❛ MY FATHER’S struggles with insulin scared me❜

Simon Kitching, 56, has worked hard to manage his type 2 – and his efforts have even inspired a new business venture

Tell us about your initial diagnosis. How did you feel?

I was diagnosed about 20 years ago when I was in my early 30s – an age when you feel pretty invincible. It was picked up during a routine blood test. At first I put my head in the sand and didn’t really pay it much heed to be honest. I just took my tablets and hoped it would eventually go away.

My father, who is 90, has insulin-dependent type 2.

Seeing his struggles with insulin scares me a lot. I see how it rules his life and I don’t want that to happen to me. I guess that’s why I now go to the gym regularly, eat well and take my medication. I even visit a naturopath and take naturopathic remedies, too. I can’t do much more than I already am to manage my type 2.

What’s your gym routine?

I go before work three to four times a week and do pretty much the same routine, a mixture of cardio and weights. When my alarm goes off at 6am, quite often I get out of bed and think, “I can’t be bothered doing this!” They always say the hardest thing to do is to put your runners on. Once I’m there, I’m fine, and I always feel so much better afterwards – plus it helps stabilise my blood glucose levels.

You started making your own savoury protein bars, how did that come about?

Each morning I’d have breakfast before going to the gym, then by about 10am I’d be feeling a bit peckish. If I’d had a protein bar or muesli bar I could snack on, that would have been perfect. But there was nothing available that was low sugar, or didn’t have artificial sweeteners. So it made sense to come up with a savoury protein bar.

My career is in marketing and advertising, and I have a lot of experience in building and creating brands. I’d always wanted to create a brand for myself and this was my chance.

With this one, it got to a point when I had to put my money where my mouth was. I felt the time had come and if I didn’t do something about this I knew I would always regret it.

How did you get started?

I literally started from the very beginning. I googled a bit, as you do, and started playing around with flavours and formulations. As well as making a bar that tasted good, I wanted to find ingredients that were efficacious in controlling blood glucose, such as chilli, cinnamon, coriander and ginger, which are believed to be beneficial.

I wanted the bars to be gluten free, so instead of oats I chose to use quinoa flakes, coconut, chia seeds, pepitas, sunflower seeds, flaxseeds and nuts.

Some of the early concoctions tasted disgusting! And some of them were mouldy within 24 hours. It took a lot of going back and forth and trying different formulations and ingredients before I got the flavour right. I had to work on it weekends and after work.

What did your family think?

I’m married with three kids – a son, 27, a daughter, 25, and another daughter, 22. The whole family were part of the testing and tasting process that went on in the kitchen. My son is my biggest fan; he’s a typical boy, always needing food, especially as he surfs a lot. He and his mates now have a good supply of my protein bars.

What does the future hold?

It took about two years but now I’ve come up with a gluten-free bar that’s very low in sugar and has a shelf life of 18 months, with no added preservatives. A contract manufacturer makes the bars and we’re working on increasing distribution.

I’ve always liked the idea of having my own brand because that’s what I do for a living. I’ve called it Savoury Tooth and I’d like to bring out other products and create a whole suite of diabetic-friendly foods.

So Savoury Tooth – both the idea and name – really feed into where I’m at with my diabetes and the life choices I’ve made because of it. n