Popular Food Trends I saw at FNCE

This post is long overdue, but life just gets in the way. So for those who don’t know what FNCE is, it stands for Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo. It is a conference for dietitians and future dietitians and showcases the latest nutrition trends and research. I have dreamed about going ever since I knew I wanted to be a dietitian. It wasn’t until about 2 weeks before the conference, back in October, that I made arrangements to go. So yes, it was a spur of the moment decision for me, but it was so incredibly worth it. My friend, who is also a nutrition major, went with me as well so we made a road trip out of it. This year FNCE was in Washington D.C. which is only a 8 hour drive from Clemson, SC which is closer than the past conference locations. So when we arrived, we went straight to the EXPO and I was so overwhelmed by it. It was surreal to me to be in a place with so many other nutrition nerds like me. After 2 days of going to education sessions and exploring every booth at the expo, we were exhausted. We were loaded down with pounds of free stuff and with so much more knowledge about the current nutrition trends that I want to share with you. So here are the trends I noticed and you might already know about:

Dairy Free Beverages

1. This was a BIG one!! The brands I noticed were Califa Farms, Quaker Oats, Elmhurst, Silk, Malk, Oatly, Mooala (banana milk), and probably more that I can’t think of. This was a huge focus and even Quaker Oats, which you might not recognize as having a brand of dairy free milk, is coming out with oat milk soon as well as Silk. They even had a company at the expo that produced nut milk machines.

Calorie free Beverages

1. What I mean by this is brands such as LaCroix, Zevia, etc which are sparking beverages that are calorie free. This is a super popular trend currently since people can still enjoy the sensation of sparkling beverages without all the added calories from sugar.

Plant Based

1. Another HUGE trend. Brands such as Daiya, Dr. Pragers, Banza, caulipower, REBBL, daily harvest are shifting their products to cater to vegans and being plant based. They showcased products that were dairy free and meatless such as meatless chicken and vegan cheesecake.

Stevia

1. No more splenda as a sugar free alternative, because splenda now has a stevia product. Stevia is being used in chocolate, beverages, etc. There were so many booths showcasing their stevia products which included  flavored stevia sweeteners.

Low FODMAP diet

1. This trend might be foreign to most people, but it is rising in popularity. The low FODMAP diet is a diet for those who suffer from digestive issues and stands for fermentable, oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols. There were ton of companies specializing in having low FODMAP products to cater to those on this diet. It is only a short term diet, but it has proven benefits from those suffering from digestive issues.

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Supplements

1. Vitamins, probiotics, fiber supplements, etc. Probiotic supplements was the most popular supplement that was promoted. There were beverages and foods that also claimed to contain probiotics to help promote Gut health.

Nutrition bars

1. These were my favorite to discover. As a college student, I typically consume a lot of nutrition bars because of how easy and convent they are.  My favorite brands were Go Macro, Kind and RX bar. I am very picky about the nutrition bars I like, so these were not the only ones at the expo but were the only ones I enjoyed.

Allergy Friendly

1. I love this trend and I really support it. I have seen how allergies can negatively affect peoples lives and now there are so many companies out there that are making peoples lives better. The companies I noticed that showcased their allergy friendly products were Sunbutter, Enjoy Life foods, soozys muffins, and siete foods.