Freeland Foods/Go Raw – Raw Organic Vegan Snacks (serving the public since 2002 – 10 years)
I have known this company for many years and consider myself a friend of the owner. It is great to develop close(r) relationships with those who are pioneers in this industry and who are truly “real,” in their life, lifestyle and how they conduct business. It is a great model and great story. The first time I met Rob(ert) Freeland was at the Hillcrest Farmer’s Market in San Diego more then 10 years ago and he was selling some raw vegan snack products (he studied and worked at the Optimum Health Institute prior to starting this business). I did not know much about raw food, but he gave me a snack to try and I liked it. At the time they were in wax paper type bags and had a sticker/label on it with information about the product (they’ve come a long way since then). I brought some products to a class I was teaching on raw foods at the School of Healing Arts in Pacific Beach and people were very interested.
Rob rented a space on University Avenue and built his own custom dehydrators to produce the products. I visited there a number of times and got to see how the production worked. I was one of the first to sample the chocolate before it was introduced to the public. From there, eventually the company and Freeland family (wife and children) made a big change by moving north to be closer to family and found a space to expand the business (Rob and family have moved back to San Diego, but the business is still up north, but plans are in the works to move it back to SD). Time has created great success for Rob and the company. The public gets to enjoy the benefits of great certified organic raw vegan snack products (flax snax, granola, super cookies and chips, chocolate, energy bars and sprouted seeds) that are free of oils, sugars, GMO’S, nuts, gluten and wheat. Having an option like this is great!
Please be mindful that these are dehydrated snacks. This means that you will need to drink lots of fluids to make up for that. Also most have flax and/or other seeds and/or coconut so the fat content will be much higher then if you simply ate some fresh fruit. Don’t get me wrong, the snacks are delicious and it is very easy to “indulge” and eat more then you intended to. Eating too much fat is not beneficial to the body regardless of whether it is raw or cooked, vegan, vegetarian or animal-based. The reason being, is that it creates more of an acidic state in the body in which it will need to work harder to return to an alkaline balance.
I support Rob and his company with all they do in promoting eating foods that are closer to nature and are better for the planet then the other “crap” people are eating. These snacks are a transition/stepping stone to getting further into eating whole, fresh, raw, organic fruits and vegetables. We are helping ourselves and helping the planet, as well!
I do have some constructive criticism to share: There are some changes I would like to see in ingredients currently used in the products. First, would be replacing sea salt with kelp powder (I have an article about this in a previous blog post that was written by Roger Haeske, and not all of you are going to agree with me on what he says – you can do your own research – I have read many other articles on the subject of salt and why it is not beneficial to our health – we do need sodium because it is a mineral, but sodium chloride is not!). I would also like to see an alternative to agave syrup because it is not all it is “cracked up” to be (with the research done, it has been touted to be on par with HFCS -high fructose corn syrup – not good!). I believe that coconut sugar in liquid form would be a better option, but not sure if it is raw. I would also like to see a veggie chip that is made out of something other then kale (which has saturated the market by other companies).
Please check out the website (scroll down to link on the far right-hand side of this page) for more information about the company, products and locations to purchase.
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Check out the video review of Freeland Foods on my YouTube Channel
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