Bio & Me is the brainchild of Dr Megan Rossi, a registered dietitian nutritionist with a PhD in gut health and a research fellow at King’s College London. Bio & Me produces a range of granola, muesli, and oats with prebiotic fibres that boost gut health. Keep reading for my thoughts on their super seedy and nutty gut-loving granola.
Research is increasingly showing the importance of gut health to wellbeing.
Our guts contain between 10 and 100 trillion microorganisms, primarily bacteria with smaller amounts of viruses, yeasts, and fungi. These organisms work synergistically to boost immunity, and imbalances increase the risk of severe short-term or long-term diseases, including inflammatory bowel disorder, type 2 diabetes, cancer, obesity, and neurological conditions.
There’s a consensus among health professionals that the Western diet, with its high total fat, refined sugars, and animal protein content, is detrimental to health because it increases the number of disease-promoting gut bacteria like Firmicutes.
However, increasing the intake of prebiotics – non-digestible carbohydrates that gut bacteria convert into beneficial short-chain fatty acids – increases the number of health-promoting bacteria, including Bifidobacterium spp.
Prebiotics are naturally found in plant foods such as legumes, asparagus, garlic, onions, and artichokes. One of the best ways to get enough prebiotics and keep the gut healthy is to eat a variety of plant-based foods.
Dr Megan advises people to “eat 30 diverse plant-based foods a week for good gut health.”
Her range of granola, which comes in four different flavours, helps with this as each one is made with 15 fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds.
I decided to try the super seedy and nutty flavour, here are my thoughts.
Facts about the super seedy and nutty flavour
Description
The classic favourite is supercharged with extra seediness and nuttiness for your tastebuds and a healthy gut. We reckon you might just go nuts for it.
Ingredients
Wholegrain oats (37%), Seeds (15%), [Sunflower, Pumpkin, Hemp, Brown Linseed, Chia], Dates, Vegetable Fibres [Chickpea, Maize], Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Skin on Almonds (4%), Chicory Root Fibre, Dried Carrot, Puffed Sorghum, Skin on Hazelnuts (3%), Quinoa, Puffed Chickpeas, (1%), Vanilla Bean Extract.
As you can see, this granola is made up of only whole, high-quality ingredients. True to its claims, it contains 15 different plant foods for gut health. Chicory root fibre is an excellent source of inulin, a prebiotic fibre that also helps to regulate blood sugar.
I am particularly impressed that Bio & Me uses extra virgin olive oil instead of rapeseed, sunflower, or other cheap, potentially inflammatory vegetable oil in their recipe. This quality alone makes me rate this granola very highly.
Nutritional Information
| Typical Values | Per 100g | Per 60g Serving | RI Per Serving |
| Energy | 1934 kJ463 kcal | 1160 kJ278 kcal | 14% |
| Fat Of which saturates | 20.9g 2.6g | 12.5g 1.6g | 18% 8% |
| Carbohydrates Of which sugar | 48.3g 9.9g | 29.0g 5.9g | 11% 7% |
| Fibre | 14.0g | 8.4g | 28% |
| Protein | 13.3g | 8.0g | 16% |
| Salt | 0.04g | 0.02g | <1% |
The nutritional content of this granola is pretty good as it provides a decent amount of carbohydrates, plant-based proteins, and fat. The carbohydrates in this granola are complex carbohydrates, meaning your body will digest them slowly and give you steady energy until your next meal. And as the granola is plant-based, the fat it contains is primarily heart-healthy monounsaturated fats.
Each granola serving provides almost a third of the daily recommended fibre intake. Besides promoting gut health, fibre will slow carbohydrate release into your bloodstream, which will prevent blood sugar spikes and keep you feeling satisfied for long periods.
The taste
This granola has a very subtle but pleasant vanilla flavour. Even though it contains dates, it doesn’t taste sweet (at least not like typical granola from more prominent brands). It also has a chewy rather than crunchy texture. I didn’t mind the chewy texture at all, as it gave me more time to enjoy the different textures in the granola and made me eat each mouthful slowly.
I’ve eaten the granola on its own as a snack and with fresh fruit and plain soya yoghurt or milk for breakfast. My favourite combination was the granola with fresh fruit and yoghurt because I found it more pleasurable and satisfying. Eating the super seedy granola with fresh blackberries, pomegranate seeds, and plain soya yoghurt kept me satisfied for around five hours. I found that fresh fruit added more sweetness, and the pomegranate seeds added the crunch the granola was missing.
Size:
The granola comes in a 360g box. And at the recommended serving size of 60g, you get six portions per box – basically six breakfasts.
Price:
£3.99 – £4.59
Dietary Restrictions:
Vegan but not suitable for people with gluten intolerances or coeliac disease.
My Final Verdict
I LOVE it! The only con I can think of is that the granola is not crunchy; I don’t know if I got a stale batch or if that’s the intended texture. It didn’t bother me either way because the nutritional and potential gut health benefits far outweigh my very slight disappointment in the texture.
My kids have also tried this granola and absolutely love it too. At £3.99 a pack, it is a reasonable price for one person but a little pricey for a family of two or more. Then again, I prefer to spend more on quality food that benefits my health rather than cheaper food that does nothing but provides excess sugar.
If you haven’t tried Bio & Me granola, I’ll highly recommend you do. The granola comes in three other flavours:
All flavours contain 15 different plant foods. I’ve tried the low sugar flavour, and I can confirm that it is just as tasty as the super seedy and nutty flavour. I fully expect the other two flavours to deliver on taste too.
Where to get Bio & Me granola range
You can purchase them directly from Bio & Me’s website (they’re running a 35% discount throughout January), or you can get them from Amazon, Planet Organic, and Waitrose.
Your gut will love you for it!
References
- Scarpellini, E., Basilico, M., Rinninella, E., Carbone, F., Schol, J., Rasetti, C., Abenavoli, L., * Santor, P. (2021) Probiotics and gut health. Minerva Gastroenterology (Torino), doi:10.23736/S2724-5985.21.02910-7.
- Rinninella, E., Cintoni, M., Raoul, P., Lopetuso, L.R., Scaldaferri, F., Pulcini, G., Miggiano, G.A.D., Gasbarrini, A., & Mele, M.C. (2019) Food components and dietary habits: keys for a healthy gut microbiota composition. Nutrients, 11(10): 2393
- Singhvi, N., Gupta, V., Gaur, M., Sharma, V., Puri, A., Sing, Y., Dubey, G.P., * Lal, R. (2020) Interplay of human gut microbiome in health and wellness. Indian Journal of Microbiology, 60(1): 26-36.
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