Carol's Culinary Cues - March, 2005

(c) Carol Fenster, Ph.D. - President, Savory Palate, Inc.

8174 South Holly St., #404, Centennial, CO  80122

800.741.5418

ISSN 14244

IN THIS ISSUE:

-What's New in the Gluten-Free World?

-Food for Thought

-Where is the World is Carol?

What's New in the Gluten-Free World?

Last week I attended the nation's largest natural products show, aimed primarily at the manufacturers and retailers in the natural food industry. With 38,000 attendees and over 2500 exhibits, it's a fascinating glimpse into what's new in health food stores.

I thought you would like to hear about the new ideas and products, most of which are available in your local health food store or online.

1. Enjoy Life Foods (www.enjoylifefoods.com) unveiled a jazzy new look in its packaging as well as a new Nutty Flax cereal  (a highly nutritious blend of sorghum and flax). They reformulated their hearty granola cereals in a lighter color (golden flax rather than brown flax). A new cookie flavor, "Soft-baked Snickerdoodle" was also introduced. If you haven't tried their new breads (in original and "rye-less" rye) you're missing a treat. This company sets itself apart from the rest of the gluten-free crowd by also eliminating other allergens as well. Their new wonderfully informative pamphlet on Food Allergy & Intolerance is a great resource. I'm pictured here in the Enjoy Life Foods booth with Cindy Kaplan and Scott Mandell.

2. Food for Life (www.foodforlife.com) has four new breads for those who want to avoid wheat AND yeast. The flavors are Multi-Seed, Brown Rice, White Rice, and Fruit & Seed Medley.I talked with  Food for Life and learned that you can heat their Brown Rice Flour tortillas in a nonstick skillet. Use a paper towel to wipe a thin layer of canola oil on the skillet, place it on medium heat, add the tortilla and warm both sides until it starts to feel soft and pliable.

3. Pamela's Products introduced a new Chocolate Chip Cookie mix that should please everyone (www.pamelasproducts.com).

4. I tasted a new Whole Soybean Pasta (www.wheatfreepasta.com) and it was delicious. It comes in green, black, and gold--but don't let the colors deceive you. All three were delicious!

5. Edward and Sons (they made the great rice crackers we all enjoy) now has vegan Worcestershire sauce and wheat-free Hoisin Sauce. (www.edwardandsons.com)

6.  Dr. Andrew Weil (www.drweil.com) was a keynote speaker and addressed the need for integrated medicine. He thinks we should get our basic nutrition needs met by whole foods (for us, whole grain sorghum, amaranth, quinoa, brown rice, and teff). 

7. The flavored quinoa hot cereals by Altiplano Gold were well received (www.altiplanogold.com), especially the chocolate version.

Food for Thought

I'm paraphrasing Dr. Weil's comments about how government regulations affect our food supply, but basically he said "The Farm Bill should be called the Food Bill so we all would pay attention to it."

---Andrew Weil, MD

Where in the World is Carol?
 

April  is a no-travel month here at Savory Palate, but in March I spent  10 days in Tokyo, Japan where I delivered seminars and gluten-free cooking demonstrations at the FoodEX trade show. We also held a gluten-free luncheon for 30 journalists from Japan's leading women's magazine to introduce them to gluten-free food.  The dishes were prepared by a leading Tokyo chef and the food was absolutely delicious. Japan is ahead of us in labeling packaged foods with their top 5 allergens:  wheat, dairy, eggs, buckwheat (because they eat so many buckwheat noodles), and peanuts. They are developing allergies to wheat because they have adopted our American diet with its heavy emphasis on wheat-based foods.

I (along with Shelley Case, RD)  presented "The Gluten-Free Boom: Understand and Merchandising to this Growing Niche" to a standing-room only group of manufacturers and health food store retailers. Judging by the positive response, there is a real need for gluten-free information. Thanks to Enjoy Life Foods for suggesting this topic for the conference. I shared the results of the survey you so graciously responded to. It appears that over two-thirds of you read both the flyers and the newsletters that you get in health food stores.