Speaker Q&A: Ben Lewis
Next up in camexpo’s speaker Q&A series is Ben Lewis, nutritional director and co-founder of Pulsin’. He combined his knowledge of nutrition with a personal obsession for organic wholefoods to create Pulsin’s current range of award winning natural protein bars. Here are his thoughts on current nutritional trends, and why he thinks its important to find a new approach to diet that embraces our own individuality.
What do you love most about your work?
Every day is unique and we are never without a challenge. Over the years I have had the opportunity to learn many diverse skills and take on a range of responsibilities, including new product development, graphic design, e-commerce, building works, machine purchasing, nutrition talks and cookery demos!
I also regularly travel in Europe for meetings and trade shows. I love having the opportunity to experience other cultures, to understand their differences and to see the trends within each country.
What’s the single biggest challenge in your work?
Meeting the demands of a rapidly growing business in a fiercely competitive sector of the health food industry! From my side that means developing and launching exciting new products every year. Sometimes it feels overwhelming but we always find a way to make everything work, and I am fortunate enough to now have a product team who can take some of the pressure from me.
What’s your specific approach to diet & nutrition?
No single dietary plan can work well for everyone in the long term, and our own needs also change regularly according the season or climate zone we are in, the stage of our lives, and our individual lifestyles. Ideally each person would be responsible for their own nutritional routine by learning to observe their body, understand their individual physiological responses, and use these as clues towards their optimum diet at that time.
That said, there are many similarities between us all, for example, a diet with a high proportion of organic vegetables is very healthy for almost everyone, in sharp contrast to consuming industrially produced foods that are rich in damaged fats, refined sugars, sweeteners and sodium chloride!
I believe it is important for us to recognise both the differences and similarities we all share. This could allow us to move away from the divisions created by the conflicting ideologies of various dietary belief systems, towards a new approach to diet that considers our own individuality in a way that is both taste orientated and environmentally conscious.
What’s one emerging trend or research that anyone working in your field should know?
Interest in protein is growing every year, in fact there was a 35% increase in high protein NPD in 2014 since the previous year! The high protein market has grown massively since my own personal experiments began in 2003. Now in 2015, you can buy high protein bread, high protein crisps, high protein ice-cream, and online you can find recipes for almost every conceivable culinary creation upgraded with protein powders! Expect to see many concepts launched soon…
Overall this trend is resulting in high protein products moving out of the bodybuilder niche into the mainstream retailers and the public consciousness. Once this happens, the debate will then be around exactly how many grams of protein each person should consume each meal, daily, or the nutritional quality of the protein; and no doubt many other details.
What are the key points you’ll be covering in your seminar at this year’s camexpo?
The main purpose of my seminar is to update people with the overall nutrition trends, specifically focusing on the popular new diets are that often mentioned in our industry and the mainstream media. My perspective is not to preach that there is one ‘true’ way, but to shift the conversation towards individual responsibility combined with tolerance towards those with differing opinions.
In addition to your session, why would you recommend practitioners/nutritional therapists visit camexpo?
camexpo is an opportunity to connect with influential people in our industry, share new ideas and gain information regarding the latest products. For us, it is always inspiring to realise how many people are interested in positive natural health and the pace with which our industry is growing and developing. I have been to many exhibitions across Europe and in my opinion camexpo is at the forefront of our industry.
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