Food trends from Expo West
I have been dilatory in posting over the past few days and embarrassingly dilatory about approving comments. I’m way, way behind, but I’ll get caught up ultimately. So, if you have a comment doing time in comment Purgatory, don’t despair. I will get to it. Ultimately.
My excuse for not devoting my normal amount of attention to this blog is that I’ve been extremely busy as of late. MD and I made a quick trip to Seattle to work on our world-changing project, then came back and spent a couple of days at the zoo that is Expo West (more about which momentarily), then the Seattle team came to us and we continued to work. During all this, MD had a concert in which she had to perform Mozart’s Requiem and Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna (my favorite piece of choral music) along with a couple of lesser pieces. And tomorrow we drive back to Tahoe. So, we’ve been busy little beavers and this blog has suffered.
Expo West has got to be the world’s largest natural foods expo. It takes place every year at about this time in Anaheim. And every year at about this time we drag ourselves to it. The photo at the top of this blog represents one tiny little portion of this gathering. To see how huge it is, take a look at the photo below of the map of the thing.
Find the red You-are-here arrow on the top middle left. The picture at the top of this post is looking to the left from that spot on this map. And you can see only a short space down, kind of to where the aisle turns. Imagine that view in each direction, then add a couple of floors made of several large multiple gymnasium-sized rooms, and you can kind of get the picture. There are thousands of exhibitors and thousands of attendees. It is one monster extravaganza of foods, supplements, beauty supplies, and anything else you might imagine having anything to do with diet, health, food and natural clothing.
I hate to go to the thing because I hate throngs of milling people and I hate the exhibitors always trying to sell you something. But I also really enjoy it because I find new stuff and I learn a lot. And there are the booth babes, to boot. Although not so many this year. Times are tough and booth babes are costly.
Each time I go to Expo West, I notice trends. And this year was no different. So, for what it’s worth, here are the trends I noticed after God only knows how many hours spent and miles walked traipsing through the giant Anaheim Convention Center.
Tea
There were a multitude of tea purveyors. There was black tea, green tea, white tea, herbal teas of every description, and a dozen kinds of maté. Way, way more tea than I’ve ever seen. I guess the spate of recent studies that have appeared showing the purported health benefits of drinking some kind of tea has not been lost on tea vendors. They were there in droves. And all were babbling about studies demonstrating how tea cures this or that disease. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that all of the studies they were using were observational studies and not worth a flip for proving that tea helps anything.
Agave
Agave was the big new product this year. Last year there were a few vendors; this year they were everywhere. They were selling agave syrup, agave nectar, agave crystals, agave this and agave that. An entire other group of vendors was promoting various products sweetened with agave. For those of you who don’t know, agave is the latest entry into the caloric-sweetener sweepstakes. It comes in a variety of forms – syrup, nectar, crystals - from the agave plant, a succulent plant found mainly in Mexico. The claim to fame of this sweetener, which was emblazoned on banners, literature, labels and just about everywhere, is that it is a low-glycemic sweetener. And it is was being touted as a great food for diabetics and any others with glucose-intolerance problems. And it is indeed low-glycemic because it is composed of about 90 percent fructose. If you think high-fructose corn syrup is bad at 55 percent fructose, just imagine what Agave syrup can do for you. Yet all these ignorant people are ga ga over it as if it were the second coming. My advice is to avoid it like death. But be prepared to be seeing it everywhere.
Xylitol
There were a lot of products made with xylitol on display. Products that are probably pretty good, but that I would never have imagined. Nose spray, for example. Xylitol is a sugar alcohol that is antibacterial, which is why it is in gums that dentists recommend. It actually prevents tooth decay because of its antibacterial properties. It does the same thing if sprayed into the nose, a place where a lot of bacteria live. I saw a product made of xylitol that was to be dissovled in water and used in a Neti pot to irrigate sinuses, which, like the nose spray, makes sense. There have been randomized control trials showing the benefit of xylitol for prevention of tooth decay and prevention of ear infections in kids. I didn’t see any papers showing studies on the nose sprays or other products, but it’s a reasonable assumption that they probably work. I certainly wouldn’t hesitate using them. Based on the number of vendors I saw, expect to see a lot of xylitol-containing products in the days to come.
Sweeteners
There were a fair number of non-caloric sweeteners on display. Most were made of combinations of RebA, the active ingredient in stevia, and other non-caloric sweeteners. I saw a lot of erythritol and erythritol combinations as well. If numbers of vendors are any indication, expect to see a bunch of non-caloric sweeteners hitting the shelves.
Coconut milk and oil
In what I view as an extremely positive trend, there were a zillion purveyors of coconut milk and products made from coconut milk. In the past, there weren’t many, but this year they were everywhere. There were a bunch of companies making ice creams and gelato made of coconut milk. These aren’t low-carb by any stretch, but they are still more healthful (in my opinion) than regular ice cream because of all the great fats in coconut milk and oil. I took one for the team and tried several of these, and I can tell you that they were delicious. There were also outfits selling coconut milk that was like regular cow’s milk. It didn’t taste quite the same, but it wasn’t far off the mark. I thought it tasted better, but others might disagree. The milk comes in cartons just like regular milk. There were chocolates and any other product you could think of that would normally be made of milk or dairy made of coconut milk or oil.
Soy
In what I would consider another positive trend, there were way, way fewer companies selling soy products than ever before. Since I’ve been attending Expo West soy has been everywhere and in everything. All of a sudden, this year it’s kind of taken a powder. There were a handful of people there selling soy-based products, but not anywhere near what has been there in past years.
Nuts
Every year there are people there selling nuts. This year they wre all over the place. I’ve never seen so many nuts on display.
Low-fat
Surprisingly there wasn’t a lot of emphasis on the low-fat nature of products. Previously it was much more visible with banners and stickers on anything that could make the claim, but not so much this year. Many more products were advertised as having no added sugar or sugar-free than were advertised as being low-fat. I think the times they are a changing.
Low cholesterol
Strangely, there was more emphasis on low-cholesterol than I’ve noticed in the past few years. More emphasis, in fact, than there was on low-fat. There were many products on display that proudly proclaimed their cholesterol-lowering properties. The one that took the cake is pictured below. The company makes tortilla chips that allegedly lower cholesterol. Now you know what to do if your cholesterol is a little high: go face down in these chips. Not! Actually, they would probably do you less harm than taking a statin.
Meat and eggs
Yet another positive trend was the large increase in the number of vendors selling both fresh and processed meats. Way more vendors than in the past. And a large number selling eggs. I saw many booths that had packets containing two hard boiled eggs and a little salt and pepper. A good kind of fast food, if you ask me.
Resveratrol
I was expecting there to be a zillion people selling resveratrol, but there weren’t many. In fact, I couldn’t find anyone selling just the raw stuff. The only vendors I found selling it were selling their own proprietary versions in which resveratrol was mixed with other compounds. Given all the press lately about resveratrol I was really surprised at how little there was.
Krill oil
All the krill oil sellers were there, and I spent a good amount of time with them. They all had large booths, so it was apparent that krill oil has been very, very good to them all. I finally learned all the distinctions between all the oils available and will be doing a post on them as soon as I have a little time to go over all the papers I’ve pulled to make sure I am accurate.
Vegetarian products
It’s hard to say, but if I had to bet, I would bet that there were slightly fewer this year than last. They were still there, and they were still obnoxious, but just not in the numbers as before. At least it appeared that way.
One of the things that constantly amazes me about Expo West and all the other natural food and health food shows I go to is how typically American all the people look who are selling this stuff. They truly are a mirror of American. The vast majority are overweight and they don’t look like the picture of health, yet there they are pimping products that are supposed to make the purchasers of them healthy. If I looked like most of these people, I would hire someone who at least look lean, trim and healthy to man my booth, but these people don’t. Most are definately not walking advertisements for their products.
Here are a couple of photos to show you what I mean. These pictures give you an idea of what a typical booth at Expo West looks like and typical people working these booths. I didn’t pick these just because they were hawking vegetarian products, I picked them because I happened to have my camera at hand and they were right across the aisles from one another. They were not out of the ordinary. They look like most of the vendors.
I plan to dragoon MD into doing most of the driving tomorrow so that I can catch up on my medical reading (as much as I can anyway while keeping a close eye on the road). When we get home, I’ll get back on my normal schedule of posting. Hang in there ’til then.
dr. eades,
enjoy your blog, had a quick question, you said the following in your post:
“I didn’t have the heart to tell them that all of the studies they were using were observational studies and not worth a flip for proving that tea helps anything.”
there is currently a green tea extract for sale on your products page:
http://www.proteinpower.com/products.php?cat=28
is green tea and/or extract the exception to this observation?
Nope. And if you notice the text describing the product, you will see that it is filled with weasel words. MD and I like green tea from time to time, and these extracts are easy ways to get it without going through the hassle of tea bags or steeping or all that. We figured others may like it that way, too, so we added it to our list of products. We don’t have anything listed in our product section that we don’t use ourselves or haven’t used at some point.
You said:
The reason is that the four or five doctors whom I know personally who are big proponents of the idea of adrenal fatigue are total whackos. I wouldn’t send my worst enemy to any of them. Their bizarreness has more or less colored my view of the subject.
I laughed and laughed! Thanks for the admission. So refreshing.
Looking forward to your thoughts after you delve.
I myself have had some partial, temporary success with two separate treatments. One was taking the cortisol the other was Dr. Wilson’s Future Formulations. I had more success with the latter, but I was also eating lower carb then and had been doing IF for the previous 6 months.
P.S. I watched “Fat Head” last night and it was pretty great. I have such a hard time getting through to my friends and family about this stuff (including my mother who took/takes statins because her doctor tells her to) and I think this film does a great job of summing it up. I wish everyone would watch it. I’m planning to buy a copy for every one of my family members and to make sure they watch it!
@Dr Eades
Due to fructose’s effects on the liver-ergo-triglycerides – would you recommend staying away from fruit?
Reason I ask, I eat Paleo as does my wife, but she really loves sweet stuff and really goes all out on fruit, in lieu of chocolate etc etc
Actually, a little fructose – maybe 3-4 gm per day – helps the body deal better with glucose. The problem comes from eating way, way more than those 3-4 gm/day. A little fruit, with emphasis on the little, is probably a good thing. But overconsuming fruit can result in the consumption of a lot of fructose. If your wife is thin and healthy, then eating all the fruit she eats is obviously not causing her problems. If, on the other hand, your wife has a weight problem and/or other metabolic disorder, she might want to cut back on the fruits. Fruits were a part of the Paleolithic diet, but fruits then were consumed when they were in season, not all year. And the fruits then were not the giant, sugar-filled things they are today.
to @Michael,
Thanks, I had seen your comments about the Holst and filed it away. I am a Holst fan so certainly interested. You’re right that I have to take the long view. I didn’t get the way I am overnight. And in the meantime I can still have harmless fun sniggering over others’ shopping carts. Just not as much as I’ll be able to have when I’m trim and fit! I went to the supermarket last night to pick up a couple items. But I did something I have not done in a *long* time.
I actually went slowly up and down every food aisle, looking at all the products for sale. Wow, it was actually sort of scary. I felt like I was in a foreign country almost. Row after row of Frankenfoods. When you walked in the door the first thing they had at the door was a huge display of “goodies” for St. Patrick’s day – all BAKED goods – cookies, cupcakes, cakes, and all virulently green with food dye. Yuck.
Me? I’m going out with friends to a local pub for the annual “all you can eat” corned beef and cabbage dinner. A perfect low carb meal as long as I avoid the potatoes and the Irish soda bread – as well as the *green* beer, LOL. Luckily avoiding those things is so easy to do.
@Debbie (again),
Have nothing special arranged for St Pat’s day, despite the fact (as mentioned in another post somewhere or other) that my (Italian) wife’s uncle and my own Rabbi were members of the St Pats Committee in times gone by. And as much as I like Guinness (from the keg), my own fav Irish stout is no longer available here: Beamish Black from County Cork (again, from the keg). Hmmmmmmmmm.
Michael Richards
And the latest Bach cantatas set arrived this morning! Only 7 more volumes to go (not counting Advent, which apparently have to be re-recorded).
“When you walked in the door the first thing they had at the door was a huge display of “goodies” for St. Patrick’s day – all BAKED goods – cookies, cupcakes, cakes, and all virulently green with food dye.”
The firm I work for has bagels delivered every Monday morning as “treats.” Yesterday’s batch included several that are dyed bright green and rather repulsive looking. As of yet, no one has touched them.
I had to laugh at the two pictures of the vendors at the vegetarian booths. There are Vitamin Cottage ads on tv touting the healthy foods they sell and the people in them are the reverse, drawn-faced and bordering on emaciated. I’m not sure which is worse. Even hubby, who rarely pays attention to such things, commented to me that you’d think they’d find some healthier looking people to put in their ads.
Also, forgot to add that I’ve seen jugs of Agave syrup in many a shopping cart lately while at the store. I think I tried a drink that was sweetened with it a while back and it was horrid.
This is for David who did a post on this date: 14. March 2009, 13:34
There is a nice article on the prostaglandin pathway, and the good role of arachidonic acid in this article “Tripping lightly down the prostaglandin pathway” from westonaprice.org
Dr Mike,
this may not be for publishing right now, but are you aware that Uffe Ranskov’s book in English translation is out? “Fat and Cholesterol are Good for You” – search Amazon for “Ravnskov”.
To me (having read the original Swedish version), it is a good bit more substantial than M Kendrick’s Cholesterol con book (as for Colpo’s, I haven’t read it) – I have of course no business interest in it (and Uffe doesn’t exactly expect it to make him rich quick – he isn’t too happy about his publisher’s pricing policy but… At $29, it is at least cheaper than his older book, offered for the round sum of $232.96
)
Regards,
Nils Olof Carlin
I have Dr. Ravnskov’s new book. I can’t believe his old one is selling for over $200.
Regarding xylitol: if you use products sweetened with xylitol or keep it on hand for baking, etc., be sure that your dogs cannot get at it or eat anything with xylitol in it. Xylitol can cause severe liver damage in dogs. Check out http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/xylitol.asp
Overall, I enjoyed the post and learned a lot from it.
RE: Krill oil
I anxiously await your findings on Krill Oil. As per your suggestion, I only use NKO Krill, but now am hearing there are other types (Supurba, who is claiming superiority over NKO, I understand.
And – how long can a person safely stay on induction. I’ve done 20-15 net carbs for 16 weeks now. Feel very good, not missing any foods, have lost 21 lbs., but am hearing I should being to up my carbs.
(By the way, I’m the post menopausal woman who was convinced the eating plan would not work for me!!! Am “eating crow” now (0 carbs, I’m sure)
Corky
Dr. Mike-
Wondering if you have heard of or have come across information on the new SweetTree organic Palm Sugar…It is 100% produced from the flower nectar of coconut palms in Indonesia. It is low glycemic though not super low (35) and also it packs quite a nutrient punch (although thats relatively speaking in comparison with other sweeteners…this is not after all a bowl of veggies!). It is about 75% sucrose and remainder fructose/glucose. Would love to know what your thoughts are on this sweetener since it is going national with Whole Foods and is starting to be used by many manufacturers who are starting to question the perfection of Agave.
Best,
Ben Ripple
This product is basically the same as table sugar with a few vitamins and minerals thrown in. Table sugar is sucrose, which is half glucose and half fructose. This product contains half glucose and fructose, so it will work metabolically the same as table sugar. In my opinion, it should be avoided just a table sugar should be avoided.
Dr. Mike,
I came across your blog while looking up info on Krill oil, and I’m glad to see a medical professional thinking the way you do.
I was interested in your comments on Agave syrup. I’ve been using it as a replacement for sucrose, I have maybe a TBS a day at most. I’ve checked the University of Sydney’s test results for it, in their Glycemic testing (GI is 10 ~ 19). I’ve been using it for several month’s, and my last fasting blood test showed that my A1c has dropped. It could also be because I’m consuming less sugar over all…….
Thanks!
Brian
Update:
Okay, I admit, I spoke too soon. I checked a previous fasting lab test, and found that indeed, my A1c had dropped by 5% during the use of Agave Nectar, but my Triglycerides INCREASED 15%!
So, I’ve now switched to xylitol as my sweetener of choice. We’ll see how that works out with a future blood test.