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Many of you buy superfoods to keep your families healthy. But if you have young kids in the house or need to navigate allergies, you might be wondering which superfoods are right for you. We discuss all that and more in this YQA: Back-to-School Edition blog.
Q: Are superfoods safe for kids?
A: Yes! Our superfoods are made from whole food ingredients and are perfectly safe for all ages to enjoy. Whether in powder, seed, nib, or dried fruit form, our products are minimally processed to retain the maximum amount of nutrition possible—in just the balance that Mother Nature designed. Because our superfoods are whole food based and not supplements, which come with a specific dosage amount, the recommended serving sizes on our bags can be adjusted to suit your family’s tastes, recipe needs, or nutritional goals.
Some parents choose not to include adaptogenic foods in their children’s diets, like maca. This is because adaptogens can influence hormone balance within the endocrine system. Typically, adaptogens are helpful moderators, supporting our bodies in finding their best balance, but whether children should receive these not is up for debate. Our adaptogenic superfoods include maca powder and Superfood+ Adaptogen Blend. We recommend discussing any questions about adaptogens and kids with your family health practitioner.
Some of our superfoods contain naturally occurring caffeine in varying amounts; our Matcha Powder contains 32mg per teaspoon and our Cacao Powder has about 6.6mg per teaspoon. For comparison, an 8 ounce cup of drip coffee contains an average of 90mg of caffeine.
Note that our nutrition facts panel with its specific DV values complies with FDA regulations for nutrition in ages 4 years and above. If you have any questions about nutrient requirements for a younger child, we recommend talking to your family health practitioner.
Q: Are your superfoods allergen free?
A: In the earliest days of Navitas Organics, our superfoods were packaged by hand and shipped out of a garage in San Diego! We’ve grown quite a bit since then and these days we use a co-packing partner in Northern California to manage these final steps. Their state-of-the-art facility works with a number of high-quality brands, and some of the ingredients they handle include common allergens like tree nuts, peanuts, soy, sesame, dairy, egg, and wheat.
While we do not offer an allergen-free guarantee due to the shared facility, our co-packing partners have many practices in place to help safeguard against cross contamination, like sanitizing all the equipment between every product run using food-grade, organic cleaning agents. To ensure the highest quality safety standards, the co-packing facility follows Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and maintains an active HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) plan, which requires regular audits.
Note that our Power Snacks line contains tree nuts in the Chocolate Brownie and Blueberry Hemp flavors, and peanuts in the Superfood PB&J flavor.
Extra Credit: Did you know…
You can use superfoods to replace artificial food coloring in some recipes! Many antioxidants, like anthocyanins in acai, come with naturally vibrant colors (hence the recommendation to “eat the rainbow”). Light colored frostings, sauces and dressings are all great templates for alternative superfood dyes. Here’s what to choose:
Pomegranate Powder = Pink
Turmeric Powder = Orange
Maqui Powder = Blue
Acai Powder = Purple
Do you have a superfood question for Kali? Send it to her at askus@navitasorganics.com!
See what other burning superfood questions customers are asking in our candid "Your Questions Answered" Blog Series here.
