Kinsey Van Druten has a knack for taking any guilty pleasure you can buy in a grocery store and turning it into a nutritionally packed powerhouse. Plants on Tap, a business Van Druten has been cultivating since 2015, is a home bakery that includes healthy substitutes for Twix bars, peanut butter eggs, muffins, cookie dough — basically any sweet treat you could challenge her to make more nutritious.
“Plants On Tap was created to help people of all ages use food as medicine to achieve optimal health and to prevent disease,” she says. “Finding healthier versions of our favorite foods when cravings strike is key to making a lifestyle change! I’m not a fan of restriction, as I learned the hard way that they lead to binging. It’s a vicious cycle to break.”
Fight it or feed it
Van Druten hasn’t always had a healthy relationship with food. As a child, she struggled with her weight and overall health, frequently binge eating sweets and junk food, all of which did nothing for her asthma, IBS, and leaky gut. “I began Weight Watchers in the fifth grade, which really didn’t teach me anything about using food to heal, but rather made me obsessed and fearful of any and all calories,” explains Van Druten. “Pizza, Chinese carryout, Velveeta mac and cheese, ice cream, and cookie dough made up my diet. While on Weight Watchers, I would eat those foods daily so long as I knew how many points everything was.”
In high school, she worked with a doctor who taught her how food can either serve to fight disease or to feed it. That led her to start applying what she learned through experimenting in the kitchen and, eventually, to become a business owner who teaches cooking classes, works as a personal chef and makes healthy treats with Plants on Tap.
Don’t sugar coat it
“I make healthy versions of classic favorites such as lemon poppyseed muffins (along with 21 other muffin flavors), the fudgiest vegan, grain-free and nut-free brownies and even protein bars,” Van Druten says. “I strive to use the least amount of added unrefined sweeteners as possible, or no added sugar. Ripe bananas have become a favorite ingredient. They work well as a natural sweetener and are used to sweeten items like the famous crack muffins which are grain-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, high protein, and can be made nut-free or vegan upon request.”
As a holistic health practitioner and certified culinary nutrition expert, Van Druten has crafted a business that pushes healthy food possibilities. By teaching customers about proper nutrition and eating a largely plant-based diet, she’s gotten reviews that indicate not just weight loss but also healing. For example, one customer noted less joint pain and more energy after working with Van Druten and losing 16 pounds.
As a whole, Van Druten wants her customers to experience what she has attained through healthy eating. “Becoming healthier made me a happier and more confident person— it also allowed me to be a better person to those around me.”
Find Plants on Tap baked goods at Neuroflex Juice in downtown Rossford, Maddie & Bella, SIP Coffee, and The Flying Joe. Check out the Plants on Tap menu and Van Druten’s other services at kinseyvandruten.com, or send her a message on Instagram or Facebook to order your treats.
