Inspired by: Expo East

Yea, I pulled the Press line to get into Expo East. Yes It was amazing/inspiring/a lot of fun
And surprisingly, it was a lot more about the people than the food for me. Because as much as I LOVE food, trying new products, and new taste, I love Talking with people about food, and exercise even more. I came across some amazing people this Friday morning.

Plant Strong

Meeting my two vegan fitness heros Robert Cheeke and Brendan Brazier was excellent. I adore the entire Vega Team-such a great company and crew! Plus their products are superb (LOVING the Chocolate Shake N Go right now! and I swear by their sports drink-crushes gatorade)

He's a vegan body builder, nbd

If you want to read Robert's book-check out this great Vega + signed book deal he is offering.

Talked with One Coconut for quite some time.
Interesting Industry stat; 60% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. Drink up! They also have a new line of "active" drinks but I prefer straight up coconut water. Plain please. Looking at their website, I actually really liked their "about us" section-cool entrepreneurial story!
Harmless Harvest: Creating Positive Feedback Loops between Man and Wild.
One of my favorite new company nobody's ever heard (YET) of was Harmless Harvest. A very passionate group of young entrepreneurs from Brazil and New York City who had me "taste the forest." I must agree that their young coconut water was the best I've tasted, besides straight from the coconut!
Camucamu seems to be the new "it" indigenous superfood-apparently it has ridiculous levels of vitamin C. Keep your eyes on this team-I think they're going to go very far! (plus, their excellent logo-designed by Justin's sister
Purely Elizabeth
I finally met the lovely Elizabeth of Purely Elizabeth. She's so great and I love her products. (vegan gluten free, healthy baking mixes that taste delicious!)("our story" here)
Get Hot with Prometheus

The dapper gentlemen of Prometheus Springs were there and I fired up my tastebuds with a doublethreat of Lychee wasabi + extra capsaicin.

Rahul with the tincture

A bottle of Prometheus Springs has 3 drops of capsaicin tincture in it. Rahul one-upped that and put 3 more drops in my 1oz taste. Capsacin-delic. Loved it! (Luckily Luna and Larry's vegan coconut milk ice cream was right next store to sooth my tastebuds)

Celeb Sighting: Snagged a picture w Bob of Bob's Red Mill.

yes, THE Bob

I also met my twitterfriend, the adorable EmilyCarterS w Chobani

In other news: Glutenfree is still the buzzword and I heard all sorts of b.s. about sweeteners. (I'm a stevia chick and non-white sugar girl all the way, but don't try to slap a health halo on "evaporated cane juice" you can't slip the wool over my eyes!) The best take-away I got from this was inspiration by all these food companies, salespeople, and representatives. The world is full of entrepreneurs, and now is the time to seize the natural/organic food market. I look forward to seeing what they do next!

Have you tried any fun new foods lately??