 There are so many healthy snacks available, many offering different health and nutrition benefits and some high in specific macronutrients and micronutrients. However many are alternatives to crisps and even if they use less saturated fat than traditional crisps, the concept of our seed snacks being baked and not fried, and only using natural products and not flavourings and powders, we believe clearly sets us apart from the rest.

A baked product introduces many health benefits and increases the taste as well as the nutritional value of a product. Choosing a baked product over a fried product is arguably one of the best ways in which to lower overall fat intake within your body. 

All of our seed snacks are lightly baked on a low heat to perfection, meaning that minimal oil is required in the cooking process, and only a minimal amount of oil is used for flavour. We use less than 1%! Fried foods by definition require oil, adding around an extra 120 calories and 14g fat per tablespoon! Therefore, going for baked alternatives are the best method to lowering your calorie and fat intake!

If you are watching your weight or suffer from diabetes or high blood pressure, then it is best to avoid foods which are fried.   

Baking foods completely eliminates the formation of advanced glycation end products (AGE’S), while frying foods produces them, a study shows that AGE’S were associated with a range of diseases including diabetes. 

When foods are deep fried, they are usually cooked in partially hydrogenated oil (aka. Trans fats), these types of fats are artificially created and raise LDL cholesterol and increase the risk of suffering from heart disease, promote obesity, reduce the efficiency of the immune system and cause inflammation. Therefore, avoiding trans fats are the healthiest approach to take, going with baked products completely prevents the formation of trans fats. 

Baked foods have always been viewed as much healthier options than the fried versions, frying foods can promote damage towards the lungs, kidneys and heart due to the oxidation of oils during the frying process. 

These are just a few of reasons to minimise fried foods and avoid those that are deep fried and why baked foods are the healthier option, not only from a nutrition perspective but also from a health perspective. 

So, remember these points when next picking up your next healthy snack. If you don’t want to promote weight/fat gain, if your watching your diet or simply want to live a healthier lifestyle both nutritiously and physically then consuming baked products is the best method to achieving these positive health outcomes.

And if you can find snacks that are baked and low in sugar then you have the perfect outcome!

Get healthy baking this National Baking Week!