Best Bites from the 2015 Fancy Food Show

Each June, hordes of specialty food marketers descend upon New York City hawking their gourmet cheeses, confections, condiments, snacks, frozen novelties, meats and beverages at the Specialty Food Association's annual Fancy Food Show. And this past Sunday, I put on my most comfortable sneakers and walked up and down the aisles of the Javits Convention Center for seven hours straight in search of the healthiest and tastiest morsels this year's show had to offer.

Many strong contenders passed my lips this year, but I trained my laser focus on a subset of products that had other things going for them beyond just great flavor. I was looking for foods that were objectively healthy (not just "better for you" junk food) and that cleverly met an unmet need in my life or the lives of my digestively-challenged patients.

Here are my top 10:

Best New Breakfasts for the Gluten-Free Crowd:

No matter how mainstream gluten-free products have become, it remains challenging to find high-fiber, whole-grain, low-sugar options in the breakfast department. When gluten-free oatmeal starts to bore you, add these to the rotation:
Purely Elizabeth Ancient Grains + Puffs Cereals and Ancient Grain Muesli:
I've long loved Purely Elizabeth's lineup of salty-sweet gluten-free granolas, made with super nutritious seeds and ancient grains such as amaranth, quinoa and millet. But as with all granolas, I had to eat my portions sparingly to keep the calories in check. Now, the company has cut their delicious granolas with organic puffed millet, transforming them from a garnish to a fill-up-your-bowl breakfast cereal. A one cup portion of the Ancient Grains + Puffs cereal has 130 calories (less than a typical 1/3 cup portion of granola), 2 grams of fiber and a modest 4 g of sugar. Purely Elizabeth's gluten-free Museli cereals also caught my eye. Muesli is basically raw granola, and since it's unbaked, it doesn't have any of the oil that can make some granolas so calorie-dense. The three varieties -- apple currant, mango almond and cranberry cashew -- have no added sugar and derive their modest amount of sweetness (2 to 3 g per 3/4 cup serving, or less than a teaspoon) from dried fruit. A serving contains 3 g of fiber and a reasonable 120 calories -- a real bargain in the world of mueslis. I'd recommend soaking some in your milk or plain yogurt of choice overnight in the fridge for a hearty, ready-to-eat breakfast the next morning.

Teff Porridge:
You know you're a dietitian when someone cries out "Teff porridge!" in a crowded room, and you get whiplash from spinning around too fast. But what can I say? I'd been curious about how to incorporate whole grain teff -- the high-protein pseudo-grain from Ethiopia -- into my diet for some time now, and this was my chance to learn. The folks at Earthly Choice were sampling a yummy cooked cereal made from cooked teff and doctored up with some sliced banana, almonds, maple syrup and vanilla almond milk. It was dee-licious, and a totally breakfast-worthy substitute for the oatmeal-fatigued. Teff takes about 15 to 20 minutes to cook -- about the same amount of time as white rice or quinoa -- and requires a ratio of three parts water to one part teff.

Best Unsweetened Beverages for the Water Weary (With No Artificial Sweeteners, Either):

Sound Sparkling Tea : While I personally find unsweetened teas to be refreshing and palatable enough, I'll concede they can sometimes leave me wanting more flavor. So I was pleasantly surprised upon sampling the three effervescent bottled teas from Sound, whose bold flavors were enhanced by their fizziness and rose above the subtle "essences" that most unsweetened teas deliver. The Alive flavor is the most caffeinated of the bunch -- based as it is on Yerba mate -- and has a citrusy profile from hibiscus and lemon. The Refresh flavor is white tea-based and moderately caffeinated, with peachy ginger notes. And the uncaffeinated chamomile-based Calm variety conjures up a vanilla cream soda -- without the cloying sweetness. All three flavors have zero calories and no sugar.

Ready-to-Drink Gazpacho: Here's a secret about the ever popular "green juices" everyone is toting around these days: Most of them are loaded with sugar. In order to make pressed cucumber, celery and kale taste good, these green juices are mixed with fruit juice -- usually apple or pineapple -- and deliver well over 20 g of sugar (5 teaspoons or more) per serving, without any of the beneficial vegetable fiber.

But if the idea of drinking your green veggies appeals to you, there is a healthier way to do it: ready-to-drink gazpacho, like the bottled varieties on offer from Tio Gazpacho. And while I've never previously liked vegetable juice or Bloody Marys, I thought these velvety smooth, cold soups were so delicious! All three varieties clock in at 100 to 140 calories per bottle, have no added sugar or fruit juice and deliver 2 to 4 g of fiber from wholesome veggies (They do have some naturally occurring sugar from tomatoes or carrots.) I'd recommend using the Gazpacho clasico (tomato based) or Gazpacho verde (greens based) as a lunch add-on or super delicious on-the-go snack.

Brewed Cacao Beans: I am more than a little excited about tasting the next frontier in healthy, warm beverages: Crio Brü's brewed cacao bean beverage, made from roasted, ground cocoa beans. It's literally a perfect coffee analogue: it's brewed exactly like coffee from roasted and ground beans, its products vary by bean origin, it's virtually calorie-free when unsweetened and it looks just like coffee when brewed. But there are some notable differences, to be sure. For starters, Crio Brü's brewed cacao beverage has the heavenly aroma of chocolate, and delivers a clear and satisfying chocolate flavor payoff ... without the sugar or sweetness. (Though I recognize many would choose to dress it as they would a coffee, with the milk and sweetener of their choice.) It has about the same amount of caffeine as a 'cuppa decaf coffee (8 to 10 mg) and is significantly less acidic than coffee, making it potentially more tolerable for folks who find real coffee to be upsetting to their stomach. Because it's derived from cacao beans, it is also rich in antioxidants and magnesium. I am all over this drink as my new 3 p.m. pick-me-up, and will serve it to my kids come wintertime in lieu of cloyingly sweet hot cocoa, prepared with steamed milk instead of water.

Best Snacks to Steal from Your Kids

Wild Zora Meat & Veggie Bars : While you might have expected a meat-based bar to have originated from protein-obsessed, paleo-leaning body builder types, this unusual (and unusually yummy) snack was invented by a mom who was tinkering with non-sandwich lunchbox options for her kids. The result is a collection of free-range/grass-fed based meats (lamb, beef and turkey, respectively) blended with organic veggies, dried fruits and some bold spice combos into little squares that come in at 100 to 120 calories per package. Wild Zora bars are healthier than traditional jerky due to their low sodium content and the absence of unseemly additives like MSG and sodium nitrite; they're also far softer and easier to chew. Moms and clean eaters alike will certainly appreciate the sustainably-sourced meats, allergy-friendly ingredient lists and "real food" recipes. The Turkey Masala Spinach flavor was outrageously good!

You Love Veggies Vegetable Leathers : If you're looking for a gateway food to get your kiddos (or yourself) more comfortable with beets, the Spiced Beet Root veggie leather from You Love Veggies must surely be it. Heart-shaped, gorgeously magenta, super soft and kissed with cinnamon, there's a lot of kid appeal here. While they've got about 30 to 50 percent less sugar than your average fruit leather (6 g per serving), I still recommend tossing these type of gummy snacks into a trail mix of seeds, nuts and dry roasted edamame/chickpeas to help dilute the sweetness.

Great Solutions for the Digestively Challenged:

Simply Gum : If you're a gum-chewer with digestive woes, you're basically out of luck. Almost all sugarless gums are sweetened with gassy and laxative sugar alcohols such as xylitol or sorbitol, and sugar-containing gums are made with high-fructose corn syrup -- another digestive demon. But, if you promise to brush your teeth as soon as you finish chewing it, I'll put my stamp of approval on Simply Gum's all-natural chewing gums, sweetened with 1g of natural cane sugar per piece. Not only are they free of digestively difficult ingredients (they're low FODMAP, for those of you familiar with the parlance), many of the flavors contain digestively soothing natural oils such as mint, fennel, licorice and ginger.

Co Yo: You would think that with our long and crowded yogurt aisles these days, there would be something there for everyone. But alas, if you're vegan, milk allergic or paleo, the non-dairy yogurt options suitable for you contain one or more super-gassy ingredients, from soybeans to chicory root fiber (inulin). Enter Co Yo, an Australian cultured coconut milk "yogurt" that's paleo-friendly and has no added sugar or gums. Sweetened with the tiniest touch of stevia (no bitter aftertaste that I could tell), all four flavors are delicious and offer a probiotic-rich vegan yogurt that everyone should be able to tolerate.

The author has no material affiliation with any of the companies whose products are mentioned in this article.

Tamara Duker Freuman, MS, RD, CDN, is a registered dietitian whose NYC-based clinical practice specializes in digestive disorders, celiac Disease, and food intolerances. Her personal blog, www.tamaraduker.com, focuses on healthy eating and gluten-free living.