Yummy Yim’s

Now in remission, she has removed chemicals and preservatives from her diet and is sharing her healthy treats with the public through Yim’s Yummy Gourmet Tuck Shop, an online store where people can place orders via her Facebook page or buy her goods at Up- Market, a roving expo.

All of Wa Paul’s products are dairy free, gluten free, flour free, yeast-free and have no preservatives or refined sugars. She uses eggs, as well as nutbased flour, but only uses honey, pure Grade B Maple syrup, or coconut palm sugar in her baked goods. Best of all, they are delicious.

Wa Paul recalled that she and her husband, they live in St Augustine, rarely ate out because she preferred to cook healthy meals, but the snacks she bought, even supposedly healthy ones such as granola bars, were not the best.

“I thought my lifestyle was good enough before because I was very active, always exercising or in the gym, eating healthy - lots of vegetables and lean meats. But I didn’t think of all the things I bought in the cans like corned beef, peas, carrots - they are all processed,” she said.

“You think it’s healthy but if people take the time to read the ingredients, they don’t know or can’t pronounce half of the ingredients,” she added.

In 2013, Wa Paul began to do some research online, looking for the healthiest options and recipes, refusing to take things at face value. She did not want preservatives, chemicals, or processed foods, yet wanted snacks that tasted good. Her search led her to foods in its most natural form and she began doing a lot of juicing, ate a lot of raw fruit and vegetables, sprouted beans, and fermented foods.

She explained that sprouting channa, lentils, and mung beans were excellent raw and could be used in salads.

Sprouting beans have high levels of dietary fibre, B complex vitamins and protein, vitamin C, digestive enzymes, and antioxidants. Describing the process, she said the beans could be soaked overnight, drained, covered, rinsed a few times per day, and they should sprout in a few days.

When the sprouts are one to two inches long, they are ready to eat. Some of her fermented products include Kimchi, vegetables, cashew cheese, and teas. The fermented cashew cheese has the consistency of cream cheese and comes in three flavours - pepper flakes, parsley, and garlic basil. She said the cheese is especially great for Alfredo sauce, or to spread on bagels and crackers.

The teas are of two types: Kambucha, fermented black tea with organic cane sugar; and Jun tea, fermented green tea with raw honey.

They come in numerous flavours including ginger, mango, pomegranate, or whatever fresh ingredients are on hand. Wa Paul said the teas are good for detoxing, boosting the immune system, helping with acid reflux, eczema, psoriasis and other ailments.

When her friends tasted her goodies, they ordered for themselves and encouraged her to package and sell them, which she started to do in January 2015.

Wa Paul observed that most people believe healthy food “tastes like cardboard” and so they close their minds to it, and refuse to even try it. “However, a lot of people are trying to eat healthier these days and so are willing to try new things but it’s a slower process than I expected to open up people’s minds,” she said.

She noted that some of her clients just want to lose weight or eat healthy, but she mainly caters for people with health issues. She uses as many organic ingredients as possible, and the best quality that she could get, and makes her treats with love.

She said her products have helped people with Crohn’s disease, lupus, allergies, lactose intolerance, and hormone imbalances. She stresses, though, that she is not a doctor and emphasises that she is not encouraging anyone to use her products instead of seeing a doctor.

However, she said her products would be beneficial as a complementary addition to anyone’s health journey.

Some of her products include trail mix granola with goji berries, maple bacon granola, chewy chocolate fudge cookies, mini cinnamon rolls, vanilla coconut blueberry cashew cheesecake, triple chocolate pecan cashew cheesecake, hazelnut dark chocolate brownies, cinnamon coffee cake, sprouted hummus, raw kale chips, and much more.