Dee's Inside Scoop on Natural Products Expo West

My husband and I recently returned from the Natural Products Expo West held in Anaheim, California, where I learned that my idea of "natural food" is quite different than the industry standard. I want to first say that overall the experience was magical and quite exhilarating. However, I was noticing a dangerous trend toward packaged and convenience food that is being "developed" and touted as healthy. There was so much to see and taste over the weekend, that I am going to be blogging about it over several days. Just to give you a preview, at the end of the first day I returned to my hotel room with aching bruised shoulders from the heavy tote bags loaded with free samples of every imaginable "health bar" and snack food the "natural" food product world can come up with. It was like the over sized Halloween trick or treat bag filled with glorified candy bars. And I cannot forget to mention the numerous vendors pushing organic chocolate bars, luring attendees to their booths by placing heaping bowls filled with little squares of each variety of chocolate, which if I had tasted every sample on the show floor I would have consumed the equivalent of several large bars of chocolate in one day. More commentary on this later.

Even though it would have been a great opportunity to showcase my flourless Dee's Mighty Muffins ™ (http://www.deesmightymuffins.com/), we decided not to tie ourselves down to a booth so we could roam the show floor checking out the newest offerings in the natural food world and attend the educational seminars offered by leaders in the fields of nutrition. I was in great anticipation of getting to hear four of my most revered heroes and mentors: Udo Erasmus, Ph.D., creator of Udo's Oil and international authority on fats and oil; Ann Louise Gittleman, Ph.D., the First Lady of Nutrition in the U.S. and pioneer in dietary health matters; Michael Murray, ND, one of the world's leading authorities on natural medicine; and Eric Schlosser, author of the bestselling book, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All American Meal.

Friday morning began with a complimentary breakfast sponsored by Kashi, Horizon Organic, and Silk. I don't know what I was expecting, but it fell below my expectations. Kashi was offering all of their new cereals (all of which contain evaporated cane sugar), Horizon had milk, yogurt (the yogurt was not as creamy as some other brands that I like, and it was sweetened with organic sugar), eggs, and cheese, and of course Silk had their new flavors of soy milk and soy yogurt. There was not a piece of fruit or a vegetable to be found among the rows and rows of cereal and milk.

A conversation at the breakfast table begat a rumor that Kashi has just been purchased by Nestle. I have no first-hand knowledge of this, like I said it is apparently a rumor. The gentleman who told me this said that "we can now expect that Kashi's products will not be as credible and pure as they used to be." Looking at the sugary evidence on the ingredient lists of their newest offerings-- especially the little cereal bars that were scattered on all of the breakfast tables--I would have to agree. In fact, perhaps one of the reasons Kashi's cereals have become more sugary since 200 is because that is the year they were bought by Kellogg. I remember the first Kashi product I was happy to include in my diet back in 1992, Puffed Kashi, one of the few truly sugar-free cereals available at the time. I sure hope they keep it in their repertoire of offerings. Kashi bought by Nestle--that would certainly be more of a sellout than Kellog. Buyers beware!!!

One of the best parts of being at this event was getting to hear the experts talk about some of the latest research in nutrition and health. If you want to get the real hardcore health information, the hidden treasures of the holistic nutrition community, you have to get face to face with the innovative supplement companies, the pioneering doctors and researchers, and others who are pushing the envelope of health and nutrition. These are people whose work and beliefs have inspired me and influenced my own philosophies toward health, eating, and weight loss. Dr. Udo Erasmus is one such person. I finally got to see him in action espousing all of the wonderful information contained in his revolutionary book Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill. The title of his talk, Why Fish Oil is Not Enough, confirmed that we need to include a variety of oils in our diets, mainly from unadulterated sources like raw nuts (he advocates keeping nuts in their shells to protect the fragile oils, and cracking them open just before eating them), seeds, and even animal fat. Udo's research and expertise has convinced me that unadulterated fats and oils are absolutely essential to good health, that low fat diets are not only unnecessary but dangerous, and that the only oils that are safe to eat are those that are not heated and processed.