{"id":13666,"date":"2025-06-25T18:32:02","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T15:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotukai.lt\/how-was-sotukai-born\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T21:08:05","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T18:08:05","slug":"how-was-sotukai-born","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotukai.lt\/en\/how-was-sotukai-born\/","title":{"rendered":"How did SOTUKAI begin?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Article link:\u00a0https:\/\/www.15min.lt\/gyvenimas<\/a><\/p>\n

Article author:
Aist\u0117 Tur\u010dinavi\u010di\u016bt\u0117<\/a>
Lifestyle journalist\u00a0<\/p>\n

Snieguol\u0117, the creator of energy balls: desserts can be \u201cguilt-free\u201d too
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\u201cHow often do you fancy something delicious, only to feel guilty about all the sugar afterwards?\u201d asks Snieguol\u0117, voicing a question familiar to many.<\/p>\n

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A few years ago, she solved this dilemma for her family by creating Sotukai \u2014 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A healthy lifestyle alongside work\u00a0<\/h2>\n

As Snieguol\u0117 tells 15min, before starting her Sotukai business she had long followed a \u201csafe and stable\u201d 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 \u0160iauliai University and gained the Lithuanian teacher-methodologist qualification.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYet every 1 September brought a challenge and enormous stress. I got on brilliantly with the pupils \u2014 we are still friends today \u2014 but the overall system and its constraints held me back. Something a wonderful final-year pupil said at his graduation really stayed with me: \u2018You are an excellent teacher, but you lack ruthlessness.\u2019 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,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

When the pandemic and lockdown began, Snieguol\u0117 says she allowed herself \u201csimply to be, and to wait for an answer to the question of what I really wanted to do\u201d. That answer came quite naturally: she only needed to look back at a subject that had interested her since her youth.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlongside 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.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOur 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,\u201d Snieguol\u0117 explains.<\/p>\n

Nutrition \u2014 a key to a healthier life<\/h2>\n

According to Snieguol\u0117, 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\u2019s everyday diet. \u201cI 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,\u201d 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?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is now a wonderful choice of plant foods \u2014 better than ever before \u2014 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 \u2018hidden\u2019 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,\u201d says the Kelm\u0117 resident.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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Snieguol\u0117, who currently runs the business in Kelm\u0117 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 \u2014 there is a favourite flavour for everyone in this range. Just a few balls at snack time are enough to feel full and satisfied.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnowing that the Sotukai I make contribute to people\u2019s health, wellbeing and mood inspires me to create and share,\u201d she says with a smile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Article link:\u00a0https:\/\/www.15min.lt\/gyvenimas Article author: Aist\u0117 Tur\u010dinavi\u010di\u016bt\u0117 Lifestyle journalist\u00a0 Snieguol\u0117, the creator of energy balls: desserts can be \u201cguilt-free\u201d too \u201cHow often do you fancy something delicious, only to feel guilty about all the sugar afterwards?\u201d asks Snieguol\u0117, voicing a question familiar to many. A few years ago, she solved this dilemma for her family by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_glsr_average":0,"_glsr_ranking":0,"_glsr_reviews":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,169,166,165,163,162,161,158,159,164],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-skaidulos","category-sveikatai-palanku","category-sveikata","category-sveikas-maistas","category-litexpo","category-mineralai","category-riesutai","category-augalinis-maistas","category-sotukai","category-supermaistas"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t