Not too healthy in my opinion. A quick search on the new Healthy Dining Findersite of the Boulder, CO area returned Domino’s Pizza, Old Chicago, Burger King, Carl’s Jr. and Hooters. Perhaps the water they serve is the “healthy” option.

How do they get away with this? It’s puzzling to me how sites like this are able to imply that their suggested restaurants are healthy. There may be a chicken or turkey sandwich on the menu for these restaurants, but most of the menu couldn’t be considered healthy. Studies have shown that when consumers feel they are eating healthy…they often eat more than they normally would, increasing their overall caloric intake.

Fortunately, Boulder is a very healthy town and the NBJ team has many healthy food options. I just hope others don’t consider this site authoritative….because it is not.

Here’s a link to an interview with the creators of HealthyDiningFinder.com

Registration is now open for Nutrition Business Journal’s Supplement & Nutrition Industry Raw Material & Ingredient Supply Webseminar. We’ll begin the live online event on December 4th, 2007 at 11am MT.

I think that this webseminar will be highly educational for any executive in or interested in the supplement & nutrition industry supply chain. So much has impacted this business in the last year - rising fuel costs, poor weather producing poor crops, currency fluctuations and China…to name a few. We’ll discuss all of these issues on December 4th, completely reviewing our November RMIS issue.

NBJ is one of the few research firms that dives deep into the supplement & nutrition industry’s supply chain in any significant way. Issues to be discussed will include: pricing, imports, exports, leading players, nutritionally enhanced flavors, sales and growth forecasts…and how they all relate to the complex and ever changing supply chain.

I highly recommend you sign up for this webcast.

-Patrick

What’s the saying - no good deed goes unpunished? It’s easy to forget that wisdom when you’re trying to save the world. Case in point - the local food movement. Popularized by Berkeley professor Michal Polland and a few other passionate and observant thought leaders, local food is not only sweeping through your natural and health food stores, but it’s also invading conventional grocery.

Today, however, the San Francisco Chronicle’s Bill Moseley highlighted another ethical food movement at odds with the local - fair trade. His article is entitled, Farmers in developing world hurt by ‘eat local’ philosopy in U.S.

William’s conclusion follows: “While the local food craze is all well and good, we should not be so quick to denounce organic and fair trade foods that are imported from the developing world. By shunning these products, we do not encourage local markets to flourish in these countries, but we condemn these farmers to the ills of conventional production for the global market (the only other real alternative at this time). We should remain open to such products in the short term, but also work for broad scale changes in the rules of the global market place to ensure that even conventional agricultural production is safe and fairly compensated.”

I tend to agree.

Improving the world we live in is never easy. Hopefully an open discussion of the issues will help these two movements find common ground.

Always trying to stay ahead of the trends driving the U.S. market, this article from the South-Florida Sun Sentinel about black foods caught my attention today.

In Japan, certain food colors are associated with different organs. Black foods are associated with kidney health. Perhaps there is an opportunity for Red Bull to launch Red Bull Black…conveniently and easily mixed with vodka…and marketed on college campuses. Red Bull’s growth has slowed……

I do my best to keep an eye on the popular press. I read Time, The Economist & BusinessWeek every week…as well as reading about 10 enewsletters on a daily basis.

Today, I came across an article in USA Today entitled: Got Omega-3? Not so much

It’s an interesting article and worth reading if you are in the business of the nutrition industry. The consumer press can do alot to swing product sales one way or another.

For more information on Omega-3 fatty acids, go to the website for the Global Organization for EPA and DHA omeag-3s www.goedomega3.com

This group is led by Adam Ismail, one of the leading analysts in the nutrition industry, and a close friend of mine. Enjoy!