FBOMB: dropping a fat bomb on nutrition

Ross and Kara Taylor are making it a little easier for people who follow a ketogenic or paleo diet to eat on the run.

According to WebMD.com, a ketogenic diet involves getting more calories from fat and protein in your and less calories from carbohydrates. The high fat diet causes the body to start using fat for fuel because it’s not getting enough carbohydrates. Diets like the Atkins diet, the Paleo diet and the Keto diet are all examples of a ketogenic diet. The diet was originally created in the 1920s to help children with epilepsy control seizures. It can also help people, like Ross, who have a family history of diabetes.

The idea for FBOMB and Love You Foods came from Ross’ attempts to use his diet to control his risk of diabetes. The Taylors found it hard to find healthy fats, like olive and coconut oil, to eat while traveling or dining out. They took to making their own packs of oils and nut butters to take with them on trips, which got a little messy more than once, according to Kara. It was also hard to find Keto diet-friendly foods that did not include added sweeteners or fillers.

The couple created FBOMB because they thought there might be others out there experiencing the same trouble, Ross said. The butters and oils are packaged in convenient single serving pouches that make it easier to add a little healthier fats to your diet while traveling, at work or while working out.

The brand carries six prepackaged oils including coconut, olive, avocado, macadamia nut, a house blend of several oils and MCT (medium chain triglycerides) oil, which is made from coconut oil. They also carry three flavors of macadamia nut butter including salted chocolate, sea salt and coconut. They’re working on a fourth nut butter flavor.

The products range in price from $8.50 for a 3-pack sampler of nut butter to $37.50 for a box of 15 nut butter packets and from $7.50 for a 3-pack sampler of oils to $50 for a box of 20 packets of MCT oil.

They specifically picked macadamia nuts for their nut butters because it has a high level of healthy fats in it. However, making a product out of the nuts was a bit tricky, Ross said. The nuts are expensive and because of their high fat content, they go rancid very quickly. By packaging the nut butter in individual servings with an airtight seal, the company can preserve the freshness of the butter and give customers a convenient package to toss in their bag, backpack or purse.

The Taylors started the company in Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology’s business incubator in May 2015 and sold their first batch of products in October of that year. They moved across the street to NACET’s Accelerator building in January 2017 and got the keys to their current location on South Plaza Way in November.

“We were having a hard time keeping up with orders with our current machinery. We didn’t have any back stock. We were shipping things out as fast as we could make it,” Ross said. The new machine will let the company create the same amount of product they currently generate in a month, about 20,000 to 25,000 packets, in about eight hours.