The Gluten-Free Fudge Founder: How She Built a Clean Dessert Brand

The Gluten-Free Chocolate Fudge & Caramel You've Been Waiting For 🍫✨

In this episode of Eat with Dominique, I’m chatting with award-winning baker Eileen Gannon, founder of Sunday Night Foods. We dive into how she turned a family tradition into a clean dessert brand.

If you’ve been looking for a clean ice cream topping that doesn't compromise your gut health journey, this episode is for you. We talk about:

*The inspiration behind Sunday Night Foods
*What it really takes to create a clean, premium dessert sauce
*Eileen’s personal gut health journey and why ingredients matter

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🍫Use code SOSWEET 10 for 10% off at sundaynightfoods.com
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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Wonder if you have a Diet Coke and a piece of cheese pizza, and two two hours later you're sick to your stomach. What was it?

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Hi everyone, I'm Dominique, and welcome to Eat with Dominique, the podcast for women with gluten sensitivities, IBS, and other gut challenges who want to eat confidently and pain-free. Growing up, many of us have those Sunday night traditions we remember. But what if you could turn that tradition into a gluten-free fudge and caramel sauce company? In this episode, I chat with Eileen Gannon, founder of Sunday Night Foods, about how her mom's Sunday night fudge inspired the brand. What it actually takes to build a clean ice cream topping. Spoiler alert, a lot of taste testing. And how her own gut health journey inspired the company. I can't wait for you to hear this. So without further ado, grab a seat and let's eat with Dominique. I first discovered Sunday Night Foods when I was looking for a caramel sauce for my birthday, and I came across yours, and I literally reread the label because I was like, wait, it's gluten-free, nut free, it's clean. I honestly couldn't believe it. Um, I'm so excited to talk with you. I guess to get back to the very beginning, we're working in corporate America for 35 years. What was it that inspired you to say, okay, you know what? Like, I'm gonna take the leap and pursue this dream.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Great question. Um, I grew up in a large family on an Iowa farm. And I remember getting off the kindergarten bus at age five and putting on my chore clothes and getting the cows in for milking. So ever since I was a kid, I thought, you know, since I started working so young that when I was 55, I would retire. It was a goal to retire at 55. Well, when I turned 55, I realized my goal had changed. It wasn't to retire, it was to retire from working for someone else. So by then I figured I'd had enough experience and knowledge to um do something uh for myself. And that's when I started Sunday Night Foods.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Yeah. Wow, that's amazing. That's an amazing goal. And it's also interesting. What do you think led to that shift of like, I want to work for myself instead of someone else?

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Well, I think by then I'd made enough money and was established enough in my achievement, like the things I wanted to achieve. I felt really confident in that. So I figured I didn't have a lot to lose, but my own money, of course, because I've self-funded the startup. But I wanted to follow a passion and I have been a food competitor my whole life. So I've competed in all kinds of food contests, mostly baking. I've won over 600 awards for that. I've been on the Discovery Channel, the Food Network. And right now I'm on a Netflix show called the Blue Ribbon Baking Championship. And you can see me in all eight episodes. Um, and so because I loved it, I thought, you know, I'll try a little something in food just to put my toe in the water to see how it goes.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Yeah. Yeah. Um, and I know you I know you said that you were the youngest of 14. Um, and you always, you know, in the kitchen, like baking with your mom. How did those experiences shape like Sunday Night Foods and what you decided to do with this company?

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Well, I think the reason why I love baking is because growing up on the farm, um, there was so much work to be done. And uh cooking, of course, was one of them. And you could get a little praise, a little notoriety for making something great, where it was really hard to get attention for anything, right? And um, so work was rewarded on the farm. And if you made something, maybe you get a little praise or attention. And so you kind of craved that. Um, I was close to my mom, and she was always in the kitchen, so it was a place to be near her. And then growing on the farm, we learned to cook with the freshest, most local ingredients, literally out the door in many ways. Um, and so I've always had that passion for baking with really whole food and local as much as I can, but whole foods, nothing processed, nothing sort of beyond its natural state.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And yeah, you can see it in all the sauces, which is amazing. Thank you. Um, why we why did you specifically decide to do fudge and caramel? Like, what about those for you meant something to you specifically?

SPEAKER_00 4:01

Um, well, I think it's because growing up, one of the things that we loved was a Sunday night ritual. Um, and it was usually something like roast beef sandwiches and um ice cream Sundays. And so Ma would make a homemade chocolate sauce. It was a real tradition of homemade chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream, and and it was sort of a way to feel sort of comfort food in a way that really grounded grounded me. And I've I've always loved it. And um, I like making the things I love. I think everybody would say the same. Um, and so uh what I realized when I was creating it was there was very little clean, gluten-free um items in ice cream toppings. Like almost all of it is made with junk, preservatives, unartificial ingredients, um corn syrup, you know, high fructose corn syrup, fake flavors. And so I really thought if I truly made something pure and clean and make it like you would make it at home, then I would have something. So that's why.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Yeah. You know, I mean, really, I I know I said it earlier, but it really was incredible. Like reading, I literally I was looking at all the different brands and I was like, oh man, like I don't know if I want to get these because I couldn't pronounce most of the words. And then yeah, like I literally read yours and I was like, wait a minute, like I can, I know what everything is, like it's in my kitchen. I can get it. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

You're my perfect, perfect customer because I'm hoping that more people will read and appreciate good food.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Um, so I know you took three years to you know come up with the perfect chocolate sauce recipe, and I think it was 90 batches to perfect your caramel. I guess what were you kind of chasing after that made you like refuse to settle? You probably could have settled, but what made you not want to?

SPEAKER_00 5:47

Well, I think the the difficult part is when I first started my recipes, I paired them all the way back to the natural ingredients themselves. So if you found a recipe for chocolate sauce, it might like start with semi-sweet chocolate or corn syrup or something. I said, no, no, I want to only use cocoa. I only want to use unsweetened chocolate. I want to control the sugar that's going in. I want to use fresh cream and butter. I want to use real vanilla. So I stripped it all down and rebuilt it and then had everyone I could find taste for texture and quality and mouthfeel. And then you can make a perfect sauce at home, but can you make it in a manufacturing plant?

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

Because our kettles are 2,000 gallons. Now that may sound big, but that's still considered a very small batch. Oh, okay. That's not a small batch as you can get in a manufacturing plant. Because not only that, I have to make it a jar, make it last for two years, shelf stable in a jar without any food safety concerns. So then I had to hire a food scientist that helped me basically scale my homemade sauce into a facility that could create food safe, high-quality sauces that couldn't be jarred and shipped. And so that that's that's a tricky thing to do. Then the caramel, the same. There's lots and lots of ways to create caramel flavor. Um, you could use fake flavors like a lot of junky brands do. Um, if you read the labels, they're like caramel flavor, right? Caramel color. It's not really derived the way you would create a caramel. So think about a caramel candy. That's the way I make my sauce. So I actually caramelize the sugar and caramelize the milk and uh butter. And what that means is it's called a Maillard reaction. Okay. So it's the caramelization. It's the same thing that happens when you put a steak on the grill and it gets brown and caramely. It's a car, it's a reaction of caramelizing the protein. And you can caramelize sugar too. There's two kinds of things you can caramelize. So I didn't know. So I really focus on a naturally derived caramel flavor. So our sauce just tastes just like caramel candy. Because that's how I make it.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Yeah, it really doesn't. Even like if you have it like right out of the jar, like not even eating it up, it literally is like the candy, which is pretty cool. Um, so your products are, like we said, they're clean, they're gluten-free, and nut-free. Who are you thinking of when you made those decisions for the products?

SPEAKER_00 8:09

Yeah, I was thinking about I wanted it something that people could universally love because I know that there's a lot of junk in food. And I know, I mean, I have people who are gluten-free in my life. My daughter has a severe allergic reaction to avocado oil. So I'm used to that. Myself, you know, I've been having to learn about my own health journey what I can and can't have. Um, and so I just want to be really sensitive because I want to be more universally acceptable for people. So we do have our sauces, two kinds. We have a sauce that's based with fresh cream and butter, but we have a vegan sauce that uses um coconut cream and coconut oil. And that is for people who can't tolerate dairy.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Yeah. Yeah, which I think is great because I feel like kind of like you're saying, I feel like food is such a good basis for like community and all that kind of stuff, but there's nothing like worse than when you can't have like the thing that everyone else is having. And I think having a brand like Sunday Night Foods, where like, oh, like if we're all having dessert or like my birthday thing or whatever, we can all have it instead of like this person can, this person can't, that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Yeah. And you know, and there's a lot of hidden ingredients. And so when you see some ingredients in the label might say natural flavor, you don't know what that is. That could have gluten in it. You don't know. Yeah. So you have to look for something that truly says gluten-free because you know, they they really want to stand on that. But I think a lot of people sneak stuff in, and people may or may not know what can make them sick until they unfortunately, you know, have a reaction.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

Yeah. Was there anyone who may who like try to dissuade you from doing like the clean label thing or like maybe taking some of those shortcuts?

SPEAKER_00 9:40

No, never. It was my brand, my idea, my recipes. So it it wasn't even no, not once was it considered because when I worked with my food scientist, she knew exactly what I was going to do. And my manufacturer did too. I took a long time to find a manufacturer that wanted to work with the raw ingredients and cook them the way I wanted to. Um, because yeah, a lot of manufacturers want the quickie shortcuts I can find. So most of the commodity products, at least in my space, um, they're quickie commodity products because they fake flavors. They may say natural flavor, but it's kind of fakey. It doesn't mean that it's real. Like natural flavor can mean so many different things. So you so people who really, you know, dig into quality food, when you see the word natural flavor, many of them are like, ah, I don't know what that means. It could mean a hundred different things. I'm just gonna stay away.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

Yeah. Did you always know? Like, so I didn't know about the natural flavoring, but I never thought about it, but like, how did you you Google it, you'll see it means all kinds of things. Wow. Okay, that's crazy. I am gonna Google it after this. Um, I know you mentioned your daughter, you know, has a food allergy. Did that change kind of the way you thought about like the clean foods or the safe foods and that kind of thing?

SPEAKER_00 10:53

You know, it was interesting. She's allergic to avocados. And so I was surprised how much avocado oil is in lots of things. So, like a lot of natural grocery stores don't like seed oils. And I, you know, and I understand, you know, they don't like seed oils. So they either go to beef tallow or um avocado oil. And for my family, that's not a solution. So we have to use seed oils because um she can tolerate those, but she can't tolerate anything with avocados. So it may be really, you know, look. Yeah, you know, just because you think one thing is fine for someone, it, you know, it's not always the case. So yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Yeah. Um and I know you launched Sunday Night Foods, you know, as a clean brand. Kind of before it was like mainstream to be clean. What does it feel like now seeing like kind of the world and all of us kind of catch up with wanting to eat that way?

SPEAKER_00 11:41

Wow, it's really exciting for me because I've always eaten that way. Um, there is some preservative. I can't tell you what it is, but give me a reaction. Like if I eat like a packaged cookie or a donut or something, I don't know what it is. I haven't been able to identify it, but I personally know that when it when a certain preservatives hit me, I can I can tell. Um, so I'm very excited to see other people responding because, of course, organics have been around for a while and I really support the organic movement. The only reason why we don't have organics in our sauce is because organic dairy is about 60% more expensive.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

And it's just almost prohibitively expensive for us to produce a sauce that a consumer wants to pay for.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

I mean, so you have to think about how clean can I make it? And what price point is that consumer willing to pay?

SPEAKER_01 12:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

It's 60% more. I don't think my consumer wants to pay 60% more.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

So we have to make that choice. But um, for us, it's it's everything, you know, as clean as we possibly uh can be. Um, but besides organics, it's wonderful for people to start saying, hey, I don't want corn syrup. Hey, I don't want preservatives, I don't want artificial colors, I don't want artificial flavors. It's very gratifying for me because most all of my competitors do all those things. So fingers crossed that people will find me more often and like you did.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

Yeah. And I think that what you said about the price point is also really important because, like you said, like I actually remember looking at, I was like, oh, wait, this is a cleaner. Like, does it like cost like way more than I remember it not? And I was like, whoa, like okay, I can definitely like get this. It's not, it's better for you, but it also like isn't breaking the bank in order to like have the cleaner thing.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

Yeah, we're trying to do that. And that's that's that was a goal too. Um, and hopefully if if a price for organic dairy comes down, we can you know start using more organics, and we'd like to be able to do that. It's just that it's price prohibitive at this point. We would actually lose money on every jar. So we're working toward that.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

Yeah, yeah, because I feel like so often when I'm looking for things like the trade-off is like, okay, it's cost versus like the ingredients. And so that was something that was nice. It was like, oh, wait, okay, that doesn't have to be like a trade-off here.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

Think of it. If you're in the grocery store and organic is more expensive to you, it's also more expensive to me. And you can't always pass that on, you know, through a consumer product. Um so you have to make those choices as you go. But I'm hoping that again, if I can get cheaper organic dairy, then I can I can make an organic sauce.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

All right, guys, quick interruption. If your favorite toppings are fudge and caramel like mine, you're going to love Sunday Night Foods. Eileen was kind enough to give our Eat with Dominique community a special 10% off. Just use code SOSWEET10 at SundaynightFoods.com. Links in the episode description. Okay, now back to the show. You've said you know that dreams of course require a lot of work. What part of this journey building Sunday night foods deprives you the most?

SPEAKER_00 14:34

Right. I think if anyone is thinking about going into consumer packaged goods, which is which is what our industry is is in. I think beauty, a lot more consumer packaged goods. Think of that, right? Um, it takes a lot more money, a lot more time. There's some people that get super lucky, and everybody knows it. Like, you know, oh, I went on TikTok and sold $11,000 the next day. I'm like, okay, that's you. Everyone else doesn't get to have that benefit. Like you starting a podcast, you wouldn't start like, oh, I did one podcast and got a million viewers, right? Like, okay, maybe one person did, but everyone else has to sort of just show up every day and work it through. And so I think to me, it's surprising is how much cash it takes. Like it takes a lot of cash up front, and then you wait. Like you may have an 18-month sales cycle. You may pitch a grocery store and they may wait a year to decide because of the of the timing of the your category review, and then you may not get on the shelf for another six more months.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

How do you plan that? Right. So um the the patience is a lot longer. It takes a lot longer for me than I thought it would. It takes a lot more cash up front because you have to fund all the upfront cost. Whether you sell or not, it could expire before you get it sold. That's right. Yeah. Or um, especially if people with shorter shelf life, we have a two-year shelf life, which makes it a little bit easier. Um, but I think I think the thing is that there's so much competition in consumer packaged goods. There's always this new, new thing. I think you can almost be too new or too out there. They have to still remember most people still want to buy your product, right? So I think gluten-free, when it was starting, people are like, it's probably not any good, or even vegan food, right? You wrote the word vegan on there, people like, oh, I'm so used to it not being good. But it is, it can be good, it can be delicious, it can be. And so we now have a consumer that understands those things. So now you see a lot more products in the space, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

Um, and so I think it's just, yeah, cash and time, but both of them take a lot more and a lot longer than I expected.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

Yeah. Yeah. I guess whenever you were starting out, yeah, because I didn't even think of this, like you're funding it before it actually like before it's officially on a shelf. Like, how do you decide like how much how big a batch is? And how do you even think about how long the shelf life is in relation to that? Because if it's two years, then it's a year and a half cycle. I'm like, wait a minute, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

Blind faith. Um, you it's blind faith. So founders will tell you sometimes you just jump in and you don't think about it because if you overthought it, you wouldn't do it. I mean, there I every founder would probably say, okay, I had blind faith. I just took a chance. And there's a lot of failure. I mean, there's an awful lot of failure, and then you you have to be prepared for that too, right? You have to you have to have some guts and some bravery on maybe stupidity to say, I'm not gonna think about those things, I'm just gonna take a shot. Um, and you don't really know. I mean, you you know, that's it, there's a lot of risk. You really don't know how it's gonna turn out. So, my advice to someone when you start off, find a manufacturer that can make a smaller batch for you. Uh, if you really want it and can make it in your house, you're gonna have to get the licensed to do so. Some people start with that and they go out and get a license from their local agency, whatever, I don't know exactly where it would be, whether it's USDA or State Department of Agriculture, food, or whatever. Some people will start in their kitchens, and that's one way to do it. Um, but you take the risk of food safety. And if you're not a food safety expert, it's a little risky based on what you're making, right? You get a little scared because you can poison people if you're not careful.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

So I knew I was never gonna make it in my kitchen for commercial use. I just didn't want to take on that expense and risk. And also, I'm not a food safety expert, but there's a lot of people are. So I started cold calling manufacturers and finally found one that would work with me. And then I've since moved my manufacturer to another place, which I'm very happy with. Um, they're real partners of mine. They help me with RD. We create new products together, we create new flavors together, they're wonderful. So I think the hardest part in food is finding a manufacturer that can work with you and that you enjoy working with.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. Um, and I guess like something you said earlier made me think of this. Like, how do you, because you said there's always like the new thing. How do you guys stop yourselves from like chasing a trend? Because I feel like you guys have kind of set the trend. And like I said, the world is called up. How do you stop yourself though from making sure, like, okay, we're not just putting protein in our FUD just to like have it, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 19:05

And like so true. Everybody's got protein now, everybody's got fiber now. Um you have to stay true to who you are, right? It's called a core competency. So we have to lean in to make the best that we can be in exactly who we are and not pretend to be something else. Let other people be what they are. You have a protein bar, that's great. You be the protein bar. I can't be your protein bar, right? And trans come and go. You know, um, if you're old like me, you remember when I was um in my 20s and 30s, low fat was all the rage. Everybody was doing low fat. Didn't care about how much sugar it was, right? So you'd be eating candy all day because there was no fat in it. And all the labels would be like low fat, no fat. There was a brand called Snack Wells. And it was really high sugar, um, but also low fat. So people would be gobbling it up, not thinking about now, it's almost the opposite, right? Now fat's okay, but sugar's not, right? And now protein is the big, the big trend, and fiber is the big trend, and that'll probably stay. But you have to truly, whatever you make, be true to who you are. You can add alterations for sure. You can add additions, but you have to know if that fits for you. Like it's called a line extension, right? If I'm starting off and I start, you know, makeup and all of a sudden I'm making popsicles. I'm not sure if that was a you know a natural line extension for me. Um, you'll probably be watching somebody's gonna start putting protein and foundation and makeup or something. Probably I think it's just discipline and staying true to yourself. We have some line extensions coming up that are directly in our wheelhouse, right? In our core competency that we're confident in. I mean, I wouldn't go start off, you know, making again popsicles, right? It's like you have to really grow into what you are, have people find you what you believe in, and then slowly expand from there.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

That makes sense. Kind of like master your area and then extend from there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

Some brands fail what's called the skew flu. Have you ever heard that one? Skew is um uh you know your single unit, right? So um, so um, some brands, I won't name one, I know one brand that just kept adding more and more products all the time, all kinds of flavors, all kinds of variations, and they've they failed, like because they don't nobody really knew what they were. They were doing all of this new product development. And if you go into certain distributors, and if you don't sell so much per product, they discontinue you. So you have to be really careful about that too. It's sort of self-limiting. If you have like 10 different SKUs of your sauce, but only three are really selling, you can get discounted or just continue the other seven. You got all the investment, all that stuff in there. So you have to be kind of careful. So it's it's discipline for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

I guess in that case, is it almost? I guess it sounds like it's almost smarter to maybe start with a few, even just like a two or three core thing, than then. Built yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Yeah. Like right now we have seasonal flavors coming out and we're selling some seasonal flavors to our stores. So we have a chocolate peppermint, we have a chocolate orange, we have gingerbread caramel. Um and some stores love seasonal, some stores like, yeah, no, you know, we'll never sell seasonal. Um so our gift stores take a lot more of the of the seasonal flavors. Right. Um, so we're learning about that, you know, how much people really do want an alternate flavor and how much they just want the, you know, the number one ice cream is still vanilla and chocolate.

unknown 22:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

Yeah. True. It's good for me because then you can put sauce on it.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

That's true. I know that's well, the mill's like perfect for like the chocolate. I know, right? Yeah. Oh. Whenever someone tries Sunday night foods, what do you want them to feel?

SPEAKER_00 22:48

I want them to feel happy. You know, there's there's um certain things that you taste that make you euphoric almost. Like chocolate has a lot of flavonoids and all kinds of things. They they benefit, like they've often said, like, you know, when you smell coffee beans, they say you improve your mood, right? Chocolate, chocolate. Like, there's so many wonderful things about the aroma. So if you smell our sauce, the aroma can just make you happy, like smelling coffee beans, right? Um, we want them to be really helpful, like, oh, this is really good. I'm like, I'm really treating myself, like self-indulge indulgence, you know, like a little spoon is all you need to like have you treat yourself, um, be good to yourself. Um, you know, and the other one is that uh Sunday night, we I named it after growing up. I told you, you know, in the farm we'd have Sunday night um uh Sundays. And so I wanted people to feel sort of grounded in at home, whether they're at home or not, like just sort of that clean comfort food. Um, there's a trend now called nostalgia, which is versions of old comfort things, like the nostalgia, the word nostalgia, but new. It's kind of funny, it's a Bitcoin word. But yeah, like feeling grounded. I think in a world where people feel uncomfortable with disruption, you know, there's a lot of disruption in a lot of places. Um, I think people feel more than ever like they need to feel safe, right? They want to feel like there's a place where they can be comfortable and relax and and and and um uh feel grounded. And we want our food to be part of that.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Yeah, yeah. That's amazing. What do you what do you think, like a little girl version of you who's like in the kitchen and baking with her mom, like what do you think she would be thinking of all this?

SPEAKER_00 24:36

Um, I think she'd be happy. I think she'd be happy that she stayed true to herself um and that she didn't honor her mother, which was, you know, is I was really close to mom. Um I was for 33 when my father passed away, and 47 when my mom passed away. So I uh I wish I had them longer. So it kind of makes me feel a little more connected to that. But um, I think my little girl self would be pretty, pretty happy with me, but maybe not surprised either.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. Um, and so for anyone who, you know, maybe feels like they've had to give up, kind of like you said, those comfort foods that they love because of the food sensitivity or anything, what would you say to them?

SPEAKER_00 25:14

I would say get tested. Um, because my own journey, I had IBS for a long for most of my life. And I couldn't figure out why. Probably like a lot of your listeners, I'm not really sure what's making me sick, but I kind of feel sick a lot. So I did like lactose intolerance test. I wasn't lactose intolerant. I had celiac test, I wasn't, you know, celiac disease. So I'm like, well, why am I still getting sick? So I finally found a test. Uh it was called from biogenetics, but it is testing the protein ability to digest proteins, not sugars. So lactose is your sugar, right? Yeah, and so very different than celiac, of course. I understand that. But the protein, so I found that there's certain proteins I can't digest very well.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

And one of them is dairy. I can have dairy, but in limited, I have to be careful about limited price, but it wasn't the lactose, it was the protein itself.

SPEAKER_01 26:07

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

So there is a dairy called A2 milk that has the protein that you can digest. Just learning that that was a difference. It wasn't lactose, but it was the protein, made the world a difference for me. Yeah. So with people have it, find out, try to do deeper testing um to find out what you know what it is. Sometimes you can't figure it out. And it took me 20 years to find, like, oh, gee, maybe just maybe it's this. So keep testing, keep figuring it out. Um, but um, I I guess my doctor said if you avoid foods and you feel better, then avoid those foods. But wonder if you have a diet coke and a piece of cheese pizza, and two two hours later you're sick to your stomach. What was it? Yeah, fake sugar, right? Some people, I can't tolerate fake sugar, it makes me sick. The gluten, was it the cheese? Was it the tomato? Was it like I know what it's like to try to chase that down? Yeah. And just try to get there's tons of good testing now online. Just take some of them, take some tests. That's all I can say.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

Yeah, yeah, no, that's great advice. Yeah, that's a great example too. Yeah, it's not if you have multiple things, it's like, how am I supposed to be able to do that? You don't know so many ingredients.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

Yeah, it is. And it's it's it can be a real journey for a lot of people. Yeah, I really believe IBS has a lot to do with just defining what that's making you sick, because you should be sick from food. Like you, you know, you really need to find out what it is and isolate that.

SPEAKER_01 27:32

Yeah, yeah. I think it's so important too to your point because I feel like a lot of times we'll just brush it off, especially as women. It's like, okay, I just feel bad and I just put up with it.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

And it's like, yeah, I know, right? Yeah. I did. I put up with a long, long time, and I'm like, okay, I'm really gonna try harder to see what it is. And it and and it wasn't that apparent. It took like again, I went to all these other tests, and doctors are like, well, we don't know. So I finally just tripped across this one at an alternative clinic and like, oh, well, I guess I'll look into protein and wow, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 28:01

Yeah, yeah. Because something I also think about is like, if you like you said, if you eat something and it bothers you, it's like imagine the inflammation that's happening on the inside. It's like, wait, so it is really important to have into that.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

So the other part of the healing was this regimen was find the proteins that you can't eat. And then theirs was okay, stay away for four months. Go cold turkey for four months, stay away from sugar for four months, don't do that. My sausage sugar, don't I'm dying that's saying, and then take what was called oil of oregano. It's a natural anti-inflammatory by eating health food store. That was it. So I did it for four months and healed my stomach. And now I can I can eat a little dairy, but I can have all the sugar and everything now and have no problem. But it was just about reducing inflammation in your gut.

SPEAKER_01 28:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

Um, and then once you do that, you can reset probiotics and all this stuff. But yeah. So I believe that sugar is much better for you than fake sugar.

SPEAKER_01 28:52

That makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 28:53

Most people can tolerate sugar. It's the fake sugar that I think a lot of people have intolerances to, at least me personally, gives me a stomachache.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

Yeah, yeah. It's like you said, all of the fillers and all that other stuff happening with it too.

SPEAKER_00 29:05

Yeah. Suleucrose, all that aspartame, all that stuff. Yeah, that's oh that's a gut killer if uh people, you know, for a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 29:15

Yeah, no, definitely. Um, okay, so time for the rapid fire. This is really helpful, though. I'm I'm like, okay, I need to look up this stuff afterwards.

SPEAKER_00 29:22

I got you.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Yeah. Um, the first question is sweet or savory?

SPEAKER_00 29:27

Sweet.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

Um, go-to gluten-free, gut-friendly snack.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

I love those little seed crackers, like the almond crackers, nutcrackers or seed crackers. You know what I'm talking about? Those are delicious, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:39

Um, favorite Sunday night food sauce.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

Bittersweet.

SPEAKER_01 29:44

Favorite thing to put caramel on.

SPEAKER_00 29:46

Vanilla ice cream with roasted pecans. Favorite thing to put fudge on. Probably strawberries.

SPEAKER_01 29:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 29:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:54

Um, food that instantly feels like home.

SPEAKER_00 29:57

Ice cream Sundays.

SPEAKER_01 29:58

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, because you said Sunday night. Yeah, absolutely. Perfect. Um, caramel or fudge?

SPEAKER_00 30:05

Both.

SPEAKER_01 30:06

Fair enough.

SPEAKER_00 30:07

Between my children.

SPEAKER_01 30:09

Very fair. I have gotten like really into caramel the past few years, so honestly, I think I'm the same way now.

SPEAKER_00 30:14

I tell you what, when people have the caramel though, they they uh they're surprised how delicious it is. If you do a side-by-side test of anything else on the store, you're like, oh my goodness, there is a difference. You can tell we use fresh cream and butter. You can tell we use real tradition. Uh, it just it, I mean, it it shocks you how different the taste, how much better the taste is. It really does.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

Yeah. You know, the consistency is amazing. It really was like, I really was like, wow. That's why I had to talk to you. I was like, this is really good.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

You did. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:45

Um, okay, so to close, so growing up, my dad would always say, whether it's about food or people or life, that things should be good to you, good for you, and good with you. When it comes to gluten-free, gut-friendly eating, what does this mean to you?

SPEAKER_00 30:59

I think it means find out what is best for you and find more, do more research. If you're still out there thinking, I don't know why I'm sick. I know I feel better if I avoid gluten, but I'm still sick from other things. Find out what those are because you can. Because my journey, I did. And it changed my life. Um, and so keep finding. I know I've seen more and more things on the internet, like different tests for your gut. Um, so you know, learn what's good for your gut, because then it'll be good for your brain and your body and everything else.

SPEAKER_01 31:32

Yeah, that's great advice. Um, is there anything else you'd like to share?

SPEAKER_00 31:36

No, I thank you so much. I'm so proud of you for doing this podcast. And I know a lot of people out there who really suffer from gluten intolerance. And I, you're really doing great work for them because I know that there's a lot of questions for people as they learn, you know, what they can and can't have.

SPEAKER_01 31:52

Yeah, thank you so much. And thank you for you know being a guest on the podcast. And it was really great to learn all about like Sunday Night Foods and just that commitment to the gluten-free and allergy-friendly and clean eating communities. Um, for anyone who wants to check out their amazing, delicious caramel bud sauces, which I literally eat like every week at this point, um, go to sundaynightfoods.com to find a store near you and follow them on Instagram at Sunday NightFoods. Thank you so much. Thank you, Dominique. Thank you so much for tuning in to Eat with Dominique. If you're craving bud and caramel that's gluten-free and oh so clean, you can use code SOSWEET10 at SundaynightFoods.com for 10% off for the Eat with Dominique community. After you try it, let me know which sauce is your favorite. I know you're gonna love it just as much as me. If you like this episode, be sure to subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next. And if you have a gluten-free, allergy-friendly, or gut-sensitive friend who needs better options, send this episode their way. We'd love to have them. This podcast is all about actionable tips, trustworthy brands, and real strategies to make gluten free, gut friendly living easier, tastier, and pain free. So remember, whether it's life or food, make sure it's always good to you, good for you, and good with you. I'll see you soon.