Good Thinking Foods’ mission is to empower people to embrace a plant-forward lifestyle. Using MIND and Mediterranean diet principles in his bars, founder and CEO David Hattenbach started the company after experiencing personal loss, with an aim to provide better nutrition and great taste.
What role do walnuts play setting your bars apart from others in the market?
We love them for several reasons—one is they [have] antioxidants[1] and omega-3s. [One ounce of walnuts offers 18 grams of total fat, 2.5 grams of monounsaturated fat and 13 grams of polyunsaturated fat including 2.5 grams of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) – the plant-based omega-3.] Those are important attributes to have in our bar. But also, they have a very unique flavor profile, buttery, creamy, and we felt they paired nicely with tart cherry. From a culinary point of view, they bring some balance there. So that seemed to be the perfect match to this great cherry application. Walnuts have the profile that we wanted—we are very vegetable forward. There’s a half a cup of leafy greens and a half a cup of vegetables in there. So we needed to be careful of the kind of bitter, green taste. The walnuts really help kind of mask that.
[1] Walnuts offer a variety of antioxidants (3.721 mmol/oz), including polyphenols (69.3 ± 16.5 μmol catechin equivalents/g) and gamma tocopherol (5.91 mg/ounce). The data for antioxidant capacity of foods generated by test-tube methods cannot be extrapolated to human effects. Clinical trials to test benefits of dietary antioxidants have produced mixed results.
You have three bars: Cherry Walnut, Blueberry Almond and Strawberry Cashew, and all three have walnuts.
Strawberry is the most popular berry, so customers love that one. But people are most passionate about Cherry Walnut. People who love the Cherry Walnut, LOVE it.
You focus on MIND and Mediterranean diets, which walnuts are a staple of. Can you talk more about your plant-based mission?
This company started like tech companies do. But, instead of starting in the garage mine started in the kitchen. My mom had Alzheimer’s disease, and it ultimately killed her. It was tough to watch. I don’t want that to happen to me. What can I do to mitigate my risk? What lifestyle changes can I make? Then I discovered the MIND diet, and I started eating that way—lots of nuts, seeds, vegetables and leafy greens. I realized that people are just not very good at eating things like leafy greens and colorful vegetables. So I said, ‘How can I make it easier? How can I make snack foods or something that makes it easier for people to get [important nutrients]?’
How do you approach R&D when creating new products?
I know there’s a bazillion bars out there, but I said I’m going to take a shot at a bar, and that’s what I did. After I teamed up with some friends of mine in the food science world and we carefully selected the ingredients to not only fit the kind of the mind-diet training profile, we had to make sure it would actually taste good. That worked out pretty well. They’re not like you would think, with like a cup of vegetables in a bar, you would think, ‘That’s gonna taste really bitter.’ But it doesn’t thanks, in part, to the walnuts.
How do you see the role of walnuts evolving in consumers’ diets, especially with the increasing demand for plant-based and healthy snacking options?
Plant-based is definitely growing; it’s definitely on people’s radar. As people learn more and adopt a plant-based lifestyle, the walnut will find its way once people get more sophisticated and their palate becomes more sensitive to plant-based ingredients. They’ll realize that walnuts really have something special to offer.
How important is supporting local or sustainable farming to your brand?
We’re a California company and we try to stay local to California. It’s very important to pick a supplier that you trust, and luckily there’s plenty of walnut growers in the Central Valley.
What can we expect next from Good Thinking Foods? Are there any exciting new products or initiatives on the horizon?
We’re definitely continuing in the berry direction. Looking at blackberry, goji berry, even a raspberry, but ultimately even further down the road we’d love to explore more Mediterranean- driven foods like apricots or figs. Those would be perfect with walnuts. Beyond that we might look at some other forms of snacks. Right now we’re servicing a fairly niche target, but as we test and learn, we’ll look into retail into the middle of next year.
Learn more about plant-based Good Thinking Foods bars. Thinking of formulating snacks or bars loaded with walnuts and veggies? Contact DMikolajcik@walnuts.org to get started.
