VanFoodies.com

Last weekend I went to the 30th Annual Wellness Show in Vancouver. My intention was to discover interesting, tasty food products that are also good for our bodies. And I wasn’t disappointed. In no particular order, here are 7 food products that I sampled and enjoyed, and would recommend you all to give it a try. They should be available at local health- and wellness-forward grocery stores such as Nesters Market, Whole Foods and City Avenue Market, or online on their own websites.

Mindful Monk Perfectly Peanut Fudge – it’s handcrafted locally in Langley, using all-natural ingredients and monk fruit juice as a natural sweetener. It’s keto friendly, plant based, and the best of all, it tastes good without you feeling guilty about eating it.

Farming Karma Fruit Soda – This is delicious! There’s no added sugar in the soda, all made with juices coming from fruits grown locally in the Okanagan. The original apple soda contains one apple per can. The pear and mango one were equally just as good.

Sapsucker Tree Water – I’ve never heard of tapped maple tree water before this, and this was refreshing. Tree water is a by-product from the natural growth process of maple trees. This is tapped from Canadian maple trees in Ontario and Quebec. I especially enjoy the Lime flavoured.

O’Dough’s Gluten-Free Bagels – Definitely among the best gluten-free products I’ve ever had from a grocery store shelf. O’Doughs’ products are baked with all-natural products such as flax, potato, tapioca, soy and rice flours instead of wheat, barley or rye. The texture was great, and once toasted, it tasted just like regular bagels. The Everything Bagel was tasty.

Haute Foods Crispy Garlic Hot Chili Oil – How have I not tried this before?! This was so good. The crispy garlic stays crispy in the jar, and they’re so flavourful. And according to the label, there are only 3 ingredients in this one: Non-GMO Canola Oil, Garlic, Chili Flakes. The Hot one already packed some decent heat, and I didn’t dare myself sampling the Fire one.

Big Mountain Soy-Free Tofu – It tastes like tofu, the texture feels like tofu, and it’s versatile! I didn’t realize how good this is until I sampled the chocolate mousse made with the soy-free tofu, and it’s like legit regular chocolate mousse. I prefer this one over the smoked version for sure.

Save da Sea Plant-Based Tuna Salad – This is vegan, soy-free and gluten-free. Made with jackfruit meat, the texture was eerily similar to a canned tuna turned into a salad. I like that it wasn’t overly salty. I could see myself having a “tuna salad” sandwich with this.