Entrance to food nutrition conference expo 2024

Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo 2024

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This past week we attended the Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo, an event where dietitians and nutritionists gather to further their education, stay up-to-date on the latest trends and learn about emerging industries. The overall goal is to maximize professional knowledge about what food does to our bodies and for our health. 

 

Like many of the conferences in the health space, there was a full schedule of workshops and an exhibit of the newest health products. A unique aspect of this exhibit was the cooking demonstrations and discussions at various booths. These demonstrations can really help nutrition professionals with crafting tastier meal plans that cater to dietary restrictions or cultural specifications. For example, these professionals can be employed by hospitals to write meal plans for heart patients, diabetes patients, or those with allergies. 

 

Let’s take a look at some workshop highlights. 

 

The Science of Soy

Experts weighed in on misconceptions about soy pertaining to cancer risk and hormonal imbalances. The latest from the Mayo Clinic says that a lifetime of eating soy creates the potential for a longer, healthier life. 

 

Continuous Glucose Monitoring and Its Place in the Future of Diabetes Care

Seeing how glucose levels rise and fall along with the intake of different food and beverages along with fasting can help dietitians and nutritionists to provide more precisely informed dietary recommendations. 

 

Participants were shown the newest glucose monitoring systems and their capabilities. 

 

Mastering Malnutrition Diagnosis: Advanced Body Composition Technical Skills Workshop

Malnutrition is a much more relevant concern than one may think. As an example, the nutritional needs for older individuals can increase or remain constant while appetite decreases. Participants were shown how to use new tools to assess malnutrition including ultrasound technology, computed tomography, soft tape measurements and frailty scores.

 

Communicate to Motivate: A Workshop on Mastering Behavior Change

 

Maintaining motivation is one of the most challenging factors in making positive health and lifestyle changes. Nutrition professionals learned the latest ways to effectively steer the behavior of individuals towards healthier eating. 

 

Entrepreneurship Workshop

Even the most talented individuals can sometimes use a little help under the hood so this session taught the nuts and bolts of running a successful dietitian or nutritionist business. 

 

Overall, we, along with thousands of nutrition professionals, learned new aspects of food’s role in our overall health.

Organic Food

Strengthening Organic Enforcement: Organic is Even Better Now

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On March 19, 2024, the highly anticipated Strengthening Organic Enforcement (SOE) Rule became effective in the United States. The regulation, published by the USDA, is the most significant change to the National Organic Program (NOP) standards since their original publication 20 years ago. The update’s focus is on maintaining integrity throughout the organic industry and strengthening consumer trust in the Organic label. 

 

What is The Goal of The New Strengthening Organic Regulation?

The new enforcement aims to reduce the types of uncertified entities in the US Organic supply chain that operate without USDA oversight including importers, certain brokers, and traders of organic products. 

The intention is to strengthen trust in the organic supply chain worldwide. According to the USDA statement, “The organic supply chain had become increasingly complex, reducing transparency in the market and leading to documented cases of organic fraud” This will safeguard organic product integrity and improve traceability to ensure that products labeled organic are made with ingredients that are proven organic. 

Why is this important? For example, a company could have theoretically sourced multiple ingredients labeled organic from countries with lower standards (or even non organic ingredients) to produce finished goods in the US that received a blanket label of Organic. Or, finished-goods makers could source ingredients from non-organic-certified entities in the US to create a finished product labeled as Organic. So the new regulations are more stringent to prevent cases like these. 

 

What Are The Requirements of The New Regulation? 

The most important parts of the New Organic Regulation address 4 key areas per The Agricultural Marketing Service. 

 

Import Certificates: Required use of National Organic Program Import Certificates for all Organic products entering the United States. 

Container Identification: Containers used to ship and store products must display organic identification with traceability information.

Enhanced Inspections: Certified operations face more rigorous spontaneous inspections.

Uniform Standards: Organic inspectors and Organic-certifying agent personnel must meet uniform qualification and training standards.

 

Our Commitment to Strengthened Organic Standards

At Diamond Nutriceutical, quality and consistency is at the heart of what we do. So meeting and exceeding these guidelines were important to us for compliance as well as making sure customers receive products they can trust were made with transparently-sourced ingredients. 

As a result, we are now certified Organic by QAI (Quality Assurance International). The certification represents more to us than just a piece of paper, it represents our commitment to improving our procedures constantly and providing customers with outstanding products. So, next time you see the USDA or QAI organic seal on our products you know you are purchasing a reliable Organic product with traceable roots. 

USDA Organic Seal

While we’re discussing the Organic Seals, let’s talk about the different ones and what they mean. The seal above belongs to the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) and was established in 2000 to ensure the integrity of organic products and build consumer trust.

So that naturally raises the question for many people, what exactly is an organic product? An organic product is a food or agricultural product that has been produced according to the

USDA organic standards, those standards include the following:  

  • Use natural fertilizers
  • Use eco-friendly pest control 
  • Follow good practices to protect the quality of soil and water. 
  • Follow good traceability practices
  • No GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms)
  • No artificial colors, flavors or preservatives

 

The seal can only be used by certified businesses that have successfully completed a USDA Organic certification audit and have shown compliance with the NOP Standard. 

 

Why Is There Another Organic Seal?

QAI Organic Seal

This seal belongs to QAI or Quality Assurance International. They’re the third-party certifying body who can document an organization’s compliance with organic standards along an international supply chain in order to be granted the right to use the USDA seal. In that way, these two seals are both related to certifying products as organic where USDA relates to US regulations and QAI can certify to various international standards. 

 

Natural Products Expo West 2024

Natural Products Expo West 2024

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Once again, thousands of Natural Product makers, suppliers, educators, and entrepreneurs this March in Anaheim for the Natural Products Expo West.

The Diamond Nutriceutical team attended to meet with suppliers, see what the latest research is, as well as what customers are interested in. Here are 5 fast takeaways.

 

Supplements as a Part of Your Health Plan?

There is a bill proposed to have FSA (flexible spending account) and HSA (health savings accounts) plans cover dietary supplements.

Why is that? 75% of health plan dollars are spent on treating preventable illnesses while only 3% are used on prevention itself. Proposals have been raised that plans should cover supplements if they’re recommended by your physician; examples are Omega-3 fish oil for heart health , calcium in relation to osteoporosis, and certain vitamins in relation to macular degeneration.

 

Growing Organic

The pandemic years forced us all to cook a lot more and gave us the time to read labels. The result? Organic is under more scrutiny. The term, enforced by the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) has strict standards that are being raised further. These are to ensure that if you bought an organic cookie, for example, the ingredients could be traced and proven to be organic flour, organic sugar, organic eggs etc.

 

Upcoming changes: 

  • Strengthened enforcement has just started March 19th, 2024
  • New enforcement on livestock standards will begin January 02, 2025
  • Standards have been proposed for mushrooms and pet food

 

Combating Confusion About Food Labels

Natural, Organic, 100% Organic, Non-GMO, Certified Regenerative. These labels are all over the grocery store but as new standards are added, it becomes increasingly difficult to understand them and how they compare to each other.

So food and supplement makers are discussing how to educate the public as well as whether there should be umbrella certifications, for example one label that would mean a product was grown both organically and regeneratively.

Regenerative Farming

People are increasingly just as concerned with the health of the planet as they are their own personal health. Regenerative farming seeks to restore soil and ecosystem health, address inequity, and leave our land, waters, and climate in better shape for future generations.

It’s encouraging to think of products that could help maintain the delicate balance of our ecosystem.

 

Hot Products

So what are the health trends and concerns driving product development?

 

Telomeres are the talk of the town: The 23 pairs of chromosomes in DNA have caps called telomeres that protect them from damage. They’ve been likened to the plastic tips of shoelaces. Over time, as cells divide, the telomeres get shorter leaving chromosomes vulnerable to damage and malfunction.

 

Scientists are now looking at what nutrients or combinations of nutrients can help preserve telomeres allowing for better aging.

 

Maximum mushrooms the world of mushrooms is vast with thousands of distinct types. And new mushrooms are being studied and added to formulations. Store shelves will increasingly see products with lion’s mane, reishi, chaga and cordyceps which may provide brain, heart, immune, metabolic, mood and sleep benefits.*

 

Addressing premenopause, perimenopause and menopause there’s been historically some avoidance of the term menopause. But an increasing number of women are entering these phases in their lives and letting us know they’re not afraid to discuss their needs and want them met.

 

Those are our 5 Top Takeaways from the Natural Products Expo 2024.

Supply Side West 2023 Trade Show Floor

Diamond Nutriceutical at Supply Side West 2023

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This past week, the top suppliers and experts in supplements and raw materials gathered at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas for the biggest yearly event on the subject, Supply Side West. Diamond Nutriceutical attended as part of our ongoing efforts to source better and more environmentally-friendly ingredients. This includes attending conferences and presentations by suppliers as well as meeting with our existing suppliers to advocate for higher standards in quality and sustainability. 

The conference also has seminars and workshops to cover the latest breakthroughs in health and quality-of-life especially relating to natural ingredients. The overall aim is to bring better versions of our products and new formulations to market. 

So What Is Coming in the Health Supplement Space?

The forefront of research and innovation right now is on healthy aging. You’re already familiar with the term “lifespan” but you may not have heard of the term “healthspan.” This term refers to the number of years that you can lead a high-quality, active, and independent life. 

Hot Ingredients: Healthy Aging Superstars

CoQ10, Vitamin D, Vitamin A/Beta Carotene, Resveratrol, and DHEA were the top ingredients that were emphasized. The common thread running throughout all of them is they’re largely related to heart health reinforcing the importance of the heart’s role in health. 

The antioxidant effect of CoQ10, Beta Carotene and Resveratrol along with DHEA’s hormone balancing effects are also extremely important in the context of healthy aging. 

Eyes on Health

AREDS and AREDS2 present promise in halting the progression of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of vision loss in older adults. AMD happens when aging causes damage to the macula, part of the retina, that controls sharp, straight-ahead vision. This condition can make it more difficult to read, drive, do home repairs or other close up work. 

AREDS have been found to reduce the risk of progression from intermediate to advanced AMD by about 25%.

 

Autophagy: The Cellular Recycling System

Autophagy is a process wherein cells disassemble their junk parts and repurpose the salvageable bits and pieces into new, usable cell parts. Then, discarding what isn’t needed or can’t be reused. In this way, autophagy is also quality control for your cells.

New research on polyamines indicate that they may be able to promote this process and thus lengthen one’s health and lifespan. 

Plant-Based “Meat” is Making Moves

Every year, new advancements mean that plant-based meat alternatives are more economically viable, taste better, and come in more versatile formats.  

The big breakthrough at the moment is in utilizing fermentation which improves the nutritional value of these products by boosting the quantities of vitamins, amino acids, fatty acids, and other bioactive components in plant-based meat substitutes. 

Perimenopause – A Better Understanding of This Life Stage

Menopause is a well – known stage of life where the menstrual cycle ends. Perimenopause is the stage right before menopause lasting up to ten years. It can have disruptive impacts on sleep, temperature regulation, mood and hydration lasting up to ten years. Natural ingredients being researched for their positive effects for these symptoms include B12, Black Cohosh and Valerian Root. 

Bottom Line

Supply Side West was an exciting information-packed event where we were able to meet with suppliers old and new to bring our customers new and better products in an overall effort to enjoy better health at every stage of life. 

2022 Best in Nature Impact Report

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