When Eagle Magazine sat down with Nicole James over lunch at Caci, her story unfolded not as a sleek business plan, but as a deeply personal journey. Elemental — the organic, refrigerated nutrition bar now sold in major stores and even airports — began not in a commercial kitchen, but in a mother’s determination to help her daughter.
More than two decades ago, Nicole’s oldest child, then just a year past her vaccinations, was diagnosed with autism. By age five, doctors suggested medication to manage meltdowns and behavioral struggles. “That just didn’t feel right to me,” Nicole recalls. “I thought, there has to be another way. I wanted to help her without relying on something that didn’t address the root cause.”
She dove into research — a daunting task in the early days of the internet. After weeks of digging, she discovered a group of East Coast mothers following the Specific Carbohydrate Diet to support their children’s gut health. “Nobody was talking about the gut-brain connection like they are now,” she says. “But I could see something happening with her — more eye contact, less irritability. It gave me hope.”
That hope launched a deep dive into nutrition and ingredient sourcing. She began making everything from scratch, cutting out processed foods entirely. The first Elemental bar — the currant cacao hemp seed bar — was born when Nicole improvised a snack using sprouted buckwheat, hemp seeds, almond butter, and currants. “It was just one of those moments where I looked in the pantry and thought, okay, what can I make with what I have?” she laughs. “It turned out so good, I still use that exact recipe today.”
In 2010, a friend selling cold-pressed juice in Los Angeles asked to add Nicole’s bars to her menu. Customers fell in love instantly. Soon she was buying ingredients in bulk, selling from home, and attracting curious neighbors who noticed the steady stream of people leaving her house with neatly packaged white bags. “I had no idea they were wondering what was going on over here,” Nicole says, smiling. “When I told them, they laughed and said, ‘Well, now it makes sense!’”
As demand grew, Nicole moved production to a certified gluten-free kitchen and began selling in health food stores, doing demos, and eventually expanding to online sales. Her commitment to quality never wavered — every Elemental bar is 100% organic, free from cheap fillers, and made with ingredients she’s comfortable feeding her own children. “If my kids eat them every day, they have to be the best ingredients I can get,” she says.
Today, Elemental bars are sold in Whole Foods across the Southern Pacific region, in natural grocers nationwide, and in select airports — with loyal fans from California to Tennessee. “It’s surreal sometimes,” Nicole reflects. “I still remember wrapping them in brown paper in my kitchen. To see them in a store in another state — it’s pretty amazing.”
From a kitchen experiment to a national brand, Elemental’s rise is a testament to purpose, persistence, and passion. “It’s never just been about making a bar,” Nicole says. “It’s about making something that truly nourishes — something I can feel good about putting into the world.”
Follow @elementalsuperfood on Instagram and visit elementalsuperfood.com to order a box today!
