Natural Products Expo West
For the fourth year in a row, Kymberly and I spent several days at the Natural Products Expo West, sampling delicious (and healthy) food and beauty products, and attending sessions so that we could share the latest news with you.
In this first part of our trend-spotting series, I’ll share three food trends.
1. Products that seemed out of the ordinary a few years ago are now getting even MORE unique – examples of this include calamansi flavored sparkling coconut water from JaxCoco, South Asian-inspired snacks from Zouq,
Zouq snacks are my new go-to munchie
wheat free, gluten free, sugar free, all cheese chia seed parmesan crisps from Kitchen Table Bakers , frozen desserts sweetened with monk fruit from Arctic Zero, and even grassfed, organic, bacon cranberry bison bars from EPIC Bar.
2. Parallel, yet not diametrically opposed is the trend toward making healthy food accessible and available to all (especially families). According to Steve Sidwell, founder of Lúvo, the number of lunch eaters has dropped, while the number of snack eaters has risen. Those snacks (and all food) should be good for you, and accessible – including at work, school and airports. In other words, bring the healthy food to the people, not have the people search out the food.
I was trying to steal Steve’s Lúvo jacket.
3. Beverages that are designed to aid your body are so varied and unique, there’s no reason to ever drink a sugar-laden soda or hospital-visit-inducing energy drink. Ever. Teas with chocolate or vegetables added, sparkling, vegan, organic probiotic drinks, (my fave is the new Hibiscus Berry Daily Cleanse from KeVita, flavored kombucha that even non-kombucha people like myself enjoy (try the black currant from Clearly Kombucha), and even different types and flavors of chocolate milk and coffee. Oh, check out Teas of Texas. Not only do they have pecos cantaloupe white tea, they also do limited edition teas for college football teams. Good sense of humor. I even found a skin rejuvenation collagen drink! I thought that was called “water” back in the day. Oh, you heard it here first – Organic Valley has protein shakes coming out in June. You can’t find them yet, but let me tell you – they’re delicious. You’ll see.
Check out these Flavors
Stay tuned for more trends in upcoming posts. In the meantime, let us know your guesses as to what those might be in the comments below. Oh, we also have lots of giveaways coming up too, so keep an eye on our Facebook page.
Finally, less than one week (March 19, 2014) until the re-launch of our Active Aging for Boom Chicka Boomers radio showon a bigger platform – Voice America, Wednesdays at 8 am PST live/ 8 pm PST rebroadcast. Up first, author, scientist and personal trainer Tamara Grand, on “Hormones and Menopause.”
We were not paid to share any of these products with you. We did receive press passes and samples at the expo.
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