By: Leslie Goldman

Oct 19, 2009

I’m in Denver this week for the American Dietetic Association Annual Meeting, working on behalf of Lifeway Kefir. Today was a fantastic kickoff to the three-day conference, which is jam-packed with all sorts of rockstar nutritionists and RDs, from my friend David Grotto, RD, author of 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life to Food Network star Ellie Krieger, who demoed these unbelievably simply yet decadent dark chocolate-cherry-almond clusters.

Speaking of which, remember the All Candy Expo I ate my way through in May? This ADA Expo is equally gluttonous in terms of the sheer amount of food and drink innovations available to sample (check out the list of offerings here) Some of my faves so far: Amy’s Kitchen (who knew I liked rice pasta mac n cheese?!); Giant, plump California strawberries;Smart Balance, which was cooking up fresh crunchy peanut butter and chocolate kiss cookies; Lunberg Family Farms Rice Chips; and, of course, Quaker Oatmeal!

I also made my way past the Actifry booth a few times. It’s this crazy cooking contraption that lets you make tasty, real-tasting French fries at home with just 1 teaspoon of oil per two pounds of potatoes. If I were getting married right now, I would SO register for this. Not that I sit around making homemade, hand-cut fries every day (or ever), but they’re somehow slightly greasy, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, and yet relatively healthy, which is incentive enough for me to change Tuesdays and Sundays in my household from Choose Your Own Adventure Night to Fry Night.

At the Lifeway Kefir booth (Booth 227, for those of you who may be traipsing around Denver), we sampled a bunch of Lifeway Kefir flavors, with crowd favorites including Organic Low Fat Pomegranate Acai, Probugs Goo-Berry Pie and our new kefir-coated Wellness Bars (Sweet N Salty Peanut was  a big hit.)  We also met an RD who drizzles unflavored kefir over her puppy’s dogfood to give him an extra dose of immune-boosting probiotics.

My favorite tidbit of info picked up today?  Sunday morning I attended an invite-only Starbucks Roundtable where about 30 RDs and nutritionists met to discuss various Starbucks health and nutrition initiatives. Did you know that in 2006, Starbucks switched from whole milk to 2% as the default milk in their lattes? The result: A whopping 17 billion calories saved per year in the U.S. and Canada. I’ll drink a Grande Decaf Americano with a Nonfat, No-foam Topper and One Sugar In The Raw to that!

Stay tuned…more fun details to come!