There is a certain frustration that hits about four hours into a mountain bike trail or halfway through a taxing afternoon of heavy focus work. It is that empty, shaking feeling right in the center of your stomach. For a long time the solution served to us by the fitness industry was a luminescent colored gel or protein bar that tasted like a candy bar had been tossed in chalk. We welcomed it because that is what fuel looked like, super processed, man-made and packed with enough maltodextrin to power a small town.

However, lately there has been a slow transition, we are beginning to realize that our bodies aren’t experiments, our bodies have evolved and require actual food to function. This is where Holyfat (and their BSE line) enters the chat. They are selling nut butter built with a level of control that makes your average grocery store jar look like a dessert.

The Problem with the Modern Pantry

Grab any energy snack or your standard nut spread, now turn it over, I am sure you found a short love story of ingredients. You’ll see palm oils used as stabilizer so the oil doesn’t separate, you will see natural flavors which aren’t natural at all. Most importantly you will see sugar disguised behind names like brown rice syrup, agave or evaporated cane juice. 

The outcome of this is a spike and crash cycle. You will get a hit of energy; your insulin levels will rise up and an hour later you are worse off than before your snack!

Alvaro Madrazo, the brains behind the brand started with a simple and almost stubborn premise- performance begins with what you use to fuel your body not with marketing trends. This idea is built on metabolic quality. I know that sounds like a fancy term, but it really just means respecting how your body processes energy. If you give it whole foods, organic fats and fiber from nuts it stays stable, if you give it a lab produced syrup, it stumbles.

One Mission, Two Fruity Flavors: Raspberry and Banana

Holyfat didn’t have a random selection of flavors to choose from, they intentionally put their focus on Raspberry Endurance and Banana Clean Fuel.

Raspberry Endurance Nut Butter

Most brands go for the standard vanilla and chocolate as they are easier to disguise with sweeteners, however raspberry was an interesting choice. It brings a natural acidity and when this is combined, the tartness of the raspberry with the earth base of high-end nuts, you end up with something that does not coat your mouth in artificial sweetness.

From a functional standpoint, raspberries are packed with antioxidants. When you are working under an immense amount of stress or a training hard, your body deals with oxidative stress, using fruit as the main flavor profile is not purely about taste, it is about adding micronutrients to the mix without needing a chemistry practice kit.

Banana Clean Fuel Nut Butter

Banana is the original pre-workout; it is the gold standard of athletic fruit for a very good reason. By combining real banana into a nut butter base, Holyfat catches that natural carbohydrate source and potassium. Potassium is vital for electrolyte balance, preventing the mid run leg cramps. When it is hidden away in a fat heavy nut butter, the sugars in the banana are absorbed at a much slower pace.

This is the clean aspect. You are receiving the energy of the fruit, but the healthy fats from the nuts act as a buffer, making sure that the energy release is a slow burn rather than a quick flash in the pan.

The Art of Restraint

In the manufacturing world, it is surprisingly way harder to make a product with five ingredients than it is to make one with fifteen. With fifteen ingredients, you can use fillers to amend the textures and artificial scents to fix the smell.

Holyfat’s formulation is an activity in restraint:

• No refined sugars as you don’t want your pancreas to do the extra work
• No preservatives because food should always be fresh.
• No stabilizers or fillers the texture comes directly from the nuts.

When you rip away the junk, the flavor has no place to hide. You actually taste the pecans, walnuts and almonds. You are able to taste the fruit. It is a return to food that serves a purpose beyond just filling your stomach.

Why a Pouch?

One of the first things you will notice about BSE Nut Butters is the packaging, they didn’t put it in glass jars, they put it in a pouch!

This is a wink towards the reality of an active lifestyle. A jar isn’t portable, it requires a spoon whereas a pouch fits in the back pocket of a cycling jersey or the side pocket of a hiking pack, or programmer’s laptop bag who doesn’t necessarily have the time for a sit-down lunch.

The pouch is what makes high density nutrition ready for use. It is about taking away the friction between I am hungry to I am eating something actually good for me.

Reinventing Performance

We have been brainwashed to think that performance food has to be this extreme thing, we seem to think that it is for professional athletes or marathon runners, but Holyfat’s approach suggests that performance is for everyone.

• Pre-training: it gives a stable base that doesn’t sit heavy in your stomach
• Post-workout: it assists in replenishing fats and minerals without the inevitable sugar cash
• The workday: it is probably the best snack as the fats promotes the feeling of being full which in turn stops you from reaching for the office cookies every hour.

The aim isn’t a dramatic transformation, it is about the cumulative effect of small, smart choices. If you are able to replace one sugar loaded snack with a nutrient dense on our energy levels over the next month will look completely different. Your focus is razor sharp and your cravings are silent.

The Global Horizon

As the brand grows from its roots into the much wider European and international markets, the mission still remains the same, honor the body’s biological integrity. In the age of food hacking, Holyfat is doing something revolutionary by going old-school, using real ingredients and putting trust in them to do their job.

As Alvaro Madrazo put it, “Performance doesn’t start in the gym, it starts with what you fuel yourself with.”

It is a reminder that we really are what we eat. If we want to perform like an athlete, we have to keep away from low-grade additives. Whether you are reaching for the tartness of the Raspberry or the classic steady energy of the Banana, you are making the decision to respect your goals.