How a baker healed himself
Published: August 31, 2005
It was to be a “routine” physical two years ago at age 60, and as Louis Bowles sat in the waiting room he checked his watch, thinking of his next appointment. How long was this going to take?
In hindsight, his impatience is pretty funny, considering the news he was about to get. His doctor told him he had dangerously high cholesterol and Type II diabetes — the result of a lifetime of eating the wrong foods at the wrong times. If he didn’t get on medication immediately, the doctor warned the furniture designer and watercolor painter, he would be all out of time.
Looking back on it from where he stands now — behind the counter at Louis’ Healthy Breads Co. on Archdale Road — it was one of those life-changing moments that makes a man stop checking his watch, cancel all his appointments and attend to a few matters he has taken for granted.
The beating of his heart, to name one.
Regarding medication as a last resort, the first step Bowles took was to read the ingredients on the things he ate. The paragraphs of fine print were a foreign language of “partially hydrogenated cottonseed and/or palm kernel,” “high fructose” sweeteners and entire alphabets of preservatives designed to keep his favorite snacks fresh for years to come.
Indecipherable as it all was, the message was clear. Bowles had been eating gobbledegook for years, and he had to stop. There was just one problem. Bowles likes to eat.
“I went to the grocery store, and everything that was supposed to be good for you didn’t taste good,” Bowles said. “I’ve tried rice cakes. I don’t like ‘em.”
So Bowles started experimenting at home and came up with a recipe of fruits, oatmeal, egg whites, spices and Sucralose, the diabetic-friendly sweetener used in Splenda. The resulting breads — carrot, banana-walnut and apple cinnamon — satisfied his hunger and tasted good to him.
Then a light bulb went on. He wanted to share his bread. He wanted to spread the word.
The thing is, it was a lot of words to spread, at least that’s how the Food Compliance division of the N.C. Department of Agriculture views it. In contrast to the relatively short and simple list of ingredients, the packaging of Louis’ Healthy Breads made a long and sweeping series of claims.
They included, “Good fiber source. No preservatives. No sugar added. Cholesterol-free. Low saturated fat. Whole grain soluble fiber. No trans fats. No wheat used. No milk products. Made with REAL FRUIT.” And that’s just the front of the package.
So clearly, this wasn’t just Grandma Moses’ banana bread and peach preserves at the farmers’ market. Bowles was giving heavy-duty guarantees.
Said Mike Woody, a food compliance officer with the state: “I don’t see many products on the market with that many health claims. I will say, this one worked for me. He was very motivated and very much wanted to do the right thing.”
After a nutritional analysis at N.C. State backed up the claims on Bowles’ package — each of which features a big, red water-color heart on the front — he got the OK to put his product on the market. Opening his commercial kitchen and small storefront in February, Bowles has started small, and in September will launch the trays of fruit bars at two gourmet supermarkets in Greensboro, and will stay local.
“This product is not designed to be loaded on a truck and delivered to California,” Bowles said this week, as he gave a tour of his spic-and-span commercial kitchen and storefront, hung with his own water color paintings. “This business is so small, I can turn on a dime. I am not about to put the Pillsbury Doughboy out of business.”
Time will tell whether this will be a small-business success story. But for now, all of Louis Bowles’ numbers look extremely good.
That’s to say, his cholesterol, blood sugar and body mass numbers. After all, when those start going into the red, you can forget the business plan.
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