NATURAL PRODUCTS EXPO TOP PICKS, PART 2 by Karin Olsen / Plant Power Productions
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wo hours after VEGWORLD Publisher and Editor in Chief Courtney Garza and I landed in LA to attend the Natural Products EXPO West, the event was cancelled. In light of the escalating coronavirus outbreak, it was immediately understandable but obviously heartbreaking for all involved. To continue to cover the event and support exhibitors, Courtney and I decided to do a top-20-picks review from the show, with me receiving exhibitor submissions and sampling at home. The boxes started arriving so quickly, I needed to enlist a friend to let me use his refrigerator for the overflow. At that point, I was beginning to feel like Lucy and Ethel in the I Love Lucy chocolate factory episode. We received so many great products from so many wonderful companies that it was challenging to narrow down to 20. We’ve broken the feature into two parts with the first 10 appearing in the May/June issue and the following 10 in the July/August issue. Video reviews of these products and others will also be available at PlantPowerProductions.com.
SMARTSWEETS I loved Candyland as a kid and especially the Gum Drop Mountains as I liked all gummy candy – peach rings, gummy bears, Swedish fish, orange slices. It was years before I outgrew, or rather boycotted, gummies after realizing a key ingredient was gelatin derived from slaughtered animals. The ban lifted when SmartSweets sent samples, ultimately putting gummy candies back on the board and into my mouth. What I didn’t immediately realize was, only the Peach Rings, Sour Blast Buddies, Sweet Fish are vegan, and the gummy bears were not. So, I’m championing the first three and hoping the bears make it out of hibernation. Living up to the company’s tagline “kick sugar and keep candy,” each 50g serving has only 3g of sugar, 90 – 100 calories as well as 22 – 24g of fiber. The game-changing ingredient is Allulose, a non-artificial sweetener found in foods like figs and raisins that doesn’t impact the GI track as it doesn’t react with digestive enzymes and passes through without being converted to simple sugar. When it comes to candy, SmartSweets really is a game-changer. 6-pack / $19.74
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The Food Issue
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smartsweets.com
Issue 59 - July/August 2020
VEGWORLD Magazine
