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Diamond Nutriceutical at Supply Side West 2024

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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.

 

Numerous presentations on the latest breakthroughs in health, quality-of-life and environmental impact were held that focused on these key areas:

Sustainability

Many of Best in Nature’s products have now been switched to post-consumer recycled plastic. Supply Side 2024 presented new information on sourcing more sustainable ingredients, ways to introduce UPcycling into an organization’s sustainability plan and developing performance indicators to avoid greenwashing.

 

Diversity

Diversity is another topic that Supply Side 2024 tackled by asking how we can better serve the unique needs of various communities. For example, clinical trial data often is heavily weighted towards men. As an industry, we discussed how we can provide more helpful data to serve women and people of different backgrounds.

 

Another challenge is that as the US population diversifies, there are more types of diets to account for when providing health supplements or testing how things may interact.

 

Quality and Manufacturing

Suppliers also focused on showing new ways to provide transparency in the supply chain. This way, companies and individuals can know more about ingredient sourcing, preventing adulteration.

 

GLP-1 Patients and Their Needs

 

With the widespread popularity of Ozempic and other GLP-1 class drugs, several industries are looking at how to serve the needs of patients taking them given Ozempic’s effects profile.

 

Experts discussed how to help patients 

  • Preserve lean muscle mass
  • Prevent or manage gastrointestinal side effects
  • Control blood sugar
  • Learn intermittent fasting to maintain weight loss after GLP-1 courses.
  • Maintaining skin integrity and elasticity to prevent “Ozempic-Face”
  • Maintaining sufficient nutrients while eating fewer calories

 

Bark Park

To lighten things up, there was also a litter of 8 puppies guests were allowed to visit who were allowed to visit and play with who were all up for adoption.

 

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.