The Organic & Natural Health Association ’s partnership with the Williams-Franklin Foundation will open more opportunities in the natural products industry for students and graduates of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU). Specifically, Organic & Natural Health committed to help raise US$50,000 for the Williams-Franklin Foundation--a nonprofit that provides scholarships, networking and mentoring opportunities to HBCU students with extreme financial need--during the next f...
Apr 27, 2021•20 min
ToddCast Episode 5: The medicinal value of hemp CBD has been proven with FDA approval of a CBD isolate drug. Even so, the forces aligned against its widespread use remain. Sean Murphy, founder of Hemp Business Journal and now with WAFBA producing the NoCo Hemp Expo in Denver (and online) March 25-27, https://www.nocohempexpo.com/ talks with Insider senior editor Todd Runestad about: Murphy’s young son, Atlas, born with a terminal brain condition—and how, even in the cannabis capital of Colorado,...
Mar 29, 2021•29 min
Health Equity & Advocacy Project (HEAP) just launched, its mission to educate and inspire Blacks and other melanin-challenged populations to get their vitamin D levels up to healthy. Their lives may depend on it. The merging of #BLM with COVID has created a moment where the Black community’s health outcomes with the pandemic is worse than most—as is vitamin D blood levels, and a slew of published research over the past year has shown at least a correlation between vitamin D deficiency and wo...
Mar 12, 2021•26 min
The 54-store U.S. chain of sports nutrition stores has committed to an omnichannel solution from NewStore to modernize its operation and inventory management while delivering information and products in the many ways customers today demand. 5 Star’s chief marketing officer Jared LeMantia discusses what prompted this move, what is involved in transitioning to this new system, and how the customer experience will change.
Mar 03, 2021•15 min
When sports nutrition retail chain 5 Star Nutrition chose NewStore’s omnichannel cloud solution as its pathway to future growth and success, it was the company’s first foray into nutrition. NewStore’s chief commercial officer Rick Berger explains how mobile point of sale (POS) and cloud-based order management that have been changing fashion and sporting goods retailing can also transform nutrition retailers, who can run their stores from an iPhone.
Mar 01, 2021•16 min
ToddCast episode II: Sports nutrition has long been a hotbed of innovation. The first tubs of whey protein powders were originally used by body builders, but the conceit has diversified into plant proteins for anyone seeking a performance edge. Listen to this interview between senior editor Todd Runestad and sports nutrition innovator extraordinaire and president of Imaginutrition, Anthony Almada, as they discuss: How EAS turned on the pro sports world with creatine and other power boosters. Imm...
Feb 12, 2021•27 min
BIPOC brand targets diabesity with plant-based powders. The company had been laser-focused on the Black population. With high-quality ingredients and GMP-certified production, this on-point brand was able to get a shot at the best big box retailer in the country. Watch CEO Claude Tellis and CMO Kareem Cook sit down with senior editor Todd Runestad as they discuss the challenges and sweet smell of success: The challenges and indignities of being a Black-owned company, which makes this deal all th...
Jan 27, 2021•33 min
ToddCast Vol. XXIX: Duffy MacKay has lived and breathed Washington, D.C., for a decade as senior vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs for the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a leading trade group serving the dietary supplements industry. Like so many other supplements veterans, he jumped ship and swam to the boisterous shores of hemp CBD land. MacKay sits down with Insider senior editor Todd Runestad to talk about the similarities between the last quarter-century of supplements...
Jan 15, 2021•40 min
Marc Brush, principal at the Bend consultancy, honed his market research bona fides running Nutrition Business Journal. He’s helping shape the personalized healthcare and nutrition pursuit, is building the future of innovative immune-support products and brands, and has genius insights on the future of consumer demographics and market success. Listen in as Insider senior editor Todd Runestad sits down with Brush as they discuss: How to make personalization work in the market (hint: no one is the...
Dec 23, 2020•30 min
ToddCast Vol. XXVIII: COVID times are accelerating the health care paradigm, and the leading thinker on functional medicine and personalized nutrition is leading the charge. Immune boosting is so 20th century. Think immune rejuvenation. Think training your immune system like you would build muscle for fitness. Think of categorizing your immune function into immunity personalities. Insider senior editor Todd Runestad rethinks the future of nutrition with Dr. Jeffrey Bland, Ph.D., founder of the P...
Dec 09, 2020•58 min
ToddCast Vol. XXVII: From Tonalin CLA to 5-Loxin, Aker krill to MenaQ7 vitamin K2, Eric Anderson has been at the forefront of marketing evidence-based, IP-protected ingredients to quality-forward responsible brands. Tune in as Anderson sits down with Insider senior editor Todd Runestad as they discuss: How to navigate a market with brands pirating ingredients and stifling innovation on one end and those that care about quality and evidence on the other. How to communicate all aspects of quality,...
Dec 02, 2020•34 min
Market leaders are leading the market through diligence, innovation and new ways of thinking. You would expect anything less from the hemp biz? The last 10 months have changed our lives dramatically. Supply chains are being rewritten and remapped due to the pandemic. This is another opportunity to bring manufacturing to the agriculture center of production in this country because supply chains will require domestic supply because nobody wants supply disruption. How do we make sure we take care o...
Nov 25, 2020•42 min
ToddCast, Vol. XXV: Known in the trade as The Medicine Hunter, Chris Kilham travels the world over and really digs in with indigenous cultures to discover herbal remedies for the Western world—kava and maca being two preeminent herbs that Kilham was there at the start of both. During the COVID downtime, we caught up with Kilham resting comfortably just five miles from North America’s largest organic schisandra farm. Listen in to this podcast with senior editor Todd Runestad as Kilham discusses: ...
Nov 03, 2020•49 min
While being careful to not pick winners and losers, ABC founder—and now anointed as one of the luminaries gracing the Mount Rushmore of the Natural Products Industry—identifies botanicals vital for vitality and immune health. But really, though, that's not even close to the half of it. Listen in as they dive into the deep end of the pond and talk about: Evolutionary biology and the kindom—no typo—that links plants and animals on this fair planet. The conflict between vitalism and reductionism in...
Oct 27, 2020•54 min
The right people leading a supplement or functional food company can take the company to the next stage of success, or can mean the brand stays in business at all. But as Angela Marturano, president, Orchid Holistic Search, said, “Working for a company, you're dedicating the majority your life to that business. In return, what is a company willing to do for you to make you feel valued?” It’s a good question. And thankfully, Marturano provided insight into what the top candidates are after when i...
Oct 21, 2020•17 min
Consumers are clamoring for supplements that support a healthy immune system. Innovative supplements company NB Pure wanted to create a zinc supplement in an innovative spray delivery format. Listen in as senior editor Todd Runestad sat down with Gene Tracy, director of quality assurance / quality control at NB Pure as they dig into: What kind of zinc, and at what dose, would work best in a spray delivery format. Formulation challenges around potency, contamination, flavor and shelf-stability. M...
Oct 14, 2020•20 min
Countries and regions around the world use hemp differently. Listen for details around the differences between Canada, Europe, and Asia. Yes, there was massive overproduction of hemp in 2019 in America. But hemp CBD is a worldwide sensation, and there are opportunities for hemp farmers around the world. Perhaps the largest vertically integrated hemp firm in the U.S. was formed in 2020 when CPG brand Kadenwood acquired Colorado-based supplier EcoGen. Garrett Bain is president of EcoGen and a vete...
Sep 30, 2020•27 min
To help increase awareness of the importance of vitamin D supplementation about minority populations, The Organic and Natural Health Association launched the “ Get On My Level ” campaign in partnership with Dr. Ken Redcross, author of “Bond: The 4 Cornerstones of a Lasting and Caring Relationship with Your Doctor.” The campaign highlights the proven health benefits of vitamin D and encourages people in communities most at risk to know their vitamin D level by either asking their doctor or measur...
Sep 23, 2020•13 min
CBD researcher Alex Capano, Ph.D., studies at the Lambert Center for the Study of Medicinal Cannabis and Hemp at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Her groundbreaking work was on CBD for opioid addiction—which also found, not surprisingly, quality of life improvements around pain, sleep and anxiety. Natural Products Insider senior editor Todd Runestad sat at the bench with Capano to discuss the frontiers of CBD research. Listen in as they discuss Safety concerns around liver toxicity, ...
Sep 16, 2020•26 min
The fountain of youth has been sought for centuries. In the last two decades some ingredients—namely resveratrol and NAD+—have gained notoriety for an ability to lengthen the time study organisms live. The question is always whether the natural bioactives work in humans. It’s all but impossible to conduct a 40- or 50-year human clinical trial, so what now? In this Healthy Insider Podcast, senior editor Todd Runestad sits down with veteran anti-aging researcher Brian Kennedy, director of the Cent...
Sep 09, 2020•32 min
ToddCast Vol. XVIII: You say you want a revolution? Hemp is the answer—that’s right, it can pave the way to better alternatives than many of the problems staring us in the face as industrial, civilized humans – the plastic problem, the climate crisis, the pollution of our waterways, the unsustainable way we have organized our societies. Natural Products Insider senior editor Todd Runestad catches up the hemp majordomo promoter Morris Beegle, co-founder and president of WAFBA—short for We Are For...
Sep 02, 2020•28 min
Too much hemp in the fields and barns, too many brands, too little regulatory certainty (and misguided when it does get released). Buckle up! Josh Hendrix has been around the hemp farms, the hemp businesses, the hemp boards. He’s sharp, smart and informed—and reasonably hip, at least by Kentucky standards. Natural Products Insider senior editor Todd Runestad sat down with Josh to assess the damage from smoking embers of the hemp CBD business in mid-2020. Yes, there was massive overproduction in ...
Aug 12, 2020•43 min
Tennessee’s Frederick Cawthon is emblematic of a 2020 hemp farmer—in 2019 his team grew 85 acres, and then thanks to the oversupply and consequent market saturation and price collapse, in 2020 he grew 15 acres. Hear Cawthon’s founding story of how he got into the hemp business, how he assembled a crack growing team, marshaled investors, even cajoled the local college president to open dormant dorms to farm workers during the summer grow season. But more than that, hear Cawthon speak about hemp’s...
Aug 05, 2020•34 min
Hemp acreage has gone from 7,000 acres in 2015 to 27,000 to 78,000 in 2017 to an eye-popping half a million acres after the 2018 farm bill was passed. The ensuing gut has scaled back many farmers’ plans even while more farmers chase the gold ring—but the bigger problem remains intransigence by the FDA and USDA, which seem to be doing their drug warrior best to keep the hemp market from reaching full potential. Natural Products Insider senior editor Todd Runestad sat down with Rick Trojan, presid...
Jul 29, 2020•27 min
Despite the impact on business and industry posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, dietary supplement companies are still obligated to meet regulatory requirements including supplier qualification, ingredient testing, aspects of GMP compliance and more; every person involved in compliance must understand their responsibilities. To support the gap around in-person education and training, NSF International has developed Quality & Regulatory Digital Week, taking place August 3 to 7, 2020. Designed wit...
Jul 13, 2020•12 min
Adulteration of botanicals has been going a fact of human commerce since time immemorial. Only very recently has the game taken a turn for the technical as criminals and unsuspecting buyers use ever-more sophisticated tools—and schemes—to stay ahead of each other. In response, the American Botanical Council has co-created a Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program, a free series of bulletins to help buyers, brands and contract manufacturers learn which ingredients are being targeted, and the mea...
Jul 06, 2020•40 min
Plenty of former and current professional athletes advocate for the use of CBD in sports nutrition, and many of them have launched their own line of supplements or topical products in this space. However, selling CBD products to athletes is both riskier and less risky than selling CBD products to other demographics. To explain this conundrum, Rick Collins, partner at Collins Gann McCloskey & Barry, joins Sandy Almendarez, content director, Informa Markets, on this podcast to discuss the lega...
Jul 02, 2020•17 min
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is set up to assess and approve single synthetic chemical constituent pharmaceutical drugs—drug, after all, is its middle name. But food is its first name, yet the agency has a great deal of difficulty regulating dietary supplements, in particular botanicals with many different active phytochemicals in a plant, and especially hemp CBD with one ingredient in particular, THC, being a controlled substance drug! So it’s a challenging scenario all the way around,...
Jun 26, 2020•43 min
Research is only in its infancy in cannabinoid research, though it is clear they have benefit. The future may portend new tricks in product formulation. Yes, we will continue to discover new individual cannabinoids, a la CBD isolate that’s been approved as a pharmaceutical drug by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. We will also see blending combinations of individual cannabinoids. We will also see increased research on the so-called entourage effect--the mixture of all the cannabinoids insid...
Jun 24, 2020•26 min
The Organic & Natural Health Association (O&N), with research support from Grassroots Health, submitted a health claim petition to FDA regarding vitamin D’s role in reducing preterm births. According to Karen Howard, CEO and executive director of O&N, this petition was denied because FDA said the studies didn’t account for the vitamin D participants received through sunlight exposure. Rather than walk away defeated, Howard and her Association made lemonade out of lemons, by supportin...
Jun 18, 2020•15 min
