What’s in Your Smoothie? A Conversation with Blended For You Founder and CEO, Deanna Embury on her Passion to Bring Nutrient Dense Meals to your Freezer for Whatever Health Need or Age You Desire
Episode 25: Show Notes.
When friends and family of entrepreneur, Deanna Embury, had health struggles, she found herself making smoothies for them to aid their nutrition. This planted a seed that eventually led to the establishment of Blended For You Smoothies. Deanna joins us today on the Mom Sweat Sanity Podcast to talk all things smoothies! Hear about how the company came about, why she put off starting it, and how she spent a year on product development. Find out what goes into the smoothies, how they get the nutrition content so high, and how much protein you can expect to find in them. Deanna also talks about the connection between good nutrition and mental health, and how the company is developing blends that aid the health of seniors and support those with different illnesses, such as diabetes. She shares how these smoothies are designed to be a complete nutrition meal, boosted with superfoods to support different health goals and taste preferences. To find out why Blended For You smoothies should be a staple in your freezer, the different ways they can be enjoyed, and why kids and adults like them so much, tune in today!
Key Points From This Episode:
- An introduction to Deanna Embury and how she got into the smoothie business.
- How the health struggles of friends and family members influenced her to make smoothies.
- Why she put off starting the business and spent a year on product development.
- The struggles of trying to introduce customers to something that was new.
- The importance of minimizing food waste.
- The pros of frozen food when it comes to ingredient shortages.
- How the products actually work and help people on the go.
- The high-nutrition aspect of the smoothies: 90 percent have a vegetable included in them.
- How the smoothies for kids are different from the rest of the product line.
- The protein content of the smoothies: 80 percent have between 15 and 21 grams.
- Why they used only vegan and plant-based proteins and avoided gluten.
- How the company is expanding into blends that support different critical illnesses.
- How the packaging is made from compostable, non-toxic plant materials with no plastic.
- Deanna’s favorite smoothies: the green ones!
- The role of nutrition in supporting good mental health.
- Deanna’s morning routine and her life hack for getting through stressful periods.
- Future plans for the business include leasing space in Toronto and developing blends that support the needs of diabetics and seniors.
- Where you can find Blended For You smoothies.
Tweetables:
“There’s a lot of ingredients. It’s about ingredient combining and really putting a lot of thought and love and care into absorption and what best foods combine together – and making it taste good.” — @Blendedforu [0:04:02]
“I played around with all kinds of things with the goal of creating something that will help people, whether it’s just staying healthy and managing a busy life, whether it’s getting your greens in because you just don’t like to eat them, or something more serious.” — @Blendedforu [0:05:47]
“The core of the company is about helping people eat well, stay energized, helping our customers and communities be healthy or stay healthy.” — @Blendedforu [0:11:21]
“I love the combination of the health and nutrition and the low food waste.” — @Blendedforu [0:12:05]
“A big part of what I am passionate about and doing a deep dive into is how nutrition supports mental health.” — @Blendedforu [0:20:12]
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
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