Local Savory Baby Food Inspired by the Paleo Diet
By Lina Fisher, September 23, 2019, 7:16am, On the Range
In anticipation of the birth of their daughter Della, Austin parents Joe and Serenity Carr researched baby food brands far and wide, only to find a surplus of sugary fruit purees. The Carrs were disappointed, given their penchant for healthy living and their transformative experience with the Paleo diet.
“After suffering heartburn, anxiety and insomnia for most of my life, I finally found relief through this ancestral approach to health, which focuses on plant and animal foods while avoiding allergens,” Serenity explains. If they couldn’t find their child the same food that had turned their lives around, they’d have to make it. Necessity was the mother of Serenity Kids, the first low-in-sugar, high-in-essential-fats baby food pouches on the market.
The health-conscious line aims to be an ideal first food for kids over six months, with the pediatrician recommendations to prove it. Pediatric obesity specialist Dr. Michelle Levitt explains that already at ages 4-7 months, infants begin to build their flavor preferences. “If infant cereal, fruits, and sweet vegetables are introduced first, this immediately starts altering the palate and the infant will often prefer sweeter foods and reject savory (more nutritious) foods.”
This “flavor window” closes at around 18 months, when the receptiveness of kids’ palates starts to dwindle. Levitt explains, “infancy is a time of exceptional development, growth, and plasticity. Because of this, what, when, and how we feed our infants can have a protective effect against obesity. Breastfeeding offers more protection against obesity than formula feeding.” Serenity Kids’ ratios of fats, proteins, and carbs match the USDA’s recommendations for infants’ first foods, and the recipes are based on nutrients found in breast milk, including protein, zinc, iron, B vitamins, and healthy fats.
[image-2-right]“It’s shocking how many baby food companies essentially sell sugar smoothies,” says John Durant, founder and general partner of Wild Ventures, a wellness fund that backs the project. By contrast, Serenity Kids offers entirely allergen-free, nutrient-dense recipes, with no added sugar. The flavors read more like a high-end health food menu than your typical baby food, with names such as Grass Fed Bison & Organic Kabocha Squash and Spinach, as well as Pasture Raised Turkey with Organic Sweet Potato, and Pastured Uncured Bacon with Organic Butternut Squash and Kale.
Serenity Kids sources from American family farms for its organic vegetables and GAP-certified (humanely raised) meat, and supports ethical farming practices by giving a portion of its profits to the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund. The pouches are recyclable and contain no antibiotics, added hormones, pesticides, fillers, or GMOs. You can find them in Whole Foods, Lassen’s, MOM’s Organic Market, King’s, DeCicco & Sons, and online via Amazon, Thrive Market and One Stop Paleo Shop. But the brand is still expanding, with the support of Wild Ventures and a variety of other prominent neurologists, nutritionists, and influencers in the wellness industry. If expert-backed baby food that sources from and benefits local farms isn’t good enough for the tiniest Austinites, what is?
For more information, visit www.myserenitykids.com.
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