Gubinge and Camu Camu are the ultimate Vitamin C superfoods - there's a 500mg dose of each in every Orange Luvju. We've also added Maca, Lucuma, Mesquite and Coconut to craft an exotic flavour which is simply divine.
A zesty synergy of revitalisation! Loving Earth's Orange Luvju contains a 500mg each of both Gubinge and Camu Camu: the ultimate Vitamin C superfoods. We use apricot as the base of this delicious snack, blended together with activated almond and coconut into a classic heart-shape. This Luvju has an exotically fruity apricot coconut flavour which goes fantastically with the layer of lucuma, mesquite and maca also included in our recipe. It's quite citrus-caramelly, with a third level of gubinge and camu camu coming through at the end. Not too sweet, but subtle and complex.
We’ve used the first compostable metalised film that’s just come out in Europe to wrap our Luvju bars. It's laminated to a paper finish on the outside, so it’s actually 96% plant-based compostable material. The dispenser box is printed on recycled board with vegetable inks and includes a unique design incorporating a totem on the front to reflect the spirit of each flavour. With Orange Luvju we’ve got the echidna, symbolizing the Kimberleys and Australia, aswell as the immune protection which the ingredients bestow.
Serving Size 50g
| Per serve | Per 100g | |
| Energy | 839kJ | 1690kJ |
| Protein | 4.3g | 8.5g |
| Fat, total | 12.2g | 24.4g |
| - saturated | 5.5g | 11.0g |
| Carbohydrate | 16.1g | 32.3g |
| - sugars | 12.8g | 25.6g |
| Sodium | 105g | 210gg |
Various studies have shown that almonds have an affinity for cardio vascular health. Almonds naturally contain no Cholesterol, however are able to regulate cholesterol in our bodies by reducing LDL ('bad') cholesterol and increase HDL ('good') cholesterol. The Ayurvedic system of medicine considers almonds to be both brain and nervous system supporting. Anti-inflammation, immune boosting and liver supportive qualities have also recently been published in various medical journals.
Activated nuts are easily digested and more nutritious than raw or roasted nuts. Raw nuts contain enzyme inhibitors that make them difficult to digest, inhibiting our body's ability to absorb nutrients. An activated nut is a nut that has been soaked (sprouted) to release its enzyme inhibitors. Our nuts are dehydrated between 38-40 degrees to maintain optimum nutrition.
Traditionally, native medicine practioners and herbalists have recommended Camu Camu for:
Gubinge is a bush plum; there's a lot of hype around stuff coming out of the Amazon, Acai and so on, but Gubinge is a really powerful indigenous Australian superfood. It's the highest natural source of Vitamin C on the planet, and that's been verified. The species is called Terminalia Ferdinandiana, more popularly known as the Kakadu plum, and it grows in the Kakadu and the Kimberleys. The Kimberley version however has tested higher than the Kakadu version for Vitamin C. In the Kimberleys, where it is known as Gubinge, they're not irrigating it or cultivating it using typical commercial horticultural techniques, which a number of operations up in the Northern Territory are doing. Essentially, those precious vital phytonutrients (the antioxidants within plants) are there to make the plant itself stronger. They do the same for the plant as they do for us, so if you pamper the plant too much, it doesn't need them anymore! If that plant is in its natural environment and there's a certain level of environmental stress present, that makes the plant stronger, so you get these higher levels of antioxidants.
The Gubinge Powder that we produce and market under the Nyul Nyul brand is a raw whole food and in terms of the nutritional aspects, it's one of the only high Vitamin C products on the market that literally is a whole food. A whole food that just happens to have 13% Vitamin C. To make it we simply take the whole frozen fruit, dehydrate it at 40ºC for 16 hours and then mill it into a powder, so in essence all we have done is take away the water: everything else is there in the powder. The thing about it being a whole food is that nature packages these things in such a manner that they can easily be absorbed; Vitamin C is one important phytonutrient, but like most things, for that to be absorbed into the system, there are a couple of other things that the body really needs to be able to properly utilise it. Those other things are also important and carry out functions, but in our Western approach we tend to reduce things; there is in fact awhole, so in terms of a supplement it's amazing. It's packaged with everything; not only is it the highest natural source of Vitamin C, but it also includes everything else your body needs to assimilate the Vitamin C. All the synthetic Vitamin C supplements and extracts, they're going to be a lot cheaper in terms of milligram for milligram of Vitamin C. In terms of overall effectiveness however...they're incomparable. Two different worlds
Lucuma fruit is an excellent source of carbohydrates, fibre, vitamins and minerals. It has lots of beta-carotene, niacin (B3) and iron.
Maca contains high amounts of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, all the essential amino acids and it contains nearly 60 phytochemicals. The extraordinary health benefits of Maca are due to the way it promotes optimal functioning of the hypothalamus and pituitary master glands. Maca contains unique alkaloids that stimulate the master glands, which in turn improves the overall functioning of the endocrine system.
Traditionally, native medicine practitioners and herbalists have recommended maca for :
Maca is essentially an adaptogen and therefore adapts to your bodies metabolism and particular needs to achieve an overall sense of wellbeing and optimal functioning. Through balancing and optimizing the functioning of the hypothalamus and pituitary master glands it also balances and optimizes the functioning of the adrenal glands, the thyroid and the pancreas. Because the levels of oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone are optimized this in turn helps regulate ovarian function and enables the adrenals to produce enough hormones to avoid symptoms during menopause.
Due to this overall affect of maca on the hormonal system and high level of protein it also acts as an effective whole food mucsle building agent.
Maca also remineralizes the body, due to its high mineral content, making up for the lack of minerals in modern diets and conventionally grown fruit and vegetables. Maca has such a high mineral content due to the soils and environment in which it is grown. The cooperative of indigenous maca growers who grow our maca leave the soil fallow for 5 years after each maca crop so that the soils regenerate completely with minerals.
Mesquite was traditionally consumed as a staple food. It has an incredibly low GI and a high mineral content, and the reason why the GI is so low is partly because of that very high mineral content.
Mesquite is high in protein and contains significant quantities of calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron and zinc. It’s also rich in the amino acid lysine.
Enjoy as a healthy, energising snack whenever you need a boost. Great to carry with you on days spent outdoors, whether going for a hike or chilling out at a music festival!
With our almonds, the activation process maintains the nutritive qualities traditionally associated with almonds. We sprout them in order to release the enzyme inhibitors, which are used by the nut to stop it from growing before it is in the optimum location. This also makes them much easier to digest. After we've begun the sprouting process we then dehydrate our almonds at no higher than 40 degrees to maintain optimum nutrition.
Dehydrated at below 40 degrees Celsius and milled into powder, our Camu Camu is pure 100% Certified Organic.
Our grower Bruno Dann is one of the stolen generation from the area north of Broome, near James Price Point, where they're planning on putting in the massive gas hub. He lived a fairly traumatic life, taken away from his mother at birth by missionaries. Back then it was law that Aboriginal women had to give birth in hospital, so that their babies could immediately be taken and given to missionaries. Bruno's mother ran away and actually gave birth to him in the wilderness, hence Bruno’s special connection with the land; on the weekends they'd let him go and spend time with the elders, but when he came back, if the missionaries found out that he'd been speaking his language or engaging with his culture, he was beaten. Yet they couldn't stop him: Bruno picked up enough traditional knowledge that together with his partner Marion, he was able to start reviving those traditional ways of taking care of the land. Gubinge grows up there in natural wild orchards, three or four trees together throughout the Bush. Each year the fire comes through and destroys everything, so what Bruno and his people began doing is back-burning, clearing the dead wood so that the fire's not coming through any more. They soon noticed that through these traditional ways of taking care of the land, the Gubinge trees started producing more fruit...
Each year Bruno coordinates the harvest. The picking season goes from December through March. Depending on the weather, it can be as long as three months or as short as six weeks, and there are designated spots where people can pick from. Most of the harvesters are from Bruno's language group and the surrounding areas and people get paid by the kilo, so come Gubinge season, everyone gets out on the land and picks it. It's a really good project because it's a high-value product and it's something that's growing wildly, so there's a fair bit of it around and it's sustainable. The other thing that Bruno is doing is working with people to show them how to care for the land throughout the rest of the year. People see what Bruno's achieved and then they say alright, we're going to do that as well. It's not just about the Gubinge: it's about the whole environment. If you're taking care of the land, the Gubinge will thrive...but so will everything else. Gubinge is their asset, it's the thing that they've got up there. It's something that's benign, that's sustainable and supports the environment. The other main industry up there is mining, which is unsustainable and which destroys the environment.
It took us at Loving Earth a couple of years to really get the project going, since we needed to develop the infrastructure and figure out how we were going to process the fruit. Scott stayed in touch with Bruno, and when we finally got our commercial dehydrator and found a special grinding machine from India, we were in business. That was a couple of years after the initial contact, during which time we'd been working on the post-harvest infrastructure to collect, clean and pack the fruit into frozen storage. With everything in place to really get stuck into the project, Scott returned for harvest season two years after first contact...the difference was amazing. The traditional harvesting techniques were paying massive dividends, and the quality was incredible. We got the frozen fruit down here to Melbourne and figured out how to process it into a powder. We did some trials, got some tests done and found out that we were getting really high levels of Vitamin C. That's when we began commercialising it. We got our graphic designer to come up with a logo, Nyul Nuyl, which is the language group for Bruno's people, and this is the brand we have created for the community up there.
Maca is the only species of root or tuber in the Andes that has a unique area of domestication and that is in the district of Junin between 4,100m and 4,500m above sea level. The association is certified organic by SKALinternational and is also a member of the Fair Trade Federation.
It was originally domesticated by the Pumpush of Junín, a Pre-Incan culture, who have lived in the creeks of the Chinchaycocha Lake for thousands of years. Maca was and continues to be their staple food. Maca is one of the few eatable plants that grows in this area and therefore is sacred and central to the culture of the Pumpush people. Maca is an extemely hardy plant and leaves the mineral rich sedimentary soil sterile after it has been grown - all the minerals being absorbed into the maca root. They have therefore developed a unique system of agriculture to cultivate maca, where the soil is left fallow for 5 years after each crop so that it can completely regenerate. The wind and rain transport the mineral rich rock particles (high in calcite, dolomite, iron, zinc and magnesium) back into the soil.
The growers conduct special ceremonies before sowing and harvests, according to their tradition and Andean custom. They make offerings to their gods of the earth for a prosperous harvest. Then they prepare the land by :
1. Taking out the weeds and stones
2. Turning over the virgin soil that has formed as top soil since the last harvest.
The seeds are then sown, this takes place from September to December, the maca then grows for 7 to 8 months and is harvested in May the following year.
In the region of Junin at its altitude above sea level organic maca is the main viable crop. As world demand for maca has increased it has helped provide a sustainable source of income for the community of Junin, which has in turn helped increase the basic standard of living for the indigenous people of the region. The growers in the association have been able to set up high quality post harvest processing equipment to be able to mill the maca into powder at the point of origin adding more value to their raw commodity. Part of the role of the association is also to make sure that all the children of the growers attend school.
Mesquite meal is a traditional Native American food produced by gathering ripened seed-pods from the mesquite tree (a relative of the Acacias) and grinding them into a fine powder.
Since we wanted to invest all aspects of Luvju with meaning, the packaging we’ve created is based around the classic heart symbol, formed by placing two of our drop-shaped logos together.
We worked for a long time to get the first compostable metalised film that’s just become available in Europe. We’ve had it laminated to a paper finish on the outside, so it’s actually 96% plant-based compostable material, and then designed a beautiful box that it all goes in with an inventive little dispenser printed on recycled board with vegetable inks.
The artwork has also had a lot of time put into it, with a unique design on the front of each box incorporating totems which reflect the spirit of each of the flavours. With Orange Luvju we’ve got the echidna, symbolizing the Kimberleys and Australia, aswell as the immune protection which the ingredients bestow.
