Braw Food

Braw is a health conscious food company based in Scotland. Buy Braw Bars Twitter Facebook Instagram: Brawfood

[brawfood]

Great North Run - Braw bars for Cancer Research UK runners

We have been approached by Cancer Research UK to provide healthy snacks to their supporters who completed the Bupa Great North Run yesterday. The Bupa Great North Run starts in Newcastle, where runners take in the iconic Tyne Bridge, running along to Gateshead with the finish further along the coast in South Shields.

The Great North Run started in 1981. Many people chose to raise money for causes close to their hearts. There’s also a more serious and professional competitive element to the race. Paula Radcliffe’s course record (for women) of 65 minutes 40 seconds, set in 2003 was the half marathon world record for four years. Haile Gebrselassie and other famous names in distance running have took part and Martin Mathathi set a new course record in 2011 with an epic 59 minute and 27 second completion of the 13.1mile half marathon distance.

Whether you’re a professional athlete like Mo Farah, double world and Olympic champion, who narrowly lost out in his half marathon competitive debut yesterday, or a fun runner wanting to complete your first half marathon, replenishing lost fuel immediately after an endurance run like a half marathon, is absolutely essential. Braw bars contain gluten free oats that are a good source of complex carbohydrates, meaning they're Low GI, and are available in four flavours, Cocoa & Orange, Strawberry, Blackcurrant and Apple & Pear. We love refuelling after a 10K jog in the park on a Braw bar, getting our fix of unrefined carbohydrates and tasty too. There’s no need for additional refined sugars, Braw bars contain high fruit content making them a tasty and healthy post-workout snack.

We’re delighted that Braw food has linked up with Cancer Research UK and were included in runners goodie bags in the second largest half marathon in the world. Who knew there are more runners in the Great North Run than even the London Marathon, making the event the largest mass participation sporting event in the UK. The Cancer Research UK team includes up to 2,700 runners. We’ll be cheering you on, not only in running effort but also equally epic fund raising - and support for such a worthy cause.

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According to PETA, Glasgow is the most vegan friendly city in the United Kingdom. As Braw bars are completely vegan, many of our fans have been asking if we know any good vegan spots. We compiled a list of our favourite vegan and vegetarian eateries in our Dear Green Place;

  Mono- 12 Kings Court, 103 King Street (G1 5RB)

Mono's in-house microbrewery

Not only does Mono serve delicious vegan main courses, snacks and alcohol, many drinks coming from the in-house microbrewery. Home brewed Ginger beer anyone? The space is also used as a music venue, record shop, a zine store and hosts art exhibitions. Weekday deals include 2-for-1 on mains on Mondays and a chilli dog plus a beer for £5 on a Thursday. The chilli dog by the way, is amazing.

  Stereo 20-28 Renfield Lane (G2 6PH)

  Stereo is Mono’s little sister. Primarily serving delectable vegan tapas, the menu also includes crowd pleasers like falafel and Mexican dishes as well as offering sharing platters. Stereo is in a more central location and the space, like Mono is multi- functional serving as a music venue, arts venue and nightclub. For those of you interested in Glasgow's architectural history, the building was once the home of the Daily Record printing works, and is a lesser known building designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. It has a distinctive white tiled exterior, designed in 1900 and built in the following four years.

  Saramago Cafe Bar 350 Sauchiehall Street (G2 3JD)

Located within the city’s Centre for Contemporary Arts, Saramago serves adventurous mains, tapas and daily offerings of fresh home baking. The CCA is an exciting space with many events and exhibitions, and the bar often plays host to live local music. There is also a terrace outside so you can enjoy a relaxing meal watching the city go by.

  The 78 10-14 Kelvinhaugh St  City Centre, Glasgow (G3 8NU)

  Very reasonably priced with a varied menu The 78 is very popular with locals. There is a lunch and evening menu, burger and pint deals and students can enjoy 25% off. Thursday nights host The Dutchy Pot, an evening of reggae and dancehall music enjoyed alongside a very cheap set menu. Great desserts too.

  The Flying Duck 142 Renfield St  Glasgow (G2 3AU)

This relaxed and cozy pub and club offers tasty and extremely cheap vegan snacks. On Tuesdays you can get two tacos for £2 and there is a weekly Jazz Kitchen where customers can listen to live jazz get a bowl of jambalaya for £1.50

If these options aren’t too much choice already, the city also boasts several vegetarian restaurants, most of which have vegan options.

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Boy, am I going to miss my herb garden. I have already started preserving my herbs to use over the winter by freezing them in olive oil. Being able to walk out and snip off a few sprigs of fresh thyme or rosemary is my favourite thing about summer.

[brawfood]

#BrawDeal: Win free snack bars

Summer is coming to a close and its time for young people to go back and indeed, start school (well, at least here in Scotland, our English pals have a week or two left). We know busy parents can struggle to fill lunch boxes with exciting, healthy snacks their kids will love but here at Braw we're happy help. Every week we are giving away a mixture of our bars which are perfect snacks for schoolchildren and bigger kids too. Braw bars contain whole grain, gluten free oats to keep little people going as well as containing 60% fruit, so if your child is fussy about fruit and veg, Braw bars are great way to ensure you and your family are getting enough of the nutrients they need. In fact, each bar counts as one of your five a day. Braw bars are available in Apple & Pear, Blackcurrant, Strawberry and Cocoa & Orange and contain 100% natural ingredients. Our bars are completely vegan and gluten free which makes them a perfect playtime snack option for children with special dietary requirements. They’re also dairy free and suitable for people with nut allergies as Braw bars are now nut free. For your chance to win some free Braw bars enter our giveaway. There are multiple ways you can enter so get sharing and liking for your chance to win a selection of bars every week from now until the end of September!

http://bit.ly/BrawDeals

[brawfood]

Braw Adventure

The Gulf of Corryvreckan is a beautiful strait of water off the west coast of Scotland, According to Scottish mythology Cailleach Bheur, the hag goddess of winter uses the water to wash her tartan. The area was also home to George Orwell who moved to Jura in 1947 to complete his masterpeice 1984. The author and his son were shipwrecked and nearly drowned in the whirlpool.

The water at Corryvreckan can be unpredictable and so people enjoying water-sports in the area should make sure they are full of energy. Braw bars are an excellent choice for athletes, our gluten free oats provide slow release energy while the fruit content helps ensure you get vital nutrients,  Whether you are canoeing, kayaking or swimming, a Braw bar is easy to take with you on an adventure and will help keep you going.

[conscio-us-magazine]

1. Teahouse Tetsu by Terunobu Fujimori – Hokuto City, Japan

Terunobu Fujimori works just with natural materials. His career high is to design contemporary buildings “that float on the air” .One of this floating architecture is the Tetsu tea-tree house; This tea-tree house...

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Mushinews: 5m Gorilla made of upcycled tires. This sculpture was placed in front of University of Helsinki, Finland. 

Foto: Debarshi Ray via scandinaviansky

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new world water

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Braw Bars are made with gluten free Oats and are suitable for Coeliacs. Following a gluten-free diet doesn’t mean that you can’t eat healthily

[brawfood]

8 Reasons To Rock-On With Meat-Free Monday (with Paul McCartney and Gwyneth Paltrow)

8 Facts About The Livestock Industry:

1. The Livestock industry produces gases that are extremely dangerous for the future of our environment. 2. The two main gases, methane and nitrous oxide, are considered to be more harmful than CO2 (methane is 21 times more powerful than CO2 and nitrous oxide is 310 times more powerful than CO2) so the data suggests that this is causing a highly dangerous situation for ourselves and, more importantly, for future generations. 3. Methane also remains in the atmosphere for 9 to 15 years; nitrous oxide remains in the atmosphere for 114 years, on average, and is 296 times more potent than CO2 – the gases released today will continue to be active in degrading the climate decades from now. 4. Livestock production is land intensive: a recent report by Greenpeace on land use in the largest meat producing state in Brazil found that livestock (cattle) production was responsible for vastly more deforestation than soya. 5. A third of all cereal crops, and well over 90 percent of soya, goes into animal feed, not food for humans. Eating less meat will free up a lot of agricultural land which can revert to growing trees and other vegetation, which, in turn, will absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. 6. Livestock production is water intensive: it accounts for around 8 percent of global human water use. The estimated 634 gallons of fresh water required to produce one 5.2 ounce (150g) beef burger would be enough for a four-hour shower. For comparison, the same quantity of tofu requires 143 gallons of water to produce. 7. Livestock production is the largest source of water pollutants, principally animal wastes, antibiotics, hormones, chemicals from tanneries, fertilizers and pesticides used for feed crops, and sediments from eroded pastures. 8. The meat industry is set to double its production by 2050, so even if they manage to lower emissions by 50 percent, as they have promised to, we will still be in the same position.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/8-reasons-to-rock-on-with-meat-free-monday.html#ixzz2bqruEug2

[itscolossal]

The Earth’s Seasonal “Heartbeat” as Seen from Space

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Note, this doesn’t show sea ice in the Arctic…

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[brawfood]

Test Tube Burgers

Scientists at Maastricht University have unveiled the first ever ‘test tube burger’ made entirely from lab-grown meat. 

The burger isn’t cheap – costing around £250,000 to develop, however creator Professor Mark Post says his technique could revolutionise the meat production industry, offering solutions to problems of sustainability and even reducing the number of animals slaughtered for food. Cultured from the stem cell of a slaughtered cow, think we’ll pass on that one. 

The reputation of the meat industry has notoriously garnered negative criticism for producing harmful greenhouse gasses and using up natural resources at an alarming rate. The recent horsemeat scandal has made it difficult to trust what ingredients processed meat products contain. While the test-tube burger reduces some of the problems associated with meat consumption, it isn't everyone’s idea of fresh, natural nourishment. 

Choosing to incorporate more fruit and veg into your diet is a great way to do your bit for the environment. Buying seasonal plants and trying to source products locally is a good way to reduce our impact on the planet, and choosing natural products gives you more control of what you are putting in your body. We wholeheartedly subscribe to eating less meat and plenty more veg.

Eating a balanced diet containing a wide variety of fruit and veg is essential in maintaining optimum health.  Braw bars contain absolutely no additives, preservatives or synthetic ingredients, there are neigh horses harmed in our bars!

[brawfood]

Braw some festivals

We love a good festival, especially if the weather's like the recent heatwave we've been experiencing. There’s something about a Scottish summer that brings out the best in folk. That’s folk music, folk fashion and folk people in general. We love being outdoors, bringing back memories of the long-summers spent swimming in the sea, beachcombing and foraging for wild berries back on Islay.

We’ve been lucky enough to make it to a few festivals this summer, including the fifth largest greenfield festival in the world (according to Wikipedia), T in the Park here in Scotland. We feel a sense of pride when we think of what DF Concerts and Tennent’s Lager have achieved over the past twenty years, bringing some incredible acts to Balado airfield. We also love the rise in much smaller boutique, independent festivals in Scotland, and more widely across the rest of the UK and Europe too.

We’ve looked longingly at the beach festivals in Barcelona, Croatia and Serbia that many of our friends have been raving about. With an array of diverse festivals like Kelburn Garden Party (and their psychedelic raves), Insider, Belladrum and RockNess, Scotland has plenty of choice on the festival circuit.

Check out our list of Braw-recommended festivals still to come this summer:

Wickerman thewickermanfestival.co.uk 26 July – 27 July Alternative festival, 12 years young based in Dundrennan in the Scottish Borders. Family friendly, highlights include burning of effigy of a giant man made out of wicker, there’s a hint in the name.

Doune The Rabbit Hole dounetherabbithole.co.uk 22 – 25 August Small, limited to just 1000 this newcomer is three years old features over 100 local musical acts in a family friendly setting – kids under 12 go free. Car sharing and workshops like learning how to play the musical saw are on the agenda plus glamping options by way of yurts, poetry, story-telling and a cinema for times when you want to lounge back, relax and take a break from live music.

Burning Man burningman.com 26 August – 2 September Experimental week long festival in Nevada desert of self-expression. Famed for the absence of cash transactions where bartering is the currency along with plenty of nude cycling and adoption of the leave no trace ethic.

Bestival bestival.net 5-8 September This award winning 4 day boutique festival is set in a country park in the heart of the Isle of Wight. Created by BBC Radio 1 DJ Rob da Bank and his wife, Josie and John and Ziggy from Get Involved this year is it’s ninth outing. Fancy dress themes change each year and there’s a contest to take part in the swim to bestival excursion from the mainland to the Isle of Wight.

Festival Number 6 festivalnumber6.com 13-15 September Portmeirion is the site of this serene festival that looks like a magical, spiritual offering. Including a mix of screenings, readings, performance art and a luxury spa on the edge of Snowdonia, Wales.

Attending a festival can be a feat of endurance. Having a Braw bar for breakfast is one way of ensuring you’re getting one of your five a day in handy, festival friendly packaging (no squashed banana bag, right?). The bright colours of our bars make it easy to rummage around a tent and find something satisfying and tasty to eat, even in the dead of night under wind-up torchlight. Carrying a couple of Braw bars in a fabric festival bag made sure we weren’t tempted by junk food and other snack offerings, instead opting for some of the  more refined eating options. Oysters and Mussels anyone? Yup, we’re well into “glamping”.

Whatever festivals you go to have fun and stay healthy. What’s your favourite festival moment over the summer? Share your stories with us for your chance to win a selection of Braw bars.

[brawfood]

Compass Idea works, a Braw pitch

The Compass Group UK are a leading provider of contract catering services. We first met with the guys from Compass Group UK at the ScotHot 2013 tradeshow at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre earlier in the Spring.  Since then, we were invited to pitch to a team of leading catering experts from the global catering company in a Dragon’s Den style format. If that wasn’t nerve wracking enough, we were in the prestigious and historic Edinburgh Castle pitching to a panel of four judges.

They say, Fifteen Minutes, Four Judges, One Big Idea – Yours! We went along and pitched Braw Food and our Braw bars to a team of experts from Compass Group UK for the opportunity to see more of our ideas realised.

There’s a little more information available over on their site, compass-ideaworks.co.uk including a brief video of Braw founder, Ben Roy in action. Ben talked about how Braw bars count as one of your five a day, Braw bars are gluten free and dairy free. Plus Braw bars are low in calories as they contain mostly fruit with some gluten free oats. To see Braw in action, and learn more about our story, you can head on over to their YouTube Channel.

[brawfood]

Super Fruit Snacks

We love eating fresh, tasty fruit. We also realise it’s not always possible to have a stash of fresh berries tucked away in your gym bag or in your desk drawer in the office. That’s why we wanted to create a healthy snack that contained the nutritional benefits of fresh fruit in a convenient and altogether more portable product. Recently we’ve been enjoying the new season of Spanish blueberries and the first crop of Scottish strawberries, plus we’ve been sampling a delectable variety of more exotically grown fruits like Mango, Dragon fruit and more. Can you identify the other fruit in the picture taken above?

Braw bars are packed full of fruit. So much food we consume is overloaded with way more processed sugars than is necessary and often unwelcome as part of a healthy, balanced diet. Because of the high quantity of naturally occurring sweetness in the fruits we select for Braw bars we ensure that no additional processed sugars are sneaked within so you can enjoy one of your five a day.

We deliberate over the suppliers of all the ingredients in Braw bars and we’re refining and experimenting all the time. In fact, we’re researching a potentially new addition to our Braw, what flavours would you like to see in a healthy fruit bar format? Mango and Orange and another tropical Dragon fruit (Pitaya) with its kiwi-like flesh that’s packed with fibre and Vitamin C and B Vitamins. We’ve really enjoyed the samples of Dragon fruit we’ve sourced recently, not  least at this fruit part of the cactus family it’s low in calories and offers lots of nutritional benefits. Mango has a unique flavour, and deserves its reputation as a super fruit, which offers a superb consistency plus recent studies have found it effective in protecting against colon, breast and prostate cancers plus some forms of leukamia due to it’s polyphenolic anti-oxidant compounds. Yeah, we had to look that up too!

[brawfood]

Braw food map

Since we came up with the Braw bar idea, less than 18 months ago, we have single handedly sourced stockists as far away as South Africa, and a range of distributors and retailers throughout the UK.

The full range of Braw bars are available to buy online here and in many independent, health food retailers near you. We’ve created a Google Map listing our healthy snack stockists in Scotland and we want to keep this updated so we can help people find stores and help keep hunger at bay wherever you and your family are out and about.

We’d like you to help us, by sharing with us independent retailers near you who already stock Braw or that you would like to see stock our fruit and gluten free oat bars.

View Where to buy Braw bars in a larger map Alternatively, if you would like to become a stockist please get in touch directly or contact your preferred distributor.