Local Cary mom turned entrepreneur, Judit Beres, talks to us about how the health issues of her family inspired her company, Neomega, and the amazing, healthful and delicious avocado oils she produces!
What inspired you to start Neomega?
After becoming pregnant with my son, I became more aware of what we ate and what was in our food. In the first year after my son was born, we learned that he had environmental allergies and severe eczema. We struggled a lot to control it, and nothing worked. In the first 4-5 years of his life, I experimented with a lot of things and did a lot of trial and error to bring his allergies under control. In this process, I gradually became more and more interested in the food we eat and eliminated pro inflammatory processed foods that could add to his eczema flare ups: chemically refined vegetable oils, bleached white flours, white sugar, non-organic, industrial farmed meat, and all products made with GMO ingredients and high fructose corn syrup. I was and still am very selective on what I would buy in the grocery store. Add on top that 2 of my 3 kids are extremely picky eaters, and there you have a perfect storm for meal times.
In this struggle to feed my kids healthy meals that they would actually eat, I developed a passion for clean eating and sustainable living. Eating clean, whole foods has become my mantra and mission. I want to teach my kids to eat and live consciously: eat foods that is good for their bodies and respect our Mother Earth in the process. My mission is the same in my business. My company offers clean, heart healthy avocado oils, and we care deeply about our environmental impact in both sourcing and making our culinary oils.
How long have you been in business?
I started the company in January of 2016 and have launched the first product, avocado oil, under its own brand, in September 2016.
How do you juggle being a businesswoman and a mom?
Oh boy! With LOTS of help from husband, mom and neighbors who sometimes pick up my son from school when I cannot get there in time. I won't sugar coat it: starting a business from scratch and raising three kids is not easy. It is the most challenging task I ever had. My days are filled with talking on the phone with suppliers, making product, business meetings, delivering products, picking up kids from school, making meals, taking them to soccer and dance or the park. I have to say, we are blessed to live in a neighborhood where they have friends to play with and I don't have to actively manage their play dates too! One thing I constantly need to remind myself is to carve out down time for them and myself. Just to be, not do anything special, enjoy each other’s company, relax and laugh, go for a bike ride on the trails and bake cookies. I promised myself that we will go to the pool every Sunday this Fall and practice swimming with my son, who was on the swim team this summer. I did not keep that promise to myself so far...so I am still learning to juggle it all and find a balance.
What contributed to the passion you have for clean food?
This was a gradual process. For one, I immigrated to the US in 2001 and the very first thing I noticed is how different the food tasted and how much sweeter everything was. From yogurt to deli meat, everything is much sweeter which I did not have a taste for. So I naturally started to read labels and choose foods without high fructose corn syrup in it. But I wasn't overly anxious about it. Not until I had my son with severe eczema and allergies and 2 very picky eaters that food took center stage in my life. By the time my twins were born in 2013, I was very concerned with food, not just what's in it, but also where it comes from and how it was grown/made.
Someone once said, it is absurd to care for good food and not care where it comes from. The two are intimately connected. So clean eating and sustainable living are two ends of the same spectrum in my mind. I advocate for food grown without heavy pesticides that depletes the land. I advocate for composting because food waste is a major source of green-house gases. I am not a fan of any particular diet. I believe in eating whole, non-processed foods and have a varied diet. Most of all I advocate for eating consciously: think about what benefits the food has for us and what impact it has on our planet.
Why should we avoid artificial ingredients, sweeteners & GMOs?
Take high fructose corn syrup for instance: it is a sweetener that turns into fat in our liver, contributing to a health condition called fatty liver. It is much, much worse than plain sugar and it tastes much sweeter. Fatty liver is a serious health condition that affects millions in this country and is an unnecessary burden to our health and easily avoidable. There is good reason sodas have been eliminated from schools. Kids don't need sugar and caffeine to grow. They need nourishment from whole foods like vegetables, fruits, protein and good fats. Many processed foods aimed at kids, currently on the market, are loaded with artificial ingredients. Take store bought frosting, for instance. I recently checked the cake frosting assortment in a major grocery chain and all of them contained hydrogenated fats and half the ingredients in a serving were made up of high fructose corn syrup. Hydrogenated fat and high fructose corn syrup on a birthday cake. It's a sweet temptation for obesity. Hydrogenated fat is the worst invention of the food industry and is about to be phased out by the FDA starting 2018, thankfully. But high fructose corn syrup will stay. And it's up to us, parents and consumers, to do our own research and choose better ingredients.
Why is avocado oil different?
Three things to remember:
1. It has a super high flash point (550 Fahrenheit): this is important because any oil that is heated beyond its flash point it starts oxidizing and breaks down, and becomes pro-inflammatory. To compare, olive oil’s flash point is 425 F.
2. Neutral taste/clean, light taste, so it’s great for anything under the sun: baking, frying, stir fry, grilling, saute, salad dressings, cakes, pancakes, etc.
3. Good fat: It contains 70% oleic acid, the heart healthy fat, and has more vitamin E than olive oil.
Tell us about the herbs that are infused in the oil:
We make 5 infusions currently: basil, roasted garlic, chili, rosemary and ginger-turmeric- orange. We are in the process of contracting with local farms to grow some of the herbs. We use organic herbs and ingredients and have a whole plant approach. This is an important difference between flavoring an oil with essential oils and adding whole herbs. The essential oils contain all the aromatic, volatile compounds but are missing key nutrition components that the herbs have in their whole form. Therefore, we use whole rosemary and basil leaves and ginger and turmeric roots to get the benefits of these ingredients, not just their flavor. We roast the garlic and allow it to infuse the oil. Our basil oil is truly unique in that it tastes like pesto and is emerald green. That's because after the oil infuses with organic basil, we press the herbs into the oil to get that pesto flavor and rich green color.
Why does the type of fat we ingest matter?
One third of our diet should consist of good fats from avocados, nuts, seeds, avocado, olive and coconut oils, plant based omega 3 oils like chia, hemp or flax oil and fatty fish. Good fats like these, are a very good source of energy and metabolize quickly in the body. Also, they create a sense of satiety and we are nourished longer and better. Essential fatty acids like Omega’s (3, 6 and 9) that are in avocado oil in balanced amounts, are essential to our health. Our brain is 70% fat and needs Omega 3, 6 and 9 fats to function properly, especially kids. Our registered dietician, Michelle wrote an excellent article on the role of good fats in infant brain development. You can find it here.
Good fats are crucial in reversing fatty liver disease by burning up unwanted fats from highly processed vegetable oils, sugars and carbs that turned into ‘bad’ fats in the liver. For more on this check out Dr. Mark Hyman’s book ‘Eat Fat Get Thin’. I like to add avocado or MCT oil to my kids' smoothies. It is good fat for their brain development and provides lasting nourishment. It also helps in absorbing all the fat soluble nutrients and vitamins from the smoothie. 1-2 tsp is usually what I add to the whole batch.
What makes these products perfect for families?
You can use one or more of the oils for every meal. I like to make eggs in the morning with the herbal avocado oils. For pancakes and sauteing veggies for a soup or side, I use just the plain. I also make hummus with the plain oil and top it with the chili oil. All of my kids love the spicy twist and it is not too hot paired with the hummus. I saute carrots, beets and broil fish in the ginger-turmeric oil. I also sometimes add it to golden milk or their smoothies.
What is your favorite kid-friendly recipe?
We make a no flour, paleo, chocolate cookie ball that my kids love! You can find the recipe here.
For more information on Neomega and the delicious (Mac Mama tested) herb infused oils, or if you are interested in being an affiliate marketer, visit their website or contact them at info@neomega3.com. To reach their customer service line by phone, call 800.717.1645.
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