How important is a low GI breakfast?

MiYé x NuMorning: the interview

Caroline: Hello Mathilde and David! You are the founders of the Nümorning brand. We are delighted to welcome you and Anna to talk about breakfast, a very important meal, for which we felt it was essential to create a nice collaboration. We would like to know a little more about the origins of your brand and why you decided to tackle breakfast.

Mathilde: Hello Caroline, hello Anna, thank you very much for this invitation, we are very happy to be with you this morning and to be able to talk about this very important subject. So, to quickly explain what Nümorning is, it's a company that David and I created four years ago, in September 2017, and which, as its name suggests, is really dedicated to mornings and breakfast. I lived and traveled in English-speaking countries for a long time when I was younger and that really familiarized me with other types of breakfasts that are very different from the bread/butter/jam we're used to in France and all of this allowed me to discover everything that is muesli, porridge, granola. Once I returned to France, I realized that there was really a big gap between the hyper-industrial, hyper-processed, hyper-sweetened offerings that we all know (that's the majority of what we find on the shelves), and on the other hand, there were a few products, but which had a hyper-diet connotation, quite restrictive, like muesli with no added sugar, with mainly flakes that weren't very tasty. It was really difficult, in the end, to find something that was in between, so something that was very tasty, that we enjoyed eating, but which had real nutritional commitments on the degree of processing, but also on the rate and origin of the sugars that were used, and many other subjects, like fiber, the glycemic index, it's a whole bunch of things that are super important and which were until now not taken into account at all in this segment of breakfast cereals.

Caroline: You started out in a fairly artisanal way? By doing very advanced homemade products.

David: Yes, we started by doing initial tests in Mathilde's kitchen. Then, for about 8 months, we moved from place to place before having our own little home. So we started in a pizzeria, in a bakery, we were welcomed by a room that held cooking classes... It was an adventure at first. Then we had our first home, near Lyon, we had our small workshop, we have since moved to a larger space, but we have always made the decision to make everything ourselves, and not to entrust the preparation of our products to others. That way, we can completely control what we do and be very flexible on the recipes and manufacturing processes.

Caroline: In terms of the recipes, as Mathilde said very well. What is particularly striking, and what we have difficulty finding, is that you really have an alliance between indulgence and gastronomy because we are on very balanced recipes: you avoid all stimulants, but there is also a very good balance between sweet and gourmet and at the same time a low glycemic index. How did you work on all these recipes?

Mathilde: Yes, so it's true, as you say, there were quite a few things to take into account. I'm an agricultural engineer by training and I specialized very quickly. I used to work in the food industry. I'm also passionate about nutrition. I have two parents who are doctors, so these are really subjects that I was already passionate about well before Nümorning. I already had this habit of studying ingredients a little without falling into psychosis because I've always loved eating. It's still the case. I love treating myself. I spent a lot of time creating recipes and choosing each ingredient, especially the choice of sugar, the choice of oil, things that may seem a little trivial. There are still lots of things to take into account. And so that was really a lot of work from the beginning. It still is with each new range and recipe creation. Now, we have a person in the team who has joined us, who is also an agricultural engineer and who specializes in nutrition, who helps us go even further. And in particular, we'll talk about it again, at the launch of our digestible granola, where there was a nutritional dimension that was extremely important. We really had to make the right choices. But there you go, it's something we've been working on internally since the beginning.

Anna: So, Mathilde, you mentioned Granola Digest. Can you tell us more about the recipe and this product in particular?

Mathilde: Yes, so I've really wanted to address the issue of the microbiota and digestive problems for a while. It's something that affects a lot of people. There's a statistic that says it affects one in two people, but I think it actually affects many more. I think we've all had digestive disorders or problems, we know all about it. So, it's something that's fascinating. Not only because it affects a lot of people, but also because we realize, when we dig a little deeper, that the microbiota actually has truly multiple impacts on many factors in our health, our lives, from psychological state to skin, immunity, and of course, digestion. Even if it's really mind-blowing when you get interested in it, it's fascinating. But that's also why we call the microbiota our second brain. So, it's really a fascinating subject for me and I really wanted to address it with Nümorning and so, we worked for many months with Anaëlle in the team on this new product and our objective was to really offer something very complete which, as we explain, contains both prebiotics and probiotics. And so, to explain very simply and quickly, basically, probiotics are living organisms, good bacteria that cover and exist in our microbiota or our body. It represents about two kilos of our weight. So, it's not at all negligible. There are a lot of them. And prebiotics are these elements that will feed these bacteria. So, for our microbiota to be healthy, it relies on a rather unstable balance. We have to take care of these bacteria and their food. In this granola, we provide both: we provide probiotics through a particular strain that we selected, which has had several clinical studies that have demonstrated its effects and which withstands cooking, very important for our manufacturing method. And prebiotics that are contained in different ingredients that we use, so both oats with beta-glucans and coconut blossom sugar. There is inulin, which contains a lot of prebiotics, but also apple, which we use with pectin and almonds, which contain soluble fiber. All these ingredients provide different types of prebiotics that will nourish the probiotic strain that we add. That's basically it. So that's the really nutritional and technical side, in quotes. But obviously, we also wanted a product that remains super delicious.

This is as essential a point for us as the composition. We will never validate a recipe if it doesn't fully satisfy us in terms of taste. And so, it's a granola that is vanilla with flaked almonds.

Anna: And maca cacao. Can you tell us more about it?

Mathilde: We started from the observation that in cocoa preparations, even if you go to the organic store because you have to be careful, organic doesn't mean better nutritionally, we almost always have sugar as the first ingredient. It's super complicated to find a cocoa drink that isn't full of sugar. So, that's really the starting point that pushed us to develop this recipe. And then, I discovered a whole world of adaptogenic plants, which really have quite incredible virtues, of which Maca is one. It's a plant that grows at altitude in Peru, which has energizing properties. But beyond that, it's a plant that, nutritionally, is super super rich in minerals and is particularly rich in iron, calcium and magnesium. So there you have it, we selected this plant for this drink, to add a healthy side in addition to the super comforting side of cocoa. So, this is a recipe that contains organic fair trade cocoa, coconut blossom sugar which is our sweetener for all the recipes where we use a sweetener which is an unrefined sweetener, with a low glycemic index and also very rich in minerals. 20% Maca, which is not negligible and we added a tiny hint of cinnamon, so it's really very, very subtle. It's really to give a little extra something to the cocoa notes.

Caroline: It has a slightly spicy, yet warm taste. With the cinnamon, it's really pleasant.

Mathilde: And at the same time, it remains very mild. People really like its cocoa, maca sweetness. You should know, for those who are wondering, that Maca has a slightly roasted taste. And so, in cocoa mac, I think it softens it, precisely that which it softens. But in any case, it doesn't break it at all or give it a taste other than cocoa.

Caroline: Anyway, well done for making the connection. Thanks again to David and Mathilde, because really, I've really dug into breakfast, especially trying to feed my children properly in the morning with things that stick to the body and that contribute to a lot of things, it's complicated. And I actually think there was room to be found on this subject. It's still an essential meal for hormonal balance, since it's in the morning, we can destabilize it the most, especially the insulin level in the body, since after rest, it's the worst time to eat sweets. It's better to do it in the late afternoon when insulin is better metabolized. And indeed, finding in these two products the maca cocoa which allows you to avoid stimulants which are recognized endocrine disruptors and the granola, very interesting with probiotics, the richness in fiber, the low glycemic index. These are truly delicious things that help maintain good hormonal balance and help you develop good habits with these products. We're really excited to try this with you. Thank you, thank you.