We have just returned from 4 days at the Natural Products Expo East (NPEE) show in Boston. What is the Natural Products Expo East you ask…
NPEE is a trade show that showcases all the latest products in the Natural and Organic world. Everything from supplements, foods and personal care items – if it is a natural product, you can be pretty sure it will be at NPEE. In all, more than 21,000 industry members, including retailers, journalists, pioneers and entrepreneurs, explored more than 1500 booths to find the leading natural products of tomorrow.
What Were the New Trends in Natural?
By walking the aisles and attending all the educational seminars we discovered two things. First, we learned about new products and research in the world of supplements and foods. Second, we learned that walking and talking to over 1500 vendors is exhausting! Since you probably do not care much about our second discovery, we will focus on the first.
Acai Berry – Here, There and Everywhere
The Acai Berry has been incredibly popular for a few years now, so while not new, its presence at the show was impressive. Expect to see Acai appearing in basically everything you eat! We are all familiar with Acai supplements and Acai juices, but they have now found ways to put Acai into just about anything. Let’s see, we saw Acai gum, Acai mints, Acai tea, Acai Jelly Beans, Acai Ice Cream, Acai melts and it just goes on and on.
Resveratrol – Starting to Go Mainstream
Resveratrol is coming on strong – look for more and more Resveratrol products in the months ahead. We saw numerous resveratrol supplements and resveratrol drinks. In fact, we even saw a company that was adding Resveratrol to their Omega-3 supplements.
Do any of these Resveratrol products work? We are not sure yet, but you can be sure we will be doing more research to see if the marketing claims live up to the science.
Want to Lose Weight – Suck It!
One of the more interesting products we saw was a Hoodia Ice cube. Yes, this hoodia (which is grown in Israel) is frozen into an ice cube and delivered frozen to your door. The idea is that you suck on one or two ice cubes a day and it will curb your appetite. A very interesting idea and one we will be researching further.
Chocolate – The New, New Superfood
It looks like Chocolate is being heavily promoted as the new, new superfood and antioxidant. We saw countless supplements, foods and drinks that all included chocolate for its strong antioxidant profile. Expect to see numerous Chocolate based products making health claims this year.
Overall – A Move Toward Whole Food Supplements
Overall, we were very excited to see one trend that continues to build each year – people like to eat real food! When it comes to supplements, there is no reason why supplements can not be made from whole foods. Clearly at NPEE we saw a large increase in supplements that are whole food based. We strongly believe that getting the full nutrients from a food are better than just isolating and extracting one component of the food. Whole food supplements are the way to go!
More to Come
As we pour through all the research and information we gathered at the show, we will be posting more updates. If you don’t want to miss any updates, just subscribe to this blog by clicking that link over on the top right hand side.
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