Where the idea came from
After working in tech, I went through colon cancer treatment a few years ago. I learned research suggests blood sugar spikes can contribute to colon cancer recurrences. I also learned that almost 50 percent of Americans suffer from conditions related to blood-sugar imbalances—think diabetes, prediabetes. For people trying to manage chronic conditions, the first habit change is to find food that’s healthy and accessible. But so much of what’s available looks medicinal or doesn’t taste great. Or is a packet of nuts.
The goal
I wanted to create a snack product that was delicious, had the right nutritional balance, and was affordable. So my team polled a large group of folks with diabetes and prediabetes, asking what they missed most. The top answer? Cookies. So that was a pretty obvious place to start.
First steps
I brought in a chef who had worked at Noma and Alinea—it was important to me not to settle on taste. Then I found R&D food scientists and dietitians, and we all worked together to create cookies with the right nutritional balance at the right price.
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The hardest moment
Somewhere around batch #168. At that point, we’d flown back to the food development kitchen in Texas, having tried so many iterations—if the taste was right, the texture wasn’t; if the taste and texture were right, the nutritional value was out of whack. One of our food scientists had worked at Nabisco and Gamesa—he’d developed the number one cookie in Mexico—and he and his team said this was the hardest thing they’d ever worked on because of our requirements. The cookie still wasn’t quite right. That was a tough day.
The moment you thought this just might work
The day a janitor who’d wandered into our test kitchen ate some cookies from our final batch and asked for more. (He didn’t know they were low-sugar.)
The results
Since we’ve launched our three varieties (chocolate chip, peanut butter, and double chocolate), we’ve been picked up by 53 stores nationwide, including Central Market stores in Texas and Pop Up Grocer in New York City.
The most meaningful came from a mother whose daughter was so happy to have a snack that didn’t spike her blood sugar, but we’ve also heard from people who say, “We ate the whole box,” and one person crumbled cookies up into a bowl and poured milk over to create a Joydays “cereal.” We’re not advocating either of those, by the way, but it’s fun to see.
Learn more and get a discount on your first cookie order here.
