A few of my favourite things...

I was fortunate to find myself at the natural food and products Mecca that is The Natural Products Show in London Olympia a few weeks ago. The food section is always exciting and I love seeing (and tasting!) all the new and innovative products.

Amongst all the stalls of health foods and natural products there were a few gems which really stood out. Here are a few I found that are definitely worth checking out:

The first product I fell upon was this AMAZING organic sesame and cocoa spread from Sunita www.sunitafoods.co.uk which is totally addictive and I have to hide it to prevent myself from attacking it with a spoon and devouring the whole lot! It's basically chocolate tahini spread. Good on its own or on whatever (or whoever) you fancy!

I'm a big fan of their solid blocks of polenta which I fry in olive oil and eat hot or cold. They also have a great range of non chocolatey tahini. That seems really plain and boring now I have dipped my finger in the chocolate one!!

Another, more unusual product that is perhaps an acquired taste, but I find delicious, spirulina with raw honey by a Lithuanian company called Spila. They have a range of food supplements containing; spirulina and raw honey (Spila Bee). My favourite is the spirulina with raw honey and propolis (Spila Pro). Propolis, a resinous substance which is collected by bees from vegetation, has powerful, immune boosting properties.

 Spila C is chlorella with honey. Chlorella is a chlorophyll rich algae that is used to alkalise, detoxify and remove heavy metals from the body. Amongst other benefits it has also been found to increase probiotic population in the digestive tract. Chlorella is now used as a complementary supplement during radiotherapy. Its naturally high chlorophyll content is known to protect the body against harmful ultraviolet radiation.

I was also given a sample of spirulina chocolate to try. Surprisingly good but probably an acquired taste if you aren't used to the taste of spirulina. Another product which grabbed my attention and I will have to try is their Brewers yeast with propolis in honey. Sounds amazing!

Visit their website; www.spila.lt (get google to translate if you don't read Lithuanian!).

They stood no chance!

Great news!!! One of my favourite treats from The Raw Chocolate Company has gone snack size!! This is lucky as I am a greedy, compulsive pig and normally have to eat their raw chocolate mulberries until I feel sick and rather hyperactive!! Now available in pocket sized 32g snack packs. As are their raw chocolate covered goji berries. More great news!!!: their goji berries are now ORGANIC! This is fantastic as most inorganic goji berries are sprayed within an inch of their little red
lives with pesticides. Not so healthy after all!

www.therawchocolatecompany.com

The winning products I found and love are new bars called Chimpanzee bars. Whilst the health food market is chockablock with various protein and energy bars, these delicious vegan bars are unpretentious, organic and "made wih love". They come in raisin and walnut, apricot, dates and walnut and a new flavour I tried which was my favourite...beetroot and carrot! Check out their lovely website Www.Chimpanzeebar.co.uk

Available in only a few independent health food shops, Realfoods and cycle surgery. I would LOVE to see these bars more widely available.

And that's a wrap!

Thank you to all the lovely companies for the samples and keep up the good work!

See you all next year!

Eat well.