Our Story
A body's signal. A son's reaction. A mission.
It started in 2017, during business school. The founder had been living with eczema for years — flares he'd accepted as normal. Then one evening, after a meal with yogurt, he noticed a burning sensation he couldn't ignore. On a hunch, he cut out dairy. Then gluten. The difference was immediate and undeniable: clearer skin, more energy, a sharpness he hadn't realized he'd been missing.
That moment planted a seed. He started reading labels. Researching ingredients. Asking why foods that were commonplace on American shelves were banned or heavily restricted in Europe, Canada, and Japan. The answer was never reassuring.
As his son grew, a new concern took shape. They began noticing reactions — irritability, stomach upset, a pattern that tracked with certain foods. The culprit, eventually identified through careful elimination: Red 40, a petroleum-derived synthetic dye found in everything from children's vitamins to birthday cake frosting to fruit punch. By the time his son was 5, the reactions were unmistakable and increasingly alarming.
A dye the EU flags. A child who paid the price.
Red 40 is one of over 64 ingredients legal in the US but banned or restricted abroad. The European Union requires a warning label on any food containing it: “may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children.” In the US, it requires no such warning. It's in hundreds of products marketed directly to kids.
Watching his son become violently ill hours after consuming it — repeatedly, predictably — was the moment the mission stopped being personal and became something that needed to exist in the world.
Then came the trip to Australia and New Zealand. And everything crystallized. The food tasted different. More alive. The energy was steadier, the brain fog lifted. When he learned that so many of the additives saturating American shelves are simply illegal in those countries, the path forward became obvious: stop keeping this to himself. Build something that helps others find the same clarity.
Analog Food is that something — built for every parent who's ever wondered why their kid reacts to certain foods, and for every person whose body has been quietly trying to tell them something.
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.
Michael Pollan
Author, In Defense of Food
From petroleum-derived dyes to hormone-disrupting pesticides, the US food system allows substances that dozens of other nations have deemed too risky for their citizens.
Red 40 (Allura Red AC)
Petroleum-derived dye found in hundreds of American food products. EU requires a warning: “may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children.”
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