At the heart of new a snack line, YummyHealth, lies a common problem that New Castle mom Lisa Goldbaum faced with her children’s eating habits: when she wanted them to eat healthily, they only had eyes (and stomachs) for junk food. So Goldbaum tried to teach her kids how to eat a balanced diet of nutritious whole foods low in sugar and starch most of the time, but still allowing the occasional treat.
“We went to the supermarkets in search of healthier options they would still enjoy eating, but it was hard to find a direct swap for candy bars and chips that tasted like the real thing, but without all the sugar and starch,” Goldbaum says. The reality was, the truly healthy options didn’t pass the taste test with the kids. “I realized if I was facing this problem, other parents probably were too, and I told the kids, ‘If it doesn’t exist, let’s make it ourselves,’” she says.
That’s how YummyHealth’s YummySnacks were born.
The company, which Goldbaum launched three years ago, started with an online-only strategy, selling its products through its own website as well as on Amazon and Netrition. Today, the company has a manufacturing facility in California, and operational offices in Armonk, Florida, and Massachusetts. YummyHealth products are also sold at DeCicco’s Market locations throughout Westchester and nationwide at roughly 1,000 stores, including chains like Sprouts and CVS in California, Winn-Dixie in the Southeast, and Central Market in Texas. Though the business is in growth mode, Goldbaum—who previously worked as a journalist, covering finance and technology at magazines like Forbes, Barron’s, and Institutional Investor—says it’s “been a constant struggle to get the word out and rise above the noise.”
|
Lisa Goldbaum |
In such a crowded marketplace (parents today are bombarded with snack options), Goldbaum says her biggest challenge has been getting the message across that YummyHealth is different from other snacks that customers may deem as “healthy.”
“When you look at the sugar content on a label, that number doesn’t include the starches that metabolize as sugar, so people are getting much more sugar than they bargained for,” she says. So what makes YummyHealth different? According to Goldbaum, YummyHealth’s products are low in sugar, have no starch, and are naturally sweetened with stevia (a leaf extract) and erythritol (a sugar alcohol). “They are made with real food ingredients that keep you full, like almond butter, real cocoa, flax seed, and coconut…you’re getting the deliciousness of a candy bar without the harmful ingredients. This decreases your chance of having mood swings, food cravings, and energy dips throughout the day,” she says.
Goldbaum’s next steps include adding more products to the YummyHealth portfolio (she was mum on the specifics), raising awareness of the brand, and getting into more stores throughout the US and abroad. Her main objective, though, is to develop healthy substitutes in kids’ diets and to get kids to “eat right without a fight.”
