Deacon Carpenter

Ayurveda Practitioner and Founder of Veda Bars

 

Deacon’s Story:

At the time of my 16th Birthday, I’d reached 320lbs and had developed chronic asthma. I wanted so much to lose weight and be healthy, but didn’t know where to start.

A close friend of mine made an appointment for me with an Ayurvedic Doctor in Massachusetts, and he explained that my symptoms were tied to the stress of school and my poor diet choices.

After being educated on the practice of Ayurveda and Yoga, I steadily lost under 160lbs in just less than 2 years. My health greatly improved and I’ve been able to stay at a healthy weight for over 18 years.

After a long career in Corporate America, I saw how my colleagues were getting ill much of the time. This was mostly due to inhumane deadlines, lack of exercise and very poor food choices.

I remember having lunch with one of my first clients – He told me that he was suffering from heartburn and the beginnings of a peptic ulcer (while eating a very large organic hamburger and organic fries).

“I love food. It comforts me” he told me when we started working together.

For him, the comfort food was actually causing him a great deal of discomfort and disease. I recommended a new lifestyle, diet plan as well as a series of herbs, which would help reduce the fire in his system.

Naturally, I was met with a great deal of resistance on the herbs, as my client considered them too ‘inconvenient’ for his busy lifestyle; “Make it simple for me”.

The idea for the first VedaBar came to me as I was shopping at a local health food store in New York City. I came across the energy bar section, which is a place I never usually go to, only because I’m NOT a ‘bar person’ – I don’t believe that most energy bars are made consciously and are generally over-processed.

I started reading the backs of each of the labels and couldn’t believe what I was reading. So many preservatives, excessive and complex sugars and when I tasted some of them, they ranged from dry and bland to sticky and sweet.

I couldn’t understand why anybody would over-engineer something so simple – you can still have great taste with 1/3 the ingredients being used, and you can add herbs to the mix. That was it. The light bulb went on.

I spent several weeks with many different recipes before I settled on the formula, which would work for consistency and flavor. After several attempts, the PittaBar prototype was born.

I made a special series of the PittaBar for my first client. Three days after I had delivered a two-week supply to him, he told me that he’s been eating the bars exclusively for three days. They were delicious, but he was also in need of more

Now, each VedaBar is made with all organic, whole ingredients with no preservatives, artificial coloring or flavoring. We use local ingredients whenever possible which are minimally processed by hand and gluten-free.