EASY, HEALTHY, DELICIOUS GLUTEN FREE BAKING MIXES

Recently I had the opportunity to meet the Simple Mills CEO and Founder Katlin Smith and taste some of her gluten free baking mixes.

MEET SIMPLE MILLS CEO & FOUNDER KATLIN SMITH

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Recently I had the opportunity to meet the Simple Mills CEO and Founder Katlin Smith and taste some of her gluten free baking mixes. She was very open and candid about her life, her own medical issues and why she feels so passionate about using the healthiest ingredients in all of her mixes. Katlin believes that less is more and this is where the idea for her company Simple Mills sprang.

Growing up in North Carolina, Katlin graduated with a double major in Business and Immunology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and found a love for immunology. She says she took the class three times, because she wanted to understand how food affected the body and how to reduce inflammation that lead to so many diseases.

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DAILY CHRONIC PAIN

Katlin herself endured chronic joint pain daily since high school, finding very little options for relief. In 2010 her boyfriend at the time had mentioned a friend of his had recently gone gluten free, which had turned out to alleviate his joint pain and maybe she should as well.

At the time, Katlin admits, "I was addicted to wheat and I was planning to open my own pasta shop." But stated that, "If going gluten free was going to be the remedy for my pain, the pasta shop would have to wait." After she had made the decision to try gluten free she called her mom to tell her the news and her mom said, "me too", so they started the journey together. Her mom has also since become her number one taste tester.

It wasn't long after going gluten free though that her pain started to worsen; creeping into her knees, her feet and then finally into her hands so bad she was barely able to cut an onion. Katlin was utterly confused saying, "I didn't know what was wrong and part of me was probably in denial." She continued, "With any health issue there are usually multiple contributing factors and our food system has a lot of those contributing factors."

For three weeks her condition worsened and she started to take notice that in the mornings after she has drank her whey shake, her stomach would get upset. She says, "One particular morning after I drank the shake my stomach started to rumble, loudly, so I decided to have an allergy test done and realized that I was allergic to whey. Since then I have learned to listen to my body. I think with issues like this, it is important to pay attention to what your body is telling you so you can figure out what is really going on."