+ Rethinking the Public Drinking Fountain

A 2007 article from Fast Company points out that North Americans spent $15 billion on bottled water. That's not only a lot of petrol to make the plastic, but also requires mountains of energy to transport the more than one billion bottles around the country every week. And on top of that, over 95% of bottles made in 2005 were single serving sized, which has one of the lowest recycling rates of other forms of plastic packaging.

There's a major, and costly, irony with the perception and reality of bottled water. Most people drink it because they think it's healthier than "free" tap water, when the reality is 24 percent of bottled water in 2005 was just filtered tap water packaged by Coke or Pepsi. Most people don't know that federal standards for tap water is higher than bottled, so in some cases it's not even cleaner.

And when you add in the economic strain of bottled, tap becomes much more attractive. A person keeping to the eight glasses a day would spend $2500 a year if they bought Aquafina, and upwards of $10,000 if you're springing for FIJI. The cost of the same amount of tap water is roughly $1.

Considering all that, it seems like a no brainer to stop hitting the bottle, and the people at triplepundit.com have a few interesting ideas about how to overcome the perception problem with the public watering hole.

What could be done to change this? What if the access point was moved away from the bathroom at the sake of being near plumbing and brought closer to a communal area? What if instead of being painting a dismal shade of beige it was modern like an Eames chair or designed by a Philippe Stark-esque type of icon? Perhaps these students could be educated to drink from the water fountain and making the fountain attractive and fashionable could enforce their behavior changes. At the very least, let’s make it a little easier to fill [personal bottles] rather than drink directly from the fountain.

An Eames-style iconic water fountain? Sign me up! Their article highlights this as part of a project and we can't wait to see the results.

+ Intercell

Fast Company's The Futurist tipped us off to this innovative approach to vaccination. Intercell, with the help of IDEO, are developing a needle-free vaccination patch that triggers an immune response through cells in the skin. Intercell's first product targets traveler's diarrhea and could generate around $750 million in revenue. Long term, the product can be mailed directly to consumers for self-application during vaccination campaigns.

This product reminds us a little bit of a concept we created a few months back. We're excited that Intercell is making these patches a reality.

+ The Best Offense is a Good Defense: An interview with Paul Sparling from the Cincinnati Bengals

In The Greener Grasses continued effort to interview experts and connect people that are doing, and thinking interesting, progressive things we called upon a local authority in the health and wellness community, The Cincinnati Bengals’ Head Athletic Trainer, Paul Sparling.
For you health conscious people, Paul has timeless words of wisdom- and for you sports fans, it’s just cool to hear directly from a member of a professional club.

As you mention the title here is Bengals Athletic Trainer. It unfortunately is a misnomer, in the old days simply calling somebody an athletic trainer would suffice, but in this day an age the head athletic trainer for an NFL team does much more than just the standard injury care and prevention.

So to start, what made you go into Athletic Training?
I had an interest in going into athletic training back in high school when I was too small for football, too short for basketball, and too slow for track. So it kind of limited my options. I had a coach there who was great and he asked me if I would help him out as a manager, so I toted the clipboard and the stopwatches, but then at the end of the season he asked if I was interested in athletic training. I had no idea what athletic training was, or what it meant. He spent $10 and sent away for a home correspondence course from Cramer products, one of the original product manufacturers for athletic training supplies and I absolutely fell in love with it. With the concept of seeing injuries, trying to prevent them, treating them when they happen, everything from open wounds to sprained ankles to torn rotator cuffs and all the sort of thing and really enjoyed being involved in athletics without having to let any physical limitations get in the way of my participation. So I did that through high school, I was a nine-letter winner in high school all as an athletic trainer. And interestingly enough Don Brown who was a sports director up at one of the local television stations up in Dayton, Ohio where I went to High School, reminds me of this he was a junior when I was a senior in high school and he asked me what I was going to be when I grew up and I told him my goal was ultimately to become the head trainer for the Bengals. Little did I realize that I would end up putting my self on a path that would get me there.

Tell us about your educational background.
I worked as a student trainer and manager at Dayton Stebbins High School, where I went to school. Then I went to Wilmington College I received my undergraduate degree at Wilmington College of Ohio. It was a triple major of industrial education, health education, and athletic training, and then I ultimately received my master’s degree from The University of Cincinnati in health administration. The reason I chose Wilmington was two-fold. One because it was a smaller school, at that time you had to have a teaching degree in order to sit for the certification test, because essentially we are teachers, unfortunately I think the National Athletic Trainers Association has gotten away from that concept and quite honestly you can see a difference in students today than what you had 25 years ago because now they do not have to have that teaching degree. But the other reason I decided I wanted to go there is because I figured if there facilities were good enough for the Bengals to go there for training camp, it had to be good enough for me, and maybe I’d have a chance to meet the head athletic trainer, little did I realize that I would ultimately become the head trainer.



How did that happen?
It turned out the Bengals were looking for a laundry boy to do laundry during training camp and they in the past had always hired somebody from the student trainers. At the college there were three kids ahead of me by seniority that had the rights to be offered the position first, and they all turned it down and I jumped at the chance, and after about two weeks of doing it getting done 3 or 4 hours before the guys in the past used to, the equipment manager asked me to start helping him in the equipment room so I was fitting helmets and shoulder pads, changing cleats and that sort of thing and then Marv Pollins who was the long time trainer there with the team at the time said “When you’re done helping out in the equipment room, why don’t you come in here and help me out in the training room”, once he found out I was a student trainer. So the next thing I knew I was taping ankles and mixing Gatorade and cold whirlpools and making ice bags and stuff. They took me on a couple of road trips that year, I worked all the home games, and in the next year they let me hire a couple of high school kids to do the laundry, so I still oversaw that but was working as a student assistant trainer in the training room and just kinda fell into it, right place at the right time.

Has the Head Athletic Trainer role changed from when you first started out at Wilmington to where you are now?
It is a unique position. It’s changed it’s evolved a significant amount. Probably 25 years ago the head trainer would spend 70% of their time out in the training room actually administering treatments and such, and 30% of the time in the office. Unfortunately now it’s almost reverse. Now you spend 70% of your time in the office doing administrative duties, 30% of your time out in the training room actually treating, and fortunately we’ve got good assistants and student trainer interns that carry out the appropriate treatments. That’s the big change I’ve seen.

What is a typical week like for you during the season?
It’s 7-days a week, there is no such thing as a day off. You use the day after the game as the starting point, which is a Monday. You’re taking care of all the bumps and bruises that occurred from the day before, scheduling MRI’s or x-rays, or administering treatments, and whatever else needs to be done. Tuesday is a player off-day, but for players that are injured, they are required to come in and do treatments. And in addition to treating the athletes, we also give our best forecast for who’s going to be available during the week and who is likely gonna be not able to play on Sunday, because that obviously plays a great deal in the game planning. Wednesday is a full practice day; you’re here from 6:45 am until about 5: practice, treatments, and I’ve got doctor clinic here first thing in the morning to see if there is anything else that we missed earlier in the week. Thursday is the same way. Friday is a lightened, shortened version of that where you practice, but they are in shorts and helmets, there is no hitting on Fridays. Saturday is a walk-through and Sunday is the game, then you start the whole process over again.

What is a typical week like during the off-season?
During the off-season, years ago, about a week after the season was over you could turn off the lights and lock up the doors and then come back in March when the players started coming back. Nowadays there is no such thing as an off-season; we just call it the “non-playing season,” - affectionately. You’re taking care of all the guys that were injured during the year; you’re doing off-season surgeries and doing their re-habs. To prepare for free agency, injury evaluation physicals on the players you’re considering bringing in. You’ve got the NFL combine, which is held every February, where you are looking at the potential draft eligible players - doing physicals on them. And then you’ve got the draft, and then mini-camps and then you’ve got the OTA days, which are basically organized team activities – that’s a nice way of saying practices, and then you’re getting ready for training camp. So you don’t have that long lull, and it makes it a little bit more of a challenge. You do what you can to manage your own personal schedule.

Nowadays there is no such thing as an off-season; we just call it the “non-playing season,” - affectionately.

When did the off-season phase out like this?
This change occurred gradually, over about the last 10 years. The OTA’s changed, free agency became a big deal about 15 years ago, off-season conditioning has become more of a standard around the league, I mean years ago, when the players were not making the kind of money they are now, a lot of the teams had the philosophy, and Paul Brown certainly had it, that the players during their off-season need to be preparing for life after football. That football is considered a short-term occupation, and you better be preparing for that by doing internships and that sort of thing. Nowadays, with the minimum salaries being what they are, if you are fortunate enough to play for several years, you can really prepare yourself quite well financially, where you don’t have to do those kind of things during the off-season, and you can kind of pick and chose what you want to do. So that has definitely changed.

How has this change affected your role?
As the responsibilities have expanded, the administrative aspects of the head trainer’s position have expanded. It’s forced us to increase our staff, which has been good because it frees me up to do the other things I need to do.

How big is your staff?
In addition to myself I have two full time assistant trainers, and then I have a season-long full time fellow. It is a fellowship that we offer to a person who has already graduated, already has their license and is certified. They work with me during the season, and we try to help them at the end of the season get hooked on with another NFL team or into a college setting. We started that last year, and the guy that we had last year we got him a full time position with the Tennessee Titans. And then in addition to the fellow, I have four college student trainers from local colleges and they work with me during the season as well as during the off-season. And they are again full-time college students as well, so this is considered an internship for them. Many of them get college credit for it and it really gives them a head start in what their going to do and what they want to be when they grow up. I’ve got a list of student athletic trainer interns that have worked with me over the past 15 years and on that list there are physical therapists, there’s a physician, there are chiropractors, there are professional athletic trainers- you name it, we’ve seen our guys graduate and move onto other fields related to athletic training, and we’d like to think we’ve played a little role in where they’ve gone.

One of the things The Greener Grass looks at it is how to help consumers sort through all the information out there. How do you find out about methods and products that are relevant to your field and how can the average consumer learn from those methods to evaluate products and services for themselves?
The consumers that I have obviously are my athletes. And we do everything we can to provide up-to-date research on given techniques and given products. There tends to be a general perception that if the team is doing it there’s got to be a newer way to do it. There are gurus out there that get their hooks into these players and sell them on ideas that they’ve got a better mousetrap or they have this better supplement or they have this better exercise technique and what have you, and sometimes it can become a little overwhelming when you’re continually bombarded by it. We have found that most of the other stuff that’s out there isn’t tested, isn’t researched independently, doesn’t have a lot of scientific data to back-up their claims, it’s one fad after another. This year it will be this, next year it will be that and by and large, the things that are time tested, and have research behind them, are the things that are consistent, safe, and effective.

Supplements are a common product between professional athletes and average consumers, what are your thoughts?

If you’re looking for an answer in a bottle, you’re looking in the wrong place.

The problem with supplements is that they’re not regulated by the FDA. So as a result they do not have to adhere to the high standard of purity as well as demonstration of true effectiveness. And as a result you get a lot of guys bringing in supplements that say it’s going to do this or it’s going to do that and it only has this in it or it only has that in it. Often times those items have materials in them that are actually banned by the league, although they may not be listed on the list of ingredients, and that is the problem you run into. I call it the Wild Wild West – anybody can put anything in a bottle, and put on a label that it only has this in it, but it’ll do that for you, and there is absolutely no oversight, no restrictions, no regulation, so quite honestly our philosophy as a team, and mine as a parent is that there is no shortcut. If you’re looking for an answer in a bottle, you’re looking in the wrong place. The old standards of hard work and eating healthy still are the tried and true techniques that work. Nothing in a bottle is going to take somebody who is a marginal NFL player and turn them into a good NFL player, unless there is something illegal in it like steroids. There is just no shortcut to it.

How do you address this topic with your athletes?
Number one we provide educational opportunities to the athletes a couple times a year. I will meet with all the players in a team meeting and review the latest research on certain items and just kind of give them a general warning. The league has set-up a hotline so athletes can do it either themselves or bring it to me, a particular item that they are considering taking and the hotline people will go ahead and research what is listed in the ingredients and determine if there is anything banned on it. The unfortunate thing about it is they always throw the caveat (because these things are not regulated), it’s called “buyer beware” and the athlete is responsible for what they put in their body, and that’s the one disadvantage to it.

Tell us about your methodology when you rush onto the field to treat a player.
You try to get them as comfortable as you can, and then come up with a game plan on determining what approach you’re going to take to getting them off the field, are you going to send them in for x-ray? MRI? Do we have to use a stretcher? or can we walk them off? Do we use the cart? All of this has to be determined in a relatively short period of time. When you’ve been doing it for a couple of years like I have, it’s not that difficult.

You have to make sure somebody’s taking care of getting the crowd away from you, so you can make good decisions and sometimes you do have to ask players around what they saw, because more often then not somebody else saw it or heard it. A player may say “I felt like I got kicked” and somebody else will say, “no he didn’t get kicked he was out in the open”. The more information you have when you get there the better, and then it’s a step-by-step process.

#1 preventing them from hurting themselves anymore
#2 evaluating what you are dealing with
#3 putting together a game plan on how you’re going to address it.

And then get them off the field and keep the game going.

How is the relationship between the athletic trainers and officials?
The officials are great. They will never, ever pressure or push the medical people to move a player before they are ready. It’s a good understanding that we have. And we don’t tell them - well I take it back - sometimes we do tell them what to call when it comes to penalties if they’re missing them...but they don’t interfere with us so we are good with that.

Concussions are a common injury associated with football, how do you determine the severity of the athlete’s condition?
They’re not as common as you would think, it is fewer than a dozen a year per team.

It is a very specific examination that we do on the field. The old days it was how many fingers do I have up and who are we playing and what’s the score – there is a lot more to it now. We are looking for finite, cognitive function in terms of reaction, emotion, memory recall, things of that nature.

Before we allow them to return we utilize a local neuropsychologist who has provided baseline evaluations of each player, (which is basically a brain function test) and we don’t allow them to return to the field until that player has returned to their baseline. We routinely wait 48 hours after the player has suffered the injury before we do a retest to see if in fact they have returned to their normal brain function. If they haven’t, then we hold them in terms of any practice activities until we retest them and see that in fact they have returned to their normal function level. If they have any lingering symptoms such as a headache, dizziness, nausea, insomnia, then we will not only limit their practice, but actually limit their physical activity, restricting them from engaging in even cardiovascular workouts, because we want to keep the blood pressure down. Studies have shown that if they have lingering symptoms and they’re exercising, they actually pro-long those symptoms. So it is a well thought out approach. The league did a good job last year of reminding the coaches, trainers, and physicians of the importance of never allowing competitive decisions to affect medical care, and I’m proud to say that here that’s never been a problem.

Football players are big guys with famously big appetites. What efforts are made to support healthy weight gains and loss?

Yeah, we do have some big guys, they do have big appetites. We have a dietician who is on retainer who is a consultant but will work with our players, those who either request, or those that we direct to the dietician. We are able the ensure guys that are gaining weight or are losing weight are doing it in a healthy, and safe, and appropriate manner. We will also look at players’ family history, if they have family members that have suffered from coronary heart disease, heart attack, high blood pressure, high cholesterol; we assess that in when we are assessing the athlete. So in addition to not only treating football related injuries or illnesses we also treat and manage the non-football issues.

Fluid intake, to manage muscle cramps, is an age-old debate in fitness, what formula do you prescribe to your athletes? Strictly water, or sport drinks, or a combination of both?
We do an educational session at the start of training camp, talking about heat illnesses, and we include muscle cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke. Most muscle cramps are related to dehydration although not all of them are. So sometimes it is a misnomer to tell people that all you need to do is to drink more fluids because that is not always correct, and also it’s not just a matter that you’re drinking it’s a matter of what you’re drinking.

The important thing is not just the fluid but what you have in it. Gatorade is the name brand that the league has endorsed and it’s endorsed for a number of reasons. One of which, their products are backed-up by science, it’s not just a beverage company that went into sports; it’s a sports company that went into beverages. Specifically designed for athletes and in our particular environment. We do know that in addition to fluids they also need sodium and potassium. I can remember when I was in high school, they were just at that time getting away from giving athletes salt tablets before they’d go out on the practice field, and the theory was that again it’d help prevent cramps, well actually they had part of it right, the sodium was true, they did need that, but they also discouraged water intake, which they needed as well. Gatorade corrected the concept, and we call it “it makes water work better”, yes it has a significant amount of water in it, but it also has potassium in it, and it also has sodium in it, and it also has sugars in it. If it’s not palatable, they won’t drink it. So we again, subscribe to using a significant amount of the sports beverage drinks, Gatorade in particular, water as well.

But again, there’s immediately an assumption if they guy’s cramping it’s because he’s not drinking enough. Often times there are other nutritional deficits that need to be addressed, or it can be a case where an athlete is taking a supplement that pre-disposes them to muscle cramping, and through education, we’re able to get them out of that cycle of putting themselves in a bad spot.

Throughout your initial injury evaluation and basic rehabilitation of athletes, and how your athletes follow your instructions, is there anything (a product or service) that would make it easier for everyone involved?

The easiest thing would be for people to get out of their head thinking that there’s a better mouse-trap, a better machine, or a better exercise, or a better drug, or a better whatever, to think that’s going to somehow shortcut biology – because it’s not there.

Everyone is looking for a short-cut or a magic elixir, or some super new machine that will cut your rehab time in half, accelerate your recovery – let me dispel all of that crap, because that’s what it is. The bottom line is, the body will heal if you let it. The most important thing that we do is to optimize the conditions for the body to heal itself. If we do that, the body will heal as fast as it is going to and no amount of medicine, exercise, different kind of electrical stimulation treatment, or other voodoo is going to change that. It’s not a glamorous thing to tell players, but it’s reality. Hopefully over time we’re able to educate these guys to understanding that there’s no magic, there’s no shortcut. It’s interesting to hear players say “Man, what are we doing using ice? Ice has been used for years, why do we still use it?” It’s real simple. It’s called, it works. The body hasn’t changed. The body’s reaction to hot, the body’s reaction to cold, it’s a physiological response that is consistent, it works, and that’s why we do it. And again, unfortunately it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles, it’s not glamorous, and it’s not fancy, and it’s not chic, if you will – but it’s effective.

The most important thing that we do is to optimize the conditions for the body to heal itself.

How do you address the fact that there is no shortcut to recovery?
The ideal thing is word of mouth. You get a couple of name athletes, veterans that have been around, that will take the younger guys under their wings. And that will help in some instances, but it’s a never-ending battle. There’s one manufacturer of a modality that actually called me and told me that what I needed to do was to get this machine, and put it on David Pollack’s neck while he was in a halo, and it would cut his rehab and recovery time in half. I mean it’s nonsense, the kid had a broken neck. Everybody’s looking for a quick fix, and part of it’s our environment we live in, look at what’s on television, look at what’s on the radio, look what’s in the magazines. It’s “take this pill, and you’ll lose all the weight you want, and you’ll look like this…Use this machine…Do this exercise…Take this supplement…and you can heal things in half the time.” That’s what they’re told, and ultimately that’s what they’re sold, and when you’ve got guys that have significant amounts of disposable income, I tell the players when they bring in some of the things that they bought I say you know what I’ll make you a deal, you give it back, and I’ll give you my machine for half the price, and it’ll be a shoe box wrapped up with foil with some wires coming out of it which will do just as much as what you bought. It’s a never-ending thing that we just continue to have to educate as best we can.

How does the NFL support the physical fitness and emotional wellness of players transitioning to life after professional football?
The league does not get enough credit for the programs that they offer for the athletes. Not only in terms of how to deal with life while they’re a professional athlete but also how to transition for when they are no longer a professional athlete, by encouraging them if they haven’t gotten their degree to get their degree, to provide internship opportunities during the off seasons- during the time they do have an off-season, to begin to think about what they want to be when they grow up – is kinda as I put it.

So it’s more of a league initiative than a team initiative?
Correct. Each team now has a player development coordinator, where one of their roles is to help the players deal with issues that come up, to help facilitate the managing of the educational opportunities, and they’re mandatory now – they didn’t use to be mandatory for the players to go through. We ourselves last season hired a psychological consultant to assist us as well. The idea is to have a well thought-out, well-rounded, multidisciplinary approach to help the athletes both on and off the field.

The idea is to have a well thought-out, well-rounded, multidisciplinary approach to help the athletes both on and off the field.

What can younger athletes (in all sports) do to make themselves more
 injury-free?

If you tell most coaches that the player needs rest – rest is a dirty four-letter word in some peoples’ minds. The way I see it, rest can also mean “Resume Exercise below the Soreness Threshold – r.e.s.t.”

Understand that any time that you are involved in a physical activity there’s risk of injury. It happens. Obviously eating properly is a benefit, proper conditioning, proper warm-up, proper cool-down, all of those sorts of things are appropriate. I think in some ways we’ve almost gone from one extreme to the other, and I don’t say the club here, I say society in general, in that I think in many instances, whether people want to believe it or not, there’s the risk and there’s some evidence of episodes of over-conditioning / over-training, that are actually making players, or anybody, more pre-disposed to suffering injury. The body can only endure so much. When you’re off-season gets shorter and shorter and shorter, the physical demands get greater and greater and greater. I think there has to be an awareness that there has to be a proper balance of ensuring that athletes have the opportunity to fully recover from the rigors of a season, before they start training for the rigors of the coming season. And that’s something that we are continually looking at, the strength and conditioning coaches continually are reviewing what they did last year, what they did the year before, looking at injury patterns with us in the medical staff and seeing if there are things that we can and need to do to perhaps offset the mind-set of more is better. More is better to a point. But there is such thing as too much. If you tell most coaches that the player needs rest – rest is a dirty four-letter word in some peoples’ minds. The way I see it, rest can also mean “Resume Exercise below the Soreness Threshold – r.e.s.t.” Which means, rest doesn’t need to mean that they’re laying on a couch watching T.V. and playing video games, it can often times mean that you simply just back down contact, or you don’t have as much running, you don’t have as much pounding.

The body can only endure so much.

It’s hard because so many of them have the mind-set, “I need to do more, more, more – I need to work harder, harder, harder” – I disagree, I think you need to work smarter, smarter, smarter. There’s a balancing act that you have to take into account. As I see it now, the way things have evolved it used to be that training camp was to get players into shape to play, that’s not true anymore. If you don’t come into shape in training camp – you’re gone. I think there is a tendency to over-train, and when you get to training camp if you have over-trained; you’re going to struggle getting through training camp. Not because you didn’t do enough, but because you did too much.

More is better to a point. But there is such thing as too much.

And finally, on a lighter note, if you added up all the rolls of tape you have applied to athletes, how 
many times would it circle the earth?
We use on average an excess of 50 miles of tape a season –that includes training camp and mini-camps. That’s a lot.

+ Got Nature?

"Bone specialists say possibly millions of seemingly healthy children aren't building as much strong bone as they should _ a gap that may leave them more vulnerable to bone-cracking osteoporosis later in life than their grandparents are".

Evidence is mounting that considerably more children are breaking bones now than their counterparts were 40 years ago. What is the cause of all of this? Often the first thought is lack of Calcium. With so many products having "added Calcium", not to mention the Got Milk campaign it stands to reason that there is not a shortage of Calcium in our children's lives.

A more unfamiliar fact is that the body does not properly process the Calcium it has if there is a lack of Vitamin D.

"By some estimates, 30 percent of teens get too little".

Without diving too far into the chemistry, a primary source of Vitamin D is sunlight. It is generated by the skins exposure to UV light. Furthermore, the Vitamin D generated by the human body is more effective, and easier for the body to use than the supplemental counterpart. So, many experts are beginning to agree that the indoor sedimentary lifestyle has more than a psychological effect on developing children, it may be producing a whole generation of people with weaker bones.

To read more on this subject, click here and check it out. Or better yet, lets make sure that our kids actually get out and see the sun occasionally.

+ Honesty is the best policy: An Interview with Lucy Postins of Honest Kitchen

Last but certainly not least we bring you our final interview on pet wellness. This interview crosses into the energy realm but you'll just have to read it to find out more.

The Honest Kitchen is the most innovative pet food companies I know of. Their product offerings are unique to every major brand of pet food. The healthy, dehydrated raw food is fresh, mostly organic and is guaranteed 100% human grade (but as they state, “it is intended for your dog to eat, not you!”) Their success speaks for itself with the company growing an average of 100% each year since its inception. Lucy was kind enough to tell us more about it. Thanks Lucy!



TGG: Please give us the history of the Honest Kitchen.
We were founded in 2002. I originally worked as a nutritionist for another company for about five years. When I got my first dog I became interested in the raw food diet. I began making raw food for him. I started researching ways to try to make it more simple and convenient and less messy to prepare. The idea just spun off from that. It originally was going to be a little local cottage industry and it snowballed from there.

TGG: Tell me how a raw diet can benefit my pet.
A raw food diet is just a much more natural way to feed a pet. It is really the way nature intended them to eat. They weren’t designed to eat cooked and highly processed food. Modern pet food processing methods like canning and extrusion are really under high heat and pressure and it just obliterates a lot of the natural nutrition, things like vitamins and enzymes and phytonutrients (TGG adds: phytochemicals in fruits and vegetables can significantly reduce the risk of cancer, probably due to polyphenol antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects) that are present in the raw foods. So, then a lot of synthetic vitamins and chemical compounds and flavoring then have to be added. It then ends up just being pretty far from what nature really set out with. The idea behind a more natural diet, something that is minimally processed, something that is frozen, raw, or fresh, or dehydrated, a lot of the natural nutrition remains intact. The animal can enjoy better health. It is all about being proactive about the nutrition rather than feeding bad food and then later having to spend money on vet bills later.

TGG: How does the dehydration process work? How do you maintain the nutritional benefits of the food?
It is a pretty slow, moderate temperature process, (TGG adds: just above 120 F for meats and about 104 F for fruits and veggies). It is basically like a gigantic sort of oven. It is under a very moderate, gentle process. Warm temperatures as opposed to extreme heat. It just removes only the water from the food and nothing else. It in order to feed our foods you have to add the water back before serving. So, it just basically turns it back into fresh food. (TGG adds: that also makes the foods easier to prepare and store and very light-weight to ship.)

TGG: What are some common food allergies for pets and what can we as owners do to ensure our pets aren’t suffering?
The most common food allergies are actually to grains. A lot of pet foods contain an overload of grain and those aren’t really natural for cats or dogs. Very often we see chronic GI upset, ear infections, and itchy skin, and chewing at the feet. Those are very common signs of a food allergy, most typically to grain. Occasionally animals will test positive for being allergic to certain meats, and other ingredients can show up. Typically though, grains seem to be the most common one. If you combine that will a diet that has a lot of chemical preservatives and artificial flavorings and colors which over time deplete their immune system. That can make them more pre-disposed or prone to food intolerances and allergies.

TGG: What is the difference between food allergies and food intolerances?
An allergy is an immediate, really severe reaction to something. It would be like a rash, or hives. A food intolerance is a more low grade reaction that crops up over time. Things like the GI upsets and the ear infections. Which might not happen instantaneously but if they eating something that they can’t really tolerate than the body does react eventually.

TGG: Tell us more about the differences between human-grade food vs. pet grade food.
Those two words are technical terms that relate to the quality of the ingredients and of the finished product. We actually became embroiled earlier this year in a lawsuit with the Ohio Department of Agriculture because we have a statement on our packaging which labels our pet foods as human food grade We have approval from the FDA to say this. They reviewed our manufacturing processes and affidavit from every one of our suppliers and determined that we could legally state that our foods as human food grade. Which means fit for a human to eat. We do not market our pet foods for humans. It just simply relates to the quality of the raw ingredients. In contrast to that there is feed grade which is only fit for animals and could not be fed to a human being.
Ohio objected to our labels, they stated that pet food that is labeled as human grade would be confusing to consumers and they wouldn’t be able to figure out if the product is for humans or animals.
Not too long ago, the judge ruled and overruled that decision in our favor.
TGG: The thing is that I have been finding out through my research is that while it is called “food” or pet food that it really isn’t food at all but rather just lots of by-products, and really just junk. (I will also add that you don’t have to dig deep to find this out.)
Yes, there are some really horrendous things that they put into pet food in this country, a lot of by-products, something called 4-D meats which means dead, dying, disabled or diseased meat. It is like cattle who passed away in the field and didn’t make it to the slaughterhouse or animals that have died from cancer, road-kill or other disgusting things. There was an issue the FDA investigated a few years ago in which it was determined by veterinarians in the US that it was becoming more difficult to euthanize cats and dogs when it came time to end their lives. They were becoming somewhat resistant to the Pentobarbital which is used in the euthanasia process. The link was made between this problem and the existence of Pentobarbital in a lot of pet foods. It was suspected that pet food contained euthanized cats and dogs from pounds and stuff as a protein source. Since some pets were eating food with it they were actually creating a resistance to it.
Those types of things are really shocking for people to find out. The claims are really not to be believed. These companies have tremendous marketing dollars and campaigns to lead you to believe that they have your pets best interest in mind, when really they don’t.
TGG: We were talking about that the other day, that it is more common in other countries that your pet would eat your leftovers and that a lot of those pets are actually healthier.
Yes, even in this country people used to do that. I think A lot of these companies have really brainwashed people into thinking that you should never feed table scraps or homemade food to your animal because you’ll throw off the nutritional balance. It is really nonsense. There is no reason to assume that someone’s cat or dog is so primitive that they couldn’t tolerate a mix of different ingredients throughout the week. There is no reason why they should eat the equivalent of Cheerios everyday of their life. We really encourage people to mix in different things into their food. Things like plain yogurt or cottage cheese, canned fish, or other veggies and things they might eat themselves.
TGG: You know contrary to what we are taught about feeding our dogs, I have actually found that my own dog enjoys quite a lot of fruits and vegetables. I know there are certain ones to avoid like grapes, chocolate, etc.
Yeah, dogs do enjoy that, and people can incorporate certain foods like from their hope gardens. Pets can really benefit from things like parsley, and calendular. Then you can elimate the need for additivies.

You have made a commitment to be a more eco-friendly company. Please tell us more about that.
We have had a long-standing commitment to the environment to try to introduce organic ingredients wherever we can and use well crafted herbs and to buy local when possible. We also just made the upgrade to our product packaging, we have transitioned from a bag which was not easily recyclable in most areas to a 100% recycled post-consumer box which is completely recyclable and is printed with soy based inks. It is either recyclable or biodegradable after use. Inside is a food grade bag which is not printed and obviously it is needed to keep the food fresh and safe from contaminants. That is 100% recycling after us e also. It is an increased cost in terms of dollars that we are absorbing as a company and we are not passing it along to customers. We feel it is really important to put our money where our mouth is as far as the environment is concerned. It is really on the top of the list for a lot of people and they like to purchase products from companies that are really committed to the environment.
TGG: We have noticed that as well. The companies that have maintained their authenticity and transparency all along are now reaping the benefits.
Yes, we have always tried to be very open about what we are doing. We like to involve our customers in product development projects. We have a work/food program where we have people who are trainers, breeders, agility trainers, who have an active role in our product development. As we get our products in development we like to get our customers involved in home trails where we give samples away for customers to feed to their own cats and dogs, in the comfort of their own home. We can then eliminate laboratory tests that we do not agree with. I think people like to be involved in the decision making process.

TGG: What is next for Honest Kitchen?
We will be introducing another cookie just in time for the holiday. It will be a blueberry and buffalo flavored cookie. That will be available in the next couple of weeks. We will probably start work on a new cat food early on in 2008 and another canine diet will be hitting the selves next year.

This contains some great information, please check it out:
The Honest Kitchen blog

More links about nutrition:
Phytochemicals
Toxins in pet food
Do you know what you are feeding your pet?
Pet food recall

+ Vessel: Your Drink

The Greener Grass wouldn't be complete without some product concepts inspired by our collection of interviews with experts in the field of health and wellness. Check out our previous health and wellness concepts here - we'll post a new idea each day this week!

From speaking with people like WheyUP founder Erik Rothchild, VeeV co-founder Courtney Reum, and Amelia Bay's Jason Crandall, we realized that there's no such thing as the perfect drink for everyone. There's no mass market for beverages, but instead millions of individuals, each with their own unique functional needs, taste and consistency preferences- so we created Vessel.


Vessel is the ultimate in personalized beverages. It's Your Drink. It's exactly what the name implies: a system for you to create a drink that's yours and yours alone by combining flavors and ingredients. It frees you from the tyranny of lowest common denominator marketing that produces the same products year after year without ever really innovating.

Vessel has three components: Base, Flavor, and Agent.


Bases provide a combination of nutrients for your lifestyle that are at the foundation of the drink. The Active Woman Base might be heavy in iron, calcium, and protein, while the Mature Man base could focus on zinc, saw palmetto, and B-vitamins.

Flavors are responsibly-sourced, organic extracts of botanical and agricultural products that allow you to tailor the drink to your tastes- no matter how exotic they might be. Wheatgrass/mango/oatmeal? No problem. Cranberry/mocha/vanilla? Coming right up. Or just plain chocolate.

Agents are the active ingredients that deliver the functional benefits you need. Vessel has an enormous variety of Agents, from vitamins and minerals to protein to caffeine, taurine and ginseng, that can be assembled in a nearly limitless range of combinations.

The details
The components come together in a resuable, Lexan container, sold separately from the Base, Flavor and Agent. The container features details that are the product of detailed ethnographic research on athletes and other performance enthusiasts.

For example, we saw that one of the shortcomings with a lot of powdered drinks is that they don't mix very well, leaving unmixed gunk in the bottom of the glass. The small perturbation on the bottom of the Vessel container serves as an agitator that helps mix the contents when shaking- no more gunk at the bottom.

The hook on the underside of the lid addresses another common complaint. Screw tops are no good, because they get lost easily. Drinking bottle usually feature a tethered cap that doesn't get lost, but it's always in the way. Pull-top valve enclosures used on many sports drinks are a hassle. Vessel's lid is easy to open, but hard to lose.

What's Your Drink?
What would your perfect Vessel mix be? Post your idea in the comments!

+ Peanut Knows!

Food allergies can be dangerous. Constant vigilance and scrutiny of diet demands an awareness of ingredients and close attention to package labeling. This can be challenging and frustrating, particularly for parents and caregivers of young children. According to the Mayo Clinic, peanut allergy affects approximately 1.5 million people in the United States. As the most common cause of life-threatening allergic reactions (anaphylaxis), peanut allergies account for 80 percent of fatal or near-fatal allergic reactions each year.

Nothing can replace the knowledge and devotion of parents and caregivers, but perhaps some additional assistance that supports this vigilance could help. Peanut Knows might just may be that helper!


The Peanut Knows is a friendly little fellow that can detect the presence of peanut and peanut trace in food products. The electronic nose sniffs out the culprit and alerts the user, helping to prevent allergic reactions.

The concept is from a form metaphor of the elephant's affinity for peanuts. This is an elephant pendant that, when placed on the side of your dish (bottom button is depressed), 'sniffs' for peanuts. If peanut content is detected the 'mouth' lights up.


Small, cordless, simple, easy to use and cute. Peanut Knows serves as reminder to take care when serving food to small children that may have food allergies.

Similar detection devices exist today, such as FQSI's SensorfreshQ Freshness meter that measures bacteriological activity on uncooked meat and poultry.

Concept by Mark Mock
Design by Ramsey Ford

Relevant links:
http://www.fqsinternational.com/products.htm

+ Life at the office in 2017

The Greener Grass wouldn't be complete without some product concepts inspired by our collection of interviews with experts in the field of health and wellness. Today's idea looks at what a day at the office might be like in the year 2017, reflecting the current interest in corporate wellness programs. Check out our previous health and wellness concepts here - we'll post a new idea each day this week!

Life at the office in 2017

Life at my company sure has changed in the last 10 years! I am the healthiest I have ever been since the company subscribed and promoted the Meal Master wellness plan. Ever since, everyone who has signed onto the plan is feeling great, being more productive, and I can’t even remember the last time I had a sick day! Haven’t heard of the Meal Master system? Let me tell you how it works…

When you sign on, you’ll begin meeting with a nutritionist quarterly who will help you to establish a set of realistic goals you’d like to accomplish through your diet. (For me it was losing weight early on, and then later maintaining my ideal weight.) They’ll help you set your individual goals, and that information goes into the Meal Master software program guide. It’s great! Just download it to your phone and laptop, and you’ll have your nutrition information at your fingertips as you go throughout your day. And since you’ll take your phone wherever you go, like the grocery store, you’ll have a guide right there in your hand.


Our company also bought a Smart Vendor for our floor. This was such a lifesaver! For those who sign onto the program the Smart Vendor displays on screen only the choices it has available that fit into your diet according to your goals (thanks to Blue Tooth!). Oh sure, I’ve seen all the choices that Adam has when he steps up and gets a snack, but I’m perfectly happy without the temptation. Believe me, ignorance is bliss!

Exercise offers a whole other range of options for subscribers. Feel like you never have time to exercise? As part of the wellness plan the company has bought several new ExerChairs. These chairs allow you to comfortably pedal while you work, right at your desk! Again, Blue Tooth signals to your laptop how many miles you have pedaled each day, and adjusts your diet allowance accordingly.


And if that weren’t enough, our company has mandatory daily exercise breaks. It’s like recess all over again - each day there is a different group activity in our fitness room. Yoga, Pilates, aerobics and spinning classes are just to name a few. Our company also installed a new 30 minute work out circuit with free weights and nautilus equipment. I feel so energized afterwards, even if I don’t break a sweat.

Overall, our company has saved money by incorporating the wellness plan and reduced health care plan costs (which have risen 20+% each year nationally). It’s a win-win for everyone; I feel great, am more productive while working, and have likely added years to my life - all while saving my company money on insurance premiums. Thanks Meal Master!

+ Solve the Rehydrate Debate with the FluidReplenish Patch

The Greener Grass wouldn't be complete without some product concepts inspired by our collection of interviews with experts in the field of health and wellness. Today's idea is our solution to settle the debate between water and sports drinks for athletes. Check out our previous health and wellness concept here - we'll post a new idea each day this week!



Water, or sport drink, or both? Consumer confusion is a trend in health and wellness (read more here) so we propose a solution. The FluidReplenish Patch tells you the best formula to rehydrate after a workout. Wear it on a core arm muscle during your exercise and watch it track the nutrients lost through your sweat. Water, sugar, and sodium are core components to rehydrating the body, but athletes don't know which to use or when to use them.



Each fluid has its advantages - water for rehydrating and sports drinks (sugar and sodium) for re-energizing and retaining fluids longer - just read the three bars after the workout and reach for that combination in your fridge. For example, this runner needs a combination of the two drinks based on the bar readings: the 'sodium' and 'sugar' show he needs a sports drink to refuel, and the almost full 'water' bar tells him to finish that water bottle he already has and to fill it up again. A full bar on the patch reads 24 oz. of fluid.

To use FluidReplenish, wear one patch for each workout in your routine (i.e.: cardio, weight-lifting, Pilates, etc...) to learn the fluid formula that fits you. Then, write down how your body needs to be replenished after your workouts and make rehydrating properly a part of your everyday routine. As your fitness improves, track your changes in hydration with the FluidReplenish Patch.

To learn more about the differences between water and sports drinks, check out this chart from the Gatorade Sports Science Institute, and for more on the fluid replacement debate all together, we suggest this paper from the American College of Sports Medicine.

Relevant Links:
Breaking through the myths: An interview with fitness and nutrition expert Alan Aragon
Interview with WheyUP! founder Erik Rothchild

+ The Smart Shopper - A Better Way to Buy Groceries

Sorry, but we've taken down the Smart Shopper concept from our site. If you're interested in our concept work, you might like these other projects:

Vessel: the ultimate in customizable performance beverages.
Current State: a real time energy use monitor and timer for powered devices
The Kegstand: improving the keg experience through better maintenance, transportation, and entertainment

+ Cereal Box Makeover - A conversation with Kellogg's Kris Charles

A few weeks ago, we posted about a new Kellogg's program called Nutrition at a Glance. We were lucky enough to speak with Kris Charles, spokesperson for Kellogg's, who told us more about the program and how the brand continues to stay focused on health and wellness.

What inspired Kellogg’s to initiate the Nutrition at a Glance program? What problems were your consumers having that led to this new labeling solution?

Kellogg was founded on the principles of health and wellness more than 100 years ago. We have a long history of putting helpful information on pack, and this is a natural step as we continue to build on that foundation. Research showed that time-pressed consumers want quicker, easier ways to make informed nutrition choices. The Nutrition at a Glance panel empowers consumers to make individual choices by showing them how a food fits into their daily diets.



Kellogg’s pioneered a similar labeling program in Europe. What did you learn there that helped you implement this program in the US?

Although it’s a seemingly obvious takeaway, we learned that awareness drives the acceptance of this type of program. We surveyed 500 adults in Europe a year after launching the program there, and we learned that consumers have high recognition and understanding of the Nutrition at a Glance program. In fact, 80 percent of European consumers said that they are aware of the labeling; 84 percent find them easy to understand and 82 percent would like to see it on even more product packaging.

Because health and wellness is so trendy right now, a lot of “healthy” products are just gimmicks, leading to skepticism among consumers. How do you ensure that shoppers take this innovation seriously?

The Nutrition at a Glance program is an education tool for consumers, not a marketing campaign or “gimmick” as you say. With so much confusion about nutrition in the marketplace, it is appropriate for manufacturers like Kellogg to provide the facts to help consumers make more informed choices about the foods they eat. Since we are sincerely trying to help educate them rather than tell them what to do, we expect that consumers will take this effort seriously.

You’re encouraging others in your industry to join in your efforts. What progress have you made there? How will this system be carried over consistently to other brands?

While we’re not able to speak for the whole industry, industry-wide progress has certainly been made. We’ve discussed this approach with other companies at ongoing industry forums, shared learnings from other markets where we’ve launched the Nutrition at a Glance program, and are encouraging their use as a standardized labeling method. In fact, General Mills announced that they would adopt the same front-of-pack labeling approach this past July.

We’ve seen that in the U.K., where currently more than 50 companies have adopted the Nutrition at a Glance tool. And top retailer Tesco is now using them on all of its packaging. Hopefully, we’ll see similar levels of adoption in the U.S. We will continue to work with others in the industry to bring forth information to help consumers make better informed choices about what they eat.

Since we are sincerely trying to help educate them rather than tell them what to do, we expect that consumers will take this effort seriously.

The Nutrition at a Glance program is a step in the right direction to giving consumers key information about their diets. What are Kellogg’s long term goals in terms of nutrition?

The Kellogg Company was founded more than 100 years ago with a foundation in health and nutrition. In fact, our founder, W.K. Kellogg said “We are a company of dedicated people making quality products for a healthier world.”

To that end, in June 2007, we announced that Kellogg is changing the products we market to children under 12 and how we market those products. We established an internal Global Nutrient Criteria standard (Nutrient Criteria) based on a broad review of scientific reports. Kellogg will apply the Nutrient Criteria to all products marketed to children around the world. Those products that don’t meet the criteria will either be reformulated to meet the Nutrient Criteria or they will not be marketed to children under 12 by the end of 2008. (Kellogg currently does not advertise to children under 6.)

The Kellogg Global Nutrient Criteria will also guide targeted future innovation and product development. Over time, the company will work toward providing consumers even more product choices with enhanced nutritional value.

As a company, we believe the notion of balance _ or “calories in, calories out” _ must remain the central tenet of any long-term solution to global obesity and weight management. We have a long-standing commitment to helping consumers successfully manage both sides of that equation.

To learn more, visit the Nutrition at a Glance website.

+ Children adjust to increasing food allergies

Our palette of food choices is broader than ever, but the unfortunate reality for millions of children is that the options are more narrow. Why? Whether it's peanuts, milk, fish, or any number of other foods, more children than ever face the challenge of food allergies.

Read more from the Mankato Free Press:

According to a 2006 survey by the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood that looked at more than 700,000 children in 56 countries since 1991, allergies are on the rise all over the world. A 2003 Mount Sinai School of Medicine study reported peanut allergies in kids younger than 5 have doubled. And the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network says one out of every 17 kids younger than 3 years old has a food allergy.

Read the full article here

+ The Future of Health & Wellness: 4 Scenarios

Asking yourself “What If?” can be a powerful tool for looking into the future. We’ve created a few scenarios that paint a picture of the future of health and wellness along a variety of very different paths. Some of them might seem farfetched, but use them as stimulus for disruptive, innovative thinking. No matter what you come up with, stranger things have happened. Ask yourself how your organization, friends, or family would respond. Create your own scenarios.

This is the third of three parts of our Health & Wellness analysis. Be sure to take a look at the first two parts:
5 Health & Wellness Consumer Archetypes
5 Trends Driving Health & Wellness



Young until I die
Spearheaded by the latest advancements in life science, anti-aging treatments become affordable to nearly everybody in Western economies. The effects are startling.

With the aid of anti-aging treatments, consumers are effectively frozen in time. Baby Boomers always say they don’t feel a day over 30, and now they don’t look a day over 30 either. The treatments are safe, easily administered at anti-aging clinics that are similar to the ones of today, and affordable to anybody with a middle-class income.

Markets quickly change shape in response. Traditional age-based segmentations collapse into three segments: children, adults, and the very elderly. Social dynamics are transformed equally rapidly, changing the playing field dramatically for dating, athletic competition, and other institutions. Even family is affected: parents look the same age as their adult children.



Locals only
In the wake of countless food safety scares, European middle class consumers reject anything not locally sourced, with Americans following closely behind. Only low-income consumers are forced to buy products sourced from abroad, leaving producers scrambling to retool their infrastructure in response. When the dust settles, few of the old guard companies are left in positions of dominance; the majority of marketshare is captured by once-small companies that were able to scale up their operations to meet demand.

Prices rise substantially as a result of rising raw materials costs, but profits stay about the same for manufacturers and distributors. The balance of power shifts in favor of local producers of raw materials and other inputs, who control the resources that consumers demand.



Wellness check
With insurance costs spiraling out of control, and absenteeism and other health-related issues dragging productivity down, employers take action. Employers have run credit checks on prospective employees for years, employers are taking it once step further by running comprehensive wellness checks on candidates.

Unwilling to take the chance of hiring someone that will be sidelined by wellness issues- whether mental, physical, or emotional- employers are demanding access to detailed, private information about your wellness. If they’ll be billing you at an hourly rate, they want to know how many hors you’ll be missing next year from that bad back of yours. They want to know how well you’ve handled stress in the past, if you’ve seen a mental health professional (and why), and how that will affect their bottom line in the future. The net result is that younger, but less experienced candidates sometimes make the cut over a more experienced applicant with potential wellness issues.



The bad old days
Faced with too many products, treatments, services, and fads that promise everything and deliver nothing, consumers reject health and wellness across the board. We look back on today as the peak of health and wellness adoption: from here, consumers slide back into their old habits. They know fast food isn’t great for them, but at least they understand it. They know they should be exercising, but without any idea of where to start, they just give up and do nothing.

+ 5 Health & Wellness consumer archetypes

These archetypes represent some of the many segments of health and wellness consumers. Please don’t mistake this for a comprehensive overview of the category, because it isn’t. Instead, use it as a starting point for your own initiatives. This is only a snapshot. Take what we have and build on it- and if you can share the results with us, please get in touch and let us know if it helped. This is the second part of our Health & Wellness analysis. Our 5 Health & Wellness Themes & Trends were the first part, and the third part will be a series of scenarios that outline some possible directions for the future of Health & Wellness, so be sure to check out everything if you enjoy this.



The Champ
A subscriber to magazines like Men’s Health and avid consumer of energy drinks, The Champ represents health & wellness as fitness and nutrition. To The Champ, the body is a machine, and getting optimum performance from that machine depends on giving it the best inputs. The Champ sets the bar high for him/herself, looking to pro athletes for fitness routines. These consumers are like mechanics on a NASCAR team, constantly evaluating new products and activities, looking for something to give them an edge. They hold manufacturers to the highest standards regarding sourcing, ingredients, and performance, but they’re more than willing to pay a premium for it.

There aren’t very many Champs, but they’re very influential tastemakers and gatekeepers. They’re always doing research, reading labels, comparing results with their peers, and they serve as sources of information among their not-so-hardcore friends. The Champ is a leading driver of adoption and opinion among mainstream consumers.

Relevant Links
Breaking through the myths: An interview with fitness and nutrition expert Alan Aragon
Interview with WheyUP! founder Erik Rothchild



The Explorer
The Explorer is a xenophile, always looking for new, different experiences. Explorers look at health & wellness as a journey, not a destination. They love trying new products, services, and ideas, especially those from other cultures. For The Explorer, health & wellness is most definitely as much spiritual, emotional and mental as it is physical. In comparison to The Champ, The Explorers expectations are relatively modest, because they evaluate health & wellness offerings as a holistic experience, not simply on the results.

The key to engaging The Explorer is to create rich, multi-sensory experiences that take them to another place. Use sound, scent, and tactile elements in conjunction with visual components to bring something new and different for The Explorer.

Relevant links:
Everybody Eats! An interview with Earth Source Produce
Vertically integrated beverage innovation: An interview with Amelia Bay
Be The Change: An interview with One Planet, One Solution



The Retrofit
Health & wellness is part of nearly every demographic segment, not just the young. The Retrofit represents the face of health & wellness among the older members of the population. Their motto is “Living stronger, longer,” and they’re dedicated to making the most of their older years. Retrofits show us that health & wellness is for everybody, that it’s empowering, not intimidating.

For Retrofits, wellness isn’t just taking vitamins and exercising, it’s about a positive outlook that’s the foundation of their entire lifestyle. Retrofits recognize that although they’re older, it doesn’t mean they have to sit in rocking chairs doing crosswords and knitting for the rest of their lives like their parents did.

Retrofits keep an open mind. They’re always learning: about new products, new activities, new sources of information (and how to use them), and about how to keep their minds, bodies, and spirits well.

Relevant links:
Kate Beckstrom: The future of elderly care
Retirement centers and healthy living: An interview with Lodge Retirement Community
Designing for the elderly: An interview with Modern Plastics Editor Matthew Defosse


The Progressive Professional
The health & wellness lifestyle isn’t a sacrifice for The Progressive Professional, it’s a lavish indulgence. They work hard, and look to health & wellness solutions to temper the stress of their intense work environment. They represent the new, luxurious face of health & wellness that doesn’t ask consumers to make tradeoffs to be well.

The Progressive Professional will spare no expense in spoiling him/herself and his or her pet. Just as she wants to balance her life, she wants her pet’s life balanced as well so she shops at retailers like WestPaw for products that mean something. They’re happy to spend significant amounts on the latest supplements, personal care products, spa/gym memberships, massage and relaxation therapy, or anything else that balances out their life and takes the edge off the stress of their professional life.

Relevant links:
Drink better, live better: An interview with VeeV founder Courtney Reum
Handcrafted, organic dog biscuits: A conversation with Robbie Dawg President Lisa Fortunato
WestPaw Design: Care for your pet, care for your planet



The Average Achiever
Not everybody in the health & wellness space is a superhuman fitness guru. In fact, most of them are just average people who are making progress slowly but surely: The Average Achiever. These consumers emphasize the maintenance and preventive care component of health and wellness- not everybody wants to The Champ.

The Average Achiever has been trying to make health & wellness part of their life for years, but hasn’t really gotten on board until just now. Although it might seem like she’s a laggard, she’s actually an early adopter among her group of friends. She’s the catalyst that gets her friends involved, whether that means starting a running club, making a book of healthy recipes, or recommending a new supplement. Her friends listen to her because she represents something attainable, not an idealized figure in a magazine.

As such, she’s a key influencer, and an important part of the health & wellness adoption cycle. To engage The Average Achiever, give her information that’s relevant, concise, and actionable, but never overwhelming or intimidating. Give her solutions that are digestible, tangible, and straightforward, but still effective, with measurable results that help her see that she’s making progress.

Relevant links:
Wellness in the workplace: An interview with FRCH's Sarah Phillips
Healthy living delivered: An interview with Door to Door Organics

+ Eat Your (Fruits and) Vegetables: An interview with the Produce for Better Health Foundation

My mom always knew what she was talking about. Ninety percent of Americans don't eat as many fruits and veggies as they should, and the Produce for Better Health Foundation is working hard to change that. The Greener Grass got a chance to talk with Jill Le Brasseur to learn more about how they're working to help Americans lead healthier lives.

Produce for Better Health is the “go-to” resource and promoter of fruits and vegetables. For people that aren’t familiar with PBH, give me some background on your organization.

Produce for Better Health Foundation was incorporated in 1991 to help take the 5-A-Day program to a national level. The 5-A-Day program started at the state level in California through the Department of Health, and it was transferred to the National Cancer Institute to be taken nationally. PBH acted as a connection between the National Cancer Institute and the fruit and vegetable industry. That was our core for quite some time. Coinciding with the development of the new Fruits & Veggies – More Matters initiative, our main federal partner right now is Center for Disease Control and Prevention. We work with the fruit and vegetable industry to spread the word that more matters. We do this through supermarket retailers, educational materials and public relations.

The Greener Grass aims to understand trends in health and wellness. What changes have seen between now and when the PBH was founded in 1991?

The big change is the new health initiative that we started, Fruits & Veggies – More Matters. It was developed in response to the increased recommendations for fruits and vegetables in the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which recommends different amounts of produce consumption based on a person’s age, sex, and activity level. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans have been published jointly every 5 years since 1980 by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture. Those guidelines provide authoritative advice for people 2 years of age and up on good dietary habits and how they can promote health and reduce the risk of major chronic diseases. So, Fruits & Veggies – More Matters was the next step from 5-A-Day because it wasn’t enough to say everyone needs 5 servings, the amounts varied based on a person’s age, sex, and activity level.

Its difficult to say that any one particular fruit or vegetable helps with any one disease, but it’s the totality of fruits and vegetables in the diet that is helpful in the prevention of many diseases.

So it was a transition towards a broader recommendation? Was 5-A-Day too rigid of a guideline?

That was part of it. Our new website speaks directly to the consumer. This is something that’s new for us. We want to help people achieve their goal of increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables their families are eating everyday. We want to provide tips and recipes featuring produce to make it easy for them to add more fruits and vegetables at every eating occasion.

Most Americans don’t get enough produce in their diets. What are the major factors that have lead to this problem?

We think convenience is the driving factor. More women are working outside the home; children are busier than ever. In our research, when mom works outside the home, the family eats fewer fruits and vegetables – the time just isn’t there. Our most recent research suggests that moms need innovative ideas on how to get their family to eat more fruits and vegetables. That was part of the inspiration for launching the new website. Also, a lot of people don’t realize that its more than just fresh produce – all forms of fruits and vegetables count. We can get more of them into people’s diets when they realize it can be as easy and convenient as microwaving some frozen vegetables or warming up some canned vegetables. It doesn’t always have to be fresh to “count.”

There aren’t many things more convenient than an apple or a banana, they come in their own packaging and are ready to eat. Yet somehow we’re drawn to granola bars or cupcakes.

That’s true, but I think a lot of people see the “self-packaged” fruits as either a breakfast item or just a snack. We give people tips and ways to use fruits and vegetables on our website that may not have occurred to them before. One thing we’re really excited about is the upcoming debut of our video center. We plan to use the video to provide consumers with education on fruits and veggies they may not have purchased before. They will demonstrate how to check for ripeness, proper storage, preparation, and more. You’re not going to buy a fruit or vegetable you haven’t tried before if you have no idea what to do with it. Our video center is going to give people the education they need to try these things.

Please tell our readers a little about your National Action Plan, which calls for a new approach to promoting produce. What were the failures or limitations of past approaches?

The National Action Plan was developed not long after the 2005 Dietary Guidelines were introduced. Its an outline of all the things we think need to be in place for there to be an increase in the consumption of fruits and vegetables in the U.S. The Plan isn’t really a new approach, its just a more comprehensive one. Research that we conducted indicated that the 5-A-Day program did a wonderful job of letting people know that they need to be eating more fruits and vegetables. Where it fell short was in getting people to actually eat the additional produce. We’re hoping with Fruits & Veggies – More Matters to go directly to the consumer, offer tips, recipes, advice, answer questions, and try to make fruits and vegetables more accessible and achieving the goal of increasing consumption easier for people, particularly moms and families.

Self-efficacy is a big predictor of one’s ability to eat their daily recommended amount of produce. Can you describe this concept a little more and tell us how this plays into your action plan?

Sure. Self-efficacy is the confidence in one’s ability to eat fruits and vegetables in a variety of settings. We want to help moms achieve their goal of increasing the amount of produce their families are eating by providing them with tips and recipes designed to make adding those additional fruits and vegetables easier for them. That includes fresh, frozen, dried, and canned fruits and vegetables, as well as 100% juice. Every time mom adds just one more fruit or vegetable to her family’s meals, we’re moving the needle on fruit and vegetable consumption. We want to give the consumer the confidence they need to deal with any kind of fruit or vegetable they come across and to instill that fun aspect. Have a little fun, try something new.


Packaged foods use graphic design and big ad budgets to get consumers’ attention. What are the challenges with promoting fresh produce?

Obviously, the lack of packaging materials makes finding a place to display the logo and product information an issue. That’s one reason we provide a retail tool kit to markets. It contains pre-designed marketing materials, Fruit & Veggies – More Matters messages to be displayed near the fresh produce. We provide copy and visuals to the members of PBH. We have radio spots that can be tweaked and personalized to each market. We have roll bags with our logo to carry forward the message. These are all things they can display near the fresh produce, because there isn’t a nice box to print big yellow letters on for an apple or a banana. But its not just fresh, we want to remind everyone that all forms count – fresh, canned, frozen, dried, and 100% juice – so you’ll find our message all over the supermarket.

Restaurants don’t serve as much produce as compared to meals that we prepare for ourselves. What actions are you taking to help them improve their menus?

We have a wonderful program called Produce First! American Menus Initiative. It’s a collaboration between PBH and the Culinary Institute of America. Produce First! joins the food service industry’s finest marketers and chefs with the produce industries most innovative fruit and vegetable suppliers at the CIA’s facilities in California. The focus for Produce First is on increasing produce menu offerings, to provide restaurant guests with the flavors that they crave and the healthy options that they really deserve.

Sometimes when I go to a restaurant, the option to get a fruit cup with my sandwich isn’t always celebrated the same way that the French fries are.

Yeah, first of all it’s cold, and a lot of times you’ll want something warm. But a lot of restaurants are stepping up to the plate and offering more healthy options. You’ll see the option to substitute salads or apple slices for French fries. Most restaurants now are offering a vegetable of the day that can be substituted for a starch like potatoes, rice, or noodles. These things really help health conscious diners get the vegetables that they would be serving themselves at home.

One problem that we’re seeing is that people don’t know how to filter all of the health information they are receiving. With so many options available to them, what advice do you have for people trying eat healthier?

The most basic advice I can offer is that all of the legitimate recommendations out there say we should be eating more fruits and vegetables. Its really difficult to say that any one particular fruit or vegetable helps with the prevention or treatment of one particular disease, but the inclusion of fruits and vegetables in total in the diet is linked to the prevention of many diseases. This is not only because of the vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals that fruits and vegetables provide, but it’s also because of what they don’t have in them – no saturated fat, no cholesterol, and no sodium. When people eat more fruits and vegetables, they also have a natural tendency to eat less of other less nutritious foods.

So it’s as much about replacing the bad stuff that we eat as it is getting the benefits of fruits and veggies.

Right, and we have a lot of tips for that on our website. The first example that comes to mind is mashed avocado – use it in place of higher fat spreads like mayonnaise or sour cream on a sandwich or in a dip.

Thanks for talking with us, Jill. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

When the 5-a-day program and the PBH started back in 1991, there was strong scientific evidence between fruits and vegetables and cancer prevention. Since that time, the role of fruits and vegetables in prevention has gotten stronger, helping to prevent quite a number of diseases. Its difficult to say that any one particular fruit or vegetable helps with any one disease, but it’s the totality of fruits and vegetables in the diet that is helpful in the prevention of many diseases. Today, we know that more than 90% of adults and children do not consume the amount of fruits and vegetables recommended to them. Just eating more, just making a start at what the guidelines recommend for you is a step in the right direction for good health.

For more information on Produce for Better Health Foundation, visit these links:
http://www.pbhfoundation.org/
http://www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org/

+ 5 Trends Driving Health & Wellness

We know that The Greener Grass needs to be more than just a collection of interviews, because there are plenty of other people doing interviews. Our goal is to add value by listening to experts, then distilling what we've heard into themes, trends, consumer archetypes, and scenarios that are concise, relevant and actionable. As product developers, it's what we do every day for our clients, and The Greener Grass gives us the opportunity to apply our skills toward designing a better future for all of us- we hope it can be a way for us to give back to the community. Each unit in The Greener Grass will follow this format: 4 or 5 weeks of interviews and research, followed by our analysis, and finally our concepts for products and services that embody the key takeaways from the interviews and analysis. We'll be posting our product and service concepts next week, so stay tuned. In the meantime, check out the archive of all our interviews. With that said, here's the first part of our analysis on Health & Wellness: Themes. Please share your reactions, additions, or questions in the comments!


Theme #1: Confusion is the problem, authenticity is the answer
One of the main issues confronting consumers is an overabundance of contradictory information, and a lack of resources for evaluating that information. One minute running is good, the next minute it kills you. Apples are healthy today, deadly tomorrow.

People are bombarded by information from every direction: in media, on the shelves, word of mouth, and every other channel. In the face a staggering array of products and services that can be overwhelming and intimidating, many simply give up. They know that half the information is good, they just don’t know which half.

"Human nature is to simplify things as much as possible, but things aren't always simple."
Alan Aragon

With hype and overstatement running rampant through the category, the key to earning the consumer’s trust is authenticity, transparency, and honesty. Nobody expects health and wellness solutions to be perfect, they just want the truth. Only by being honest can health and wellness providers build dialogues and relationships with consumers built on trust.

Relevant links:
Drink better, live better: An interview with VeeV founder Courtney Reum
Cereal box makeover
Breaking through the myths: An interview with fitness and nutrition expert Alan Aragon



Theme #2: Corporate wellness is gaining steam and here to stay
Insurance costs are higher than ever, for both individuals and institutions. Absenteeism continues to be an issue, and productivity dips severely for workers that are suffering from chronic ailments. Saddled with these expenses, employers are turning to proactive wellness programs to create a healthy workforce.

"Corporate wellness programs are very popular. Of course, being in HR, we see insurance costs going up and employee absenteeism on the rise. So we started a wellness program to try and combat all of these things. And Its definitely about keeping the employees healthy, but not just physically healthy."
Sarah Phillips, FRCH

Corporations are responding with a variety of comprehensive wellness programs that increasingly address more than just preventive health care. They emphasize holistic wellness: stress management, healthy relationships, fitness, even good personal finance habits. These programs aren’t a fad, but simply the first generation corporate wellness initiatives.

Relevant links:
Wellness in the workplace: An interview with FRCH's Sarah Phillips
Businessweek asks, "What's a wellness program?"
Corporate wellness programs on the rise




Theme #3: Sourcing matters
We heard again and again that sourcing is a key part of many health and wellness brands. Once an invisible piece of the supply chain that consumers didn’t know or care about, in the wake of product recalls and safety scares, sourcing is now scrutinized. They want to know exactly what ingredients go into their products, and where those ingredients came from.

"You're going to see costs rise in all kinds of products that were formerly sourced in China, because it's a massive industrial country with cheap labor. If you lose that supplier, costs are going to go up across the board, not just in food. So is the customer going to be willing to pay the higher price? I don't see where they'll have much choice."
Jason Crandall, Amelia Bay

Perhaps the most meaningful facet of sourcing scrutiny is that cost is no longer the primary factor. Consumers are increasingly willing to pay a premium for sourcing they feel good about. With the health of their families on the line, peace of mind is something that commands significant value.

Relevant links:
Everybody Eats! An interview with Earth Source Produce
Vertically integrated beverage innovation: An interview with Amelia Bay
NPR reports on localism



Theme #4: Consumer sophistication is high and growing rapidly
Health and wellness consumers are smart and getting smarter. They’re also skeptical. They’ve been burned by decades of hype and overstatement, thousands of products and services that don’t work, frustrated by bureaucratic insurance and healthcare systems.

People are looking deeper. Empowered by the social media and other parts of the internet, they’re reading labels, asking questions, and talking about it with each other- and the rest of the world. They’re responding to the information overload by using the tools at their disposal to dig through everything and help each other make sense of it all.

We wanted to make it ring true and hit home, because consumers are very astute. People are going to wise up to claims like "a portion of proceeds," whereas ours is very tangible and specific, and nobody can really question where it's actually going.
Courtney Reum, VeeV

For people shaping the direction of health and wellness products or services, it means that consumers will hold you to increasingly high standards. They’ll see any inconsistencies or inadequacies out there, and let you know about them. Do the right thing and listen.

Relevant links:
Drink better, live better: An interview with VeeV founder Courtney Reum
Be The Change: An interview with One Planet, One Solution


Theme #5: No more tradeoffs
The next stage in the evolution of health and wellness will be come when health and wellness no longer means sacrifice. This evolution will come in two ways. First, consumer attitudes will change: they’ll begin to enjoy things that used to be chore, such as exercise and healthy foods. Second, providers of products and services will create new offerings that are more sophisticated, bringing to market experiences that don’t require sacrifice.

"We use organic cheeses from Wisconsin, grass-fed beef from Colorado, organic unsalted peanut butter from upstate New York, we use chicken that is hormone and antibiotic free, we use bacon from Applegate Farms which is nitrites and nitrate free. All of the ingredients we use are human grade, they are of the highest quality. I guarantee that some people don’t even eat the high quality bacon we use."
Lisa Fortunato, Robbie Dawg

Like “glamorous green,” the next generation of health and wellness products will engage users with rich, blissful experiences that bring them closer to optimum wellness. It’s the best of both worlds: foods that are delicious and seemingly indulgent, but rich in nutrition. New activities that stimulate our minds and bodies while bringing us together to have fun. Corporate wellness programs that make everybody feel better about their work life while reducing expenses and improving the bottom line. The list goes on.

Relevant links:
WestPaw Design: Care for your pet, care for your planet
Healthy living delivered: An interview with Door To Door Organics
Handcrafted, organic dog biscuits: A conversation with Robbie Dawg President Lisa Fortunato

Coming tomorrow: Health & Wellness consumer archetypes

+ Strategy+Business on healthcare's retail solution

One of the most exciting and potentially game-changing developments in the world of healthcare is the rise of the retail mini-clinic, as pioneered by Wal-Mart, MinuteClinics, and other chains. Strategy+Business published an excellent overview of retail as the new face of healthcare, and the benefits it could offer for consumers, providers, and society in general. It's a little on the long side, but if this is something you're interested in, it's definitely worth spending the time to read it.

Imagine a future in which the health-care system provides consumers high-quality care in a variety of convenient forms at competitive prices. In this vision, insurers, employers, and governments offer consumers financial incentives to take better care of themselves — to exercise, eat right, stop smoking, and follow treatment regimens for chronic problems such as asthma and diabetes. The system encourages consumers to plan for the health-care needs they can anticipate (i.e., nonemergencies) by “shopping” for products and services much as they do for a new car; consumers make informed decisions based on readily available reports on quality, service, and price. Providers and product manufacturers compete for different segments of the market using a variety of channels, formats, and business models. And consumers confused by the profusion of offerings can turn to agents who help them design the most suitable health-care programs for themselves and their families. Such a robust retail health-care market is more than a vision; it is a real possibility.

Click here to read the full article. Free registration is required, but it's worth it- there's tons and tons of great content there.

+ West Paw Design: Care for your pet, care for your planet

Today we are speaking with the President of West Paw Design, Spencer Williams. West Paw Design manufactures the highest quality dog and cat toys and bedding, all at their facility in Bozeman, Montana. Thanks to Spencer for taking the time to tell us about West Paw Design- to learn more about this truly innovative company, read on...

Hi Spencer, thanks for speaking with us. First, can you tell us more about the history of West Paw Design?
West Paw Design is a high quality pet products manufacturer. We are based in Bozeman, Montana. We make about 99% of all of our products in the factory where I work at Bozeman. It is a really innovative company in that we can do a lot of things; we have really great business processes that allow us to get to market with quickly with new products and to get them directly into our independent dealers hands. We also have very great manufacturing processes which allow us to make a great quality product that serves a wide range of needs for dogs and cats. We manufacture them right here so we can watch the quality and the safety of the product. We know how it is being made and we can also market it very, very well from this location. It is a company that does what manufactures used to do which is design, make, and sell their own goods.


Button, a Brittany, tries out her new West Paw toys

Tell me more about what it is like working at West Paw and how wellness manifests itself at West Paw Design- the more holistic idea of wellness, energy efficiency of the warehouse, to employee wellness, and the actual products you design and manufacture.
What we created when we built this building in 2001 was a variety of things. We needed a larger space to manufacture but also really wanted to have a space that all employees, regardless of their position would feel comfortable working in and enjoy their days. We created an environment here that is very conducive to great work quality and allows people to also enjoy their own personal space. Essentially what we created was a building that is very energy efficient, as well as being very brightly lit, has a lot of natural light coming into it, throughout the factory as well as in the offices. What we used in the construction was a tilt up concrete panel wall system. They are walls that are about a foot thick, they have concrete on both sides of a insulated foam, insulation piece that goes inside the walls. These walls were assembled in about four and a half days onsite for our whole factory which is over 15,000 square feet. It allows us to have a space that is very well temperature controlled both in summer and winter. It allows for a lot of light coming though, with the big windows that we placed high up on the walls. In the offices we did the same thing with letting a lot of natural light in.

The building is surrounded by a lot of great green space, trees, and even the break room exits out onto a large patio where we all can just enjoy summer barbeques, lunch, or just hang out in the sun and take a break from work. We wanted that space to speak to everyone’s workday that it doesn’t have to be the old grind. We want people to come here and enjoy their day.

As far as wellness that we do, we have all sorts of ideas that we think are important. We have implemented here. All of our water is filtered, we drink great quality water from every facet in this building so that people can have access to healthy water. We have snacks, a great break room, great employee benefits, one of which we pay for. All of our employees to do prescribed exercises or stretches every hour. We put on a random bit of music for one min over the loud speakers throughout the company and people do stretches that are prescribed for their particular work. There is some real positive energy that is standing up and listening to a new tune, and doing some really great stretches. We don’t want people to over excerpt themselves, we don’t want people to burnout. As a result, we have employees here that have been here for more than a decade and that is just unusual in manufacturing today. We have gotten some great kudos for being innovative with the way to have fun and keep people safe.

How would the products you sell help promote health and wellness in pets?
When you think of pets, one of things we find is that they are very closely linked in peoples minds to children. Some people who do not have children and they have elected their pets to be their children. There is this very close mentality there. What we find is that people desire to buy products for their pets that promote wellness, that promote safety and fun, play and comfort. Those are all things that we look for in our products. When we design products we use the highest quality raw materials and that is a big buzz word today. People are wondering about these products that are being made today for children and for pets and what is the quality of the raw materials that are being used. We as the manufacturer can attest to the quality because we source them directly. That really can allow us the confidence to be able to tell the consumer that our products are made with the upmost quality, for the safety of your pet. We don’t want your pet to ingest something that may be toxic in their bodies. Likewise, in the design of the products we make them very, very durable both from the shapes that we make but also the craftsmanship quality and the handwork that goes into all of our sewn products. It is really unmatched in the industry. That allows the product to hold together much better, which makes a safer toy for dogs to play with. Cats too, they ingest a lot of catnip when they are playing with toys, or maybe sprinkled on their scratching posts. We usually only certified organic catnip and we always have. This isn’t a new trend for us, we were using certified organic catnip back in 1996. This is a foundation at West Paw.

Tell me more about Zogoflex. What is it?
Zogoflex is our proprietary material. It is a plastic that feels very soft like rubber. It is a material that we developed to do many, many, things. We wanted a product to be guaranteed it was so durable. That didn’t exist on the market. We wanted to come into the market and say that any dog could chew on this and it would last, if it didn’t, we would stand behind it with a 100% guarantee. We have done that very successfully. Our returns on this product are o.6%. We also designed this product to float in water, to bounce on the ground, to be very soft on the dogs mouth, to have all of these properties as well as to have more human based properties if you will. The material is FDA compliant. It is very safe. Secondly, it is a recyclable material. Of course dogs don’t think about recycling but their owners should. We do have the capability of taking all of these products, and we can make brand new parts out of them, 100% recycling of old material. This is an innovation that we brought to the pet industry. We thought why have a product that is creating a lot of waste. With Zogoflex we engineered it to reduce waste. We also engineered it so that we can make this product in Montana. Rather than importing the product from around the world, and having long lead times. That is difficult for a lean manufacturer like West Paw Design. We wanted to have something that was immediately available to us so that we can control the process and likewise we are not shipping the raw goods and finished product around the world and expending a lot more energy than is necessary.

West Paw Zogoflex toys

How to you test these toys?
Well, we have a pet loving crowd at West Paw Design. As you can imagine, we have a lot of great testers here. People are very passionate about their pets at West Paw. We have a lot of friends who share those common interests. We do all of our testing here because we want to be sure that if we can stand behind a product and if we are all pet lovers we can attest to the quality and safety of the product. There are very few testing labs for animals. In my view I’d much rather test with a dog that is happy and loved than one that is in a research type of environment.

I would assume then that you can bring your pet(s) to work?
Yes one can. We do find that it is like bringing a kid to a candy store. So, we don’t see as many pets in the office as one might think. All the toys around are a bit tempting for them.

How have the recent recalls both the children’s toys and pet foods affected your business? How do you think it will affect the pet care industry?
It definitely has been a boom to our business. We have always been making high quality US made products. When people starting wondering about imported products and their quality, we saw more and more products being purchased from us. In the summer there was some news about a large pet chains and the concern that some of their toys may have heavy metals in them such as lead. There was a great concern about safety there. Needless to say, more and more people seem to seek us out everyday. In fact, this past October represented the largest month on record for our company. We are very confident that what we are doing well is that we are providing high quality and safe products to consumers around the world. We have done that from the beginning. We are really excited that we can do more and that offer these products. The more people that have our products for out pets the safer their pets are.

To learn more about West Paw Design please visit them on the web.

+ Coming soon on The Greener Grass

Themes & Analysis
The next step for our Health & Wellness unit on The Greener Grass is to distill everything we've heard in the interviews and read in our research into themes that encapsulate the Big Ideas that we feel are the most important takeaways. For example, we've heard again and again that one of the biggest issues in the Health & Wellness space is information overload.

Archetypes & Scenarios
We'll also be creating a series of consumer archetypes that capture a variety of the most relevant habits and practices, from The Champ (obsessed with performance and research) to The Average Achiever (making progress, slowly but surely). The archetypes will be supplemented by scenarios that outline a number of different potential paths for the future of Health & Wellness, asking provocative questions about our assumptions.

Product & Service Concepts
The final piece of our Health & Wellness unit will be our ideas for products and services that address some of the issues we've identified through the interviews and research. The concepts set The Greener Grass apart from other futurist projects in that they leverage our expertise as designers and engineers to not just point out problems, but take a stab at solving them.

So, stay tuned over the next two weeks- we think there's some pretty interesting stuff coming up!

+ Businessweek asks, "What's a wellness program?"

Following up on our conversation with FRCH's Sarah Phillips on their workplace wellness program, here's an interesting piece from Businessweek's always excellent Smart Answers podcast.

Jerry Ripperger, national practice leader for consumer health at the Principal Financial Group, discusses how small employers can establish their own wellness programs.

Check out the podcast here.

If you don't already, I recommend subscribing to the podcast. Along with all the other Businessweek podcasts, it's pretty much always worth a listen. They have a really impressive body of content over there, both in terms of quality and quantity. Great stuff.

+ Handcrafted Organic Dog Biscuits: In conversation with President of Robbie Dawg Inc., Lisa Fortunato

Robbie Dawg Inc. was founded in 2003 in Brooklyn, New York. They handcraft their dog biscuits and cat treats using only high quality, organic, human grade ingredients. Robbie Dawg was founded out of love and concern for Lisa's Tibetan Spaniels, Robbie & Lulu. Lisa has created a truly unique company. She is also the author of The Everything Cooking for Dogs Book. Thank you Lisa, for speaking with us.

First of All, tell me a little bit about Robbie Dawg. How did you come to be doing what you are doing now?
Sure. My background is actually Graphic Design, Marketing, Fundraising, Special Events, and things like that. In 2003, I was the director of annual giving for a private school in Brooklyn. It was because of my background, and the fact that I hadn’t had a dog since I was a kid, that I wanted to throw a party for my dog Robbie, who was turning a year old.

I went looking for some type of goodie bags for the party and I couldn’t find anything that I liked. I said to myself, “Well okay, I like to bake, I can certainly make some biscuits.” I looked for recipes and couldn’t find anything that I liked so I created my own recipes. All of the dogs loved it, all of the owners were telling me how much their dogs loved it. There was a good buzz about the biscuits.
The following week, I was laid off from my job. I had worked there for three years and I was angry and upset. I said to myself, “I’ll never work for anyone again.” I made a list of ten different jobs I could do to be independent. The timing was such that I said, “I’m gonna make dog biscuits.” I knew after the party for Robbie, that I could have done just that but I wouldn’t have been motivated enough at that time.

I was lucky because I had a good severance and that allowed me the time to create recipes and the develop a business plan. I started baking in December of 2003 out of my apartment. I live in Brooklyn, NY and have less than a 60 sq. foot kitchen. All through 2004 I baked out of my apartment. Eventually, it became insane. I have a little more space than the average New Yorker, but between the flour, the boxes, the bags, and the orders and everything else it got to be too much. At that point it was either we needed to get a contract baker or become a manufacturer.

My Husband, I credit him with two very important things; one, he was the one that said we should go organic and we started organic from the beginning. Two, he said I think you should stay in control of the product and become a manufacturer. So, we refinanced the mortgage on our apartment and then found the space where we bake now. We have been in that space for three years now. We renovated the space, put everything in from new floors, to air conditioning, to ovens, the whole gamut. We have doubled our sales each year. Right now we sell to about 700 stores and 45 states. We just keep on growing each year.

So, tell me a little bit more about your line of dog biscuits & cat treats.
Since our inception, everything has been organic. In all of 2004 and 2005 we did everything by hand, and we were using organic oat flour and organic wheat flour. In that time, I ended up getting another dog, Lulu. She has a really sensitive digestive system. She is allergic to wheat. We had a lot of people, and this is before the big recall, say to us, “ my dog is allergic to wheat, oh my dog has an upset stomach.” As a result we decided to do everything wheat, corn, and soy free. The flour that we use is organic brown rice flour, we use organic baby oats, and we use organic oat flour. That is our base. Then we also use organic cheeses from Wisconsin, grass-fed beef from Colorado, organic unsalted peanut butter from upstate New York, we use chicken that is hormone and antibiotic free, we use bacon from Applegate Farms which is nitrites and nitrate free. All of the ingredients we use are human grade, they are of the highest quality. I guarantee that some people don’t even eat the high quality bacon we use. We also never add salt or sugar. We are really staunch about not doing what is the trend right now which is to make biscuits look like bakery treats, which are sugary, iced treats, with sprinkles and things like that. It really makes me crazy. Dogs are so much smaller than us. You wouldn’t give a two year old an iced doughnut with sprinkles because they would be bouncing off the walls. Why would you give something like that to your dog? Dogs, just like us do not need all of that added salt and sugar. Another thing that also makes us unique is that we do not use wheat gluten, we don’t use any preservatives, flavors, additives, dyes, colors, or anything artificial. Compared to other small companies, we are one of the few that actually uses animal proteins. We use chicken, we use beef, we use bacon. Dogs are carnivores and they do enjoy that. A lot of other companies just make biscuits that are peanut butter or apple, etc. They don’t have that meat flavor or the meat that dogs are looking for. That is another value that makes us stand apart.

Give me some more detail on why you choose to go organic.
As a family, the more I researched, the more and more our family was eating organic foods. I recently wrote a cookbook, which contains recipes from biscotti, to biscuits, to main meals. They asked me to do a whole section on nutrition. I certainly don’t claim to be a nutritionist or anything like that but I did a lot of research. The more and more I read about what they do to products, what they do to animals, what they do to the environment and everything else it is really bad. When you check out what dogs are going through; how many dogs do you know that have cancer, have diabetes, are overweight, or have other major health issues. I believe, it really stems from what they eat. They aren’t making the choice, the human is making the choice for them. Whether you are buying something because it is on sale, or whether you are buying it because you are not reading the ingredients, or whatever your making that choice for your pet.

When I was spending time researching that information and looking at the entire food cycle of the dog food industry, it has really changed in the last 50 years and there is more and more stuff in dog food. I think that is really having an adverse affect on our dogs health these days. In fact, my father-in-law called this morning. He had taken his dog to the vet and he has Colitis and he also has a tumor. He is having trouble going to the bathroom. He is only eight years old. The bottom line is that animals, just like people, every factor, from diet, to smoking, etc. can impact their health.
We choose to go organic because we wanted to provide something that if you had the time you would make for yourself. We provide something that is pure, simple, and of good quality. You are getting a great product.

After the big pet food recall, how did that chance things for your business? How do you think that will change the future of how people select food for their pets?
In an ironic twist of fate it has actually been really beneficial for us. Sales have gone up tremendously. In October we exhibited at an industry pet show. It was one of our best shows ever. I think that Is because everyone is much more aware of ingredients, not only in pet food but in their own food. I think what is happening is that larger companies are realizing that this is what we have to do. Most of the big lines are owned by even bigger corporations, that have like 20 different divisions. I think the awareness is only going to be beneficial. When I go to the grocery store myself, I walk down the isle and I’m like “Oh gosh, they are going organic.” For example, a “big food company” that makes Chicken Broth, which was typically made with MSG and other artificial ingredients is now making organic Beef Broth. I think that is great. I think the pressure is such now that people want that choice. For example, yesterday I was at Costco and I saw that they had a lot more choices in the organic section. When I was checking out I said to the cashier, “Oh I see that you have a lot more choices in the organic section. Do you find that more people are buying organic?” She said, “Yes! The more items we bring in, the more we sell.”

Where do you look for inspiration? Are there people, books, or websites that you find especially inspiring?
I definitely try to stay aware of many different trends. I follow the gourmet food market, I follow trends in packaging, I follow trends in flavor combinations. I try to stay aware of trends from small to large companies. I like to read about what other companies are doing. I keep a close eye on a few to see what they are doing; how they are progressing, how they are changing, and what they are trying to do. I am also a member of the Organic Trade Association (OTA) so I like to follow what is going on in the organic lines, what they are doing, what is available, etc.

Beyond that, I look into the areas of ingredients and things like that. I try to stay on top of all those different trends. I even watch a program called Unwrapped on the Food Network. It is a great show, they focus on a different type of food each episode and they show small and large companies. It really inspires me. It makes me think about how our company can grow. Like us, some of these companies started in a small kitchen too.

It is really the entrepreneur that creates change that affects everyone. It is the small companies, not the big ones. That is our mission as well.

I read on your website that you give back to non-profit animal rescues. Tell me more about that.
One of the rescues we frequently give to is Bideawee which is located in New York, they have 3 locations, two on Long Island and one in New York City. When I was a kid I grew up on Long Island my high school was across the street from Bideawee. I would go there everyday after school. Finally in ninth grade my Mom gave me her approval and I was able to get my dog Maxie from Bideawee. Once we started baking here in our facility, I knew I wanted to do something. Every month we donate over 30 pounds of biscuits to Bideawee. We have done that every month from the start. After they found out about my cookbook, they asked me to write a column for them, for their website. It is everything from a recipe to a helpful hint. I was actually asked by another company called Wrapped In Kindness. They sell treat totes & various other items to help families that cannot afford major surgery for their pets. We also support a lot of local organizations.

Tell me how I can order the biscuits.

You can order them online or you can look up the stores on our website, in your zipcode, that carry our products.
www.robbiedawg.com

More about the organizations Robbie Dawg supports:
www.bideawee.org
www.wrappedinkindness.com

To read Lisa’s column:
http://www.bideawee.org/programs_&_services/learning_centers/robbie_dawg.php

+ Drink better, live better: An interview with VeeV founder Courtney Reum

We're very excited to share this interview with Courtney Reum, co-founder of VeeV. VeeV is the world's first açaí spirit, but it's more than an innovative beverage. What's so compelling about VeeV is the fact that the company is built on authenticity, honesty, and a foundation of values that are incredibly rare, even in comparison to other sustainable products. I feel like I asked Courtney some pretty tough questions, questions that most other companies would have dodged or given me a canned answer to, but Courtney never did. Not only is that refreshing, but as consumers become increasingly demanding of so-called sustainable companies, I think it will give Veev a long-term, sustainable competitive advantage that will lead them to success. Please do yourself a favor and check out what he has to say. Visit the VeeV site for more information.


Can you tell us the VeeV story in a nutshell?
I started this company with my younger brother Carter. We're both original Chicagoans, and moved out to New York when we were 17 and 18 to go to Columbia. I'm two years older, so I'm 28, he's 26. After college, we kind of always knew we wanted to do our own thing, but when you're right out of college, you don't have any skillset, any contacts, or any money, so it's probably not the best time to jump right in. I decided I was going to take the finance route, so I went to Goldman Sachs, where I was doing investment banking, and my brother followed.

After about five years of doing that, four years in New York and one year in Sydney, I had always focused on the consumer products space. I worked on the Procter & Gamble/Gillette merger, and more notably worked on a bunch of startups. I did the first Vitamin Water deal where a little private equity shop in San Francisco put in $20 million and took out $600 million, I did the IPO for Under Armour, then in spring of 2005 worked on the Allied Domecq/Pernod Ricard merger, which was a $12 billion deal. In the context of that, doing the due diligence, I looked at the space and said "Wow, a Bacardi or Diageo would never do something as innovative as Veev for a variety of reasons."

They're very slow to market, it takes a lot of money for them to give a new product a chance, and they're very risk averse. There's a liability to it, because if you're Bacardi, you can just launch Bacardi Super Melon Gold and you don't have to take the chance of launching something like VeeV. Now, it probably won't be a home run, but it will probably be a double or a triple, so they usually just stick with brand extension or line extensions.

On the flip side of that, as a consumer living in New York, I was usually drinking Red Bull and vodkas because I was tired from work all the time. I was just really bored with the things I was drinking. So the combination of those things made me think it would be great to come up with something different that, as our motto suggests, was a better way to drink.

So we just started out on that idea of a better way to drink, without any real proposition or any particular ingredients in mind. The first step was to backsolve and figure out which ingredients would fulfill that proposition. The first one that came to mind was açaí, the Brazilian fruit. My brother and I discovered açaí on a surfing trip in 2003 and really loved it, and when did a little research, we said "Wow, this is the next big thing." You see that it has all the attributes of pomegranate, but it's much healthier and has a better backstory from Brazil. We saw that it was about to explode, so that became our keystone ingredient.


So what are some of the properties of Açaí that make it that perfect keystone ingredient?
Açaí is filled with antioxidants- 57% more than pomegranate. It's also generally touted as the most well-rounded fruit or vegetable on the planet. Whereas if you eat an orange, you get a ton of vitamin C but very little else. If you eat açaí, you get very real amounts of protein, fiber, essential fatty acids, and antioxidants. They call it the Amazon Viagra, "nature's vitality" in the Amazon, and it's incredibly healthy.

It only grows in the Amazon rainforest, and if all that wasn't enough, Oprah just named it her number one superfood. So that's what got us started with açaí. We really liked it because it has a healthier taste profile- very exotic, like a dark berry with a hint of chocolate, but it also has a taste that's just familiar enough yet just exotic enough that it's a little different.

Obviously sustainability is a core part of the VeeV brand. Can you tell us more about that?
I don't profess to be a member of the green movement for 20 years, because I'm only 28, but our parents always raised us to be conscious and aware. They instilled us with the idea that what affects one of us affects all of us. There was that element where I asked if the alcohol business was really what I wanted to do. If so, I wanted to make it a little more meaningful, a little differentiated, and nobody in alcohol space was doing anything remotely green or eco-friendly. We're really trying to be the first, be the pioneers. I'm sure- hopefully- people will start copying us if we have any success. If Bacardi and these other companies start mimicking VeeV, that's good for everybody and the planet. Our motto is "Better your life, your conscience, and your cocktail."

On the green front, our biggest initiative is that we donate $1 for every bottle we sell, right off our top line, back to the rainforest where açaí comes from, to help offset our carbon footprint and help provide sustainable, organic açaí through a farming project that we co-fund with Sambazon, who is the main purveyor of non-alcoholic açaí juice. If you saw our press kit, all our materials are on recycled paper printed with soy ink. Everybody in the company either drives a hybrid or is carbon-neutral. Our distillery is the only one in America that gets at least 25% of their power through wind generation, and their distillation uses about 200% less energy than a traditional hot still. The last thing is that VeeV is the only alcohol brand that's a member of Business for Social Responsibility, and several other leading green organizations like Co-Op America and Social Ventures Network.

VeeV launched in May of last year in Los Angeles, a couple months after that in San Diego, about two months ago in San Francisco, and actually as we speak, in Miami.

My understanding is that acai production is limited to Brazil. With that in mind, can you talk about your long-term sourcing strategy?
Açaí is only available from the rainforest in Brazil. That's the only place it grows. If you ask people in Brazil, they think China's going to start growing it, but it's unlikely that will actually happen. There's a bee that's key to the fertilization and pollination process that they don't think the Chinese will be able to mimic, so it's only from the rainforest. In some ways that adds to the mysticism, allure, and exoticism of the berry.

There's been this trade off between high-end and green: is this going to be luxurious, or is it going to be green? The two have been mutually exclusive for a long time, and people are just starting to find ways to use green to add to the brand rather than make it a detraction.

In terms of sourcing, currently less than 1% of all the açaí that's out there is currently utilized. So there's a ton of wild, unharvested açaí, so there's no issues with sourcing or anything to worry about as far as cutting down trees or anything. In fact, the açaí boom has been really good for the rainforest. As we all know, the Amazon rainforest became deforested because it was planted with soy and other agribusiness, but the way açaí is harvested is sustainable. You kind of cut these little branches at the top of the tree, you don't actually cut down the tree or do anything else to harm the surrounding flora or fauna.

One of the really remarkable things about VeeV is that aside from having really innovative, functional ingredients, it's all wrapped in a great brand. Is "glamorous green" important to VeeV?
It's really important. As you pointed out, that's been the shortcoming of a lot of green products. There's been this trade of between high-end and green: is this going to be luxurious, or is it going to be green? The two have been mutually exclusive for a long time, and people are just starting to find ways to use green to add to the brand rather than make it a detraction.

There's a fashion designer named Linda Loudermilk that we do a lot of stuff with, and she coined the phrase "luxury eco." She's the first designer in her space to have very high end clothes that are also very eco-friendly. I'd put us in the same category. Our brand is very appealing and high-end, but we're able to capture both the high-end and green markets without asking people to make a sacrifice or tradeoff.

Corporate social responsibility is getting a lot of press right now. How does CSR play out for VeeV in comparison to mainstream products? Do you see CSR as a competitive advantage for VeeV?
Yes, I definitely see it as a competitive advantage. With all due respect to what anybody is doing, because even small things are great if they help further the cause, when I see brands that I know are not making money say "A portion of the proceeds go to charity," I'm a little skeptical. What does that really mean? First of all, if they're not making any money, so 100% of zero is still zero. Second, "charity" is kind of a nebulous thing, and maybe I'm a cynic, but unfortunately there's a lot of charities out there that don't use their money wisely. So our mission was to make it a really real, digestible story.

We wanted to make it ring true and hit home, because consumers are very astute. People are going to wise up to claims like "a portion of proceeds," whereas ours is very tangible and specific, and nobody can really question where it's actually going.

There's companies out there like 1 Percent For The Planet or Patagonia that are donating 1% of their sales. We're donating $1 dollar for every bottle, which is a heck of a lot more than 1% of our sales. A bottle goes for $34.99, and that's the end price, not the price we sell it for.

We wanted to make it a very real amount, so nobody could accuse us of not being green or not living up to what we say we're doing. To have this go back to the rainforest where açaí comes from, and for it to help offset our carbon footprint and provide sustainable açaí, that's a much tighter, more tangible and real story. We wanted to make it ring true and hit home, because consumers are very astute. People are going to wise up to claims like "a portion of proceeds," whereas ours is very tangible and specific, and nobody can really question where it's actually going.

Consumers used to give companies an "A for effort." If you did anything, they gave you a pat on the back. But now they're asking a lot more questions.
For sure. From our side, we do a lot of events, so we get lots of calls from people that ask use to sponsor their "green event." And even just six months ago, we probably would have said that if you're doing any kind of green event, we probably want to be a part of it, but now we have to ask what you're really doing. Just having recycled napkins isn't enough, you know?

On the other hand, I do applaud anybody for taking the first step and doing something. It's just that using recycled napkins doesn't constitute a green event, and I can't sponsor everything, but it's certainly better than nothing.

One of the challenges for niche, lifestyle brands like VeeV is "crossing the chasm": making that transition to a mainstream product without losing the credibility of the core consumers that got them there in the first place. Do you see that as an issue for VeeV in the future?
Well, it's hard for me to say because we haven't crossed that chasm yet. But if you look at our press, the events we've attached ourselves to, the celebrities we've been mentioned with- like we were just in People for doing Matthew McConahaughey's birthday- it's been people like Drew Barrymore, Adrian Grenier, or Leonardo DiCaprio. We're not selling our soul just to get someone to hold a bottle, it's people that know VeeV, they're often very green conscious. I don't know the answer to your question, but I hope that by doing it the right way, we're aligning ourselves with the right people and making it more authentic and it will resonate with consumers as it becomes a more mainstream product.

The unfortunate reality is that the green product space is full of myths, hype, and snake oil. How can consumers sort through all of it?
At the end of the day, it's got to come down to consumers being more educated and having a more discerning eye. There will always be people claiming things, that's just the nature of industry.

All we can do is be very honest about what we are and what we aren't. If someone asks me if this is healthy alcohol, I don't know about that. It's still alcohol, and over the course of time, it will do more harm to you than good. But is it healthier? Is there a little bit of nutrition? Are there better quality ingredients, meaning 100% natural or organic, thus making it a better option? Absolutely, and I would never advertise it as anything other than that.

I would put it in the same category as red wine. A couple glasses in moderation can be good. We're providing people with a better option.

We are what we are, and we aren't what we aren't, and being honest about it is the only way to do it. People will see that our product is authentic, and even if we have shortcomings, we're offering a better option. Whether it's the product, or as a company, are we perfect? No, but we're absolutely not fake, and that's the human side of it.

I'm really impressed with your honesty. It seems like you're doing everything you can to make VeeV 100% authentic and transparent. Is that a key part of your brand?
Yeah, it really is. For example, any celebrity you see with VeeV, if you ask them, I guarantee they know what VeeV is.

The worst thing you can do in general as a marketer is mislead the consumer. As soon as you cheat them, or make them feel like they were duped, you'll never get them back. That's the last thing we want to do. We are what we are, and we aren't what we aren't, and being honest about it is the only way to do it. People will see that our product is authentic, and even if we have shortcomings, we're offering a better option. Whether it's the product, or as a company, are we perfect? No, but we're absolutely not fake, and that's the human side of it.

Will the competition adapt to these new consumer expectations, or are they always going to be stuck where they're at?
I hope so, at some point. But having dealt with them, and it sounds like you have too, there's just so many layers of the onion to peel back. You can get me on the phone like this and I'm going to be honest with you, but if you go to Procter & Gamble and ask them about the trans-fatty acids in Pringles, you're going to have a tough time getting someone on the phone that's going to really level with you. Half of it is that you can't even get the person on the phone to speak to them.

So I don't know if they'll ever get there, but the only way it will work is if consumers demand it. If consumers demand authenticity and real answers, then I think someone's going to have to step up to the plate and talk to you about Pringles or Twinkies or whatever.

It seems like these big, public companies just don't have it in their DNA to be as responsive as consumers are asking them to be.
That's the advantage of being a small company, we can be nimble and change course. We haven't drastically changed course, but you're always navigating the waters and adjusting a little bit. It's not always an advantage to be small, but being nimble and quick to react is what we bank on.

So what's next for VeeV?
I'll tell you what's not next. There's currently no new products in development, because I think VeeV is already unique enough. It's already challenging enough to get the word out about VeeV in the right way that we don't want to confuse the market. At least in the next 12 months, there's no plans for any new products.

Our launch strategy is to deepen before we broaden, and we're looking to expand our presence in the markets we're in. For example, in Los Angeles, we're in all of the tastemaker and influencer spots, but we're not everywhere, so that will start to trickle down into other markets. We're expanding into Miami this month into the end of the year. Looking into 2008, we'll be expanding into Chicago and Vegas, and New York will definitely be on the docket shortly thereafter, and a number of other areas like Colorado and Arizona.

VeeV has worked because we've expanded fairly aggressively to expand into four cities in six months, but we haven't tried to overdo our presence in any of those. We've just gone after our demographic, the right demographic- the people that set trends. It makes it a lot more digestible to go for that market and hope it trickles down. We just don't have the budget of bigger companies, so we have to do it smarter rather than just with more dollars.

+ The New York Times: Well

I was watching on of those morning shows today when I heard a quick blurb for this column. When I checked it out I found a wealth of great, current information on Health & Wellness.

So please go check it out:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/

+ NPR's Marketplace reports on localism

Following up on Everybody Eats, our earlier piece on some Cincinnati farmers that are leading the local food movement comes this excellent story from NPR. It describes some entrepreneurs from my hometown of Bellingham, Washington that are creating a remarkable, local, and self-sustaining economy:

Now, if you took this neighborly business-to-business relationship across an entire town, you'd have a self-sustaining, local economy. Then imagine that model spread around the whole world, and you're glimpsing the revolutionary vision of the new "buy local" movement. It's anti-globalization on a global scale. The movement has even begun to spawn conferences with standing-room only.

Don Shaffer: Our vision is not to just have strong groups in Bellingham and Boulder, Colorado, and Madison, Wisconsin -- the places where you might imagine that this would take root -- but to go well beyond that. And we see a sustainable global economy as a network of local living economies.

Bellingham is tiny, but it's always been a hotbed of progressive thinking and lifestyles that are a little ahead of the curve. If you're ever in the Seattle area, it's worth the drive up to Bellingham to check out the community they've built.

Check out the story here.

+ Looking for healthy recipes?

Current research shows foods with once unhealthy reputations are in fact leading ingredients for health and wellness.

"Now that scientists are looking beneath the surface at mushrooms, avocados, and peanuts-as well as once-maligned eggs and coffee-redeeming qualities for each of these five foods are coming to light. They have nutritional respect and deserve a place at your table."

Check out the article here to read the misconceptions, benefits, and recipe ideas.

+ Wellness in the Workplace: An Interview FRCH's Sarah Phillips

FRCH Design Worldwide is an international architecture, interior and graphic design firm serving some of the world’s most recognized brands in the retail and hospitality markets. Recently they’ve instituted FRCH Fit, a wellness program designed to help their 275 employees be physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy. We’re excited to talk with Sarah Phillips to learn more about the program.

First of all, tell us a little about FRCH Fit and what inspired you to start the program.
Corporate wellness programs are very popular. Of course, being in HR, we see insurance costs going up and employee absenteeism on the rise. So we started a wellness program to try and combat all of these things. And Its definitely about keeping the employees healthy, but not just physically healthy. We plan to offer a new initiative each quarter focusing on a different type of wellness. Our first two will focus on physical fitness and nutrition, but we also want to spend some time working on emotional wellness and stress management, financial stability and planning, and community involvement. We want a well-rounded approach. We like the name FRCH Fit because we can tailor the name to what type of fitness we’re looking at for a quarter – Financially Fit, Emotionally Fit, etc.

What’s the reaction been so far?
Since our kickoff on October 19th, the reaction has been really good. I’ve seen people wearing the pedometers we gave out and everyone seems interested. Many people have told me, “We needed this” or “I’m glad to see this.” We had a lot more people interested in being on the committee than we could take on.

One of the big challenges with wellness programs is that they can be hard to measure. How will you know when the program is successful?
Hopefully we can see our insurance costs go down and less sick days used. We also hope to offer individual health assessments, blood testing, cholesterol tests, etc. These types of results FRCH would not see, they’re just for the individual. Hopefully they can use their results to keep an eye on their personal goals or identify potential problems.

Are there any risks or drawbacks to having a wellness program?
We plan to keep our initiatives manageable and encourage small steps to change, so we don’t anticipate any risks. For example, our first initiative was to get everyone thinking about physical fitness, so we gave every employee a water bottle and pedometer, and our literature included some walking routes downtown. Just walking around at lunchtime could help get your blood pumping and clear your mind. But I’d advise anyone with serious health issues or conditions to see their physician with any concerns about starting a workout program.

This pedometer is a nice piece of product design. Its just a detail, but its important for a creative company to have a nice looking product for it’s employees.
We definitely took that into account. Everyone here is so creative and so visual that we knew if it didn’t look nice it would be ignored. Branding is one of the services our firm provides, so we knew how important it was to create and identity around the wellness committee. It needed to have a sharp look and I think it turned out nicely.

Why do you think the trend in health and wellness is so prevalent now?
Some of it still comes back to the bottom line and reducing costs and absenteeism. But we also want to keep people happy and provide people with resources to encourage a healthy lifestyle. Nowadays people get so busy and are always multitasking, and as a firm we want to make things easier for them. A lot of people may want to stay healthy but don’t know how or don’t feel they have the time. Cooking a healthy dinner after work is a daunting task for some, but if we provide “quick & easy” recipes it might be more manageable. Maybe you don’t have time to schedule an appointment for a flu shot, so we brought a nurse in to do them on-site. Again, just some manageable tools and tips to help point people in the right direction.

So would you say that you see it as your responsibility to help?
I think so, that’s fair to say. We think it’s a smart business decision.

How do you show people that this program isn’t just lip service to a current trend?
I think we have to continue to find resources and new information to share. Just introducing one idea and leaving it alone won’t give the program success. We plan to get a site up on our intranet that can keep people involved with a lot of revolving content – different recipes, neat links, and other resources. We definitely don’t want to just throw these pedometers at everyone and not bring it up again for a couple months until our next initiative. We don’t want to throw it in anyone’s face but we want to try and keep information available to them. We’ve also encouraged the employees to email our committee with any ideas or feedback, so hopefully that will help keep people engaged and interested.

Do you have any advice for our readers who are interested in creating their own wellness program?
There are a ton of great resources and tools online that help you come up with ideas and get started. If you don’t have a lot of money to spend, you can get creative. With Wellness Programs becoming a trend, you can find free or inexpensive offerings. Local gyms will be happy to partner with you to offer discounted rates to your employees. Most restaurants have healthy menu options, you could research the local lunch spots and come up with suggestions on what to order. Organize an exercise group to walk or bike after work. And you can’t do it alone! We have a great committee that works on this, with a representative from each of our studios and departments. That helps us spread our message and brings a lot of different ideas to the table.

Thanks for talking with us, Sarah. It was great to learn about FRCH Fit and how you’re helping your employees lead healthier lives.
Thank you.

+ Putting the "Bio" in Biowheels

I have been a loyal customer to BioWheels bike shop here in Cincinnati for over 10 years now. BioWheels is a great shop that strives to educate the community about the benefits of cycling for healthier planet, community, and individual.

While I miss my friend (& BioWheels owner) Matt Johnson, who moved to Asheville, NC years ago to start a new location there, I'm happy to announce that they have finally realized their dream. Their new location in Asheville, NC has put the 'Bio" in Biowheels & is a completely green building. Check out the full article here:

http://www.biowheels.org/Home/Article.asp?ArticleID=560

Check back next week for our interview with Mitch Graham of the Cincinnati shop.

+ Wake up! Caffeine and Beyond

In today's society we're offered an array of options for staying awake and alert, from over the counter drugs, to energy drinks, to the trusted cup of coffee. An interesting study from Rush University Medical Center discusses the proper use of caffeine, which as it turns out, is different from how most of us use it:

The researchers propose a novel regimen, consisting of frequent low doses of caffeine, to help shift workers, medical residents, truck drivers, and others who need to stay awake get a bigger boost from their tea or coffee.

At the extreme end of staying alert is modafinil, which reportedly allows users to stay awake for 48 hours without side effects. CNN Health reports on this and the rest of a new breed of "lifestyle drugs" in Rise and Shine - Wake up to an enhanced life:

It may sounds like something from a J.G. Ballard novel, but a new breed of lifestyle drugs could allow us to choose how much we sleep, boost our memories and even allow us to enjoy ourselves more, without any side effects. Will they unleash human capabilities never seen before or create a dystopian 24-hour society where we are dependent on drugs to regulate our lifestyle and behavior?

Click here to read the full article.

+ Vertically integrated beverage innovation: An interview with Amelia Bay

The world of beverages moves faster than most, and few parts of beverage move faster than tea. Fueling much of the category's growth is the furious pace of innovation, in terms of ingredients, sourcing, extraction, packaging, and just about any other dimension you care to measure. Amelia Bay, a vertically integrated extraction company, has been at the forefront of this growth, and AB's Jason Crandall was kind enough to tell us about it. Be sure to check out the Amelia Bay site for more details. Thanks to Jason for his time and attention.

First of all, can you just give us some background on Amelia Bay?
We are an extraction company. We extract all kinds of botanical products, mostly in tea. We've been doing this for about 10 years now, and as the market's changed, we've changed too. Now, we're almost more of an engineering firm than anything else, catering to the beverage industry, whereby we bring in all sorts of agricultural products like tea, coffee, pomegranates, mate, you name it. We extract these products right here, concentrate them and formulate these materials into finished beverage products. So, a customer could come to us and say "I want to launch this tea or tea/juice blend," and we would source all the leaf tea from different parts of the world, we would source the juice or fruit, bring them in and do all the extraction work here, process all the components and polyphenols in the components, then put them back together into a super concentrated extract that ships in a drum to the bottler where water, sugar, and whatever else is added to bring it to a ready to drink state, then it goes in bottles and onto the shelves.

What products are out right now that you've worked on?
Unfortunately, we have non-disclosure agreements with all our customers. But, they're big companies- a lot of the major brands you see on the shelf right now.

One of the unique things about Amelia Bay is your vertical integration. Can you tell us exactly what that means?
What that means is that we have nobody we buy from except for tea plantations in Indonesia, Argentina, China, Africa, etcetera. We're certified organic as well as fair trade, and what that means is that we buy organic products, bring them in, process them, extract them, formulate them, and ship it to the bottler.

In the past, if you wanted to formulate a beverage, you'd go to a flavor house that buys different flavors, and they all buy from one another, and you'd have five different companies in the middle. Where with us, there's nobody in the middle. We buy from the growers, do all the processing, and ship to the bottler.

That sounds really powerful, because it enables you to have strict control over the entire "chain of custody" for the whole product.
It absolutely does, which is why we have non-disclosure agreements. A lot of people ship in their own ingredients, we don't even source them. They have a specific tea or fruit from a specific plantation that they want to do. They ship it into us, and we do all the extraction work. All these formulas are owned by our company, but they're unique to a specific customer, and we can't copy that for anyone else.

We're focusing on health & wellness trends in both beverage and society in general. What trends are you seeing right now?
People are interested in what they're putting in their bodies. They're interested in reading labels, in reading about polyphenols, in functional foods that provide a health benefit, and I think you're going to see that continue to grow. Now whether that's just tea, I don't know. Tea will continue to grow, tea juice blends will continue to grow, mate, any of these things that were previously considered nutritional supplements, you'll see more of them in the beverage and food industry. I don't think that will backslide. The selection is going to grow and change, I don't think people are going to go back to ordering a Coke. Their days are sort of numbered. But you see major players like Coke and Pepsi launching more functional products. It's a big change in the industry.

Is there a lot of hocus pocus? Yeah, there is. But there's a lot of legitimate companies out there making a lot of legitimate products. The energy drinks launched it in the 90s, like Red Bull. Why drink something else when you can drink a Red Bull that will energize you and do all this other stuff? It's grown and evolved from there into all sorts of market segments, like Whole Foods.

You mentioned all the hocus-pocus out there. How can people sort through all the information and get through the hocus-pocus and snake oil?
Unfortunately, you have to do your homework. Anything that's a functional beverage, for example, our customers aren't allowed to put any health claims on the label. That's the ruling by the FDA. You can say that such-and-such is in the product, but you can't say what such-and-such does. So in a way it's good, and in a way it's bad.

For someone that's interested in learning about what they're putting in their body, the information is out there. It's on the internet. You can learn about all these things, but you've got to take the time to learn about it. And none of it's under the ruling of the FDA, they're not governing what you can and can't eat, so you have to do the homework.

Food safety and other sourcing issues have been in a news a lot lately. Has that affected your business at all?
Of course it's affected us, like anybody else. China is a huge supplier of tea, and we've had to pretty much quit buying from China. It's not that we've ever had any problem, but just to avoid any problems, don't buy from China. Buy from Japan. Buy from Africa. They all sell green tea. It's more expensive, so it's raised our costs, and that gets passed onto the consumer, although not a great deal. But we quit buying from China, because it's not worth the hassle of having someone come to us and say that such-and-such is in our tea.

Are consumers willing to pay that price premium?
Sure. All these companies, toy companies for example, they're not making toys in China because it's a better way to do it, they're doing it because it's less expensive. You're going to see costs rise in all kinds of products that were formerly sourced in China, because it's a massive industrial country with cheap labor. If you lose that supplier, costs are going to go up across the board, not just in food.

So is the customer going to be willing to pay the higher price? I don't see where they'll have much choice. The more heat that gets put on China, the more toys that get recalled, the more dog food that gets recalled, these are all costs that are incurred, and they have to go somewhere. It's just Econ 101.

Yeah, it seems like people are beginning to realize that there's no free lunch, that if they want higher-quality materials, there's going to be a cost.
The customers that we've added in the last year are choosing to use raw materials that cost probably four or five times the raw materials we've used in the past. Which is really interesting to me, because the housing market has crapped out, the stock market is kind of "eh." There's a lot of uncertainty, but people are putting massive amounts of money into their products- and it's not just tea or food ingredients, it's also the packaging- the bottles, the labels, the type of packaging they're using, it's outrageously expensive compared to what they were using a few years ago which was just like your basic bottle of Coke. They're quadrupuling their costs, but there must be people buying it. Go to Whole Foods. It costs five times more to shop there compared to any other grocery chain, and that comes from reputation and quality of product.

Tea has been growing really fast over the past decade or so. Can it continue to grow like this forever, or will it plateau soon?
Right now, tea is continuing to grow. We've shipped more tea this month than we ever have in the history of the company. Will it continue? I don't know. We're always looking at doing new products, and we've changed a lot in the last year. We're not just tea, we've gotten into lots of functional beverage products to satisfy the growing demand. Like I said, I don't think people are going to switch from functional products back to drinking Coke or Pepsi, but will it continue to be just tea? Of course not. People will find new products. Like stevia. Are you familiar with that?

It's a sweetener, right?
Well, you're not supposed to call it a sweetener. But it's a long time sweetener that been used forever, but there's laws that say we're not supposed to use it in products because of the sugar lobby in this company. There's laws against using the word "sweet" next to "stevia."

Wow, really?
Oh yeah. That's why you never see any products with it. But stevia alone is getting a lot of attention. There's just all kinds of things, not just tea. Look at what's happening with pomegranates, with acai, mate... Is it going to plateau? Will people get sick of hearing about these things that are so hot right now? Yeah, I think they will. But is the core idea of functional foods and beverages going to go away? No.

Health is going to be at the forefront of food forever. It's not going to change. People want to live longer and be healthier. It's going to grow and change as new products get developed. The process we use for stripping polyphenols out of agricultural products is an amazing process that wasn't around a few years ago. The technology is going to grow, too. It's not going to just be that new foods are found, it's going to be the technology to get the nutrients from those foods. It's all growing.

The last question I had is, what separates good tea from great tea?
It depends what the consumer wants. The tea that we provide is not the biggest selling tea in the country. The biggest sellers would be Nestea, which if you ask me is more of a tea drink than a real tea, but they sell more of it than anyone else. That's junk, you might as well be drinking a Coke.

So the concept of what good tea is or what great tea is continues to change. Great tea, in the eyes of a tea taster or a taste buyer would be more like the high end stuff from India and Indonesia that mostly goes to the European market. Most of the great teas don't come to the United States. But that's through the eyes of a connoissuer.

Great tea in the southeast, which we provide a ton of, is your standard sweetened black tea with sugar, and that's great in the southeast. So, it means different things to different people.

+ Cathedral of Fitness

I recently did some shopping around for a new gym. As a year round competitive cyclist the wear & tear on the body finally took its toll & I ended up with a back injury. While I had to stay off the bike for a few weeks, the doc said I could swim and use those elliptical trainers. It was then that I went shopping around for a new gym.

I visited at least 3 other facilities before I decided on this beauty of space. A lot of the local gyms were somewhat disappointing. A majority were poorly renovated and dimly lit. I finally found this gem at my alma mater, the University of Cincinnati. (It was designed by Thomas Mayne/Morphosis & KZF Cincinnati.) While it is hardly "brand new" since it was completed in 2005 I urge everyone to visit it and explore a truly inspiring space for fitness.

Visit it on the web:
Official site
Morphosis site
Online tour
Business Journal profile

+ Healthy Living Delivered: An interview with Door to Door Organics

Door to Door Organics delivers fresh organic produce and groceries to customers in Colorado, Michigan, Pennsylvania and the Ohio River Valley. With a core emphasis on operating a zero waste, socially conscious business model, Door to Door supports organic agriculture and the people who keep it real. TGG interviewed Isaac Foust of Door to Door Organics.

How did you be come involved in Door to Door Organics?
I met Door to Door Organics in Colorado. They were looking for a source for organic coffee for their customers. My father-in-law is a coffee importer, working with growers in Chiapas, Mexico. Door to Door found that their customers really enjoyed the coffee, so they went ahead and carried it. Through that relationship I became a Door to Door customer and began to order boxes from them. When I learned that they are a zero waste company and had environmental and socially conscious intentions I became really interested. Upon talking with them further, I ended up managing their warehouse for a while. As the relationship grew I was offered the opportunity to open a Door to Door Organics hub wherever I wanted to.

Door to Door is an organic produce delivery service that delivers to people's homes and offices. We also deliver to schools, hospitals and drop-off locations as well. Our goal is to be a little more directed to making a change for the greener good. Our focus is to build a model of a company that is being as responsible as it can be. For example, we are going to try to make all of our own biodiesel fuel from recyclable oil from local restaurants. Currently we are sourcing our biodiesel from JatroDiesel, an Ohio based equipment manufacturer and biodiesel producer.

With the increasing cost of energy and climate concerns, home delivery presents challenges. How do you address issues of making your service cost effective and being socially responsible?
We can make our business cost effective by keeping our overhead low and the focus of our business very specific. We are providing organic produce. I have a warehouse and delivery vehicles so my overhead stays low as compared to a grocery store. I do not have to have a staff of employees and stay open everyday, all day long. I have lower operating costs than a grocery store.The website we use is really nice. It puts everything together for my customers in a way that is very understandable.

As far as being socially responsible, my goal is in three years to have my warehouse 100% off the grid. Right now what we are doing is running our vehicles on biodiesel. We also have a zero waste model. We compost and recycle at every opportunity in our operation.

What are your plans to "get off the grid"?
We intend to build a green building for our Ohio River Valley operation. I have been given a really big boost in confidence from the models that I have looked at. If we can be as successful here as our business in Colorado and Michigan, then I am certain we can achieve this goal.

Speaking of locations, from your website I see that you serve many different areas. How does Door to Door make that work?
There are main hubs. The Philadelphia hub is the original Door to Door and serves most of our east coast customers directly. The Door to Door in Colorado is the second one. We now have an Ann Arbor, Michigan hub and the Ohio River Valley hub just starting in Cincinnati. Basically we deliver within a three hour radius of a hub.

You really have a lot of passion for this project. What is driving that?
In my personal habits and consumption I became more interested in organics and whole foods the more I learned about them and experienced the difference of organic foods. A great example is oranges and especially strawberries. They just taste so much better. There is more and more research that confirms the higher nutritional benefit There is a perception that organic foods are more expensive than conventionally produced foods but I don't think that is always necessarily the case. Local farmers are often more than "organic" and they don't always buy into the official government "Organic" stamp. We talk to local farmers and understand what they are doing and share that with our customers. Our goal is as much local sources as possible. The goal is to know our farmers. Responsibility does not have to fall by the wayside in order to have a successful business. We have a very open door policy that helps the customers understand the value we provide. For me, I am really interested in more than just delivering produce. I am interested in building customer relationships.

Learn more about Door to Door Organics and biodiesel.

+ Do You Need A Flu Shot?

Flu season is in full swing and we often forget that the flu kills about 36,000 Americans a year, and leads to about 200,000 hospitalizations. Influenza viruses cause this contagious, respiratory illness. Check out the CDC Flu website to remind yourself of the season's tips to staying healthy.

+ The Debate on High Fructose Corn Syrup

The jury is still not out. In fact, the trial over High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) has only just begun. The low-cost sugar substitute has been under severe scrutiny ever since Barry M. Bopkin, a nutrition professor at the University of North Carolina, and George A. Bray, a professor of medicine at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., published their ideas on the possible link between HFCS and America's obesity problem in 2004. The coincidence is astounding: just as HFCS is quickly adopted by many food industries in the early 1980's, the American obesity rates doubled after being relatively flat for the preceeding 20 years. But is high fructose corn syrup to blame, or is it something more nuanced? The New York Times took on the question in 2006 in the article "A Sweetener with a Bad Rap", and found that the HFCS industry was fighting an image battle that was essentially baseless; almost fear mongering.

"There's no substantial evidence to support the idea that high-fructose corn syrup is somehow responsible for obesity," said Dr. Walter Willett, the chairman of the nutrition department of the Harvard School of Public Health and a prominent proponent of healthy diets. "If there was no high-fructose corn syrup, I don't think we would see a change in anything important. I think there's this overreaction."

The article explores a number of misconceptions about what exactly HFCS is, how it is processed, how it's used in a variety of products and even discusses how it is able to garnish the sought after 'Natural' label by the FDA. Though many consumers of organic and natural foods around the world have made up their minds to stay far away from the nearly ubiquitous ingredient, many in the industry are hoping that they take another look. Recently, the Corn Refiners Association put up their own defense website HFCSfacts.com giving a glowing review and debunking many of the criticisms that have come their way.

Still, it is an astounding coincidence in a world that is searching for quick answers and even quicker solutions. Another fact I was amazed by (the amount that we consume on a yearly basis) illustrates the economic despair that has the HFCS industry scrambling for answers to their own image problem...

Annual per capita consumption of the sweetener is down 7 percent, to 59.2 pounds in 2005, from its peak of 63.7 pounds in 1999, according to the Agriculture Department. ...this is attributable less to the negative perceptions of high-fructose corn syrup than to the popularity of drinks with fewer calories, such as diet soda, bottled water and sports drinks.

Read the whole article here...

+ Interview with WheyUP founder Erik Rothchild

It's no secret that beverage is an extremely competitive category, with incredibly fast-paced innovation and product development cycles. We think of it as a little crystal ball: if it's big in beverage, you can bet it will be big in other categories in the next year or two. And if there's any one trend or theme that's dominant in beverage, it's health and wellness. From functional energy drinks to organic teas and fair trade coffee, beverage is at the forefront.

One of the coolest products we've seen is WheyUP, an innovative protein energy drink with a light, juice-like consistency. Erik Rothchild, founder and owner of WheyUP, was kind enough to spend some time talking to us. Be sure to check out the WheyUP website for more information. We really appreciate Erik's time, and wish him the best with WheyUP.

First of all, tell us a little bit about where WheyUP came from, where we can get it, and all that.
WheyUP is a non-carbonated, sugar-free, energy drink that has 20 grams of whey protein in it. It's the first of it's kind that combines the benefits of two. I launched it in Phoenix, and it's been in a retailer called Hi Health that has 53 locations in Phoenix. It's become one of the fastest selling drinks in their 35-year history, it's really taken off. I'm testing it this month in the top 200 GNCs in the country. I've been in there for about four weeks, and every week the sales keep increasing. If the tests continue to go well, they'll increase the number of stores with WheyUP, and they have 3500 stores in the US. I also sell online through my website, as well as Bodybuilding.com, which is one of the biggest supplement resellers in the world. I also just finished a distribution deal with someone in Canada, and I'm in the process of doing a deal in Australia. So I'm starting to get some global attention.

"I originally intended it to be just a pre-workout drink, but it's turning into something with mass appeal. It's turned into a great diet drink, because it's like getting up in the morning and having a cup of coffee with a scoop of protein in it."

The way I came up with it was just in my kitchen. I'm an amateur boxer, and I'd train in the morning, and read in Muscle & Fitness magazine that they'd recommend 20 grams of protein before and after you work out. So I wanted to have protein for my workout at 5:30 AM. I'd take a blender, a sugar free energy drink, some strawberries for taste, and put a scoop of whey protein powder in there. For six months or so, I just blended up my own combination of a protein energy drink. Going into the stores, like GNC, I couldn't find anything like that, so I just figured I'd do it myself. A lot of people have asked me why nobody else did it first, and all I can say is, "I don't know!"

I originally intended it to be just a pre-workout drink, but it's turning into something with mass appeal. It's turned into a great diet drink, because it's like getting up in the morning and having a cup of coffee with a scoop of protein in it. It has 20 grams of protein, 1 gram of carbs, 90 calories, no fat, it's sugar-free, and in one shot you get protein and energy. So I'm hearing that a lot of people will have one for breakfast, and it takes them all the way to lunch.

What's the reaction been like so far to WheyUP?
The neat thing about it is that it's taken off in a very grassroots way. A lot of people have found out about me like you did, through the web or whatever, and they'll call me up and get on board. Right now I've got a few Olympic athletes that I'm endorsing, I've got a Paralympic athlete on the Mountain Dew tour that I'm sponsoring. He rides his wheelchair on the skateboard ramp on these events, and I've been sending him about 25 cases for every event up in the athlete's tent. He says the skaters are just freaking out over it, because all they're getting at these events is Mountain Dew and Pepsi, and these guys are athletes- they want something with protein in it.

I've got little pockets of MMA and UFC fighters that are drinking WheyUP. I've got a camp down in Athens, Georgia, called The Hardcore Gym, where Forrest Griffin came from. I've been talking to Adam Singer, he's a huge fan of WheyUP, and I think WheyUP is going to sponsor the Hardcore Gym.

Oh cool, they're good guys.
Yeah! When I first talked to Adam, I asked him what he thought of the drink. He said "Let me tell you how much I like it. I'm in the car right now drinking one, and I've got four empty ones on the floor of the car." I said, "Man, you are a fan- but you've gotta clean up your car!"

It seems like consumers have become more aware of protein in the last couple of years, and they're integrating it into their diets more than ever. What are your thoughts on that?
The one thing I definitely want to stress is that I'm by no means a scientist or a dietician. I'm just truly a guy who read stuff and was the first to put this combination together. But, I'll tell you that being in this industry for 16 or 17 months since I came up with this concept, I really believe that protein is the next "it" ingredient. You've got Accelerade, which is basically Gatorade with protein, you've got Special K's K20, a protein water, there's a protein soda. As you mentioned, more and more people are realizing the overall health benefits of whey protein.

For example, I have a lot of seniors here in Phoenix that are hooked on WheyUP because their doctors are recommending to their elderly patients that they consume more protein.

Yeah, it's good for offsetting osteoporosis.
It's good for that, and it helps maintain the deteriorating muscle mass that everyone goes through as they get older.

One of the unique things about WheyUP is its light consistency, as opposed to the shake-like consistency that you usually see in protein drinks. How has that played out for you?
Well, my original concept for WheyUP was in a 16 oz. can, because that's what all the other energy drinks are in. I was thinking it would fit in well at a convenience store or whatever, and I actually brought the first version out in like that. But like you said, and I didn't realize this at the time, once people who were familiar with protein drinks see the word "whey" on a can, they thought it was a thick shake because they couldn't see inside of it. So that's why I switched to a plastic bottle, so you can see the consistency right away.

Why did you choose whey protein, as opposed to rice, soy, casein, or any of the other proteins?
Whey is the most popular form of protein in the fitness industry. If you go into any GNC or health food store, the majority of what they sell is whey protein. The reason being, especially for a pre-workout drink, is that whey is the form that your body absorbs the most quickly. So it's ideal for a pre-workout drink, but if you were going to have protein before you went to bed, you'd want casein protein, because it absorbs the slowest.

Are you interested in developing other products with different kinds of protein or ingredients?
Yeah, sure. I'd like to do a powder form of WheyUP, so you can just mix it with water on your own, I'd like to do a natural version, an "extreme" version that has creatine for the ultimate pre-workout drink. Some people, maybe 1 in 20, don't like caffiene, so maybe I'll do a version with another stimulant.

"Protein is going to be found in a lot more mainstream drinks. [Y]ou're going to start seeing protein added to not just drinks, but all kinds of products."

The energy part of WheyUP is from B vitamins, right?
Yes, B-12, B-6, taurine, and some other things.

So pretty much the standard energy drink combo?
Right. But it's interesting, I'd like to do some research on this, because I hear it a lot, people who drink WheyUP say they don't get the same crash that they do from other energy drinks. There's two things that could explain that: First, it's not loaded with sugar like a lot of them are. Also, there's the protein, so you're body's digesting something.

In a lot of ways, beverage leads the rest of the food world in health & wellness trends. What are the big trends you see right now?
Well, to be honest, I don't know if I'm the best person to answer that question, because this is just something I came across myself by creating it in my kitchen. As far as someone who has 20 years of experience in the beverage industry, I don't. But I'll go back to what I said earlier: Protein is going to be found in a lot more mainstream drinks. Fortunately, I was first to market with this combination. But you're going to start seeing protein added to not just drinks, but all kinds of products.

WheyUP seems to primarily target a hardcore fitness enthusiast right now. What are the challenges there?
Well, I don't know that I'd say hardcore, but I definitely am targeting a core fitness enthusiast. But I'm finding that that ranges from 50 year old guys in the gym 3 days a week to bodybuilders that live by their supplements and workout schedule, to runners, bikers, skaters, a really wide spectrum of people in the fitness industry.

One of the toughest parts of working with enthusiast markets is getting into mainstream distribution channels without losing the credibility of the ethusiasts. Is that something you're concerned about?
I do see that as a challenge. I've thought about that, because I've had interest from Sam's, Wal-Mart, Target, and places like that which are very mainstream. But I'm starting to see more and more products like Muscle Milk, Lean Body, protein powders, bars, and things like that sold at Sam's Club. Those fitness people are shopping at Sam's, and I think it's the retailers that are reacting to consumer needs and the fitness lifestyle that people are adopting. The retailers are carrying more and more of those products, so I don't know that it's a negative for me to advertise in Muscle & Fitness but have that bodybuilder be able to buy WheyUP at Circle K when he goes to pump gas. It's becoming more and more acceptable for these fitness enthusiasts to find their products at mainstream retail.

+ Corporate Wellness Programs on the Rise

In addition to the Corporate Wellness post by Michael, I recently found out that The Cleveland Clinic has not offered employment to smokers since September 1st. Other large companies are following suit. Will this be a new trend in employment screening? While legal, is this policy against an American's right to smoke? Will this policy lead to hiring decisions based on other personal choices like what you eat or drink? I am on the fence about not hiring smokers. I agree companies should be allowed to prohibit smoking at the work place but I am not sure about punishing a person for what they do during non-work hours. I understand that with the rise of health costs, companies are going to do everything they can to keep those costs down. Perhaps rewarding those that don't smoke would be a better alternative than not hiring smokers at all. Below are a few articles on the subject. You decide!

Micah Berman: Hiring only nonsmokers is legal and beneficial

The Trend on Hiring Non-Smokers

Cleveland Clinic's New Nonsmoking Hiring policy Rolls Out July 1

+ Home Healthcare - Better Than Hospiltalization or Nursing Home Care?

With the rising costs of healthcare, some patients and their families try to deal with a person's injury or illness at home rather than using fulltime hospital or nursing home care. Below is an interview with Jay Saylor who is a Home Health Nurse and Nursing Clinical Instructor. She gives her views not only on the future of home care but also what she would like to see changed about the home care nursing profession.

What is your current job title?
Home Health Nurse and Nursing Clinical instructor

What is your educational background?
Associate degree in nursing 1975
Associate degree in arts Psychology 1980
BSN 1993

Please describe the requirements of your job.
Assessment and evaluation of patients in home setting, wound care, specialized treatments, IV therapy, medication therapy, routine Cardio-pulmonary assessment, Gastro intestinal assessment, Genitourinary assessment, Foley catheter care/change, patient teaching as needed, family teaching as indicated.
Clinical instructor for Practical Nurse students at Arbors Nursing Facility, instructor for Registered Nurse students at Children’s Hospital in Cincinnati.

What do you like best and least about your job?
Best is the flexible schedule and wide range of patient’s, students and facilities.
Worst part is being on call after seeing patients all day and having to go back out or being expected to see more patients than you have mental energy to see.

What would you like to see changed about your job?
I would like to see Nurses be as kind and compassionate to each other as they propose we should be to patients, especially those in charge positions. I would also like to see the financial compensation for nurses to be at least equal to someone entering another profession with comparable education and responsibility.

What factors determine if a person will be cared for at home versus in a nursing home or other care facility?
The decision for home care is based on the person’s ability to safely assume responsibility for portions of their care or family who can do this, and the availability of proper equipment/supplies for the home. Nursing, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Home Health Aids (for personal care assistance) and Social Workers are included in the range of services for the home patient. Companies specializing in health care supplies and equipment are also part of the care team.
One major determining factor is how the doctor of the patient feels about home care. Some doctors do not like the home care concept and are reluctant to allow care in the home, often at odds with the patient’s and family’s preference.
In general, all health care is controlled to a great extent by insurance companies. There are a few companies who do not allow or cover home health. The bulk of patients are Medicare and Medicaid insured.

What do you think the future of home health care will look like?
As health care has became more technical, costs have risen and insurance coverages have been reduced or rechanneled. I expect to see continued growth in the home health trend as it is proven more cost effective than hospitalization and for most patients, is more conducive to returning to wellness. I also expect to see continued growth in hospice services in the home setting as part of the home care team.

+ NPD unveils energy drink usage patterns

Energy drinks are one of the most innovative categories in the world of health & wellness (although some might not be the healthiest products), but how do people really use them? We'd like to think energy drinks are the fuel for the most extreme activities on the planet, but the truth is a lot less exciting. According to NPD, by way of BevNet, it turns out that the most popular usage occasion for energy drinks is just getting through a day of work:

A new survey being marketed by consumer trend watchers the NPD group has uncovered the sad little secret of energy drinks — the biggest use isn’t for snowboarding across flaming ski slopes while playing video games and humping everything in our path. It’s for getting enough focus to re-enter the cube and finish up our daily drudgery.

According to the survey, 36 percent of energy drink purchases are work-related; more than travel, school, mealtime and sporting events combined.

What that tells us is that people have a real need for mental alertness at work- not exactly breaking news, but it's always good to have some conclusive, quantitative evidence for our opinions.

Read the full article here

+ Corporate Wellness

Businesses are starting to understand the value of having healthy employees. From lower health care costs to better morale, the benefits of an effective corporate wellness program are plain to see, but sometimes to hard to measure. One of the best resources for learning more about these programs is Welcoa, the Wellness Councils of America.

Welcoa offers a free resource section that includes some great interviews and articles. "Where There's Smoke, You're Fired" is a provocative interview with Howard Weyers, CEO of Weyco.

"By implementing one of the most aggressive approaches to eradicating this significant public health concern, Mr. Weyers has set the bar for addressing tobacco use within American business."

Click here to read the full article.

+ Breaking through the myths: An interview with fitness and nutrition expert Alan Aragon

We're very happy to present this interview with Alan Aragon, Men's Health writer, personal trainer, author, and all-around fitness guru. What makes Alan so remarkable isn't that he's so full of facts, because there are plenty of people toiling away in a lab that are full of facts. What makes him so valuable is that he's able to present this technical, scientific information in a way that's not only digestible to a general audience, but entertaining. We really appreciate his time, and suggest that you check out his website, and read his new book, Girth Control.

I was initially exposed to your work through Men's Health, but tell us a little about who you are and what you do.
I have been in the fitness industry, starting off as a personal trainer, since 1990. I've been in private practice with nutrition for about seven to ten years, depending on whether you count working with clients in the rec room of your apartment building, and I currently have a private nutritional counseling practice in Thousand Oaks, California. I also have distance clients pretty much all over the world: Japan, Australia, New Jersey, all over. When I'm not doing that, I'm writing for Men's Health, and when I'm not doing that, I'm writing a research review project that I'm going to launch in December. That will force me to stay abreast of all the research as well as offer it to the public.
The primary audience I work with are generally healthy people all the way up to amateur and professional athletes, so I cover a range of healthy to the elite fitness crowd.

Also, I wrote a book that was released in February of this year called Girth Control. It's what I wish somebody wrote when I was beginning to get interested in nutrition as it applies to fitness and exercise. It's kind of a fitness and body re-composition book- not so much about "This is how you perform better in a marathon or at baseball," but "This is how you lose fat or gain muscle. Here's all the research on proteins, fats, here's the information on all the supplements, the popular diets and their pros, cons and applications." I dedicated the whole first section of the book to gaining knowledge, and how to interpret information that you come across. How do you gain a level of expertise in the world of fitness and nutrition? How do you decipher the good information from the crap, how do you critically evaluate research? That's the foundation of the book, and what makes it unique. I teach people how to critically analyze the info out there, then I dive into it. It's available on my website.

Yeah, and that's one of the things that really challenging for people: the body of research isn't static, there's always something new coming out that could contradict what you heard before. How can people sort through all of that without being an expert?
That's a huge question. You have to ask yourself a few questions: Is this primary research that you're reading, or is it secondary information? In other words, is this straight from the investigators as it was published on a study index in Medline, or is it more of a journalistic/editorial interpretation of it? Or worse, is it just somebody's hearsay or gossip-based opinion? You have to make that judgement.
If it's a secondary interpretation, you can't really take it at face value. The only thing you can accept at face value is primary research from the investigators who did the study. Then it becomes a matter of assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the study.

Unlike other subjects, everyone seems to think they're an armchair nutritionist that will chime in with their two cents. What makes people think they're entitled to assume that role?
The field of nutritional advice is really unique, because everybody eats. Whether you're a nutritionist or not, you eat. Because of that, people feel entitled to give their opinion in a way that they don't on, say, law or engineering.

And beyond that, people have emotional and psychological attachments to their own habits. In my opinion, it's human nature to project that on others, especially if you're doing it in an altruistic sense where you say, "Well, I'll tell this person what worked for me, and we'll take it from there."

The other factor there is that it's kind of glamorous to be a fitness or nutrition expert, because then you're valuable and you get some attention. Everybody has eating issues, so if you can be known as the guy that knows a lot, there's some sort of a natural social being fulfilled there.

You made the distinction between what works for athletic performance and what works for body recomposition. Can you look at what works for athletes and extrapolate that into something that works for a general population?
The simple answer to that is, yes, if there's some sort of understanding that there will be a learning curve, and a gradual curve of progression. People get into trouble when they just adopt the competitive athlete's regimen right off the bat without any sort of gradual introduction. People do just tear the pages out of the magazine and say "This is what Dorian Yates, Ronnie Coleman, Forrest Griffin, Wanderlei [Silva] does, so that's what I'm gonna do," and that's where they run into problems.

Athletes are maybe doing the nutrition thing, at best, 50% correct if they're well read. The danger zones are that athletes typically don't get enough bone-building nutrition, and some athletes that are vegetarian lack iron, zinc, B-12, things like that. But athletes that are not well-read in the nutrition realm, they really don't do it right. A lot of athletes get to where they're at in spite of what they do, not because of what they do.

"Worrying about how much fat you burn during exercise is just as silly as worrying about how much muscle you build during exercise. Exercise is a stimulus for adaptations afterwards, it's not a time to make the changes while you're doing it."

You also have to take into account the genetic component, and the athlete's ability to withstand a protocol rather than thrive on the optimal one. There's a lot to consider. I'm not going to say that most athletes don't know what they're doing, because they have a better natural instinct and are in better touch with their bodies that most people, but you have to keep in mind that maybe 50% of all athletes are really setting themselves up for failure in the long term because of improper nutrition.

Is information overload an issue for athletes too?
I don't think so. Athletes are often very obsessive about what they do, so if they take an intense interest in the nutrition side of things, they'll either read up or hire someone like me to coach them through it. It ends up integrating into their program pretty nicely, but athletes who have just randomly chosen a protocol, things will start to show their ugly face in the long term. And that's a problem in at least half the athletic population.

On that note, one of the things you wrote that I really enjoyed was your "Myths Under The Microscope" piece on low-intensity cardio. Can you tell us about that, and what it means?
This is the basic idea: People have mistakenly come up with this idea of the "fat burning zone," where if you train with any more intensity than a low to moderate pace, you're tapping into other bodily fuel sources other than your stored body fat. And while that's true, to a certain degree, the fat that's burned during exercise is really an insignificant part of losing fat over a period of weeks or months.

The majority of fat that you lose comes in between your workouts. So, your workouts should be looked at as triggers for what happens in the other 22 or 23 hours in the day. The objective of using bodyfat for fuel isn't really conducive to increasing cardiovascular or muscular fitness. When you increase your ability to exercise productively, then everything else falls into place.

You can also think about it this way: Worrying about how much fat you burn during exercise is just as silly as worrying about how much muscle you build during exercise. Exercise is a stimulus for adaptations afterwards, it's not a time to make the changes while you're doing it. That's a completely misguided objective.

Everyone wants to look like a sprinter, and sprinters never train in that low zone, and they never train fasted. That's something to think about. Nobody wants to look like a marathoner, but the common dogma is to train like one. There are other variables, but I think that illustration is solid.

"People need to scapegoat certain foods just like they need to glorify the magic bullets."

One of the other things I liked a lot was your article in Men's Health "Five Food Rules To Break." How do myths like this get started, and why do they persist so long?
People need to scapegoat certain foods just like they need to glorify the magic bullets. Like dietary fat is easy to point the finger at, because it's fat- and people want to avoid fat. Human nature is to simplify things as much as possible, but like you said, things aren't always simple.

Like with dietary fat, you can indeed try to go as low fat as possible. Avoid bacon, avoid ground meat, avoid dark meat, cream, sauces, dressings, and so on, but then you run into problems too. For example, if you don't take in enough fat, you won't be able to produce a normal level of testosterone. If you never take in the healthy fats- avocado, fish oil, nuts- then you're not protecting yourself against cardiovascular disease.

But back to the question, these myths come up because, first of all, people try to oversimplify information that's inherently complex. That's why I have a career, because I have enough nerve to sift through all this information, and get to the truth.

The second reason is that people want to blame stuff. Carbs are the devil, fat used to be the devil. It's only a matter of time before people point the finger at something else. There will be a cyclical finger-pointing between carbs and fat from here until eternity.

Well you pointed out in your article, even protein gets a bad rap- people think it's bad for your kidneys.
Actually, you're totally right. Protein gets the stamp of, "You're going to get osteoporosis and your kidneys are going to fail." That's a myth that's perpetuated by the conservative, clinical community. The fact of the matter is, if you don't get enough protein, your bones will suffer. Getting enough protein is just as getting enough calcium. There's synergy between protein and calcium intake that's the best possible thing for bones. It's complex: people ask "protein or calcium," when the answer is that both acting together synergistically is optimum for bone health.

Why do they persist? I have this theory that the better your physique, the dumber you are. I'm kidding, because I know lots of smart guys with great physiques, but people just listen to folks with great physiques. We're visual animals. We put all our stock in the guy with the six pack and the veins. People haven't been taught to question everything, that it doesn't matter how awesome looking the guy that's telling you this stuff is. They go through the path of least resistance.

As a culture, or even a species, we love tradition. We love the status quo. We just take things at face value. It's kind of cynical way to look at human thoughts, but it's my guess as to why myths persist.
The other reason they persist is that people can succeed on a lot of suboptimal things, nutritionally speaking. The myths don't have an immediate way of revealing themselves as false, because people can scrape along and tolerate suboptimal protocols. They don't reveal themselves on an immediate, acute, catastrophic basis like the world of medicine. There aren't a whole lot of medical myths out there in comparison to food, because there's a lot of leeway.

Living in the valley, anti-aging clinics are something you've probably come across. What do you see as the future of hormone replacement therapy.
With proper physician care, and with a regular, frequent, diligent monitoring of key indicators- cardiovascular health, especially- conservative dosed hormone replacement is not dangerous. It really does improve a lot of the general health indexes of people who are basically getting beat up by age. So, there is science to that, and there is a certain degree of health benefit to be gained from sustaining optimal levels of hormones- testosterone in particular.

I think it will boil down to a philosophical decision of whether you want to go au natural and not put the Rogaine on your head, so to speak, or whether you want to let nature take its course. I really don't know what the level of mainstream interest is in the hormone replacement therapy thing. I would imagine that a lot of the more affluent populations in Southern California, for example, would be more prone to trying it. I just don't see a mass of people pouring into the clinics, although I haven't looked at the statistics as far as that industry's growth rate. I can only throw my opinion out that people aren't generally open to the idea of messing with themselves hormonally.

For women, though, the whole HRT thing is almost a given: Menopause happens, it's estrogen replacement therapy time. With men, it's not really a socially acceptable thing to say that when your testosterone drops, it's time to get your injections. A lot of that is because male hormones are totally abused by certain populations to the point that there's this unshakable taboo, and it tends to overshadow the safe practices of HRT that do exist, and do improve people's health, performance, body composition, outlook on life, and everything like that.

Well that's about all I have. Is there anything you wanted to add?
I just want to say that anything is learnable. The ability to examine the strengths and weaknesses of research is completely learnable. You read the intermittent fasting thing I wrote, right?

Yeah.
Well, there was this internet community that really latched onto this one study that showed that one meal a day gave better body composition results than three meals a day. But when you look closely at the method they used to measure the results, they used a consumer scale that you might have.

"Scientific research is not bias-free. It's not free of financial interests. It's not free of study design flaws, and it's not perfect. But it's the best tool that we have for getting closer to understanding the way the body works, the way that nature works."

Like the ones you get at Wal-Mart for $20?
Yes. It's called "bio-electrical impedance," and it's just notorious for being inaccurate. Especially when you're looking at a group of subjects where there will be major body water and hydration measurements doing on. So people should be more skeptical. Skepticism of fitness and health information is your best weapon. Be motivated to investigate.

Scientific research is not bias-free. It's not free of financial interests. It's not free of study design flaws, and it's not perfect. But it's the best tool that we have for getting closer to understanding the way the body works, the way that nature works. You can bash science all day long- that this study was funded by the dairy council- but science beats the hell out of hearsay or personal anecdote.

+ Celebrities Talk About Breast Cancer

Breast Cancer affects everyone. In the article below, two celebrities talk about their battles with breast cancer. After reading their thoughts you will see that cancer is as devastating to the famous as it is to the rest of us.

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Actress Jaclyn Smith will never forget the day she found out she had breast cancer. And she'll never forget the lesson she learned in those very first moments of being a cancer patient.

See Full Article

+ Drug resistant staph on the rise

Staph infections (the drug-resistant variety is known as MRSA) are big news this week after a CDC study announced that staph kills more people in the US than AIDS:

About 18,700 people die in this country each year from drug-resistant staph infections, according to a federal study released Tuesday — more deaths than the United States sees from AIDS annually. Based on data from 2005, the agency estimated that about 94,400 patients nationwide suffer an invasive MRSA infection each year.

Staph infections have sidelined several of my favorite athletes lately, including UFC stars Diego Sanchez, Nick Diaz, and Karo Parysian. I've spent a lot of time on wrestling mats myself and gotten a few staph infections on my skin- nothing serious, but with MRSA spreading like it is, I'm hoping we can find a way to fight it before I get on the mats again.

Ironically, most MRSA infections happen at health care facilities, which presents a real challenge for the future of the health care industry and the people that create health care environments.

"This is an alarming number of infections and a very significant number of deaths," said Dr. Monina Klevens, a medical epidemiologist with the CDC. "This is really a call to action for health care facilities to do a better job at preventing MRSA."

Check out a few more stories on staph and MRSA here and here.

+ How to Evaluate Health Information

As we continue to discuss health and wellness, check out the The National Cancer Institute Fact Sheet to help you evaluate your own health information on the web.

+ Be The Change: An interview with One Planet, One Solution

At the American Massage Therapy Association 2007 National Convention in Cincinnati, TGG spoke with Alexandra Patrick-Blaguski and Monica Pasinata-Forchielli about massage therapy as related to Health and Wellness. Alex and Monica are massage therapists associated with OnePlanetOneSolution.com in Hamilton, Ontario.
ONE - One Planet One Solution is a global oriented spa products and services provider offering customized, sustainable, and socially responsible solutions.

Describe the virtues and benefits of your professional focus in Massage Therapy as related to the domain of Health and Wellness

Alex: We are in a natural business, we heal with our hands. Since Massage therapy is considered alternative, providing alternative products is a perfect fit for our efforts in wanting to make a change. It’s everything we are about, taking it to a new level of support.

Monica: We are all about natural alternatives for Health and Wellness. No chemicals, that includes the products we sell.

There is a perception is that Massage Therapy is expensive, perhaps indulgent and prohibitive to the general public. How do you, as a Wellness provider, tell the value story?

Alex: Many people actually have a hard time relaxing. You can be healed naturally with touch. Doctors are quick to write prescriptions for medications. You may have a sore back and take muscle relaxers, but after the medication wears off the problem is still there. I think massage as alternate physiotherapy tends to heal some things faster and better. Not every therapy works for everybody.

Regarding ONE’s products, our job is to educate our customers about what we are doing and why we believe it is important. We are not just green washing or being trendy. People are becoming more aware and want to understand why things like socially conscious, fair trade and sustainable products matter.

Monica: The value of massage therapy is that it provides treatment for many things such as relaxation, increasing circulation and relieving pain. There is emotional relief as well. What happens in massage therapy is that people like to talk to you during treatments; someone is actually listening to them for an hour.

Anything worth doing takes time, effort and knowledge. How did you get here and why are you doing this?

Monica: After lot of education I wanted to get into alternative medicine. I’m not a big believer in allopathic medicine. I don’t believe in drug pushing, that really bothers me.

Alex: We heal with our hands. I’ve been doing this for 4 years. I believe in it, I feel like I am doing my part.

photo credit: Ruben Joye

http://www.oneplanetonesolution.com

+ Designing For The Elderly: An interview with Modern Plastic Editor Matthew Defosse

Interesting article from Modern Plastics Designing for the elderly: Targeting the wallet of the voice of experience.

"How to design for this burgeoning group of consumers? Well, don’t, at least not specifically, recommends Davin Stowell, CEO of product design firm Smart Design (New York). He says designers should not limit themselves to products specifically marketed to the aged or elderly, except for extreme products. “We’re becoming a more youthful society,” he notes, not in terms of average age but with reference to how people perceive themselves."

Check out the full article here.

From the editor of Modern Plastics, Matthew Defosse:
What value did your publication see in the topic of elderly care to pursue the article?
Our readers are plastics processors—the people who buy plastic pellets and turn these into various parts, including automotive parts, medical goods, packaging, building and construction applications, and much more. We strive to offer our readers knowledge they can use to more efficiently run their operations, and also highlight potential future markets of interest.

Please describe your readership, and why you think they would find value in this article.
As the population ages in many countries, plastics processors, like any other manufacturing group, need to stay abreast of the special desires of an aging population, and design products that can attract the elderly consumer. That was the impetus for our decision to add ‘designing for the elderly’ to our editorial calendar.

Tell me more about your publication: history, content generation, and staff experience.
Modern Plastics is the leading source of industry information for the global plastics processing community, with 63,000+ readers in more than 120 countries. The magazine has been published continuously since 1925. We generate 90% or more of our content ourselves with a staff of five fulltime editors and a number of freelancers.

So there is a new trend in product development to design products that are all-age inclusive, instead of segmenting products into age groups. What examples do you have of dual-age designs?

+ UK government considering funding elderly care

Interesting article from the Telegraph that outlines the UK government's plan to subsidize elderly care:

The proposals for sweeping reform of the social care system, which experts say would benefit 450,000 people in England who currently pay their own bills, were buried away in Alistair's Darling's Pre-Budget Report on Tuesday.

Check out the full article here.

+ Retirement Centers Focus on Health and Wellness

In relation to Irene Saylor’s independent living apartment, we looked into alternative lifestyles for the elderly. Tawyna Hensley from the Lodge Retirement Community in Cincinnati, Ohio describes the health and wellness programs available to her residents.

Please tell me about your staff and their experience in the Health and Wellness field.
We have numerous years of experience in our facility as we have physicians, therapists, nurses and activity coordinators.

What are the current Lodge programs addressing Health and Wellness for residents?
Walking Club, Exercise Class, Bowling, Volleyball, Alzheimer Support Group, Harmonica Group for Parkinson’s Disease residents, Blood Pressure Checks, Medical Lab, Association of the Blind

What are the resident's reactions to Health and Wellness programs? Are they open to health suggestions or are they content with their current practices?
There are many who participate in one or more of these programs to keep them healthy longer or to regain some loss. They are open to suggestions.

Has The Lodge staff recognized emerging attitudes or trends that will change your Health and Wellness programs for the future? If so, what? and when will they start?
Exercise Partners

So the future is in partnerships - an age old approach. People want what is within their comfort zone, but in the context of a new experience. How can the design community focus on this idea as we innovate for the future of elderly care?

+ Everbody Eats! - Part 2 - Best Practices

Continuing the discussion on local, organic and sustainable food, the following is our interview with local food grower Bob Klouman of K&R Garden Fresh Produce.

TGG: Please give us some background on yourself and K&R Fresh Produce.

Bob: K&R Fresh Produce is a 47 acre former tobacco farm that was not very well managed. The previous owners used regular, conventional tillage. They did not plant cover crops. The soil was depleted.

My background is a college educated agronomist – studying crops and soil. I try to base my actions on the best knowledge available. I’ve gotten back to doing the fundamental things I learned as a boy in my gardens. I went to no-till for most crops, the eggplants and peppers. No-till improves production. I will rototill for lettuces and greens, but space those rows out, let the space between “go natural”. I broadcast seeds and thin things out as they grow and that helps keep down the weeds.

Some organic products, even though they are natural products, are chemicals and have pesticides. In a way they are being miss-used because the “organic” label implies that there are no chemicals or pesticides.

You have to base your trust that the person growing the foods is being truthful.
Once a grower gets certified organic the grower can do anything and still claim the crops are “organic”.
I have had certified organic farmers buy my crops and sell them as organic as part of their share boxes for their CSA – Community Supported Agriculture programs. That is not how that is supposed to work.
I have not sprayed anything at all this year, but I cannot claim that my crops are organic.
For example, I will use Round Up if needed to save a crop but I will not use a tractor. Tractor tilling damages the earthworm population.

A healthy earthworm population will move more soil in a year that a tractor does tilling the same field.

TGG: How do you tell the value story?

Bob: Local quality is superior, freshness is unsurpassed. Sometimes my crops are less than 5 hours out of the field, which you cannot get any other way.
The food is more nutritious. The nutrition might not be tasted but it is there.
The customers are getting the freshest food possible

We are trying to replace what people get for 9-10 months of the year in the grocery store and it’s hard to capture that business in 2 months. We cannot expect them to drop all of their shopping habits.

The way foods are labeled can be confusing. Take tomatoes for example. The tomatoes are picked green with the slightest bit of pink star on the bottom are considered vine ripened. The sugars in those tomatoes have not even begun to develop. The tomatoes are gassed to bring out the color, but they have very little flavor. People are used to the way those tomatoes taste. It is hard for me as a grower to tell people that my tomatoes are worth more because they taste better, when they look the same as what is in the store.

TGG: What are some of the challenges facing local, organic and sustainable food to become more mainstream for consumers?

Bob: A lot of things in the "New Organic" revolution are fine and dandy but we are probably going to try and do things that are not sustainable.

If everyone did what I am doing, traveling 85 -90 miles to the farmers market, in my mind, is not sustainable. Ideally, a local economy should really be a 25 mile radius.

Cheap energy, specifically oil, has accelerated population and growth. When that finite energy source is gone, we will be forced back into a local economy.
Cheap oil and below cost energy has a high hidden cost. The true cost is not only the financial, monetary cost, but the cost to the environment, the cost to our health.

Cheap energy has led to everything being out of balance.
Every time you flip on a light switch there are consequences to that act.
Every act, even eating, is an ecological act.

What you choose to eat has consequences.

TGG: Speaking of energy, what is driving your efforts?

Bob: I question the motivation of businesses that do not look ahead long term. We need to look beyond 5 years to solve the big problems.

I try and do what I can to minimize my footprint on this planet, and leave this farm better than it was when I started.

I’m motivated by doing what is right, to make best practices.

Some books that Bob suggested for reference on sustainability:

Wendell Berry “Unsettling of America”

Lester Brown “Outgrowing the Earth”

LesterBrown “Plan B” Feeding People, Restoring Earth

Richard Heinberg “The Party’s Over: Oil War and the Fate of Industrial Societies”

Richard Heinberg “Power Down - Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World”

James Kunstler “The Long Emergency”

also on the web:

http://www.worldwatch.org/

+ Everybody Eats! An interview with Earth Source Produce

Consumer demand for local, organic and sustainable foods is growing. Concerns about food safety, environmental sustainability and nutrition are driving more people to become informed and empowered when making food purchasing decisions. The increasing popularity of food centric media reflects the trend for authenticity and the desire for the cultural and familial reconnection that is enabled by preparing and sharing good food.

To gain some insight we spoke with some local growers at Findley Market in Cincinnati.

Matt Tomaszewski is the force behind Earth Source Produce in Batavia, Ohio

TGG: As an introduction, can you give us some background on what you do, what Earth Source is about?

Matt: Earth Source produce is currently a small scale vegetable farm less than 1 acre that is
chemical free, no synthetic herbicides or synthetic pesticides and fertilizers.
It’s a one man operation that goes from seed to market.I do not need to grow a hundred acres of one crop; I can have many different things on a small amount of land. Having diversity in the landscape is always a good thing

Farmers markets are the main point of sale, direct to the consumer, and a few restaurants.
I also work as a sub-teaching assistant, primarily for special needs children 3 to 9 years old.

Local production allows people access to fresh food and enjoys its nutrition value at its highest.
Buying local allows consumers to have a one to one relationship with person growing the food.
The consumer knows where the food is from and how it is produced. People are beginning to understand that it is not sustainable to ship food great distances.

TGG: How do you tell the value story for organic, local and sustainable agriculture?

Matt: Food is too cheap, and we have become accustomed to inexpensive food.
People do not understand the hidden of agriculture. The land being used for large scale agriculture is being depleted of its nutrients; it has been bombarded with pesticides, herbicides and petroleum-based fertilizers. The farmer workers are being paid substandard wages, living in very poor conditions.

I try to practice what I consider fair trade farming. We all know about Fair Trade coffee or chocolate, but I try to bring it back to where I am at. I explain to folks that I think my prices are fair; this is what I am doing to try to make a living. I look at what the high end stores are charging, what the regular grocery stores charge and think about what I am putting into it

Also, buying local encourage people to eat seasonally, which is something most consumers have gotten away from.

It’s a challenge for consumers to eat locally. You may be able to buy raspberries in January for $2.00 a pint. The cost you are paying is not the true cost.

TGG: What is the feasibility local, organic and sustainable agriculture to be done on are larger scale? What would it take for this to become the mainstream?

Matt: First, it would take more farmers to produce local food. It is a supply and demand business. If the demand hits, the supply is not there. We need to have people trained as farmers, out there learning to produce food

We need to secure land for farming because right now the really good prime agriculture land is being developed for housing.

There are quite a few steps but we are kind of on the way.

Education of the consumers is very important. I explain why different foods are not always available, because of the time of the season. I feel that informing my customers is part of my job as a farmer.
Agriculture as a job is not brain dead work. You really have to be thinking. It requires knowledge and timing.

People need to slow down and consider what they eat, how to eat, prepare and eat meals together.

TGG: How did get to this point. What is you drive, your reward that comes from this work?

Matt: I got into this because I love working outdoors. It is something that I feel is a challenge.
Producing food is great. It’s just a good feeling to be able to pull something fro the earth, take it to market and have people enjoy it. People come back and tell me that they enjoyed it, that they even had a spiritual experience eating it.

Fresh food is full of life, it has true flavor, true taste.

I started out as an apprentice in 1999 at a vegetable farm in New York State and it has been building ever since. I have had many different experiences that have given me a broad range of ideas for what could be a sustainable farm. I am currently working on a business plan to put it all one place. It is always evolving for me. Every season is different.

I’m trying to do my part. I know I can’t save the world but I’m try to do what I can with what I have and what time I have. I know it will all come back around.

Everybody eats. I know the market is there.

+ Interview: Irene Saylor-Pros/Cons of Independent Living

Irene Saylor is an 88 year old woman who has lived in the same independent living apartment building for 25 years. Below are her comments.

Why did you choose the place where you live now?
It was the best place at the time I moved 25 years ago.

How is the amount you pay for rent determined?
Each resident pays 35% of their income.

What are the requirements to live in your apartment building?
You have to be at least 60 years old or have some type of handicap or disability.

Have there been many changes or improvements to the building or your apartment since you have lived there?
No.

What would you like to see changed?
The management needs to hire a fulltime cleaning person. It would be nice to have a shower instead of a bathtub. It would be easier for me.

What do you like most about where you live?
I like the people that live in the building with me.

Are activities important to you?
Not at my age.

What type of security is offered in your building?
If a person visits they have to buzz my apartment and then I let them in by pushing a button. Also, if there were an emergency in my apartment there are 2 emergency ropes to pull that will notify the apartment manager and life squad.

If you had to move to a nursing home what would be most important to you?
The care I receive and that my family/friends could visit me.

Would you prefer a smaller or larger nursing home?
A smaller place because I think I would get better care.

+ Interview: Kare Backstrom – Future of Elderly Care

Kare Backstrom is Vice President for Schiff, Kreidler-Shell Insurance Company in Cincinnati, Ohio. He has worked for the company for 16 years. Schiff, Kriedler-Shell offers personal insurance, business insurance & risk management, benefits & financial services and surety bonds. (http://www.sksins.com/)

What do you think the future of elderly care will look like?
With the aging of our population, it will obviously change. The tremendous cost for each State will also add budget constrains. Since it’s generally cheaper, home health care and assisted living care will likely grow substantially.


What do you think are the most important factors that determine elderly care selection?
It depends on the type of care you’re looking at. With assisted living, what other services and activities are available or provided. In more of a nursing home situation, the training of the staff is important to ensure each person is cared for properly.

What is the biggest challenge facing elderly care in the future?
Cost and staffing. Very few people can afford the care, especially at home. Finding quality workers will also be challenging, and how to compensate them properly.

There seems to be a trend toward changing the culture in nursing homes. Have you heard of the Eden Alternative or Green House Replication Initiative and do you think it is a successful alternative to current nursing homes?
No I have not heard of the alternative. But I’m skeptical of the Green House Initiative, and that the proper care can be administered in such small facilities. For some more “active” residents, offering a variety of things to do will be challenging at the same time as other residents are deteriorating medically (and physically) thus requiring a totally different type of care and attention.

Do you think that a state funded long term in-home care program would be a more cost effective plan than for states to pay for nursing home care?
Not sure. To care for tens of thousands of people at home would be challenging from a medical standpoint. It would also limit the amount of “activities” offered to them. I have toured assisted living facilities and nursing homes where activities ranged from in-house ice cream stores to art and craft areas, to live entertainment/musicians to visiting beauty salon workers.

What effect does long term care have on the insurance industry?
It provides an opportunity to sell an insurance product to a very narrow segment of the population. The vast majority of people can not afford to buy any type of coverage, as they are financially unprepared to face retirement. Another obstacle is pre-existing medical conditions, since we’re talking about selling a medically underwritten product to older individuals. Since the states/federal government will be faced with an ever increasing cost burden, a tax deduction for purchasing LTC insurance is also needed.

+ Health Care, Healthy World

The following interview was conducted with Mary Donovan, a Charge Nurse in Women's Services at Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center in Denver, Colorado. When Mary is not hard at work she can be found cooking up some tasty (organic) meals or enjoying the great outdoors in the lovely mountains of Colorado. Mary is proud to be an eco-sensitive citizen & drives a Jetta fueled by Biodiesel, particpates in a local organic produce co-op, & is always looking for new ways to lighten her eco footprint.

1) What is your educational background? How did you come to be doing what you do now?

My educational background is an associate degree and a bachelors degree in nursing, I became a nurse because as a child my sister and I were kind-of sickly kids and it was always the nurses that made me feel better. I admired nurses for their caring and compassion.

2) What are your additional interests?
My additional interests include: dogs, camping, hiking, skiing, running, cooking, and anything outdoor.

3) Tell me more about what a typical workday would entail for you?
A typical workday is never "typical" at a hospital but the tasks always remain the same. We usually receive report on our patients the start of every shift and then within the next few hours of the shift we go room to room introducing ourselves and checking on the status of
your patients. But more often than not a day starts with a person needing something right away like pain medication or help to the bathroom or a stat blood draw. But once the "task" items are out of the way you can focus on other needs of the patients like psychosocial issues, education, etc. But, like I mentioned earlier no day is the same and it is because every patient and patient need are completely different.

4) Which products do you use on a daily basis that make your job easier? Which do you have to use but do not find user friendly?
The products that make our job easier are things like pre-filled syringes, automatic vital sign machines, things that require little nursing time and therefore allow us to spend more time with patients. The non user friendly items are without a doubt or computer charting systems/charting. The health care system is in dire need for a charting program that is user friendly and allows more time to be spent with patients. Charting and computer time sucks sooooo much time away from the patients yet it has to be done because of the litigious side of our society.

5) Where do you look for inspiration? Are there any organizations, people, books or websites that you find especially inspiring?
Pertaining to work, I look for inspiration from my patients, my
co-workers, my husband, my friends, my family. Outside of work I am
look to eco-groovy, green companies-the National Green Pages, organic
food and clothing stores, anything that is green. I also find
inspiration in music, in particular Michael Franti and Spearhead.

6) Which hospitals you have worked at have a program
in place for recycling medical waste?

I don't know of any hospital that recycles medical waste. I know
some hospitals recently started recycling paper and that is huge for a
hospital. In general hospitals are extremely eco-toxic and not green
at all!


7) What types of cleaners and disinfectants are you
using at home? Which are used at the hospital?

I use only green products at home, non-polluting, biodegradable soap,
laundry soap, shampoo, conditioner, etc, etc. Hospitals use the
opposite-harsh chemicals, bleach for the sheets and linens, hand
sanitizer that is filled with pesticides, disposable this and that,
toxic floor cleaners, etc. It is NOT at ALL a green or non-toxic
environment. It scares me sometimes to think of what I am exposed to.
More importantly the hospital is supposed to be a healing place and
the amount of bad things one is exposed to is appalling.