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NATURALLY HEALTHY www.gourmetnews.com n MARCH 2018 n GOURMET NEWS N H 8 0 Snacking Can Be Part of a Healthy Life By Robin Mather As a busy mother of three herself, Joy Bauer definitely understands the grab-and-go lifestyle, and why so many parents reach for snacks to satisfy their children and them- selves between meals. "I think everyone is so overscheduled and juggling so many things in their lives that they're often not sitting down to eat tradi- tional meals anymore," Bauer says. "So grab-and-go snacks that actually provide nu- tritive benefits to your body and give you quality energy have become super, super im- portant." Bauer thinks about these issues a lot. She's a registered dietitian, the nutrition and health expert for NBC's "Today Show," a monthly columnist for Woman's Day magazine and the official nutritionist for the New York City Ballet. She's written 12 best-selling books – the most recent, "From Junk Food to Joy Food: All the Foods You Love to Eat...Only Better," published last year – and was the Di- rector of Nutrition and Fitness for the De- partment of Pediatric Cardiology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, New York. She's also the Founder of Nourish Snacks, a line of sensibly indulgent granola bites in five flavors – Blueberry Apple, Chocolate Banana, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Double Chocolate and Coconut Vanilla. Knowing what your customers are looking for is a big factor in making wise retail deci- sions, Bauer says. "A key to success is to make the healthy food snacks area look inviting – clean, well- organized," she says. "People are going to mosey right on over, if it looks enticing. Use good signage, circulars and shelf talkers to draw your customers' attention to the health- ier option snacks you offer." Customers have become much more in- formed about health, she says. They know what they're looking for, and you can help them find it. "I always say there are three golden rules for a snack: It should be no more than 200 calories – that's the sweet spot where hunger is satisfied but your appetite isn't ruined. It needs to be made with whole, nourishing, quality, nutrient-rich ingredients. And it has to be delicious, something that makes your customer happy and satisfies their cravings." There are wonderful, real food snacking options, Bauer says. "You can couple peanut butter with an apple, or turkey slices wrapped around bell pepper strips to dip into spicy mustard." Logically, however, retailers want their customers to reach for the packaged snacks, too. Bauer has some thoughts on that. "The iconic snacks like chips and cookies – customers who want that stuff will find it, so there's no need to waste the front and cen- ter space on these items. It's the newer, healthier stuff that has never been seen or tasted before that should be most visible. Think of it as helping to fuel your customers with beneficial nourishment." Oftentimes, Bauer says, retailers will do a test, putting healthy snacks out in easy cus- tomer view. "But they don't always give it a fair shot – they decide it's not working be- fore it's had a chance to do so. Re- tailers have to de- cide that they're going to make a positive statement, or lead an initiative, for their customers' benefit." Retailers should listen when customers ask about healthy snack products, she says. "Health takes center stage in the mainstream magazines, online publications, all over the place. Health is hot right now. Customers are seeing healthy snacks everywhere, and are asking about them." Understanding customers is obviously im- portant, Bauer says. "Take moms for example. They rank their kids as top priority, and health is super im- portant," Bauer says. "If a mom is going into a store to buy milk and she sees healthy snacks, that's going to be a logical add-on purchase for her." Understanding Hot Trends in Snacking Two of the hottest topics in snacking right now are protein and sugar. Everyone's talk- ing about the protein trend in snacking, Bauer says. "Protein is important because it helps sus- tain your blood sugar and satisfies your hunger," Bauer says. "But a lot of people are getting too much of it -- you need about half of your body weight in grams. If all you're doing is snacking, then yes, protein is some- thing to look for. But most people are eating protein with at least one meal a day – eggs at breakfast, or a turkey sandwich at lunch." Because that's true, high protein snacks aren't needed as much. "If you are somebody who's skimping on meals completely, it's as easy to grab a Greek yogurt and a piece of fruit as it is a protein bar, but both are good choices. Plant- based protein is becoming more and more prevalent, and that's great. It's good for the environment and it's great for your body. But I don't think protein is the end-all for snack- ing." As for sugar, well, we're all aware that our sugar consumption is out of control, says Bauer. Americans are eating far too much sugar – the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that the average American con- sumes 19.5 teaspoons of sugar every day, or about 66 pounds of added sugar every year, per person. That's more than 13 five-pound bags of sugar a year. While the U.S. Dietary Guidelines recom- mend 5 to 15 percent of calories a day in "discretionary calories," including both sugar and fat, children and teens are getting about 16 percent of their total caloric intake from added sugars alone. "Sugar is certainly villainized right now," Bauer says. "But the answer is not to turn to artificial and fake sugars. You can help your customers by giving them a chance to choose lower-sugar, better-for-you snacks." Remember, she says, "Health is a huge priority for a majority of the population – and it's not just about diets and losing weight. People know that eating the right foods, in the right combinations, has lots of positive health effects.... In a world where so much seems out of control, our food choices are most certainly within our control." Lake Champlain Chocolates: Inspiration from Belgium, Ingredients from Vermont By Lorrie Baumann Lake Champlain Chocolates was built around the ideas of creativity and quality, and the company continues that family tra- dition today. The company won three sofi Awards in 2017; a bronze award for It's Hot, Honey Chocolate, a spicy organic 57 percent dark chocolate bar that features a rich caramel center infused with Vermont honey and habanero chile pepper, and a bronze award and best new product award for Moka Fleck Chocolate, a tantalizing blend of or- ganic 43 percent dark-milk chocolate, fine- ground Dominican coffee, and crunchy flecks of house-roasted cacao nibs. Lake Champlain Chocolates was founded in 1983 by Jim and Anne Lampman, who owned the Icehouse restaurant in Burlington, Vermont, at the time. "They decided to get out of the restaurant business and dived into chocolate with hand-rolled chocolate truffles and the Chocolates of Vermont line that's still made today," said their son Eric Lamp- man, who is the current President of Lake Champlain Chocolates. He runs the company along with his sister, Ellen Reed, who is Vice President. Together, they're keeping alive their father's dream of using Vermont- sourced ingredients to make chocolates so good that they could compete with Belgian chocolates, and they're updating that dream to emphasize fair trade and organic ingredi- ents that appeal to an evolving marketplace. "We've always liked to do things in balance. We certainly are not turning our backs on the tradition of European flavors, tradition and technique, the evolution of consumer de- mands and the market," said Eric Lampman. "The world isn't the same. Truffles used to be sold in department stores in cases behind glass, but it's not done that way much any more. Chocolate bars have taken over. We're trying to move with that evolution and not be stuck in the past." As the company moves forward, it's also not turning its back on the Vermont values of quality and craftsmanship, Lamp- man said. "Vermon- ters appreciate quality, simplicity, things done well," he said. "Vermont is a strong area for craft makers, whether it's cheese, beer, or ourselves with chocolate. Those are the people we're surrounded by, who value that type of craftsmanship and quality. Lake Champlain Chocolates' product range now includes chocolate bars, includ- ing the best-selling Five Star Bars – a chunky filled bar – as well as the Chocolates of Ver- mont line inaugu- rated by his parents. That's a suite of four pieces of chocolate: Evergreen Mint, Honey Caramel, Maple Crunch and Green Moun- tain, which is a melange of fruit and nuts in a mountain shape. The four confection pieces were designed by a Vermont jeweler and intended to express the various moods of the state. The overall product range also includes truffles, caramels, gift assortments and gourmet hot chocolate. They're avail- able online, nationwide at specialty food stores, and at three company-owned stores in Vermont: one at the fac- tory in Burlington, Vermont, where factory tours are of- fered to visiting tourists; one in downtown Burlington and the third near Stowe. "We have always really prided ourselves on our sourcing," Eric Lampman said. Maple syrup, honey and heavy cream used in the chocolates are all local products. Butter comes from Vermont Creamery. Lake Champlain Chocolates worked with a local hard cider brand to use apples from their orchard in an apple syrup that's intrinsic to its Milk Chocolate Apple Cider Caramel, which was a 2016 sofi Award finalist and a finalist for a Good Food Award in 2015. The company was awarded its SQF certification two years ago, and Lampman's focus today is on continuing to improve pro- duction practices in the factory as well as continuing to adapt many of its recipes to fair trade and organic ingredients to make confections for what has been a growth area for the business. Lampman expects that growth to continue as consumers gain under- standing and appreciation for the practices that go into the products they use and con- tinue to support products that align with their values around environmental sustainability, social justice and fair trade. New for 2018, the company is introduc- ing a brand-new line of organic bar in a bigger size, with a new wrapper design and more than 20 different flavors. Adapting the company's recipes to the new organic and fair trade ingredients has taken a fair bit of creativity, since those ingredients don't always share the properties of their conventional counterparts, but creativity is an ingredient that's never been in short sup- ply at Lake Champlain Chocolates, Lamp- man said. "We feel very strong in our positioning as a creative maker of confec- tions that are fully traceable, fair trade and organic," he said. "The creativity has defi- nitely always been there. That's what started the business – trying to bring Euro- pean tastes and flavors to Vermont by mak- ing them utilizing local ingredients. We continue today, in pursuit of extraordinary chocolate moments."

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