We visited the Vitality Show in March 2013 to look at all things Gluten Free! & here is what we found!
Vitality 2013 at Earls Court 2 – it was huge!
So, I was fortunate enough to win a couple of tickets via twitter to attend the Vitality Show at Earls Court 2 in London courtesy of Body Talk Daily. I only retweeted their message randomly so it was of great surprise that I won. I had very little, if any, knowledge of what the Vitality Show is all about before I won, but upon checking out who was exhibiting there I was instantly sure that it would be worth missing my last ever lecture at University to attend!
So whilst I’m sure many people would be very interested in the beauty and styling exhibitors with lots of cosmetics and hair products on offer, or maybe even the large amount of massage based companies, my one and only focus was on the food! Myself being gluten intolerant and my boyfriend who accompanied me being dairy intolerant (we both also have IBS!) always manage to get overly excitable at the sight of any foods that we can actually eat! Furthermore when free samples are lurking around every corner it’s safe to say our minds were blown.
the Nakd stand
Upon wandering around we came across some very familiar brands to our kitchen cupboards such as Nakd and Heinz but with completely new products. The Nakd stand was definitely one of the most popular of the day giving out a huge amount of free samples from both their older existing range and their brand new range, which has only just arrived on the shelves of some supermarkets and health food shops. From trying both their new Nakd Crunch bars and their new Trek Protein Flapjacks (both ranges are entirely wheat, dairy and gluten free) I decided to make a purchase of 3 different flavoured flapjacks and 4 crunch bars. I will be giving these a review shortly but as you might already sense the reviews will be pretty positive; to say I’m a fan is an understatement!
Heinz Gluten Free Range
So as I mentioned also Heinz were in attendance showing off their new gluten free range. It’s always exciting when a big brand is prepared to take on gluten free especially when the cuisine is Italian! The stand was giving out fresh hot samples of their new gluten free penne and gluten free tomato pasta sauce. The small sample I had was delicious, my only wish was that they could have also given out samples of their new gluten free macaroni; I’ve never had macaroni cheese and would have loved to try some. The Heinz Stall was also running a competition to win a whole hamper of gluten free Heinz goodies which me and my boyfriend both entered, fingers crossed we win, but if not I have already seen the range is available in Tesco, so I will be giving the range a try and review very soon!
I chose to take advantage of the free samples at another few of my favourite brands and made some purchases too. For instance I couldn’t resist the 9bar, Rachel’s and Propercorn stands who provided some great samples that were perfect as a lunch replacement as we wandered round.
In terms of brands that I had never tried before that I gave a go, some were great, others less so. For instance we tried out Vita Coco, which I must say after all this time of not trying it, I wish I hadn’t, the pineapple flavoured one was really odd, luckily my boyfriend has a slightly different opinion on it so our purchase didn’t go to waste! However, Acai berries and pomegranate was a very different matter…
Linwoods and their Flaxseed samples
We also went to the Linwoods stand where they were giving out samples of their different flaxseed products sprinkled on to some Rachel’s yoghurt. I must say I am definitely going to be purchasing some of this as I really enjoyed it and with the problems that IBS has given me, the flaxseed will give me some much needed extra fibre.
Biona Organic were also there providing samples of their sweets. These ranged from cola bottles, to jelly dinosaurs, all of which were delicious. Whilst I was in the toilet my boyfriend even sneaked off to get more free samples for himself! Though I will let him off as he has since written a review of the cola bottles which we couldn’t resist buying… they were all gone in minutes!
Another brand that I have never tried but regularly see in the likes of Waitrose, Planet Organic and Holland & Barrett is Bounce Foods. They create natural energy balls in a variety of flavours of which I tried a large amount of. The two people running the stall were incredibly friendly and were interested in knowing why I had never thought to purchase the product even though I regularly notice it in the supermarket. The tasty samples and their sociable manner was enough for me to nip into Whole Foods later that day and purchasing some! Of course, gluten free as always!
Of course, we walked around the entire show to make sure we didn’t miss out on anything, coming across a stupidly long queue of people waiting to have their photo take with the ‘muddy faced’ Amy Childs who was promoting her ranges of sleep in rollers, ‘vajazazzles’, leisurewear and, surprise surprise, her tanning range! (Though I’m not sure she was doing it much justice on the day if I’m completely honest)
one of the many talks
There were also lots of yoga classes and talks going on throughout the day which looked fun and interesting, but failed to entice us in; at 22 I’m definitely much more inflexible than many of the more elderly ladies giving yoga a go… good on them!
YOGA TIME!
We also came across The Stress Management Society which through a little paper test informed me that I am a very tense and stressed out person. I of course then signed up to their newsletter in hope that doing this might reduce my stress levels. I will let you know if I feel any results!
But yeah, overall it was a great day out, really informative and incredibly tasty! Thanks to Body Talk Daily for getting us tickets and basically for just informing me that Vitality Show exists! We will be back in 2014 for sure. The vast array of gluten free products out there and the positive vibe I am getting more recently from some of these smaller brands that are pushing their way through is incredibly exciting. I can’t wait to see what the future brings for gluten free alternatives… bring it on!
Thanks for reading,
Becky xxx
