LAS VEGAS—Natural product formulators can help consumers get healthier by providing products that can be incorporated into a healthy lifestyle, according to Joy Bauer, MS, RD, CDN, who was the featured speaker at SupplySide West. For instance, she said, if consumers replace their daily 20-ounce soda with a healthy beverage, such as unsweetened tea or coffee with almond milk, for one year, they can cut 91,000 calories from their diet.

Bauer also noted natural product manufactures can help consumers get healthy at snack times. She said manufacturers can create snacks that contain wholesome ingredients (whole grains, low fat dairy, nuts/seeds, etc.); a small amount of saturated fat; a reasonable amount of sugar and salt; and no artificial ingredients. These snacks should balance carbs with protein; be high in volume, but small in calories; help consumers with portion control, use simple ingredients; and be fortified with nutrients. And that snack needs to be tasty, she added.

Ingredients she said formulators should use in products include beans and lentils, edamame, nuts and nut butters (she said pumpkin and chia seeds are going to explode on the market), freeze-dried/baked fruit, yogurt, low fat dairy, dark chocolate, whole grains and medicinal herbs. She added protein included at every meal can help increase metabolism and create satiety, and high-fiber foods can help keep consumers stay regular.

Bauer said supplements are also a great way to fill nutrient gaps. She said she takes a daily multivitamin with 1,000 IU of vitamin D, and fish oil. She said her teenage daughter is on cocktail of supplements that includes B vitamins and Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) to help reduce migraine headaches. She also praised probiotics for digestive issues and plant sterols for heart health.

She gave the biggest praise to omega-3s, which she called the “wonder ingredient.” “I love omega-3s,” she added. Bauer noted fatty fish are the best places to get omega-3s, but said omega-3 fortified eggs, flaxseeds, chia seeds, walnuts, soybean, canola oil and DHA supplements are also great ways to get omega-3s.

Bauer also took on sweeteners of all kinds—sugar, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and alternatives. She said HFCS is metabolically the same as sugar, and she feels OK with marketers changing the name to Corn sugar on ingredient labels because it is really not higher in fructose compared to sugar. She said our collective weight problem is from excessive amounts of all sugars, not HFCS. However, she said HFCS is everywhere because of the properties that allows it to be easily formulated. If HFCS is formulated out of products—as the trend is currently—but is replaced with sugar, she said there would be no net gain to health.

She said to limit all alternative sweeteners, including the natural ones such as stevia, because they have a metabolic response; however, they can help maintain weight and keep diabetes in check.

For the full-blown real sugars, she said sugar is the same as HFCS, honey, agave, etc., so she suggested consumers use whatever they prefer, but they should be limited to one small sweet fix each day.

She also suggested foods for improving memory (berries, leafy greens, salmon, sardines and coffee) and mood (lentils, beans, nonfat yogurt, oranges and dark chocolate. She also said supplements such as St. John’s Wort can help boost mood.

She said the biggest foods to avoid are soda, breakfast pastries and hotdogs. Foods to try include quinoa chia seeds, roasted edamame, pumpkin, steel cut oats, kefir, chard and kale.

After her speech, Bauer headed to the BASF booth to sign copies of her books and answer more questions. Bauer is a nutritionist and diet expert for NBC’s Today show, has monthly columnist for Woman’s Day magazine and is the exclusive nutritionist for the New York City Ballet. She is the author of several New York Times best-selling books, including “Food Cures,” “Slim & Scrumptious” and “Your Inner Skinny.”