On Monday I blogged that I was in Philadelphia at the American Dietetic Association Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo. While the continuing education programming was pretty good, the exhibit hall was really the most fun part of the conference (along with seeing so many colleagues and friends from around the country). I mentioned the gluten-free product explosion on Monday. Today I'll tell you about some of the other cool new products being touted by their purveyors. Some may not be available on retail store shelves yet, so check out their websites.
I think that my favorite brand new product was The Power of Fruit, an all fruit frozen bar made with whole fruit, skins and all, equivalent to 1/2 a fruit serving. It tasted wonderful. I usually take a tiny taste of only the best looking foods as I travel through the exhibits. This time I ate the whole bar!
Keri Glassman, a Registered Dietitian, developed a snack bar for her clients that tastes amazingly good. Called the Keribar, it is made from whole fruits, nuts and seeds, and a little chocolate here and there. I think my favorite flavor was the apple peanut butter flavor.
Another snack bar that's recently been introduced to the retail market but wasn't at the ADA conference is the Think brand. They offer a number of lines within their brand, some organic, some to support breast cancer awareness, some to support weight loss, and so on. My favorite is the Think 5 series, although it's still hard for me to believe that they can actually get the full nutrient value for 3 cups of vegetables and 2 cups of fruit in one bar. The bars look funny because there is no artificial anything added, and they are very pureed, but the taste is amazingly real.
Sambazon is the original Acai Juice company. It is a sustainably farmed organic product that is pretty delicious and jam-packed with serious nutrition. I had a great time talking to their National Food Service Manager who loves his work and believes in the product. The company is steeped in the culture of making the world a better a place for everyone involved, and they really walk the walk.
The other great juices in the hall were POM (pomegranate) and Welch's grape juice. The scientist from POM was gracious with his time and explanations. The owners of POM have single-handedlly funded a good portion of the scientific research available on pomegranates today. When it comes to grape juice I'm still a purist and prefer it as a delicious beverage rather than a functional food with all sorts of stuff added, like fiber, or taken away, like sugars. Go to the websites to learn more.
Italica Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Spain is a remarkably fruity oil that I am going to start to order online. On the day that I was presenting my research poster (from 9 am to 2 pm), these nice guys saved my hungry stomach and fading brain by letting me every one of their varieties of olives, more than once. They were all good, but the green empeltre, which I had never had before, was incredible.
There were other great products, but these were my favorites. And now I'm glad to be home.
Yours in a Good Mood,
Dr. Susan Kleiner