The Natural Products Expo

Hello! The Natural Products Expo is a HUGE even at the Anaheim Convention Center. It’s the world’s largest natural, organic and healthy products event featuring hundreds of food, beverage, beauty and household options. There are lectures from industry leaders, news about advances in the industry, fun parties but the most epic part is the expo where thousands of vendors share information and samples about their products.

Lucky for me I live pretty close to Anaheim (I’m in south Orange County) so it was a quick drive to spend the day at the expo. There are people from all over the world here and one of the first questions people ask is ‘Where are you located?’ when we’re talking about where products are sold.

I talked with tons of people and saw a lot of new healthy living food and beauty products. I’m just going to share my favorites today. It was really hard to choose the best items though – everything I saw or tried has something great to offer, it just depends on what you define as ‘healthy’ and what you need in your body / life.

The biggest trends seem to be:

Turmeric. That stuff is being added to everything from protein powder to tortillas.

Paleo. Having ‘on the go’ paleo options is challenging but there was a lot of beef / chicken / pork jerky.

Gluten free. Gluten free is still super popular and there were tons of bread / cereal / granola bars that are gluten free. The good thing is they taste more and more like gluten full bread (which used to be hard to find).

Non-toxic make-up and cleaning supplies.

Speaking of Turmeric… I tried these tortillas from One Degree Organic Foods. They have a sprouted tumeric tortilla that is good. It tastes just like a ‘regular’ tortilla and has a good chew to it.

First – I have to give a big shout out to Hyland’s! The Hyland’s Team is my sponsor for the Boston Marathon and it didn’t even occur to me that they’d be at Expo West!

I was walking by and their logo caught my eye. I stopped right in front of the booth and said, “Ahhh! This is awesome! I didn’t expect to see Hyland’s!!!”… to complete strangers. The two at the front of the booth work for Hyland’s but are not working with the Find Yourself, Find Your Finish team and had no idea who I was. HA! I explained to them that I’m on the team and then it made sense (they knew of the project).

Okay… back to the expo…

 

The Better Chip…

Power Bar is changing up some of their protein powders and protein bars.

 

Loved this from Kashi…

Bone broth is another big offering. I keep hearing about the health benefits of it – including on a podcast where a mostly plant based doctor really talked it up.

I tried the Pacific Bone Broth and it’s good. It’s just like drinking chicken stock.

 

Nut butters deserve an expo all their own. Or maybe I just want a big party with just you and me and all the nut butter companies in a huge convention hall. And then we’ll taste all of them and rate them and blog about it so everyone knows which ones are worth it calorie and cost-wise. Who wants in on the Nut Butter Expo West?!

I am a fan of all things peanut butter, almond butter, sunflower seed butter. But I have to say the one I was most excited about is the Pumpkin Spice peanut butter by Peanut Butter & Co. This is usually a seasonal item so keep an eye out for it in the Fall.

And I was excited to see another one of my favorite companies, Sabra. There were samples of the Organic Hummus available with Stacy’s Pita Chips.  This was another random spotting since they didn’t have a dedicated booth but nothing goes better with pita chips than Sabra so it had to be done.

I love Quest Bars but NuGo Dark bars are pretty amazing too. The dark chocolate coating is delicious and decadent.

 

I drink tea everyday and still love Celestial Seasonings. The Sangria Zinger might be a summer regular!

Gluten free cupcakes and donuts…

This guy was promoting Field Trip beef jerky. I didn’t see their booth, but he was walking around and I had to get a picture.

The all time best product from Expo West has to be the Ginger People. Yes, I’m partially just saying this because I am a ginger person myself. But I actually do eat Ginger People chews before running pretty often.

And they were serving Ginger Beer. Hello, yes please. I don’t like beer but I really liked their Ginger Beer. It’s either my 10 Day Cleanse talking and I really need a drink OR it’s awesome. I’m going to vote that it’s awesome and I’m going to buy it to make Moscow Mules asap.

I wasn’t there for Happy Hour so I missed the Moscow Mules so I have to try them at home. It’s for a good cause. (My happiness. That’s a good cause.)

 

And you have to try the super NEW Clif Bars. I love Clif Bars and recently tried the ‘new’ nut butter bars.

Well, I walked up to the booth thinking I had already tried them but I wanted a lil treat since they’re awesome. Turns out they have several new flavors – including new nut butter filled bars.

There are new Clif Z Bars for kids too.

There is a banana peanut butter bar and a salted caramel one. Tip: Put them in the microwave for about 22 seconds (or however long your microwave takes to make it warm).

In the beauty category I don’t have a #1 favorite since I’m still exploring this aspect of healthy living. I recently started using  Beauty Counter products for sunscreen and a few of their make-up offerings (their lip sheer in Rose is my favorite).

Your skin is your biggest organ so what you’re putting on it is as important as what you’re putting in your body. I’m making small changes here and there to get better about it. My next effort might be switching up my deodorant. (Bet you’re excited for updates on how much I stink.)

Anyway. It was a blast and I’m excited about all the new products I saw and tried to get out on the market.

 

Question: What would you be most excited to try??

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