Article link: https://www.15min.lt/gyvenimas

Article author:
Aistė Turčinavičiūtė
Lifestyle journalist 

Snieguolė, the creator of energy balls: desserts can be “guilt-free” too

“How often do you fancy something delicious, only to feel guilty about all the sugar afterwards?” asks Snieguolė, voicing a question familiar to many.

A few years ago, she solved this dilemma for her family by creating Sotukai — energy balls in a wide variety of flavours, enriched with nutrients. Now she is sharing their magic with others, turning snacking into a delicious, health-friendly moment. 

A healthy lifestyle alongside work 

As Snieguolė tells 15min, before starting her Sotukai business she had long followed a “safe and stable” path. After graduating from what was then Vilnius Pedagogical University in 1996, she immediately began working as a technology teacher. Later, when a school reorganisation left her without lessons to teach, she studied English at Šiauliai University and gained the Lithuanian teacher-methodologist qualification.

“Yet every 1 September brought a challenge and enormous stress. I got on brilliantly with the pupils — we are still friends today — but the overall system and its constraints held me back. Something a wonderful final-year pupil said at his graduation really stayed with me: ‘You are an excellent teacher, but you lack ruthlessness.’ That was when the thought took root that it was time to change something. We raised 4 sons, and when the youngest finished upper secondary school, I finished there too,” she says.

When the pandemic and lockdown began, Snieguolė says she allowed herself “simply to be, and to wait for an answer to the question of what I really wanted to do”. That answer came quite naturally: she only needed to look back at a subject that had interested her since her youth.

“Alongside work, healthy living had been part of my life ever since graduation: I took part in the activities of the Lithuanian Healthy Living Association, led a health club, organised healthy-living events at school and summer camps for children, and completed numerous courses in different forms of yoga, meditation and healthy cooking.

“Our family has practised various approaches to eating for a long time, selecting what works and suits us. We are now into our third decade of alternating between vegetarian, raw-food, fruitarian and omnivorous diets, with detox programmes for variety. An inner need to share what I know converged on one purpose: promoting health-supporting plants, also known as superfoods,” Snieguolė explains.

Nutrition — a key to a healthier life

According to Snieguolė, the Sotukai now made from a variety of plant foods reflect her long search for ways to include as many valuable nutrients as possible in her family’s everyday diet. “I realised long ago that wellbeing, health and even mood are connected to what we eat. It is clear that, with a varied diet, the body gets everything it needs for energy and health from food, so there is no need to look for supplements in pharmacies,” she says.
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Although she says healthy eating at home is quite simple, she faced a dilemma at the time: what do you do when you are at work, travelling or have no time to cook?

“There is now a wonderful choice of plant foods — better than ever before — but once work and activities take over, a balanced everyday diet becomes a challenge. Smoothies come to the rescue at breakfast, allowing plenty of superfoods to be deliciously ‘hidden’ inside, but what about when you are away from home? While looking for something nutritious and convenient to pack for my family to take to work, school or on a journey, I created Sotukai. When hunger strikes and you have Sotukai to hand, the likelihood of filling up on unhealthy food falls considerably,” says the Kelmė resident.

As she points out, the idea of Sotukai soon proved successful. So many people now avoid added sugar, saturated fats, milk and gluten. These energy balls also attract customers because they are packed with nourishing calories, vitamin E, potassium, manganese, phosphorus, magnesium, copper, calcium, zinc, iron and fibre, guaranteeing long-lasting fullness.

Snieguolė, who currently runs the business in Kelmė with a colleague and her husband, offers customers as many as 9 varieties of Sotukai. Matcha and cashews with dates, lingonberries and maca in almonds, sea buckthorn and quince among apricots — there is a favourite flavour for everyone in this range. Just a few balls at snack time are enough to feel full and satisfied.

“Knowing that the Sotukai I make contribute to people’s health, wellbeing and mood inspires me to create and share,” she says with a smile.