Over 80,000 people packed the aisles of the Natural Products Expo West in Anheim CA, shoulder to shoulder we could just barely get glimpse at the booths and talk to the vendors for a moment. Usually I video tape and interview the vendors but this year it was too noisy.  I took pictures and notes instead.

The theme of the largest health expo in the USA, NPEW. March 5-8th, 2015  literally jumped out at me over and over again for 4 days.

Our Health Matters and the gut has everything to do with it.

Signs of gut dysbiosis at the beginning stages of life showed up immediately. I was glad to see Natren address the need for a dairy free and vegan infant probiotic, but saddened by the thought of new mothers not only dealing with the loss of sleep, but with a child wracked with pain from allergies, leaky gut and gut dysbiosis.

It was almost like seeing an old friend when I stopped at the booth of MRM. This is the product my naturopath suggested to help seal my son's gut when he had gut dysbiosis, to take every morning, preceeding a raw organic green drink and a few vitamins he was lacking. While eating GMO free and mostly organic, he soon got better and experiences almost no allergic reactions today. His walnut allergy has dropped from a 19 to a 0.2.

I didn't know why then... why my children had multple food allergies when my husbad and I never did, or why they were vitamin deficient, or had perferations in their small inetstine,  but I know now. I know that GMOs are either genetically engineered to BE a pesticide or to withstand herbicides which destroy the healthy gut bacteria and allow the proliferation of the pathogenic bacteria, leading to gut dysbiosis and numerous health issues. I know an entire generation of children are being compromised only to line the pockets of huge corporation CEOs with profit. I know it because I see it with my own eyes and have hundreds of testimonials from mothers. 

The result of chemcial farming is a whole generation of children who need gluten free, nut free, dairy free, egg free,and soy free food in order to survive. We have suddenly found ourselves with a new "normal"...not being able to feed our neighbor's children during a play date and not being able to allow our children to eat any food when they go to a birthday party. Many of us know now however that in order to avoid toxic pesticides, it cannot be just gluten free or non GMO Project verified, it MUST be organic. We mother's struggle with being able to find allergen free, gluten free AND organic. I was grateful to find several brands making life easier for parents everywhere. This blog is not about marketing. I am not being paid to present these brands to you. I write, unpaid by any of these companies, to share SOLUTIONS.

I was happy to see Amazing Foods and The Sprouted Flour makes both organic and gluten free flours and mixes.

Several grain product companies offered organic ancient and sprouted grains, which mean less gluten, more vitamins and nutrients.

I was happy to see organic tamales! Yeay! GMO corn make sup 90% of our corn crops in America today. Non GMO and organic corn tamales are not easy to come by.

At many booths I was thrilled to be greeted by a Mom, the founder and driving force behind healthy organic foods.

"Mom Made" and Love & Hummus Co. spend the extra time and energy to make sure it is organic for you. 

I was also glad to see the rise of organic stevia, organic being crucial to avoid Roundup (glyphosate). Consumers are learning that the most widely used herbicide in the world, Roundup (glyphosate) is sprayed on crops as a dessicant or drying agent, at harvest to speed up the process of harvest. We want to avoid glyphosate, which is a patented antibiotic ( destroys gut bacteria and weakens the immune system), chelator  ( mineral deficiency) and endocrne disruptor ( birth defects, infertility and sterility). We want only organic and non GMO sweetners (aspartame is GMO)  void of toxic pesticides. This is a stand for fair trade labor as well, as we know now that 20,000 young men who worked on sugar crops sprayed with Rpundup (glyphosate) in South America died from live and kidney disease...glyphosate is recognized on the EPA fact sheet to cause "liver and kidney damage". Correlation is not causation but as Robyn O'Brien says, it does deserve investigation. As a mother I add that it deserves speculation and  precaution as well.

Better to be safe than sorry.

There is no need to feed our children GMO high fructose corn syrup or Roundup ( glyphosate) sprayed non organic sugar cane which is allowd to have 25 ppm of glyphosate. There is no need to expose them to toxins. It is unecessary and unjust if one cannot afford organic.

I was glad to see organic stevia and organic cane sugar ingredients in products such as Veri organic soda. I was dismayed recently to see Blue Sky organic soda dissapear fom the shelves. "Natural" sodas are not good enough. It must be organic.

 Another rare sight to see was organic Beef Jerky, grass fed and on non GMO grains. Were this brand available across the nation, snacking would be safer and free of toxins. Belinski's sausage was delicious and contained only a handful of wholesome ingredients.

One of the products that made me the happiest to see was Cultured & Saucy probiotic condiments. Many American's are not used to the concept of feremented or cultured foods, and yet almost every other culture consumes these healthy, gut healing foods with nearly every meal. The Mediterraneans consume yogurt daily, the Japanese; Miso, the Koreans; pickled/fermented vegetables, and the Europeans eat saurkraut regularly. These foods restore the healthy bacteria in the gut, where 70% of our immune system lies. Eating these foods with our meals is as crucial as avoiding GMOs and Glyphosate and eating organic. It takes some getting used to to eat a tablespoon of raw organic saurkraut with every lunch and dinner, so some many want to flavor their salsa or munch on probiotic hors d'oeurves instead. However, you get fermented or cultured foods into your diet do it.  Your stomach will sing, your moods will lift and your energy will return. Restore your gut bacteria, heal your gut, regain your immune system.

 Organic MEANS Non GMO and no toxic pesticides. Eat organic and add cultured foods into your diet.

 Thanks to all the dedicated people who take the extra effort to use organic ingredients, who buck the system and avoid GMO, chemically farmed foods. Thank you to all the food manufacturers who go the extra mile to feed America organic.

Zen Honeycutt