The Daily Bite: Cacao Crunch

Once you subscribe, you can update your monthly order to any flavor you'd like, allowing you to have different flavors each month. We also recently launched mix-and-match bundles, where you can order two different flavors per month.

Iodine is a trace mineral required by the body to synthesize thyroid hormones, specifically T3 and T4. Since the body doesn’t produce its own iodine, we have to get it from food sources. When the body produces thyroid hormones without sufficient iodine levels, the thyroid hormones get stored, until the time at which the body has enough iodine to utilize those hormones. When enough thyroid hormones get built up, a goiter can develop. In the United States in the early 1900’s, there was a severe iodine deficiency throughout much of the northern half of the country. This area became known as the “goiter belt” due to the prevalence of goiters, and other iodine deficiency related maladies in the population. As a result of this public health crisis, the federal government regulated the addition of iodine in table salt and other commodities.

Recently, the National Institute of Health (NIH) reported on a reemergence of iodine deficiency within certain populations in the US, namely, “women of reproductive age”. Additional at-risk populations include vegans and vegetarians, people who don’t cook with iodized table salt, and people that live in areas with depleted soil.

Common symptoms of iodine deficiency are: fatigue and lethargy, weight gain/inability to lose weight, hair loss and thinning, sensitivity to cold or trouble regulating body temperature, trouble with memory and focus, painful or irregular menstruation, fertility issues, problems during pregnancy, vertigo, irregular heartbeat, and dry skin.

According to the NIH, “Iodine is one of the most common nutrient deficiencies and is estimated to affect 35–45% of the world’s population”.

We’ve formulated our Daily Bites to provide a daily dose of iodine for adults, or about 190mcg of iodine. We did this so as not to exceed the tolerable upper limit (TUL) of iodine, which is 1,100 mcg.

An independent, third party lab has run these extensive nutrition panels on our bites. We have also run heavy metal and toxicity tests on our product - the bites are under safe harbor limits as regulated by Prop 65. There isn’t yet an established standardized methodology for detecting and counting microplastics in food.

Our supplier, Maine Coast Sea Vegetables, has studied the potential for seaweed to uptake microplastics, and has found that because macroalgae don’t consume random particles of food or filter seawater like filter feeders do, if microplastics are present, they would be on the surface of the seaweed and not within, which would be washed away during cleaning and processing.