Food Expo reveals new "Power Foods"

If you’re always looking for the next big thing in food, it’s probably right here, at the Food and Nutrition Expo at the World Congress

Center.   Packed with 10-thousand food gurus like registered dietitian Tamara Melton.  Melton is a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.  She says,  “For me, I’m a foodie, so it’s exciting.  It’s great to see so many products.”

 

    This is where food  companies debut their latest, greatest products. So, we asked Melton, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition

and Dietitics, to show us some of the best new “power” foods we’ve never heard of.

      Like hemp hearts.

   Kelly Saunderson, a rep for Manitoba Harvest, which produces the hemp hearts says, “ would say it tastes a little like a lovechild

between pine nuts and sunflower seeds.  So it’s got a soft seed with a nutty taste to it.”

 

    I tried it, and it is nutty, and not bad at all.

Tamara Melton says  “It’s also something that travels easily.  You can’t really taste it that much.  So you can sneak it into smoothies

and other things like that, too.”

 

    

And hemp is packed with protein.  Saunderson says, “Per 30 mg, which is about a couple of tablespoons, you’ve got ten grams of protein, which is outstanding!  Best part is it’s

good food. Tastes great.  Sprinkle it over cereals, salads.. to anything.”

 

    Another high-protein hit,  a blend of chia, buckwheat and hemp, produced by a company called Nature’s Path.  A rep for the company,

Sunshine, says, “The “power” ingredient is chia.  It’s a really great super food.  It’s gluten free, organic, non GMO.

 

     I tried it mixed with almond milk, and it was kind of like a chewable smoothie.  But, again, not bad.

 

Melton  says,    “Chia seeds are really healthy, because they have really healthy oils in them.  And so they’re something

you can add to yogurt, or smoothies, top it on a salad.”

 

      Melton says blends and foods you can eat on the go – are big this year.  A company called “Eat Well, Embrace Life” shows of a line

of healthy hummus dips – with unexpected ingredients – like wasabi, edamame, and beets.  Charlotte Caperton Kilburn, who is tasting the bright pink beet humus says, “I typically don’t like beets, but I like this.”

 

     Another power food: quinoa.  Melton says, “It’s called a complete protein, so it has all the proteins we need as humans.”  A rep

for Ancient Harvest, the company that sources the quinoa from Bolivia says it’s easy to work into cooking.  She says, “Any way you use rice or couscous, you can use quinoa.  It’s got a very light, nutty, crunchy taste to it and it mixes well with any flavor. 

So it’s not overpowering at all.”

 

Source

Food Expo reveals new "Power Foods"