From Intensive Care to Intentional Snacking: The Story Behind Nourish – Snacking has become a way of life for many of us, whether it’s a mid-morning pick-me-up, an afternoon energy boost or something to keep us going between meals. But as consumers become increasingly health-conscious, the demand for snacks that offer genuine nutritional benefits alongside great taste has never been greater.
One brand helping to lead this shift is Nourish, a Surrey-based company founded by former healthcare professional Ineke Nugteren. Drawing on years of experience in nursing, nutrition and wellbeing, Ineke set out to create snacks that support health without compromising on flavour. Using ingredients such as coconut, cacao and matcha, Nourish has built a loyal following among those looking for gluten-free, dairy-free and refined sugar-free treats that still feel indulgent.
With products now stocked by leading retailers and a growing reputation for putting real ingredients first, we caught up with Ineke to learn more about her journey from intensive care nursing to food entrepreneur, why coconut deserves more recognition, and how she hopes to change the way Britain snacks.
Your career began in nursing and healthcare before you founded Nourish in 2015. What was the pivotal moment that made you realise food and nutrition could have such a profound impact on people’s wellbeing, and inspired you to launch your own brand?
Working in healthcare – from primary care to intensive care units – I kept seeing a pattern that deeply troubled me. We were telling patients what not to eat, yet they were becoming more unwell, more overweight, with compounding medical conditions. The messaging simply didn’t add up.
My own experience with food intolerances had shown me first-hand what a difference eliminating certain things could make. But when I looked at the free-from alternatives available, they were dire, too often packed with artificial ingredients to compensate for what had been removed. We were solving one problem yet creating another.
Nourish really started in my kitchen, making treats for myself, my daughter and colleagues at work that were genuinely nourishing and actually tasted good. I really wasn’t planning a business, I just knew deep down that there had to be a better way; a belief rooted in years of watching food and health intersect in the worst imaginable ways, became the starting point for everything Nourish stands for.
Many functional snacks today focus heavily on protein, yet Nourish champions coconut as its hero ingredient. What makes coconut such an underrated superfood, and why do you believe it deserves a place in our everyday diets?
Coconut is one of those ingredients that people have been unnecessarily afraid of for years, largely because of misconceptions around fat. But when you look at it through a functional medicine lens, it’s remarkable. The medium-chain fatty acids in coconut are metabolised differently to other fats – they’re a direct, efficient energy source rather than something stored.
Beyond that, coconut provides fibre, supports gut health, and works beautifully as a base ingredient without needing artificial binders or fillers. It provides us with the building blocks to create products that are genuinely clean, no gluten, no dairy, no refined sugar, yet still tasting indulgent.
I think the long-standing obsession with protein in the snack industry has overshadowed a more holistic conversation about what our bodies actually need. Real, whole ingredients like coconut can nourish us in ways that an isolated protein hit simply can’t replicate. Protein is important, but in its real form, as is the case with all foods… we can’t supplement our way out of eating real food.
As someone with a background in nutrition, travel medicine and functional health, what are the biggest misconceptions people have about snacking, and how can consumers make healthier choices without sacrificing flavour?
The biggest misconception is that healthy and enjoyable are mutually exclusive goals. People have been conditioned to believe that if something is good for you, it must taste like cardboard (and many products that are so called ‘healthy’ do) – and that’s entirely the food industry’s doing. For decades, products have been engineered around sugar, cheap ingredients and fillers because sugar is addictive, it drives repeat purchases, and it’s inexpensive to produce. That’s a very deliberate model, and it’s made genuine nourishment seem like a compromise.
The second misconception is around supplements. People reach for pills and powders without realising how much nutrition they could be getting from real food. Take good quality cacao – it is an incredible source of magnesium and iron. People spend money supplementing, when the right snack and real foods could be doing that work for them.
My advice is simple: read the ingredients, not just the marketing on the front of the pack. If you can’t pronounce something or wouldn’t find it in your kitchen, that’s a red flag.
Nourish products are free from gluten, dairy and refined sugar, while still feeling indulgent. How challenging has it been to create treats that meet a variety of dietary needs without compromising on taste or quality?
Honestly, it’s been the central challenge of everything we do – and it never really gets easier. When you remove gluten, refined sugar, seed oils, fillers and bulking agents you lose the things that conventionally make food taste good and hold everything together. The easy solution is to replace them with artificial alternatives, but that completely defeats the purpose.
Every product we develop goes through an enormous amount of testing to get the texture, taste and nutritional profile right using only 100% natural ingredients. Our gut health brownies, for example, incorporate functional ingredients that genuinely support digestion – but they also must taste like a brownie you’d actually want to eat. Fine-tuning the right balance of great taste and nutritional integrity takes time and investment.
What keeps me grounded is knowing that the products have to work for everyone – not just people with specific dietary needs. If someone without any intolerances picks up a Nourish product, it should feel like a treat, not a compromise. That’s the bar we hold ourselves to.
Your latest product, the Matcha Coconut Cookie created with OMGTEA, combines two ingredients associated with sustained energy and wellbeing. What inspired this collaboration, and what trends are you seeing in the healthy snacking market right now?
The collaboration with OMGTEA felt very natural because we share the same philosophy, that the ingredients themselves are the heroes of the hour. Matcha is a beautifully functional ingredient; it offers sustained, calm energy and it’s rich in antioxidants. Paired with coconut, it creates something that genuinely supports how you feel, not just what you’re eating.
In terms of trends, I’m seeing a real shift towards consumers wanting to understand the why behind their food. People are moving away from clever marketing and towards authentic functionality. Increasingly food savvy consumers want to know what an ingredient actually does for their body. The appetite for products that support energy, gut health and mental clarity is growing fast, and I think that’s only going to accelerate.
The UK healthy snack market is on a significant upward trajectory, and I believe the brands that will lead it are those built on real ingredients and honest communication, not simply riding a trend with a lazy reformulated product.
Nourish has grown from a small Reigate-based business into a brand stocked by major retailers and premium partners, while also donating 10% of net profits to charity. Looking ahead, what is your vision for Nourish, and how do you hope to influence the future of healthier snacking in the UK?
My vision is to make genuinely nourishing food accessible to everyone, not just those shopping at premium retailers. Within the next year, I want to see our multi-pack format on shelves in Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Tesco, at a price point that makes a real difference to people’s everyday choices. That’s where the volume is, and that’s where we can have the greatest impact on how people snack.
Beyond retail, I’m excited about the spaces where people currently have limited healthy snack options – airports, cafés, travel hubs. Those are the moments when people default to whatever’s available, and I want Nourish to be there with something that actually serves them.
Underpinning all of the above is food education. I launched the Nourishing Lives podcast because I genuinely believe that if people understood the connection between real food and their health, they would make different choices. After years working in the NHS, I’ve seen the debilitating cost of poor nutrition; personally, professionally and systemically. I believe real food could prevent and alleviate so many of the conditions putting pressure on our healthcare system today.
That’s the mission. It always has been.
As our conversation with Ineke demonstrates, Nourish is about far more than creating healthier snacks. It is driven by a genuine belief that food can play a powerful role in supporting our wellbeing, energy levels and long-term health.
What began as homemade treats for family and colleagues has grown into a thriving business with a mission to make nourishing food more accessible, while remaining true to its commitment to quality ingredients and transparent values. We were particularly inspired by Ineke’s passion for food education and her determination to challenge the misconception that healthy eating must involve sacrifice.
With exciting plans for expansion and a growing appetite among consumers for snacks that deliver both flavour and function, Nourish looks set to continue making its mark on the UK’s evolving food landscape.
To discover more about Nourish and explore its range of products, visit nourish-growcookenjoy.com.
Poppy Watt