June 2019. I'm standing in my kitchen at 11 PM, dumping another batch of 'keto brownies' down the disposal.
Another recipe ruined by that chemical aftertaste. Another night of pretending erythritol was 'good enough.'
My wife Sarah and I were 60 and 45 pounds overweight, respectively. Pre-diabetic. Exhausted. Our doctor had just warned that medication was 'probably inevitable' within the year.
We'd tried everything. Cut carbs. Counted calories. Started exercising. And we were making progress...slowly. But the sweet cravings were brutal.
That's when we discovered conventional sugar substitutes were a minefield:
Stevia made everything taste like medicine. Erythritol caused such intense bloating that Sarah stopped using it after a week. I forced myself to tolerate it, but every coffee tasted like regret with a weird cooling sensation.
The sugar alcohols were the worst. I won't go into details, but let's just say 'digestive distress' doesn't begin to cover it.
We researched alternatives obsessively. Monk fruit? Too expensive and still needed blending. Xylitol? Literally toxic to our dog. Artificial sweeteners? The studies were... concerning.
After four months of this, we were ready to give up.
Maybe enjoying food and being healthy were mutually exclusive. Maybe we'd just have to accept a life of either deprivation or medication.
Then, at a backyard barbecue in August, everything changed.
'Have you guys tried allulose yet?' our friend Michelle asked.
She's a clinical dietician who works with diabetic patients. She mentioned it casually—like we were supposed to know what she was talking about.
'It's a rare sugar. Tastes like actual sugar, but your body doesn't metabolize it. And (she leaned in like she was sharing a secret) there's emerging research that it actually increases GLP-1 production. You know, the hormone in those new weight loss drugs everyone's getting.'
I'll admit, I was skeptical. We'd heard too many 'miracle sweetener' promises.
But that night, I couldn't sleep. I was up until 3 AM reading research papers.
Study after study from journals. The science was legitimate. Allulose wasn't just 'safe'—it was beneficial. It triggered the body's natural satiety mechanisms. It improved glucose regulation. People in the studies were losing weight and reducing medication dosages.
This wasn't just another substitute. This was something fundamentally different.
Three days later, we had our first shipment.
I still remember Sarah's face when she tried her first cup of coffee with allulose. No aftertaste. No cooling effect. Just... sweetness. Normal, actual sweetness.
We started using it in everything. Baking. Coffee. Sauces. Yogurt.
Within two weeks, something unexpected happened: our cravings started disappearing.
Not from willpower. They just... faded. We'd finish meals feeling satisfied. The 3 PM snack attack never came. Sarah described it as feeling 'in control' for the first time in years.
Six months later:
- My weight: down 47 pounds
- Sarah's weight: down 38 pounds
- Both our A1C levels: back in normal range
- My doctor's reaction: 'Whatever you're doing, don't stop'
No medications needed. No deprivation. Just real food with a sweetener that worked with our bodies instead of against them.
But here's what really drove us to start KetoGoods:
When we told friends about allulose, no one had heard of it. It was nearly impossible to find in stores. When you could find it, it cost $40-50 per bottle if it was even pure allulose and not a blend with fillers.
The markup was insane. The education was nonexistent. People were suffering with erythritol bloat or giving up on their health goals entirely, while this incredible option sat in obscurity.
That felt wrong.
We both had backgrounds in food distribution: I'd spent 15 years in ingredient sourcing, Sarah managed supply chains for organic brands. We knew we could do better.
KetoGoods launched in December 2019 with one simple mission:
Make pure, affordable allulose accessible to everyone who needs it. No proprietary blends. No inflated pricing. Just the real thing, backed by real science, at a price that doesn't punish people for choosing their health.
Today, we've shipped over 500,000 pounds of the stuff. We get emails weekly from customers whose A1C levels have normalized, who've reduced their diabetes medications, who've finally found sustainable weight management.
That's not bragging. It's why we show up every day.
Because we remember what it felt like to stand in that kitchen at 11 PM, convinced we'd have to choose between enjoying food and being healthy.
And we know you shouldn't have to make that choice either.