I realize it’s called the Natural Products Expo for a reason – a compromise to sell space to the spandex-clad women who hawk supplements and colon cleansing.  But the true purpose must be to get everyone excited about natural and organic food…real, honest-to-goodness, food that matters.  Unfortunately, this year’s show was dominated by bars/water/chips being sold as nutrient carrying devices and touting the benefits of the super fruit du jour.  The only thing in short supply was real fruit.

To be fair, Earthbound Farms was displaying fresh salad mixes and Alexia was sampling yummy sweet potatoes fries.  Industry stalwarts Organic Valley and Applegate Farms were there, too.  But for the most part, the aisles were filled with people and companies competing to sell empty calories.

Obviously, some of our cookies could be considered “empty calories”.  But in everything we do, we make real food with simple ingredients and offer better-for-you alternatives to our counterparts.  That’s the beauty of organic – every ingredient is real.  You’ll know we’ve “jumped the shark” when we start selling “energy bites with ginko”.

It should surprise no one that the Natural industry is in the same boat as mainstream producers.  Since we collectively produce far more calories than we could (or should) possibly consume, selling food in the U.S. is a zero-sum game.  Growth comes from stealing “share of stomach” from the next guy by figuring out how to sell more calories, whether we need them or not.  This explains why we can buy food virtually all day and anywhere.  As an expandable consumable, food has become the growth vehicle that is driving ever expanding waistbands and obesity rates.

So while I’m disillusioned, I expect I’ll attend future shows with an eye out for the interesting developments in real food (and eating my way around the world of dark chocolate).  As for hydration systems, I’m happy to fill my reusable bottle from the tap.

The real news here is that Congress is finally waking up to the reality that we are feeding our kids to death.  This action acknowledges that the high calorie, low nutrition processed foods that pass for lunch at most schools is contributing to the obesity epidemic we face today.  And they are offering significant dollars to upgrade the menu.  While current nutrition programs receive about $16 billion annually, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010  provides an additional $4.5 billion over ten years for expanding and adding programs that:

• Help Schools Improve the Nutritional Quality of School Meals
• Create National Nutrition Standards for All Foods Sold in Schools
• Promote Nutrition and Wellness in Child Care Settings
• Connect More Children to Healthy Local Produce through Farm-to-School Programs
• Strengthen Local School Wellness Policies
• Support Breastfeeding in the WIC Program
• Improve School Food Financing

The OTA release expresses it well, “As we all recognize, the health status of our children is crucial to the well-being of our nation’s future, and the food that they are fed in schools is key to that status.”  These words ring true whether or not the food is organically grown.

Click here to read more about the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 http://ag.senate.gov/Legislation/CN%20budget%20framework-%20nutrition.pdf

All that changed on November 2 when we introduced Quick Cook Steel Cut Oats.  Same whole grain goodness; same nutty, chewy texture, but with a 5-minute cook time puts Steel Cut Oats on your daily breakfast menu.

Look for Country Choice Organic Quick Cook Steel Cut Oats in your favorite store.  The name’s a mouthful, but worth remembering.  After all, you’ll get to enjoy a steaming bowl of steel cut oats everyday…just like Oprah!

So with all the talk about health care, why doesn’t someone write this simple prescription: EAT BETTER! Given the link between the food we eat and our personal well-being it seems pretty obvious.  It’s even more apparent when you consider the following: in the 1970’s we spent about 5% of our GDP on Health Care and about 15% on Food; today the numbers are reversed.  Think about it…over the past four decades our addiction to cheap calories has willingly led us down a path to obesity, heart disease and childhood onset of adult diseases.  It makes you wonder if that $1 Value Menu is really a value!

Why do we eat poorly?  Supposedly we’re all too busy to cook, although how then do you explain the celebrity chef phenomenon on Food TV?  Seems we have plenty of time to watch other people cook…just don’t ask us to put down the remote long enough to actually prepare something healthy for ourselves.

I propose a home version of Iron Chef, where family and friends compete to create healthy, fresh meals in under 30 minutes.  Sure, the appliances won’t be as fancy as Kitchen Stadium and you won’t have Alton Brown doing the play-by-play, but the final result will a satisfying and no-doubt healthier alternative to our current meals.  The first theme ingredient can be an apple.