Coming Soon to a Whole Foods Near You

A dispatch from the big daddy natural products trade show

Good morning, readers! I spent most of last week in Southern California at Natural Products Expo West — an event that I’m told began decades ago with a few hippies swapping hemp dog treats and essential oils. Today it draws 60,000 people over four days to the Anaheim Convention Center to discover what’s trending in the world of natural, organic, and (very) broadly-defined “good-for-you” foods.   

I’ve been hearing about Expo (as the cool kids call it) for years, but this is the first time I’ve made the trip. 

It may also be the last. I was on the ground in Anaheim for 48 hours, in which time I walked over 20 miles, ate nothing but free product samples, got in several friendly disagreements about seed oils, and (surprise!) brought home a viral illness that kept me in bed all weekend. 

Overwhelming as it all was, walking the exhibition halls did give me a sense for what’s bubbling up in the world of virtuous food; what products and brands and trends we’ll be seeing more in Whole Foods or popping up on influencers’ feeds — and which, by association, we might want to cover in some way in this newsletter.  

The first thing to know about Expo is that, regrettably, it’s not so weird as it once was. On my first day in Anaheim, I shared a shuttle to the convention center with a woman named Cherie who “works in dried fruit” and a woman named Cinnamon Cherie who described herself as “anti-pharma,” and was opening a natural foods store in Sante Fe; a very good start.