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Paleo Passion Foods is the creation of Greenwich residents Marty and Kim Sands, who have joined the movement to eat as our distant Paleolithic ancestors did by creating a natural ice pop that relies on natural sugars for its sweetness and not on refined sugars.
“This is a very, very special product that has been in development for a year,” Marty Sands said about the company's Paleo Passion Pops.
“The paleo concept of eating, not just of dieting, but of eating is such a national trend right now,’ he said.
The idea behind paleo eating is that consumers avoid refined sugars, chemicals and processed food.
“It’s about eating less processed food and eating foods that are closer to the earth and that is really how the concept of our company came about,” Kim Sands said.
In today’s culture, she said, it’s unavoidable to eat fast foods, but she said fast food doesn’t have to be unhealthy.
“We all need fast foods in this fast-paced life, but we all want to eat healthy,” she said. “Why not eat foods that are grab-and-go but that have no artificial sweeteners, no artificial flavorings?”
The flavors range from Strawberry Passion, the most popular, to Apple Crisp, Orange Mango, Pineapple Ginger, Green Passion, Blueberry Pomegrate and Chocolate Passion.
The popsicles are low in calories and sugar, Sands said, ranging from 60 to 90 calories and 10 to 18 grams of sugar per popsicle. Other frozen popsicles have as much as two to three times the amount of calories and sugar along with artificial sweeteners, he said.
“The concept behind our product is very, very simple," Marty Sands said. "There is no added sugar. There is no refined sugar. There is no processed sugar. There are no chemicals. There are no added sweeteners created in a chemistry lab that you cannot pronounce the names.”
The ban on added sweeteners even extends to paleo-diet approved natural items such as honey, he said.
They first placed their product in a store about a month ago. Two weeks ago, Whole Foods in Greenwich became the first large grocery store to carry the product, Marty Sands said.
Kim is the firm’s nutritional adviser, although she’s careful to add that she is not a trained nutritionist. However, she said that she has read deeply for 30 years on nutrition and agrees with her husband that more has to be done to introduce healthy and great-tasting products.
The couple says the country is experiencing high rates of heart disease and diabetes among other health problems.
The motivation behind the company is spurred by concerns over the country’s food supply and the nation’s health, he said.
“Our food supply and the quality of our food supply is nothing short of a train wreck. It is a disaster. Secondly we have an epidemic in those country of obesity, diabetes and cancer. Is there a coincidence? That is the genesis for the creation of this product,” he said.
“Let’s create something that really taste great, not good, great that when you eat it, you are not eating a chemistry lab. It’s satisfying and it has nutritional value.”
They will be doing a demonstration of their project at DeCicco Family Market in Armonk, N.Y., on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
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